(NAME-MCE) Journal Articles

[Sandra Winn]

Special Topic of Multicultural Perspectives:

Language Learning in Multicultural Education

Special Topic Editors, Christian Faltis and Francisco Rios

As schools across the nation become increasingly multicultural on the one
hand, and hypersegregated along ethnic and language lines on the other, it
is imperative that educators working with English learners from diverse
sociocultural backgrounds find new ways of providing these students with
language learning resources and tools for use in multiple discourse
communities while at the same time helping them to value their own voices.
New arrivals to American schools are increasingly immigrants and children of
immigrants, many of whom enter school proficient in a language other than
English and with minimal multicultural or intergroup educational
experiences.  Often and ever more, these children and adolescents attend
segregated schools or segregated programs where this is little opportunity
for them to interact with native speakers of English, to fully develop their
home language, or have multicultural friends and classmates. How do these
students in these situations learn the language of schooling and develop the
social competence considered desirable by educational institutions?  What
are some of the promising practices for ensuring the success of English
learners in ways that also promote positive multicultural and intergroup
educational experiences?



This special topic of Multicultural Perspectives is intended to provide
information for scholars/practitioners (teachers, counselors, teacher
educators, etc.) on innovative and promising practices and perspectives that
focus on language learning within multicultural education frameworks.  For
this special topic, we are particularly interested in contributions that tie
successful language learning to learning in multicultural school settings.
As has been well documented in the literature, language learning is situated
in sociocultural contexts, meaning that for language minority students,
language learning involves learning new cultural identities and ways of
communicating cross culturally, both in academic as well as social spheres.
Accordingly, we are looking for manuscripts that examine new possibilities
for language learning in multicultural contexts, where learners are not only
acquiring language proficiencies, but also the ability to navigate
multicultural realms of knowledge, action, interaction, and understanding in
the process of learning language.  Some additional topics to consider for
this special issue might include the following:
·     Multiple literacies and multicultural education
·     Language learning for immigrant students with non-parallel formal
schooling experiences
·     Language learning and building positive intergroup relations
·     The role of multicultural education in the preparation of language
specialists
·     Languages in contact from a multicultural perspective (e.g.,
Spanglish, Chinglish)
·     Sociolinguistic issues in language learning from a multicultural
perspective
·     Language and literacy uses in diverse sociocultural communities
·     Funds of knowledge as support for language and literacy learning
·     Ways that multicultural education can inform language learning in
schools


GUIDELINES

Deadline for Submissions:           November 1, 2007
For Additional Information:         Christian Faltis (cfaltis at asu.edu)
                                            Francisco Rios ( frios at uwyo.edu)

Please follow the submission guidelines, which can be found at:
https://www.erlbaum.com/shop/tek9.asp?pg=products&specific=1521-0960

All manuscripts are sent out for peer-review.  Based on blind peer reviews,
we will eventually be selecting up to four manuscripts.  Word length should
be 4,000 words.  Please indicate the total word count of your manuscript on
the title page.  Manuscripts must be written in APA Style.  We encourage the
use of the language of the community that you represent.  We encourage the
³ways of knowing² of the community that you represent as well. Keep in mind
that 30% of the readership for the journal is classroom (K-12) teachers.

Multicultural Perspectives is the peer-reviewed journal of
the National Association for Multicultural Education.