Higher education has become increasingly diverse in recent years as patterns of migration expand and grow. However, while different linguistic communities are brought together, English is often conceived as the de facto lingua franca for research, teaching and learning. This is perhaps especially so in ethnically diverse conflict-affected settings…

Colonial and decolonial tensions manifested in a unique, Mexican school for the deaf that used Mexican Sign Language for instruction. (De)colonial tensions were inherent in the school's work, from its non-Mexican, Foreign-origin school board to its child-of-deaf-adults principal's vision. We observed the presence of a colonial legacy, decolonial…

Level 2 Maori medium programmes with 51-80% Maori language instruction make an important contribution to developing Maori language skills and lifting Maori student achievement, yet these programmes are largely hidden from discussions about Maori education attainment. Offering lower levels of Maori immersion than kura kaupapa Maori and being…

This paper seeks to understand how the curriculum is experienced across two higher education institutions to probe students' understandings of epistemic access in the context of decolonisation debates. Three particular aspects of student experience of the decolonised curriculum and pedagogy are scrutinised. First, we look at the kind of sociality…

The growing demand for Indigenous language education in the United States often relies on community teachers with widely varying proficiencies as part of local language reclamation efforts. While these English-dominant 'teacher-learners' play a central role in the success of classroom-based K-12 language programs, their classroom experiences and…

This paper contributes to the building of a sociolinguistics of the south by considering the nature and significance of contemporary language-in-education policy processes in Timor-Leste, and by tracing the ways in which these processes have been shaped by its specific colonial and post-colonial history. In presenting this account, I draw on…

The authors draw on their own experiences as practitioners, one as a Biology and Agriculture teacher in Kenya, and the other as an educator in a summer science program serving African American youth in a city in the Midwestern United States. They document and analyze moments of language contestation and explore the use of the construct of…

This article tackles the questions around the efficacy of the English language in educational contexts. The author argues that the answer to these questions has nothing to do with whether English is a more viable language of instruction or whether it promises non-English-speaking students full participation both in school and the society at large.…

Most research on global transformations in education has focused on the actions of political and economic elites. As a result, attempts to contest and subvert globally circulated policies at subnational levels have received less attention. To address this gap, this study focuses on discursive contestations around educational reforms in the United…

This article reveals how center-periphery relations have unfolded, over time, in language policy processes in one nation--Timor-Leste--on the global periphery. We take a "longue durée" perspective on the language policy processes at work in this historical context, showing how different regimes of language were imposed, in the past, by…

This study explores young students' negotiation of their citizenship identities at the intersection of their class, gender, religious and ethnic identifications in the conflict-affected setting of Pakistan. While much of the global literature on global citizenship education (GCE) primarily takes into account the perspectives of middle-class or…

Human development is a cultural process, and language serves as a cultural tool is closely related to virtually all the cognitive changes. The author addresses issues of language in education, and suggests that changing the medium of instruction should not be understood as purely a pedagogical decision. The connection between culture and language…

Choosing a major is part of liberal arts (LA) education in American-accredited colleges across the world. In global second-language (L2) contexts, the choice of major is shaped by local cultural factors. This study of 192 undergraduates at an English-medium-of-instruction (EMI) college in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) used a survey,…

From the time of Belgian colonial rule, French was predominantly the medium of instruction (MOI) in Rwanda. Then, in October 2008, a Rwandan Cabinet resolution called for the immediate implementation of English as the language of instruction in all public schools at all levels--from primary to tertiary. This study reports on ethnographic interview…

Higher education institutions in South Africa are dominated by English, a result of the colonial history of the country and its education system, a legacy which is intensified by the current dominance of English in higher education worldwide. This paper applies a decolonial theoretical lens to argue that the dominance of English in South African…