Nicholas Gregory Faraclas, Ellen-Petra Kester, and Eric N. Mijts: Community Based Research in Language Policy and Planni
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Nicholas Gregory Faraclas, Ellen‑Petra Kester, and Eric N. Mijts: Community Based Research in Language Policy and Planning: The Language of Instruction in Education in Sint Eustatius Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, 2019, viii + 195 pp, Hb $159.27 ISBN: 978-3-030-23222-1 Reshara Alviarez1 Received: 25 June 2020 / Accepted: 2 August 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Sint Eustatius, also referred to as Statia, lies among the Netherlands Antilles in the West Indies. With a population of just over 3000, it remains a special municipality of the Netherlands. Through the years, the Dutch language has figured prominently in the educational system of Statia as the primary medium of instruction. This is despite the fact that the popular languages remain English-lexifier Creole and English. The majority of the island’s population does not speak or use Dutch outside of the classroom. This language disconnect has posed challenges to students and educators’ success. Faraclas, Kester, and Mijts’ community based research (CBR) in Statia sought to work with community groups, students, and educators to solve this problem. Their project resulted in policy change through the implementation of English as the official primary medium of instruction at all levels of education, with Dutch being taught as a foreign language. In 2013, the final report was presented to the governing bodies in Statia and the Netherlands. Two town hall meetings were subsequently held in Statia in 2014, where it became evident that a large majority of the Statian community supported the need for educational reform. The proposal and recommendations were eventually accepted by the Statian government and the Dutch Parliament. The Statian government has since voted in favour of changing the educational medium of instruction from Dutch to English. This book perfectly encapsulates the challenges and opportunities associated with multilingualism in postcolonial island states. It sets a precedent for other parts of the world where language policy in education has previously been dictated by the legacies of colonization.
* Reshara Alviarez [email protected] 1
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
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The first chapter (pp. 1–5) explores the situation in Statia as it pertains to media of instruction in the education system. Faraclas, Kester, and Mijts explain a language disconnect, coupled with teachers’ unfamiliarity with Dutch has led to “alarmingly low performance results” (p. 2). In Chapter 2 (pp. 7–20), they delve further into the language context of Statia, noting that the forced use of Dutch disregards the 1953 UNESCO monograph, identifying mother tongue languages as the most appropriate medium of instruction for schools. Their research shows how the deliberate exclusion of the popular languages has had severe consequences for students’ educational pursuits. In this chapter, the authors also explore the reasoning behind using CBR to address these challenges. They explain that CBR creates “…a co
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