Language education policy by proxy: the 'ideal' meets the 'real' in the educational network of the Jewish Community in Mexico City

摘要

Language is the most immediate tool of inclusion into a social group and as such is central in creating, understanding and participating in the group. Language policy can serve, establish and organise such groups, and to assure that they are maintained and implemented for posterity. Language policy in education is imperative for a group to build and maintain its past, present and future. This paper discusses the formulation of a language policy in the Jewish Educational Network of Mexico City, following its daily management. More specifically, this paper will address: (1) the discrepancies between the minority's language policy and ideologies and its reality; (2) the status of Hebrew as a burden or a benefit in pacesetting language education in this community; and (3) the outcomes of implementation of a language policy 'by proxy' (i.e. a policy created elsewhere to be carried out locally).