Cover not available
Article published In:
Positive synergies: Translanguaging and critical theories in education
Edited by Zhongfeng Tian and Holly Link
[Translation and Translanguaging in Multilingual Contexts 5:1] 2019
► pp. 49–66

To language differently

Drawing on feminist poststructuralism and translanguaging to prepare language teachers

| Suffolk University

This article explores the synergies between translanguaging and feminist poststructuralism to deepen understandings of how educators can teach for justice. I highlight how both theories challenge dominant structures and boundaries; how they privilege process over product; and how they both illuminate non-dominant voices and experiences. I explore how both translanguaging and feminist poststructuralism have helped me challenge foundational epistemologies, ontologies, and methodologies as a teacher educator in the field of teaching English. Throughout this article I examine what taking up these theories to challenge and question the status quo means for how we might better engage language as a tool for justice.

Keywords: translanguaging, feminist poststructuralism, teacher education, theory, praxis, non-dominant students, critical pedagogy
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical synergies
    • 2.1Challenging structures and boundaries
    • 2.2Privileging process
    • 2.3Illuminating individual and non-dominant voices and experiences
  • 3.My own praxis
    • 3.1Challenging my epistemology
    • 3.2Challenging my ontology
    • 3.3Challenging my methodologies
      • 3.3.1Challenging dominant structures
      • 3.3.2Prioritizing process
      • 3.3.3Illuminating individual and non-dominant voices and experiences
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 10 January 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ttmc.00024.rob
References
ACCELA
2006 Research Statement. Retrieved from: [URL]
Alim, H. Samy, John Rickford, and Arnetha Ball
2016 Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas about Race. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Benesch, Sarah
1999 “Thinking Critically, Thinking Dialogically.” TESOL Quarterly 33 (3): 573–580. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Butler, Judith
1990 Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Davies, Bronwyn, and Susan Gannon
2005 “Feminist/poststructuralism.” In Research Methods in the Social Sciences, ed. by Cathy Lewin, and Bridget Somekh, 318–325. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
de Jong, Ester
2011 “Language Policy in the United States”. In Foundations for Multilingualism in Education, ed. by Ester deJong, 126–138. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Inc.Google Scholar
Edwards, Erica B., Jennifer Esposito, and Venus Evans-Winters
2017 “Does Beyoncé’s Lemonade really Teach us how to turn Lemons into Lemonade? Exploring the Limits and Possibilities through Black Feminism.” Taboo. The Journal of Culture & Education 171: 85–96.Google Scholar
Freire, Paulo
1998 Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy and Civic Courage. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.Google Scholar
García, Ofelia
2009 Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
2011 “Educating New York’s Bilingual Children: Constructing a Future from the Past.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 14 (2): 133–153. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
García, Ofelia, and Camila Leiva
2014 “Theorizing and Enacting Translanguaging for Social Justice.” In Heteroglossia as Practice and Pedagogy, ed. by Adrian Blackledge, and Angela Creese, 199–216. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
García, Ofelia, and Li Wei
2014 Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
García, Ofelia, and Naomi Kano
2014 “Translanguaging as Process and Pedagogy: Developing the English Writing of Japanese Students in the US.” In The Multilingual Turn in Language Education: Opportunities and Challenges, ed. by Jean Conteh, and Gabriela Meier, 264–283. Tonawanda, NY: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
García, Ofelia, Susana Ibarra Johnson, and Kate Seltzer
2017 The Translanguaging Classroom: Leveraging Student Bilingualism for Learning. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Maureen, and Bonnie Norton
2009 “Critical Language Teacher Education.” In Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education, ed. by Anne Burns, and Jack Richards, 30–39. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hesse-Biber, Sharlene N.
2007 “Feminist Research: Exploring the Interconnections of Epistemology, Methodology, and Method.” In Handbook of Feminist Research: Theory and Praxis, ed. by Sharlene Hesse-Biber, 1–28. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.Google Scholar
Hill-Collins, Patricia
2000 Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (First Edition). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hornberger, Nancy, and Holly Link
2012 “Translanguaging and Transnational Literacies in Multilingual Classrooms: A Biliteracy Lens.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 15 (3): 261–278. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kowng-Lai Poon, Maurice
2004 “A Missing Voice: Asians in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian Social Service Literature.” Journal Of Gay & Lesbian Social Services 17 (3): 87–106. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kubota, Ryuko, and Angel Lin
2006 “Race and TESOL: Introduction to Concepts and Theories.” TESOL Quarterly 40 (3): 471–493. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ladson-Billings, Gloria
2015 Just Justice. [American Educational Research Association Social Justice in Education Award Lecture video] Retrieved from [URL]
Lather, Patti
1986 “Research as Praxis.” Harvard Educational Review 56 (3): 257–277. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lippi-Green, Rosina
2012 English with an Accent: Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li Wei
2011 “Moment Analysis and Translanguaging Space: Discursive Construction of Identities by Multilingual Chinese Youth in Britain.” Journal of Pragmatics 43 (5): 1222–1235. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Macedo, Donaldo, Bessie Dendrinos, and Panayota Gounari
2003 The Hegemony of English. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.Google Scholar
Makalela, Leketi
2015 “Moving out of Linguistic Boxes: the Effects of Translanguaging Strategies for Multilingual Classrooms.” Language and Education 29 (3): 200–217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Martínez, Ramon Antonio, Michiko Hikida, and Leah Durán
2015 “Unpacking Ideologies of Linguistic Purism: How Dual Language Teachers Make Sense of Everyday Translanguaging.” International Multilingual Research Journal 9 (1): 26–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
No Child Left Behind Act
2001 Pub. L. No. 107–110.Google Scholar
Otheguy, Ricardo, Ofelia García, and Wallis Reid
2015 “Clarifying Translanguaging and Deconstructing Named Languages: A Perspective from Linguistics.” Applied Linguistics Review 6 (3): 281–307. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Paris, Django, and H. Samy Alim
2014 “What are We Seeking to Sustain through Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy? A Loving Critique Forward.” Harvard Educational Review 84 (1): 85–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017 Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies: Teaching and Learning for Justice in a Changing World. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Pennycook, Alastair
2001 Critical Applied Linguistics: A Critical Introduction. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Phillipson, Robert, and Tove Skutnabb-Kangas
1996 “English Only Worldwide or Language Ecology?” TESOL Quarterly 30 (3): 429–452. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2013 “Linguistic Imperialism and Endangered Languages.” In The Handbook of Bilingualism and Multilingualism, ed. by Tej K. Bhatia, and William C. Ritchie, 495–516. Malden, MA and Oxford, England: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Poza, Luis
2017 “Translanguaging: Definitions, Implications, and Further Needs in Burgeoning Inquiry.” Berkeley Review of Education 6 (2): 101–128.Google Scholar
Pranis, Kay
2005 The Little Book of Circle Processes: A New/old Approach to Peacemaking. Intercourse, PA: Good Books.Google Scholar
Ramírez, J. Andrés
2008 Co-constructing a Nurturing and Culturally Relevant Academic Environment for Struggling Readers: (Dis)locating Crisis and Risk through Strategic Alignment. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Massachusetts Amherst.Google Scholar
Robinson, Elizabeth
2012 Research as Praxis in ESL Teacher Education. Open Access Dissertations. 6611. [URL]
2018 “Striving for Transformative Teachers: A Critical Examination of Revising a Teacher Preparation Program.” Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (in press).Google Scholar
Robinson, Elizabeth, Zhongfeng Tian, Tiffany Martínez, and Aybahar Qarqeen
2018 “Teaching for Justice: Introducing Translanguaging in an Undergraduate TESOL Course.” Journal of Language and Education 4 (3): 77–87. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
St. Pierre, Elizabeth
2000 “Poststructural Feminism in Education: An Overview.” Qualitative Studies in Education 13 (5): 477–515. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 “Postqualitative Research: The Critique and the Coming After.” In The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, ed. by Norman Denzin, and Yvonna Lincoln, 611–626. L.A.: Sage Publications, Inc.Google Scholar
St. Pierre, Elizabeth, and Wanda Pillow
2000 “Inquiry Among the Ruins.” In Working the Ruins: Feminist Postructural Theory and Methods in Education, ed. by Elizabeth St. Pierre, and Wanda Pillow, 1–26. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Van Viegen Stille, Saskia, Robin Bethke, Jackie Bradley-Brown, Janet Giberson, and Gillian Hall
2016 “Broadening Educational Practice to Include Translanguaging: An Outcome of Educator Inquiry into Multilingual Students’ Learning Needs.” The Canadian Modern Language Review 72 (4): 480–503. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weedon, Chris
1997 Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory (Second Edition). Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Donley, Kevin
2022. Translanguaging as a theory, pedagogy, and qualitative research methodology. NABE Journal of Research and Practice 12:3-4 ► pp. 105 ff. DOI logo
Donley, Kevin
2023. Plugging in translanguaging: thinking across theory for methodological innovation in English learner and multilingual education. International Multilingual Research Journal 17:1 ► pp. 51 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.