James H. Williams

Wendy D. Bokhorst-Heng

This book engages readers in thirteen conversations presented by authors from around the world regarding the role that textbooks play in helping readers imagine membership in the nation. Authors’ voices come from a variety of contexts – some historical, some contemporary, some providing analyses over time. But they all consider the changing portrayal of diversity, belonging and exclusion in multiethnic and diverse societies where silenced, invisible, marginalized members have struggled to make their voices heard and to have their identities incorporated into the national narrative. The authors discuss portrayals of past exclusions around religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, as they look at the shifting boundaries of insider and outsider. This book is thus about “who we are” not only demographically, but also in terms of the past, especially how and whether we teach discredited pasts through textbooks. The concluding chapters provides ways forward in thinking about what can be done to promote curricula that are more inclusive, critical and positively bonding, in increasingly larger and more inclusive contexts.

(Re)Constructing Memory: Textbooks, Identity, Nation, and State

Rita Elaine Silver

This book explores Singapore’s language education system. Unlike previous volumes, which discuss the bilingual requirement for learning, it focuses on Singapore’s quadrilingual system, bringing together articles on each of the four languages – English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil – as well as articles that examine more than one language. It highlights past successes, current concerns, and future directions for language education. The book focuses on classroom pedagogy in all four official languages, showcasing how languages are taught and learned in Singapore as a basis for better understanding the system “from the inside out.” The authors present empirical, classroom-based studies on language pedagogy in all four languages, as well as updated information on the current socio-political context and how it has influenced attempts at pedagogical innovation. Consideration is given to the dialectical relationship between policy and practice. The chapters also include discussions of pre-school-age learning, influences of language policy, home literacy practices, and commentaries by international language-in-education scholars. This approach also provides a basis for international comparison – especially for those who are interested in fostering English proficiency while maintaining one or more national languages. The volume is particularly important in light of the continuing international efforts to integrate English into national educational systems where it is not the dominant language.

Wendy D. Bokhorst-Heng

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