Cover not available
Article published In:
Meaning Making in the Periphery
Edited by Luiz Paulo Moita-Lopes and Mike Baynham
[AILA Review 30] 2017
► pp. 96–119

Traces of old and new center-periphery dynamics in language-in-education policy and practice

Insights from a linguistic ethnographic study in Timor-Leste

| University of Birmingham, England
| University of Birmingham, England

This article reveals how center-periphery relations have unfolded, over time, in language policy processes in one nation – Timor-Leste – on the global periphery. We take a longue durée perspective on the language policy processes at work in this historical context, showing how different regimes of language were imposed, in the past, by colonisers from distant centers – in Portugal and then in Java, Indonesia. Then, turning to the post-independence period, we show how a new order of indexicality, forged within the Resistance to the Indonesian occupation, formed the basis for current language policy in Timor-Leste, with Portuguese and Tetum as co-official languages. We also demonstrate that this agentive policy move, from the global periphery, oriented Timor-Leste to new and more complex center-periphery relations, to a ‘lusophone’ world, with Portugal and Brazil as key players. Our account of contemporary policy discourses in Timor-Leste, and of the consequences for language policy implementation, on different scales (national and local), draws on recent research of an ethnographic and multi-scalar nature conducted in Timor-Leste (Da Costa Cabral, 2015).

Keywords: center-periphery dynamics, language ideologies, language policy, multilingual
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Changing center-periphery relations, changing discourses about language and changes in language-in-education policy and practice
    • The eastern region of the island of Timor: Imposition of a colonial order (1514–1974)
  • The Indonesian occupation, the imposition of a new center and the East Timorese Resistance (1975–1999)
  • A new nation developing language policy in a global age: The political and discursive challenges for Timor-Leste
  • A linguistic ethnographic study in Timor-Leste
  • Policy discourses: National and global perspectives
  • The year 6 classroom and teacher Dalia
  • Talk around the textbook: Linking different ‘lusophone’ worlds
  • Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 15 January 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.00005.dac
References
Blommaert, J.
(2007) Sociolinguistic scales. Intercultural Pragmatics, 4(1), 1–19. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cabral, E.
(2013) The development of language policy in global age: The case of East-Timor. In J. A. Shoba & F. Chimbutane (Eds.), Bilingual education and language policy in the global south (pp. 83–103). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cabral, E., & Martin-Jones, M.
(2008) Writing the resistance: Literacy in East-Timor 1975–1999. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 11(2), 149–169. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Constituent Assembly
(2002) Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (Section 13). Dili: Timor-Leste.Google Scholar
Copland, F., & Creese, A., with F. Rock & S. Shaw
(2015) Linguistic ethnography. London: Sage. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Da Costa Cabral, I.
(2015) Multilingual talk, classroom textbooks and language values: A linguistic ethnographic study in Timor-Leste. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Birmingham, UK.Google Scholar
Errington, J.
(1998) ‘Indonesian development’. In B. Schiefflin, K. A. Woolard, & P. V. Kroskrity (Eds.). Language ideologies: practice and theory (pp. 271–284). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Franceschini, R.
(2013) History of multilingualism. In C. Chapelle (Ed.), The encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logo.Google Scholar
Hajek, J.
(2000) Language planning and the sociolinguistic environment in East Timor: Colonial practice and changing language ideologies. Current Issues in Language Planning, 1(3): 400–414. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2002) Language maintenance and survival in East-Timor: All change now? Winners and losers. In D. Bradley & M. Bradley (Eds.), Language endangerment and language maintenance: An active approach. London: Curzon Press.Google Scholar
Hornberger, N. H., & Johnson, D. C.
(2007) Slicing the onion ethnographically: Layers and spaces in multilingual language education. TESOL Quarterly, 41(3), 509–532. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hult, F.
(2015) Making policy connections across scales using nexus analysis. In F. Hult & D. C. Johnson (Eds.), Research methods in language policy and planning (pp. 217–231). Malden MA: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Johnson, D. C.
(2009) Ethnography of language policy. Language Policy, 81, 139–159. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2013) Language policy. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lemos Pires, M.
(1991) Descolonização de Timor: Missão Impossível? Lisboa: D. Quixote.Google Scholar
Luke, A.
(1988) Literacy, textbooks and ideology. London: Falmer Press.Google Scholar
MacQueen, N.
(1997) The decolonisation of Portuguese Africa: Metropolitan revolution and the dissolution of empire. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Martin, I.
(2001) Self-determination in East Timor: The United Nations, the ballot, and international intervention. London: Lynne Rienner. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martin-Jones, M. & Da Costa Cabral, I.
(2018) The critical ethnographic turn in research on language policy and planning. In J. Tollefson & M. Pérez-Milans (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of language policy and planning. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McCarty, T. L.
(Ed.) (2011) Ethnography of language policy. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ministry of Education (MoE)
(2008) Education system framework law 14/2008 (Government of Timor-Leste). Dili, Timor-Leste: MoE.Google Scholar
Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport (MECYS)
(2004) Education policy 2004–2009. Dili, Timor-Leste: MECYS.Google Scholar
Nicolai, S.
(2004) Learning independence: Education in emergency and transition in East Timor since 1999. Paris: International Institute for Educational Planning.Google Scholar
Nixon, R.
(2012) Justice and governance in East Timor: Indigenous approaches and the ‘new subsistence state’ (Routledge Contemporary Southeast Asia Series). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pietikainen, S., Kelly Holmes, H., Jaffe, A., & Coupland, N.
(2016) Sociolinguistics from the periphery: Small languages in new circumstances. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shah, R.
(2011) It takes two (or more) to tango: Partnerships within the education sector in Timor-Leste. International Education Journal: Comparative Perspectives, 10(2): 71–85.Google Scholar
(2012) Goodbye conflict, hello development? Curriculum reform in Timor-Leste International Journal of Educational Development, 321, 31–38. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Snell, J., Shaw, S., & Copland, F.
(Eds.) (2015) Linguistic ethnography: Interdisciplinary explorations. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taylor, J. G.
(1999) East Timor: The price of freedom. New York, NY: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Taylor-Leech, K.
(2009) The language situation in Timor-Leste. Current Issues in Language Planning, 10(1), 1–68. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2011) Timor-Leste: Sustaining and maintaining the national languages in education. Current Issues in Language Planning, 12(2), 289–308. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vale de Almeida, M.
(2001) Epilogue of empire: East Timor and the Portuguese postcolonial catharsis. Identities, 81, 4. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2008) Anthropology and ethnography of the Portuguese-speaking empire. In P. Poddar, R. Patke, & L. Jense (Eds.), A historical companion to postcolonial literatures. Continental Europe and its empires (pp. 435–439). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Vidal Soares, L.
(2011) ‘Qual é o papel da língua portuguesa na política educativa de Timor-Leste?’ In A. B. da Costa & A. Barreto (Eds.), COOPEDU: Congresso Portugal e os PALOP Cooperação na Área da Educação. Lisbon: CEA, ISCTE-IUL.Google Scholar