Quotes van de internationale topwetenschappers inzake onderwijs en taal
Internationale topwetenschappers inzake taal, meertaligheid en onderwijs reageren op de beslissing van minister Smet om de 6 proefprojecten voor meertalig onderwijs van de Foyer stop te zetten.
“The Foyer model's principle is to validate migrants' established linguistic and cultural experiences. This validation is known to be a necessary stepping-stone to productive personal, social and cultural development. To discredit linguistic and cultural identities is illiberal, but also impractical and divisive. It destabilises individuals and builds social antagonisms. We need flagship programmes to demonstrate the values of education for diversity.”
Professor Nikolas Coupland
Founding editor, "Journal of Sociolinguistics"
University of Wales Cardiff
"The world has long looked to Belgium as a successful multilingual society whose educational systems support and extend the multilingual resources of citizen and newcomer alike. Closing of the Foyer program, a beacon of demonstrable academic achievement through bilingual education, would be a tragic loss not just for Foyer's students and for Belgium, but for multilingual learners and innovative multilingual educational programs everywhere."
Professor Nancy H. Hornberger
Director of Educational Linguistics
Director of the Center for Urban Ethnography
University of Pennsylvania, USA
“It is sad to see how European authorities increasingly shut out people who represent diversity - from participation, from institutions, and eventually from citizenship. This is a genuine example.”
Jens-Normann Jorgensen,
University of Copenhagen
“Multilingualism is a fact of the contemporary world, and a resource for life and learning. The Flemish Government must not close the successful Foyer language program.”
Prof. James Collins,
University at Albany (USA)
“In the current conditions of increased migration and newly super-diverse urban centres in Europe it is more important than ever that educators fully understand how the linguistic resources of multilingual learners contribute to their academic achievement. Commitment to multilingualism in language learning is crucial for economic regeneration and social cohesion. Discontinuance of projects such as Foyer puts at risk not only equality of opportunity, but also the well-being of European society as a whole.”
Professor Adrian Blackledge,
Director, MOSAIC Centre for Research on Multilingualism
University of Birmingham, UK "A national curriculum which does not allow for other languages and histories to be covered results in the exclusion of certain identities, cultures and histories. The beacon Foyer education programme provides a curriculum which responds to student diversity. The so-called drive for ‘efficiency and competition’ works against linguistic minority rights and refuses to work with difference because it isn’t seen as economically viable in schools. This is a mistake and will result in toxic forms of absolutism with racializing consequences." Angela Creese
Professor of Educational Linguistics
School of Education
University of Birmingham
“In the middle of increasing institutional and political pressures to viewing multilingualism as a problem, it is important to remember that for many globalized individuals and groups it is a resource leading to agency and empowerment.”
Prof Sirpa Leppänen
Chair of English
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
“Education is society's key instrument of democracy. In our vision, it is the place where young beings in all diversity come together to develop critical, constructive voices to tackle tomorrow's problems and to make this a better world. Such a system comes at a price, and rightly so. It's entirely worth it. Education could also work as the instrument to silence critical voices and exclude them from participation in our society.”
Jef Van der Aa,
Doctoral researcher,
Department of Languages
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
"By shutting down its only, and very succesful, bilingual program, the Flemish government risks international embarrassment for rejecting valid and widely respected research on bilingualism; the promotion of linguistic intolerance encourages strife and conflict."
Ana Celia Zentella
Professor Emerita
UCSD Department of Ethnic Studies
Why is the Flemish government adopting an 18th/19th century language policy of state monolingualism in the multilingual, globalized 21st century?" professor Stephen May
University of Auckland, new Zealand
