Abstract
In this introduction, we provide a general orientation for the reader to community based research in relation to issues regarding language and education in the multilingual island communities of the Caribbean in general, and in the community on the island of St. Eustatius (commonly called Statia) in particular. We focus not only on the problems caused by the neglect of students’ home languages in favor of colonial languages as languages of instruction and initial literacy in the schools, but also on how communities in the Caribbean and elsewhere are taking control over the process of identifying, analyzing and finding solutions to those problems. Finally, we provide a chapter-by-chapter overview of the contents of this volume.
The island of Statia has two names: in Dutch it is called Sint Eustatius, in English it is commonly called Statia. As the majority of the island’s inhabitants call their own island by the English name, we also adopt this name in this volume. However, in the report as it was presented to the Government of the Netherlands, the name Sint Eustatius/St. Eustatius is used
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Notes
- 1.
LPP [Language Policy and Planning] in the Caribbean countries and territories of the Kingdom of the Netherlands can only be understood within the context of the quasi-federal structure of the Kingdom. ‘The Kingdom consists of four countries, namely the Caribbean countries of Aruba, Curaçao and St Maarten, and the Country of the Netherlands. It is important to bear in mind that the Country of the Netherlands is just one of the four Countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The three Caribbean countries are rather small: they have only 40,000 (St Maarten), 105,000 (Aruba) and 160,000 (Curaçao) inhabitants; the Country of the Netherlands has 17,000,000 inhabitants. Since 2010, when a restructuring within the Kingdom took place (and the Netherlands Antilles was dismantled), the much smaller islands Bonaire, Statia and Saba, with 17,000, 3550 and 2000 inhabitants, respectively, became part of the Country of the Netherlands. Therefore, the Country of the Netherlands has a European part as well as a Caribbean part, the so-called Caribbean territories. The Kingdom of the Netherlands is Member of the European Union. Nevertheless, European law is only fully applicable in the continental European part of the Kingdom. Since the beginning of the European Union, all Caribbean islands have had Overseas Country and Territory (OCT) status. Today they still have this status. At the same time, the people of the OCTs of the Kingdom have European citizenship. The relations between the three Caribbean countries and the Country of the Netherlands, as well as the relations between the European part and the Caribbean territories of this country, are complicated for a variety of reasons.’ (Bröring and Mijts 2017).
- 2.
In Aruba, the name of the language is officially spelled as ‘Papiamento’, while in Bonaire and Curaçao, the language is officially spelled as ‘Papiamentu’.
- 3.
The four primary schools in Statia were largely distinguished by religious affiliation and varied in size from 44 to 120 students at the time of the research project. The largest schools were the Lynch Plantation Seventh Day Adventist School and the Bethel Methodist School, the smaller schools were the Catholic Golden Rock School and the public Governor de Graaff School.
- 4.
The Gwendoline van Putten school is organized in accordance with the system for secondary education in the European Netherlands, offering different tracks in preparatory vocational education (Praktijkonderwijs, VMBO), secondary vocational education (MBO) and High School (HAVO). The HAVO-track prepares students for higher vocational education (also referred to as ‘professional university’ education) to be pursued abroad. The school does not offer the VWO-track which prepares students for ‘research university’ education.
- 5.
Literature
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Inspectie van het Onderwijs. (2012a). Rapport van bevindingen: kwaliteitsonderzoek voortgezet onderwijs bij de Gwendoline van Putten School, afdelingen vmbo, pro en havo. Tilburg: Inspectie van het Onderwijs.
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Inspectie van het Onderwijs. (2012c). Rapport van bevindingen: kwaliteitsonderzoek primair onderwijs bij de Bethel Methodist School. Tilburg: Inspectie van het Onderwijs.
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Faraclas, N., Kester, EP., Mijts, E. (2019). Introduction. In: Community Based Research in Language Policy and Planning. Language Policy, vol 20. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23223-8_1
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