Decolonizing Research on Heritage Language Maintenance and Loss:
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.313.2542Keywords:
qualitative research, decolonizing research, heritage language maintenance, narrative inquiry, interviews.Abstract
Abstract
The following paper attempts to position a topic of heritage language maintenance and loss from a perspective of postcolonial qualitative research, addressing the issues of voice, and some advantages and limitations of narrative inquiry and interviews as possible research methods. Qualitative research on heritage languages will share most features with the traditional qualitative research, but at the same time will adopt some peculiar additional nuances due to its anti-oppressive and decolonizing stance. Personal interviews and reflective narratives are appropriate methods in the research on heritage language maintenance and loss; however, they are not deprived of limitations.
Keywords: qualitative research, decolonizing research, heritage language maintenance, narrative inquiry, interviews.
References
References
Absolon, K. & Willett, C. (2005). Putting ourselves forward: Location in Aboriginal research. In
L. Brown & S. Strega (Eds.), Research as resistance: Critical, Indigenous, and anti-oppressive approaches (pp. 97-126). Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Andreotti, V. (2011). Actionable postcolonial theory in education. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.
Appadurai, A. (1997). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. Delhi: Oxford
University Press.
Appadurai, A. (2006). The right to research. Globalization, Societies and Education, 4(2),
-177. doi: 10.1080/14767720600750696.
Atkinson, P. (1997). Narrative turn or blind alley? Qualitative Health Research, 7, 325-344. doi:
1177/104973239700700302.
Atkinson, P. & Silverman, D. (1997). Kundera’s immortality: The interview society and the
invention of the self. Qualitative Inquiry, 3, 304-325. doi: 10.1177/107780049700300304.
Auerbach, E.R. (1995). The politics of the ESL classroom: Issues of power in pedagogical
choices. In J.W. Tollefson (Ed.), Power and inequality in language education (pp.9-33). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Baker, V. J. (2005). English and /or mother-tongue instruction: Ambivalence in post-apartheid
South Africa. In R.Hoosain & F. Salili (Eds.), Language in multicultural education (pp. 115-133). Greenwich: Information Age Publishing.
Bhabha, N.K. (1994). The location of culture. London and New York: Routledge.
Bogdan, R.C. & Biklen, S.K. (2003). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Brown, L. & Strega, S. (2005). Introduction: Transgressive possibilities. In L. Brown & S.
Strega (Eds.), Research as resistance: Critical, Indigenous, and anti-oppressive approaches (pp. 1-17). Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Bruner, J. (2004). Life as narrative. Social Research, 71 (3), 691-710.
Clandinin, D.J. & Connelly, F.M. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative
research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.
Clandinin, D.J., Huber, J., Steeves, P. & Li, Y. (2011). Becoming a narrative inquirer: Learning
to attend within the three-dimensional narrative inquiry space. In S. Trahar (Ed.), Learning and teaching narrative inquiry: Travelling in the borderlands (pp.33-51). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Clandinin, D.J. & Murphy, M.S. (2009). Comments on Coulter and Smith: Relational ontological
commitments in narrative research. Educational Researcher, 38, 598-602. doi: 10.3102/0013189x09353940.
Clandinin, D. J. & Rosiek, J. (2007). Mapping a landscape of narrative inquiry: Borderland
spaces and tensions. In D. J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 35-75). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Coles, R. (1989). Stories and theories. In R. Coles, The call of stories: Teaching and the
moral imagination (pp. 1-30). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Creswell, J.W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five
approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Delgado-Gaitan, C. (1997). Dismantling borders. In A. Neumann & P.L. Peterson (Eds.),
Learning from our lives: Women, research, and autobiography in education (pp.37-51). New York: Teachers College Press.
Denzin, N.K. & Lincoln, Y.S. (1994). Introduction: Entering the field of qualitative research. In
N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 1-17). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Doody, O. & Noonan, M. (2013). Preparing and conducting interviews to collect data. Nurse
Researcher, 20 (5), 28-32.
Dorian, N.C. (1999). Linguistic and ethnographic fieldwork. In J.A. Fishman (Ed.),
Handbook of language and ethnic identity (pp.25-41). New York: Oxford University Press.
Ely, M. (2007). In-forming representations. In D.J. Clandinin (Ed.), Handbook of narrative
inquiry: Mapping a methodology (pp. 567-598). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Fine, M. (1994). Working the hyphens: Reinventing self and other in qualitative research. In
N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 70-82). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Fishman, J.A. (1991). Reversing language shift: Theoretical and empirical foundations of
assistance to threatened languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Fontana, A. & Frey, J.H. (1994). Interviewing: The art of science. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S.
Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 361-376). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Greene, M. (1995). Releasing the imagination: Essays on education, the arts, and social change.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc.
Haahr, A., Norlyk, A. & Hall, E. (2014). Ethicl challenges embedded in qualitative research
interviews with close relatives. Nursing Ethics, 21(1), 6-15. doi: 10.1177/0969733013486370.
herising, F. (2005). Interrupting positions: Critical thresholds and queer pro/positions. In L.
Brown & S. Strega (Eds.), Research as resistance: Critical, Indigenous, and anti-oppressive approaches (pp. 127-151. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Hermanowicz, J.C. (2013). The longitudinal qualitative interview. Qualitative Sociology, 36,
-208. doi: 10.1007/s11133-013-9247-7.
Ho, M. (2000). The winter hibiscus. In J. Novakovich & Shapard, R. (Eds.), Stories in the
stepmother tongue (pp. 161-178). Buffalo, New York: White Pine Press.
Hoosain, R. & Salili, F. (2005). Dimensions of language in multicultural education. In R.Hoosain
& F. Salili (Eds.), Language in multicultural education (pp. 3-9). Greenwich: Information Age Publishing.
Hornberger, N.H. & Putz, M. (Eds.). (2006). Language loyalty, language planning and language
revitalization: Recent writings and reflections from Joshua A. Fishman. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Jankie, D. (2004). “Tell me who you are”: Problematizing the construction and positionalities of
“insider”/ “outsider” of a “native” ethnographer in a postcolonial context. In K. Mutua & B.B. Swadener (Eds.), Decolonizing research in cross-cultural contexts: Critical personal narratives (pp. 87-106). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Kanno, Y. (2003). Negotiating bilingual and bicultural identities: Japanese returnees betwixt
two worlds. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kerby, A.P. (1991). Time and memory. In Narrative and the self: Studies in continental
thought (pp. 15-31). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
Kouritzin, S. G. (2000). A mother’s tongue. TESOL Quarterly, 34(2), 311-324.
Kouritzin, S. G. (2006). Songs from taboo tongues: Experiencing first language loss. Language
and Literacy, 8 (1), 1-28.
Kovach, M. (2005). Emerging from the margins: Indigenous methodologies. In L. Brown & S.
Strega (Eds.), Research as resistance: Critical, Indigenous, and anti-oppressive approaches (pp. 19-36). Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Kubota, R. (2005). Second language teaching for multilingualism and multiculturalism: Politics,
challenges, and possibilities. In R.Hoosain & F. Salili (Eds.), Language in multicultural education (pp. 31-55). Greenwich: Information Age Publishing.
Lincoln, Y.S. & Denzin, N.K. (1994). The fifth moment. In N.K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.),
Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 575-586). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Lincoln, Y.S. & Gonzalez y Gonzalez, E.M. (2008). The search for emerging decolonizing
methodologies in qualitative research. Qualitative Inquiry, 14(5), 784-805. doi: 10.1177/1077800408318304.
Lugones, M. (1987). Playfullness, “word”-travelling, and loving perception. Hypatia, 2 (2), 3-
Macedo, D. & Bartolome, L.I. (2014). Multiculturalism permitted in English only. International
Multilingual Research Journal, 8, 24-37. doi: 10.1080/19313152.2014.852426.
Mero-Jaffe, I. (2011). ‘Is that what I said?’ Interview transcript approval by participants: An
aspect of ethics in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 10 (3), 231-247.
Montero-Sieburth, M. (1997). The weaving of personal origins and research: Reencuentro y
reflexion en la investigacion. In A. Neumann & P.L. Peterson (Eds.), Learning from our lives: Women, research, and autobiography in education (pp.124-149). New York: Teachers College Press.
Mutua, K. & Swadener, B.B. (2004). Introduction. In K. Mutua & B. B. Swadener (Eds.),
Decolonizing research in cross-cultural contexts: Critical personal narratives (pp. 1-23). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Neumann, A. (1997). Ways without words: Learning from silence and story in post-holocaust
lives. In A. Neumann & P.L. Peterson (Eds.), Learning from our lives: Women, research, and autobiography in education (pp.91-120). New York: Teachers College Press.
Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change.
Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.
Ochs, E. (2007). Narrative lessons. In L. Monaghan, & J.F. Goodman (Eds.), A cultural
approach to interpersonal communication: Essential readings (pp.41-49). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Olson, G.A. & Worsham, L. (1998). Staging the politics of difference: Homi Bhabha`s critical
literacy. A Journal of Composition Theory, 18 (3), 361-391.
Parker Webster, J. & John, T.A. (2010). Preserving a space for cross-cultural collaborations: An
account of insider/outsider issues. Ethnography and Education, 5(2), 175-191. doi:10.1080/17457823.2010.493404.
Phillion, J. & He, M.F. (2007). Narrative inquiry and ELT research. In J. Cummins & C.
Davidson (Eds.), International handbook of English language teaching (pp.1003-1016). New York: Springer.
Potts, K. & Brown, L. (2005). Becoming an anti-oppressive researcher. In L. Brown & S.
Strega (Eds.), Research as resistance: Critical, Indigenous, and anti-oppressive approaches (pp. 255-286). Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Rodriguez, R. (1983). Hunger of memory: The education of Richard Rodriguez. New York:
Bantam Books.
Sandelowski, M. (2002). Reembodying qualitative inquiry. Qualitative Health Research, 12 (1),
-115.
Scheibelhofer, E. (2008). Combining narration‐based interviews with topical interviews:
Methodological reflections on research practices. International Journal of Social
Research Methodology, 11 (5), 403-416. doi: 10.1080/13645570701401370.
Skutnabb-Kangas, T. & Bucak, S. (1995). Killing a mother tongue – how the Kurds are deprived
of linguistic human rights. In T. Skutnabb-Kangas, R. Phillipson, & M. Rannut (Eds.), Linguistic human rights: Overcoming linguistic discrimination (pp. 348-370). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Smith, L.T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples. London &
New York: Zed Books Ltd.
Statistics Canada (2014). Immigrant languages in Canada: Language, 2011 census of
population. Retrieved from http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/as-sa/98-314-x/98-314-x2011003_2-eng.cfm.
Trahar, S. (2011). Introduction: Travelling in the borderlands or a story of not quite fitting in. In
S. Trahar (Ed.), Learning and teaching narrative inquiry: Travelling in the borderlands (pp.1-13). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
van Manen, M. (2002). Writing in the dark. In M.van Manen (Ed.), Writing in the dark:
Phenomenological studies in interpretive inquiry. London, ON: The Althouse Press.
Zinsser, W. (1987). Writing and remembering. In W. Zinsser (Ed.), Inventing the truth: The
art and craft of memoir (pp. 143-161). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors wishing to include figures, tables, or text passages that have already been published elsewhere are required to obtain permission from the copyright owner(s) for both the print and online format and to include evidence that such permission has been granted when submitting their papers. Any material received without such evidence will be assumed to originate from the authors.