A Phenomenological Study of Parents’ Language Ideologies in India

Language ideologies are common phenomena in previously colonized societies where remnants of coloniality remain. In the current phenomenological study - conducted in the state of Maharashtra - researchers utilized Sinha’s Ecological Model (1982) to understand how parents’ formative upbringing (home, primary school) and adult lives shape their language ideologies in postcolonial India. Descriptive open-coding of biographically oriented interviews suggested that participants’ beliefs about language were predominantly shaped by their early school-based experiences and inconsistently by family level socialization patterns which seemed driven by the demographics of the family that raised them (e.g., educational attainment, language). As such, regardless of their diverse backgrounds, participants assimilated language ideologies similar on some level to those of their primary school teachers who provided practical knowledge they perceived as necessary for adult life in India. The implication is that in postcolonial settings, parents and teachers are not exempt from dominant colonial narratives that potentially shape how children are socialized. Although some parents may challenge conventional thinking due to their ideological insights and linguistic experiences, the broad impact of teachers’ beliefs about languages and multilingual learners must be considered as one important dimension in a grassroots policy framework to more effectively advance social change for all children.