Research project Towards epistemic justice: Language, identity, and relations of knowing in postcolonial schools
The aim of the project is to investigate what can happen when a school changes from a monolingual to a multilingual episteme and recognizes all languages as resources for learning, or epistemic resources. It explores the ways in which 10- to 14-year-olds in primary schools use their multilingual repertoires to forge new ways of living and learning together.
Findings so far show how a radical shift in the values attached to different languages enables new ways of knowing and can also strengthen emergent ways of being human. This work thus shows the potential of heteroglossic sites to offer insights about possibilities for greater epistemic justice. It points the way to more egalitarian and ethical conditions for learning and for recognizing all learners as knowers and producers of knowledge.
Project members
Project managers
Caroline Kerfoot
Professor
