This article seeks to understand the challenges of literacy acquisition under the Thematic Curriculum reform in Uganda, which introduced Mother Tongue instruction in lower primary. We compare teachers' perspectives from two central districts using Luganda and two peripheral districts using Ateso, drawing on a multi-layered approach to understand…

Competing ideologies of literacy are well documented in the literature, articulating the gap between everyday literacies in people's lives and formalised literacy norms. Despite this recognition of literacy as 'situated', the gap in perceptions across generations regarding knowledge content and learning forms remains underexplored. This article…

Mother tongue-based education has been central to the promotion of early literacy skills in many multilingual contexts of the Global South. However, learners in such environments may face significant linguistic challenges when changing language of instruction during schooling. In particular, the linguistic distance between mother tongue and…

This article interrogates the meaning of marginalisation by comparing two non-dominant language communities in Europe, and in particular their language education and teachers. An interdisciplinary exploration of the marginalisation leads the authors to identify key aspects and expressions of the concept. The authors illuminate these broad…

The three papers in this Forum approach the challenges of global academic writing and publishing, together with the continuing dominance of particular knowledges, in different ways. Adisorn Juntrasook and James Burford begin their paper, "Three letters from [image omitted] (Thailand) on geopolitical inequalities and educational knowledge…

The language used as a medium of instruction (MOI) has implications for learning outcomes. In most African classrooms, an international language is solely or dominantly used as an MOI. There is a debate about how this practice is associated with students' learning outcomes. This study uses Zambian PISA for Development 2018 data and school fixed…

Quality education is increasingly considered essential for human development. However, the mainstream approach to quality as a neutral technology often ignores deeply embedded issues of power relations. This article interrogates the taken-for-granted idea of 'quality education' by exploring the ways in which students navigate the assumption of…

This article reports on a study that focuses on students from rural areas of South Africa and their experiences of higher education. These students have attracted little attention in widening participation research in South Africa, despite being one of the most marginalised groups. The article, drawing on the experiences of student co-researchers…

This paper investigates the experiences of two international students with different linguistic backgrounds in a university in Hong Kong, with particular attention to the role of language in their identity negotiation during their transnational studies. Based on their contrasting narratives, the study revealed that the two students' identity…

The educational agenda of indigenous groups is in tension with the expansion of schooling. The authors follow an ethnographic approach to analyse an educational programme that seeks to preserve indigenous knowledges in a megacity. The initiative promotes daily activities with the communities' native educational counsellor called "apoyo…

This article analyses school systems for two of Ukraine's minorities, the Hungarians and the Crimean Tatars with the aim of assessing their success in promoting ethnocultural identity and social integration of the minority youth. I demonstrate that the exclusive instruction in Hungarian ensures the reproduction of group language knowledge and…

With speakers of over one hundred languages, the Lao PDR is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse nations in Southeast Asia. However, its education policy stipulates that Lao is the language of education at all levels of schooling. Non-ethnic Lao students are thus required to learn literacy in a language which they do not speak.…

Comparative research in multilingual urban primary schools indicates that the pedagogical and political goals of schooling may operate at cross-purposes. Classroom observations and teacher interview-discussions were conducted in classes for immigrant children in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where the language of instruction is French, and in classes…