This special issue focuses on language policy processes at work, in different sectors of education, in one small multilingual nation situated on the global periphery: the nation of Timor-Leste, in South East Asia. The four articles in this special issue draw on research of a broadly critical and ethnographic nature. To set these articles within a wider research context, the first section of this Introduction charts the development of critical approaches to the study of language policy and planning (LPP). The second section then delineates two main strands of ethnographic research related to LPP processes and points to some of the ways in which the scope of critical, ethnographic research has been widened in recent years. In the third section, we introduce the four articles, highlighting the distinctive nature of the ethnographic research presented in each one. In the fourth section, we show how the articles illustrate the need to combine ethnography with a critical, historical perspective, and with close attention to contemporary global processes, such as the commodification of particular languages. In the final section, we offer reflections on the possibilities for contributing to change in language policy and practice, in Timor-Leste and elsewhere, through researcher-practitioner collaboration of a critical, ethnographic nature.

本期专刊侧重于一个位于全球外围的小型多语言国家（东南亚的东帝汶国家）在教育的不同领域中工作中的语言政策流程。本期特刊的四篇文章借鉴了具有广泛批判性和人种学性质的研究。为了在更广泛的研究范围内设置这些文章，本简介的第一部分概述了语言政策和计划（LPP）研究的关键方法的发展。然后，第二部分描述了与LPP流程相关的人种学研究的两个主要方面，并指出了近年来扩大人种学研究的范围的一些方法。在第三部分中，我们介绍了四篇文章，突出显示每个民族志研究的独特性。在第四部分中，我们将展示文章如何说明将人种学与批判性的历史观点相结合的需要，并密切关注当代全球进程，例如特定语言的商品化。在最后一节中，我们将通过重要的民族志性质的研究人员与从业人员的协作，对在东帝汶和其他地方为改变语言政策和实践做出贡献的可能性进行思考。