Read more
In The Struggle for a Multilingual Future, Christina Davis examines the tension between ethnic conflict and multilingual education policy in the linguistic and social practices of Sri Lankan minority youth during and after the civil war. Davis investigates the efficacy of national reforms in relation to how ideologies of linguistic, ethnic, religious, and class difference are reinforced and challenged in everyday interactions.
About the author
Christina P. Davis is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Western Illinois University.
Summary
In The Struggle for a Multilingual Future, Christina Davis examines the tension between ethnic conflict and multilingual education policy in the linguistic and social practices of Sri Lankan minority youth. Facing a legacy of post-independence language and education policies that were among the complex causes of the Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009), the government has recently sought to promote interethnic integration through trilingual language policies in Sinhala, Tamil, and English in state schools.
Integrating ethnographic and linguistic research in and around two schools during the last phase of the war, Davis's research shows how, despite the intention of the reforms, practices on the ground reinforce language-based models of ethnicity and sustain ethnic divisions and power inequalities. By engaging with the actual experiences of Tamil and Muslim youth, Davis demonstrates the difficulties of using language policy to ameliorate ethnic conflict if it does not also address how that conflict is produced and reproduced in everyday talk.
Additional text
The book contributes important insights for scholars and for instructors who seek to teach students to understand the intersectionality of language, conflict, and education. It would be a great reading for courses in language and education, anthropology of education, and conflict and peace studies. This book offers a great example of how an anthropologist can skillfully address intersections in a comprehensive way.
