Decolonizing English
A proposal for implementing alternative ways of knowing and being in education
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12814937 |
|---|---|
| Authors | P J Meighan (0000-0003-3473-913X, McGill University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 77-83 |
| Publication date | 2020-06-22 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Diaspora Indigenous and Minority Education (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1559-5692 • E-ISSN: 1559-5706 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/15595692.2020.1783228 |
| OpenAlex | W3036697065 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 17 |
| References cited | 24 |
There is a need to decolonize English in order to reframe our relationships with fellow beings and our environment. English can frame water or oil as infinite, uncountable nouns , a tree as an inanimate, unconscious being, traditional and respected territories as wasteland, and animals as wildlife. With the current climate crisis, we know that these categorizations fall short and can normalize environmental racism and injustice. A more equitable and sustainable way to use language would be to question the worldview or belief system that informs “ecologically destructive” assumptions and perceptions. The English language also carries a colonial and assimilationist legacy. In many cases, this colonial history is omitted in our history books or plainly avoided in many forms of curriculum. The danger of ignoring this legacy resides in the human exceptionalism, or “epistemological error”, which dominates the current mainstream Western worldview, colonial education, and the English language. This paper proposes decolonizing the English language and exemplifies how we can do this and why we should learn from and implement ecocentric worldviews, such as those which are Indigenous
Colonialism · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Exceptionalism · Injustice · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Racism · Sociology · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · Environmental Education and Sustainability · Gender Studies · Indigenous and Place-Based Education · Law
Decolonizing Language Education
Ending Curriculum Violence and Academic Ancestral Worship
Critical and collaborative ethnography for indigenous language and culture revitalization in Chilean schools
Mexican student-teachers’ “English” language praxicum
Pre-service English teachers and curricular change
Translanguaging as a decolonising approach
Enacting boundaries or building bridges? Language and engagement in food-energy-water systems science
Writers’ stance in academic writing of an open distance and e-learning (ODeL) institution
Colonial legacies, geopolitical dynamics, and the future of language policy and planning in Sri Lanka
Colonialingualism
A Viable Path for Education”—Indigenous-Language Immersion and Sustainable Self-Determination
Creative tensions
Using the SDGs for global citizenship education
Where the dominant languishes
Harm Received, Harm Caused
Indigenous language revitalization using TEK-nology
Land and Water Pedagogy in Tesol
The tainted desert
The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language
Innovations and Challenges in Applied Linguistics from the Global South
Language and Identity
What Do Indigenous Knowledges Do for Indigenous Peoples?
The “Anthropocene”
The Routledge Handbook of Ecolinguistics
Why it Matters How We Frame the Environment
Traditional peoples and climate change
Putting the Earth into Global Media Studies
The Landscape of the Gaelic Imagination
Ecolinguistics
The geology of mankind? A critique of the Anthropocene narrative
Indigenous knowledges as vital contributions to sustainability
Decolonising the Mind
Steps to an Ecology of Mind
The Commodification of Language
| Unique citing works | 17 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 17 |