Home vs School Language Conflict: An Auto-ethnographic Inquiry

Abstract

Children from minority communities speaking a different home language from the language of instruction at school face multiple forms of social injustice. I explore the experience of a learner who faced learning hardships when the home language was different from the language of instruction at school. Methodologically, I follow the principles of the autoethnographic approach, reflecting on the nuances of my experience navigating the conflict between home and school language disparities. I connect my anecdotal reflections to show the larger social and political mechanisms, such as policies, laws, and power imbalances that sustain and perpetuate these inequalities. Based on my auto-ethnographic anecdotes, I explore the experience of a learner from the theoretical construct of ideological and structural injustice (Fricker, 2007; Fraser, 2010). For this paper, I understand ideological injustice as an unfair treatment of a socially marginalized group by a dominant group based on ideological and social affiliations (Fraser, 2010). It discriminates and further marginalizes members of the socially marginalized group, creating artificial differences in ideas, personal value systems, and social identities, ignoring the intellectual abilities, actions, and characters of marginalized groups. On the other hand, structural injustice arises from deeply rooted social, political, and educational systems (Fricker, 2007). Individuals experience discrimination because of the broader patterns of social inequalities that emerge from social structures, policies and practices (Fraser, 2010), which restrict access to resources and opportunities. This paper contributes to the discourse on language education in the context of South Asia by connecting my reflections to the larger social context for just and inclusive policies. It aims to create awareness to eliminate the challenges of bias and prejudice by dismantling existing underlying social structures and advocating for an equitable and just social system.