Nowhere else in the world: Hmong Minnesota’s role in the creation of school-based Hmong language education programs

In this article, we will use a combination of key informant interviews and an ecological model for language education policy to provide a community history of HMoob language/literacy education in Minnesota schools. These methodologies reflect how key actors navigated policy environments and different community dynamics to establish and maintain a variety of types of school-based HMoob programs in the state. Participants reflect three key program types: district bilingual, community charter schools, and secondary late-access bilingual heritage language elective courses. Findings identify initial visions, facilitating factors, challenges, and future desires for school-based HMoob programs. These are analyzed within an ecological framework that reflect on the power dynamics, policy landscapes, and organizing forces that shape these efforts for sustaining HMoob language and knowledge systems for future generations through school-based options, and are in turn influenced by the process of creating and maintaining these programs within the context of Minnesota and the United States.