Echoes of the past, hopes for the future: examining temporalised schoolscapes in a minority region of Thailand

ABSTRACT

Recent work on linguistic landscapes at schools (schoolscapes) has highlighted the complex dialogic relationship between the semiotics of public signage in educational spaces and policies seeking to enforce dominant ideologies. In this paper, we discuss the results of research conducted in the Deep South of Thailand, a minority region in which the predominant language, ethnicity and religion are different from the rest of the nation, and which has over the last century been exposed to significant assimilatory pressure. Drawing on an analysis of language use in two Islamic schools in the region, as well as interviews and focus groups with administrators, teachers and students, we focus on the temporality of meanings – how schoolscapes are anchored in narratives of the past, present and future. Historical memories evoked by particular elements of the schoolscapes are discussed, particularly in light of the efforts of the local population to resist assimilatory policies. We also discuss the aspirations of our participants for the future, observing that, while recent language policy in Thailand has focussed primarily on promoting Thai and English, our participants saw a much more varied plurilingualism as relevant to their lives.

KEYWORDS:

• Schoolscape
• linguistic landscape
• temporality
• minority language

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Data collection procedures were approved by the Health Science Human Research Ethics Committee, Prince of Songkla University.

2 The codes refer to participants according to their role (T – teacher, S – student, A – administrator), school (A or B) and ID number. For instance, TA3 refers to ‘Teacher 3 from School A’.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Faculty of Liberal Arts Prince of Songkla University.