A different approach to language racism in primary education with the example of the film “Two languages, one suitcase”

Authors : Emine UÇAR İLBUĞA, Tülin SEPETCİ

Pages : 12-24

View : 22 | Download : 6

Publication Date : 2017-12-30

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :In today`s world, cultural identities defined by religious and ethnic characteristics come into prominence as representation and recognition demands of ethnic groups, minorities, sects etc. Today, especially from the 1990s, immigration to big cities from the eastern to western cities continues increasingly, because of the reasons such as forced village evacuations, seasonal works, education etc. Especially concentration of immigrant families in certain settlement centres of immigrated cities, the relationship between these people and people from different ethnic backgrounds in cities, the problems encountered by children and young people in schools, constitute an important discussion topic. Nevertheless, it is not possible to see that basic human rights are equally distributed among citizens who have different cultural values in the nation state. Especially speaking mother language is an individual and social right. Naturally, this situation leads to intensification of multiculturalism debates and the growing demand for multicultural regulation of basic citizenship rights. In this study by analysing “Two languages, one suitcase—on the way to school” fictional-documentary, all these problems are addressed on the basis of language racism from the perspective of the film. In the film, a teacher’s experiences who can’t speak Kurdish with the children who can’t speak Turkish in a Kurdish village are put forth. Moreover, students with different cultural identities and language skills that formal education policies ignore during the education process are evaluated in the triangle of family, teacher and students` problems and all actors, including teachers, students and parents, stand out as victims of the educational system.
Keywords : Multilingualism, multiculturalism, documentary, ethnicity