Volume 18, Number 1, 2023

EN:

This paper mapped out and explored the geopolitics of knowledge production in applied English language studies (AELS). It did so by employing a double judgmental sampling and by investigating four composite factors in volume 42 of the journal Applied Linguistics (AL), which comprised six issues and forty-three articles, as published in 2021. These composite factors were nationalities and institutional affiliations of the editor, the associate editors, the editorial board, and the international advisory board; nationalities and institutional affiliations of publishing or contributing authors; the foci of the published articles; and the theoretical framings and epistemic orientations of the published articles. The paper maintains that these composite factors serve as important axes of epistemic production practices and as critical loci of knowledge circulation for AELS in this journal. AL has occupied the first quartile (Q1) in communication, and in linguistics and language since 1999 as ranked by both Scopus and Resurchify. As such, it is a top-tier journal in the field of AELS or of applied linguistics. Based on its analysis, one of the arguments the paper makes is that individually and collectively these composite factors function, simultaneously, as a gate-keeping mechanism for knowledge production and as a validation, legitimation, and arbitration mechanism for knowledge production in AL. The paper has also established that there is an invisibilization of the Global South authors in these six issues of AL. This factor, the paper contends, is attributable to the geopoliticizing of knowledge production in these AL’s issues. Lastly and importantly, the paper advocates transknowledging and a two-eyed critical Southern decoloniality for AELS, and draws a link between this two-pronged theoretical framing and transepistemic language education.

EN:

This paper critically analyses a reflection paper commissioned by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that proposes a future where we, humans, learn to coexist with the non-human world and thereby contribute to its preservation. The paper, titled Learning To Become With the World: Education for Future Survival, represents a response to previous unsuccessful Education for sustainable development (ESD) initiatives. Drawing on Carol Bacchi’s (2009), “What’s the problem represented to be?” method, our analysis sheds light on assumptions and silences and considers potentially conflicting interests among different actors in formulating the policy proposed by the paper. Through this critical approach to analysis, several crucial implications have emerged. We argue that the report lacks practical applicability by ignoring human complexities and diversity and does not pay enough attention to the potential important role Indigenous ways of knowing, learning, and teaching could play for education for sustainable development.

EN:

This discussion examines the mentoring experiences of Black graduate students enrolled in a Faculty of Education at a university located in western Canada between the years 2010 and 2020. The students were pursuing masters’ and doctoral degrees and were asked to reflect on the mentorship and support that they received during the course of their graduate programs. Drawing from critical and interdisciplinary perspectives about Blackness, the paper analyzes these experiences as narrated by the participants through semi-structured qualitative research interviews. Findings point to the pervasiveness of systemic racism in a culture of whiteness, along with the lack of mentorship and its impacts on the Black graduate experience. The discussion concludes with recommendations for policy and practice.

EN:

The relationship between graduate students and faculty members is a topic of great interest in higher education. While there is a wealth of theoretical and empirical research on the subject, discussions overlook the social dynamics that shape these relationships. This article seeks to fill this gap by presenting a conceptual framework that considers crucial components, including interpretations, reciprocal roles and responsibilities, relational factors, and effects, in analysing graduate student-faculty advisor relationships. By exploring these elements, the article offers a comprehensive framework that accounts for the nuances and limitations of these relationships and provides recommendations for best practices.

EN:

This convergent parallel mixed methods study was aimed at addressing the lack of empirical studies in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as an inclusive pedagogy in the Ghanaian higher education context. The overarching objective was to find out whether UDL has the potential in improving the learning processes and learning outcomes of the diverse students reading a History of Global Art course. Quantitative and qualitative data sets were garnered from 122 conveniently sampled students using an adapted version of the Inclusive Teaching Strategies Inventory-Students (ITSI-S) survey instrument. The findings of the study revealed that the UDL principles of multiple means of representation, multiple means of engagement and multiple means of action and expression impacted positively on students’ learning processes and outcomes. UDL assisted greatly in the development of collaborative, problem-solving, good time management and critical thinking skills, while increasing learners’ level of motivation. The study contends that though the UDL as an inclusive pedagogical approach requires a lot of dedication on the part of the instructor as well as a great deal of time and material resources, the accrued benefits of its implementation on the students’ learning processes and learning outcomes are far-reaching.

EN:

Teachers have been shown to hold lower behavioral expectations for Black students than for their White peers, and the mechanism underlying this may be teachers’ implicit attitudes about their Black students based on causal attributions. This study examined this connection, predicting that teacher education students (TES) who scored higher on the racial implicit bias test would attribute internal causality and controllability to explain challenging behaviors in the classroom more frequently for Black students than for White students. 233 teacher education students completed the racial bias section of the Implicit Assessment Test and a set of questions assessing causal attribution based on four vignettes depicting student misbehaviors in a classroom setting. We found that regardless of implicit bias, TES were more likely to believe that Black students had an internal locus of causality and controllability than their White counterparts when presented with similar instances of challenging behavior. These results support the need for teacher preparation programs to address how these internal beliefs of teacher education students affect what they learn about managing their expectations around students’ behavioral regulation and to what they attribute these behaviors.