Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Education systems are principally the property of states. Even if authority is devolved to semi-autonomous bodies such as religious, ideological, regional-ethnic, or other parent-controlled agencies for the delivery of schooling, or higher or specialized education, states typically licence, authorize, fund, or certify educational practices. Therefore in a diverse range of ways all education systems carry the imprimatur and conditioning of political systems. State interest in educational practice is therefore governed either by overt control, by investment, or by toleration conditions. The overarching interest of states for what happens in formal systems of education is therefore deep and longstanding. To speak comprehensively of the language activities potentially undertaken within such education systems, however they are governed, needs to transcend the mediation of the various delivery agencies. Although such agencies can condition the specific lingual characteristics of formal education, a broad depiction of the proto-typical linguistic education of young people can still be discerned. The following eight points constitute therefore state sanctioned secondary linguistic socialization: 1  extending the dialect repertoire of “majority” children's domestic language competence to include standard language literate capability (minimally reading and writing, but for elites this often ... log in or subscribe to read full text