Translanguaging and Epistemological Decentring in Higher Education and Research: Heidi Bojsen, Petra Daryai-Hansen, Anne Holmen, and Karen Risager

Abstract

<p>This is an important volume that brings together multiple aspects of the sociopolitics of language, knowledge, and education. Intersecting these topics are epistemological arguments that question dominant modernist knowledge trends and argue for the recognition of knowledge from the Global South (Connell 2007). Such arguments have been central in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics since the question of knowledge is almost always a question of language as well (e.g. Pennycook and Makoni 2020; Heugh et al. 2022). Another vibrant theoretical arena where language, knowledge, education, and society meet is shaped by discussions on the essential multiplicity of language resources of individuals and societies (García and Li 2014). These views move beyond traditional monolingual approaches that usually lead to the dominance of certain languages—most notably English in the world today. It is the nexus of these two streams of scholarship—referred to as epistemological decentring and translanguaging, respectively—that the chapters in this book are exploring.<br></p>