Introduction

This chapter presents our reflections on developments in language-in-education policy and practice in East-Timor in the years since Independence in 2002. We focus on two policy developments. (1) The creation and implementation of the national language-in-education policy, involving the use of the two official languages, Portuguese and Tetum. This policy has been implemented, in a phased manner, in all state schools since 2002. (2) Recent policy moves towards the introduction of a mother-tongue-based, multilingual education programme (MTB-MLE), involving the use of a wider range of languages, including languages that are spoken in different regions of this multilingual nation, that is, the languages that are described as ‘national languages’ in the Constitution. This second policy move has been made, on a relatively small scale, since 2008, and the MTB-MLE programme is still being piloted.

Both policies provide pathways to multilingualism through schooling, albeit in different ways. They entail different combinations of language resources and different curricular arrangements. They are also underpinned by different discourses, which circulate on different scales – local, national and global. We have been prompted to write this chapter because the recent calls for the development of a MTB-MLE programme in East-Timor and the launch of a pilot project have given rise to intense language ideological debates. There is therefore a pressing need for reflection on the nature and significance of these two educational pathways to multilingualism and the discourses associated with them need to be unpacked. There is also a need to build a sense of what is happening locally, as different educational pathways are being developed and consolidated. Attention needs to shift to the pedagogic and communicative practices that are emerging in local schools and classrooms. The notion of ‘linguistic citizenship’ proposed by Stroud (2001, 2009) and Stroud and Heugh (2004) offers some useful pointers as to how researchers and educationalists might redirect their gaze.