Decoloniality, Language and Literacy

Courageously following Harraway’s injunction to ‘stay with the trouble’, this important edited collection confronts the complex and complicit nature of teaching language and literacy in contexts of coloniality, while simultaneously providing possibilities for rethinking practice. * Hilary Janks, Professor Emerita, Wits University, South Africa *
Each chapter of this exceptional book offers a brave and uncompromising account of what universities must do to recognize the knowledge of marginalized multilingual students. Initially located in student protest in South Africa, the book quickly expands to address us all. It is an ethical call to action. * Angela Creese, University of Stirling, UK *
McKinney and Christie have drawn on a wealth of experience to edit a compelling text on the relationship between decoloniality, language, and literacy. By identifying leading scholars who share their interest in language and power, the editors promote rich conversations on teacher education, multilingualism, coloniality, racism, poverty, and gender violence. Such conversations have profound relevance for teachers, researchers, and policymakers in contemporary education. * Bonny Norton, University of British Columbia, Canada *

I don’t have space in a review to do full justice to the various innovative ways this book will make you more aware not only of its immediate topic and context, but how it also challenges all of us to be more reflective about
our own EAL contexts and reflect on our complicity in coloniality and our responsibility as educators to challenge it, within ourselves, our settings, and our system more generally.

-- Frank Monaghan, The Open University, UK * EAL Journal, Spring 2022 *

[The book] contributes to the expanding body of work on decolonising practices in teacher education that will interest not only teacher educators and teachers working in post-colonial settings, but also those preparing teachers for socially just schooling.

* Indika Liyanage, Beijing Normal University, Hong Kong Baptist University, China, Comparative Education 59:1 *

Apart from the rich data represented in the chapters, there are also instances of poetry and reflective pieces that offer another view to language inequality in formal education and demonstrate personal accounts of authors’ own language experiences. The book is thus constructed as a cause for language activism and social justice in education in South Africa and promotes the possibility for ‘third’ space learning in engaging with the decolonial challenges of thinking within rather than about complex power relations of border conditions.

* Amy Hiss, University of The Western Cape, South Africa, Multilingual Margins 2022, 9(2) *