The Dynamics of Language and Inequality in Education

Social and Symbolic Boundaries in the Global South

Edited by Joel Austin Windle, Dánie de Jesus, Prof. Lesley Bartlett

Publication date:

13 February 2020

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781788926942

This book contributes new perspectives from the Global South on the ways in which linguistic and discursive boundaries shape inequalities in educational contexts, ranging from Amazonian missions to Mongolian universities. Through critical ethnographic and sociolinguistic analysis, the chapters explore how such boundaries contribute to the geopolitics of colonialism, capitalism and myriad, interwoven, forms of social life that structure both oppression and resistance. Boundaries are examined across time and space as relational constructs that mark the terms upon which admission to groups, institutions, territories, or practices are granted. The studies further present alternative educational approaches that demonstrate the potential for agency and transgression, highlighting moments of boundary crossing that disrupt existing linguistic ideologies, language policies and curriculum structures. 

The dividing practices of coloniality continue to affect our language ideologies, linguistic pedagogies, and the relative status of languages. Bound up with issues of access, power and identity, language is a complex terrain that learners and teachers in the political South navigate constantly. This volume provides insight into this complexity while presenting possibilities for thinking otherwise that embrace multiplicity, maintain diversity and hint at the transgressive.