Creoles, education and policy

This chapter examines the place of creoles in the modern-day education milieu. It acknowledges the many ideological challenges and practical considerations for creoles in the educational space whilst bringing a multilingual education perspective to the fore. Using the concept of a contact language ecology, the chapter unpacks the language components that typically feature in multilingual education for creole-speaking students. This approach reflects the linguistically heterogeneous contexts typically faced by education stakeholders in creole-speaking speech communities that involve students’ creole mother tongue as well as standard languages and often heritage languages too. On-the-ground case studies in different jurisdictions are included to illustrate a range of educational initiatives that have been implemented for creole speakers and the kinds of factors that have influenced these, including language policy and planning.