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Article
Vertical and horizontal approaches to ethnography of language policy in Peru
International Journal of the Sociology of Language (2013)
  • Laura A. Valdiviezo, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Abstract

In this article, I discuss my ethnography of the bilingual intercultural education (EBI) policy in the Peruvian Andes and how this ethnographic approach has shaped my analysis of language policy (LP). I start from a sociocultural, sociohistorical and critical approach for which I situate LP horizontally, by analyzing the ideological tendencies in its discourse historically in time, and vertically in space, by examining the sociopolitical impact of external influences on policy. Then I utilize the insights gathered to ethnographically interpret LP vertically through actors in the institutions and locales where they implement and (re)interpret LP. My ethnography of LP in the Andes intends to show that while the relationships of macro structures to the micro and vice versa are difficult to identify, an analysis of LP based on the understanding of macro-micro relationships, both vertically in space and horizontally in time, provides a clearer view of the complex multidirectionality and multidimensionality of LP in specific contexts.

Keywords
  • language policy analysis,
  • macro-micro relationships,
  • bilingual teachers,
  • interculturality,
  • Indigenous
Disciplines
Publication Date
2013
Citation Information
Laura A. Valdiviezo. "Vertical and horizontal approaches to ethnography of language policy in Peru" International Journal of the Sociology of Language Vol. 219 Iss. 2013 (2013)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/laura_valdiviezo/11/