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Relationality, Plurilingualism, and Place: Language Education in Higher Education in Northern Ireland

Mel M. Engman (Queen’s University Belfast, UK)

The BERA Guide to Decolonising the Curriculum: Equity and Inclusion in Educational Research and Practice

ISBN: 978-1-83549-147-8, eISBN: 978-1-83549-144-7

Publication date: 4 November 2024

Abstract

Efforts towards decolonising the higher education curriculum in Northern Ireland reflect the complex and often contradictory character of the structures, relations, and identities in place. The author draws on his experiences as a settler researcher and learner of Ojibwemowin (an Indigenous language in North America) to explore how these complexities intersect with language in one English language teaching (ELT) programme at a university in Northern Ireland. The author describes the tensions inherent in teaching ELT-related curriculum from a place where language policy has been uneven for many years. The author then explains how language reclamation research has informed teaching practices that de-centre English and draw on relationality. These practices are examined through decolonising and anticolonial lenses to highlight the value of relationships and place as an underexplored pathway in English language and language education curricula in higher education in Northern Ireland and elsewhere.

Keywords

Citation

Engman, M.M. (2024), "Relationality, Plurilingualism, and Place: Language Education in Higher Education in Northern Ireland", Moncrieffe, M.L., Fakunle, O., Kustatscher, M. and Rost, A.O. (Ed.) The BERA Guide to Decolonising the Curriculum: Equity and Inclusion in Educational Research and Practice (The BERA Guides), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 187-195. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83549-144-720241017

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2025 Mel M. Engman