Description:
This article highlights dominant and selective traditions vis-à-vis languageand culture in terms of how schools and academics are organized, curriculaand syllabi are structured and what is made explicit in social practices ineducation. Selective traditions allow language to be organized and “natura-lized” in concepts that are linear, relational and geographical and in terms ofhorizontal (i.e. different language codes) and vertical (i.e. different learner cate-gories) divisions such that communication and meaning-making potentials ofeducation remain unexploited. Currently available metaphors vis-à-vis cul-ture build upon static constructions of Self and Other. This article discussesimportant policy paradoxes and calls for the need to give visibility to com-plexities in school sites. Juxtaposing traditions of operationalizing languageand culture in educational settings through selective understandings regar-ding learning and development creates, it is argued here, a challenge fordemocratic experiences within institutionalized education.