| The importance of including Chinese language instruction in American schools has attracted much attention and discussion in recent years. Given the interest attached to Chinese learning, researchers, practitioners, policy makers, and parents have expressed concerns over its slow adoption. Drawing upon language planning, language ecology, and open systems theory, this study examines school district organizational and environmental factors that promote or impede the "migration" of a "species" (Chinese foreign language instruction) into a new "habitat" (the American high school curriculum).;After offering a tentative framework suggesting how the environment works to influence language planning in school organizations, a case study of one district's efforts to implement a high school Chinese program is examined. The findings reveal a decision process more complex than the linear, rational process predicted by the tentative framework. To capture and describe its complexity, three analytic lenses were applied: structural, institutional, and political. While each lens contributed to understanding, political factors appeared to play the key role, in the form of conflict between two school board coalitions.;In terms of policy implication, the case study suggests that in the habitat of American high schools, Chinese is a fragile species outside of its primary range (i.e., large urban and west coast school districts). For this reason, the expansion of Chinese foreign language programs into the American high school "heartland" may require strong leadership and federal and state support. |
