Language Policy in Schools provides school administrators and teachers a practical approach for designing a language policy for their school and for dealing with the language issues that confront schools, particularly those operating in settings of linguistic and cultural diversity. It can be used as a text in teacher and administrator preparation programs, graduate programs, and in-service and professional development programs. Special features include:

• a clear, jargon-free writing style that invites careful reading;

• abundant examples that students of education everywhere can learn from--including samples of school language policies developed for real schools by real teacher-researchers;

• questions at the end of each chapter to highlight key points and stimulate informed discussion among pre-service and experienced teachers and administrators; and

• an up-to-date international and cross-cultural biography.

School language policies are viewed by many in education as an integral and necessary part of the administration and the curriculum practice of schools, especially those operating in settings of linguistic and cultural diversity. A language policy, like the many presented in this book, is a document compiled by the staff of a school, who are often assisted by other members of the school community, to which the staff give their assent and commitment. It identifies areas in the school's scope of operations and programs where language problems exist that need the commonly agreed approach offered by a policy. A language policy sets out what the school intends to do about these areas of concern and includes provisions for follow-up, monitoring, and revision of the policy itself in light of changing circumstances. It is a dynamic action statement that changes along with the dynamic context of a school. Above all, a school language policy is that school's policy for learning.

SUMMARY OF LANGUAGE POLICY IN SCHOOLS

The chapters that follow are written for people engaged in school language policymaking in settings of linguistic and cultural diversity. In other words, they are written for all schools in English-speaking countries.

Chapter 1 overviews the history and development of this approach to school professional development, curriculum planning, and administration. It introduces the commonsense ideas that underpin the book.

Chapter 2 introduces the study of language planning in education, offering it as a source of many of the ideas needed for undertaking school-level policymaking.

Chapter 3 assumes that the starting point in addressing any problem is for the solver to be in possession of all the important facts that relate to the problem. It presents methods and a rationale for "fact gathering" of a school's language problems. These approaches are also important in the later stages of policy development, especially when a trial policy is ready for testing against the real world of the school and its setting.

Chapter 4 brings together the ideas behind critical policymaking at school level. It sees that process as a collaborative language activity that critically interrogates the . . .