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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1233

Part of Session 183: Contesting and reconstructing language policies in urban educational settings (Other abstracts in this session)

The complex dynamics of Language Education policy in the diverse city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa

Authors: Inbar-Lourie, Ofra; Shohamy, Elana
Submitted by: Inbar-Lourie, Ofra (Tel Aviv University, Israel)

Israel has a very centralized educational policy, implying that educational policy is dictated from ‘above’ by the Ministry of education with very little autonomy to schools and teachers to initiate alternatives. Moreover, in order to perpetuate this policy it is governed by external tests throughout the school system, both national and international such as the PISA. In terms of language educational policy, this means that schools follow very strict centralized language policy where Hebrew is the language of instruction in Jewish schools and Arabic in Arab schools. Additional languages are being taught as ‘foreign languages’, English and Arabic and additional languages in Jewish schools; Hebrew and English in Arab schools (Spolsky, Shohamy, 1999). In spite of this very strict and uniformed policy, in a previous study (Shohamy, 2010) it was shown  that  some  programs exist whereby bottom-up initiatives of alternative policies; these include Hebrew/Arabic bilingual schools, English at younger age than ‘allowed’,  and spoken Arabic in Jewish school. These initiatives reflect the needs of certain groups , contesting and defying central agencies and domineering  policies. The aim of our study here is to analyze the various language policy initiatives that are taking place in the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa, the largest city in Israel that is defined officially as a ‘mixed’ city of Tel Aviv and-Jaffa, consisting of diverse populations, not only of Arab (Muslim and Christians) in Jaffa, but especially a large portion of Jewish immigrants and non- Jewish foreign workers, asylum seekers and refugees mostly from Eritrea, Darfur, Philippines, Sri Lanka, India as well as from Africa and South America residing in the city and using diverse languages.  Our main hypothesis is that these official policies are limited in scope and that other options are needed for maintenance of collective identities, for identity negotiation, for having a voice and for practicing culture especially for population which is in the midst of trans-national reality, migration and globalization. Our focus is on groups of Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, whose home languages are Russian, a number of languages of the foreign workers and asylum seekers and others who make up the population of the city.  We will address these issues, via interviews, observations and linguistic landscape, both on institutionalized/formal initiatives at schools but mostly via special classes and community initiatives in non-institutionalized structures, neighborhood activities and other non-formal activities.  Our main goal is to identify the various aspects of structure and agency and the mechanisms that are instrumental in carrying out such programs. It is via these practices that we will create policy documents that will recommend educational policies in order to negotiate language policies at schools (Menken, Garcia, 2010, Shohamy, 2006) that match and reflect the needs of different speech communities in a diverse city ofTel Aviv-Jaffa which are usually overlooked.