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Ethnic Minority Education in China: Language Policies and Practices Guest Editors: Gulbahar H. Beckett, University of Cincinnati, USA Gerard A. Postiglione, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, P.R.C China has experienced very rapid changes in political, economic, and educational policies and practices. These changes not only impact on Chinese society in general, but especially on its 100 million strong indigenous ethnic minority population. These changes have been most notable in education, language, and cultural identity. For example, China’s “minority?language policies have alternated between what Zhou (2001) calls pluralistic and integrationist approaches, emphasizing accommodation and assimilation, respectively. During pluralistic periods of accommodation, additive and even elite bilingual policies, initiatives, and programs have been welcomed, while during integrationist periods of assimilation, subtractive, folk bilingual and monolingual Mandarin-Chinese language of instruction programs have predominated. Current indications are that integrationist policies predominate. Putonghua increasingly edges out indigenous languages as the medium of instruction for ethnic minority schooling within the discourse of progress, national unity, and harmonious society. While some applaud these policies and practices as enhancing minority educational and economic opportunities, others express concern that the policies and practices will accelerate assimilation, language and identity loss, and social displacement. Scholars are now invited to submit empirical research to DIME about ethnic minority language policies and practices in China. The journal will also include critical perspectives, reports of innovative practices, and book reviews on this topic. Among the possible themes are: ?Language, schooling, and identity; ?Minority languages and access to higher education; ?Language factors and academic achievements among ethnic minority students; ?Education and the survival of ethnic minority written language scripts; ?Historical and socio-political influences on language policies in education; ?Linguistic and cultural transitions in ethnic minority boarding schools; ?Minority language changes and ethnic identities in a rising China; ?Ethnic minority student perspectives on language in education; ?Ethnic minority parents?perspectives on school language policies; ?Case studies of innovative ethnic minority language practice in education; ?Trilingualism for/among ethnic minorities; and ?The impact of Globalizing English language on ethnic minority education. Submission Guidelines Abstracts Due: December 15, 2007. Completed Manuscripts Due: June 1, 2008. Submissions to: c/o Zvi Bekerman at: mszviman@mscc.huji.ac.il Please submit two copies (one with author identification and one without author identification) of your manuscript with a cover letter including author contact information. Manuscripts should be submitted electronically in MS Word. Research and critical discussion articles should be approximately 25 double-spaced pages or 7500 words. Perspectives and report of innovative practices articles should be 5-7 double-spaced pages or 1800 words. Book reviews should be no more than 4 pages double-spaced or 1000 words. All the articles should be prepared using the 5th edition of the American Psychological Association (APA) Publication Manual. For other guidelines, see www.leaonline.com. All manuscripts will be peer reviewed.