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Critical educational linguistics

  • Alastair Pennycook ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: September 27, 2022
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Abstract

In the first paper inaugurating this journal, Bernard Spolsky makes a case for critical educational linguistics. Reviewing both the critical tradition going back to the Frankfurt School and many of the strands of work that can be seen as part of critical applied linguistics, he concludes that there is an important role for critical educational linguistics as long as it follows in the liberal tradition and avoids so-called wokeism. He also argues that a great deal of work in support of language diversity and bilingualism has in any case been in this critical tradition, and that the addition of the term may not add much to what has gone before. Building on this proposal for critical educational linguistics, this paper raises concerns about basing a critical educational linguistic project on liberal foundations, invoking ideas such as ‘wokeism,’ or assuming a long history of critical work in mainstream educational linguistics. The paper concludes by suggesting alternative foundations for critical educational linguistics.


Corresponding author: Alastair Pennycook, International Studies and Education, University of Technology Sydney, FASS, Broadway, NSW, 2007, Australia; and Centre for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, E-mail:

  1. Author contributions: The author has accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.

  2. Research funding: None declared.

  3. Competing interests: The author states no conflict of interest.

  4. Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study (N/A).

  5. Ethical approval: The local Institutional Review Board deemed the study exempt from review (N/A).

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Received: 2022-06-03
Accepted: 2022-09-13
Published Online: 2022-09-27
Published in Print: 2022-11-25

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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