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Language ontologies and posthumanist critical pedagogy

  • Eugenia Demuro

    Dr. Eugenia Demuro is Chief Operations Officer at Research Strategies Australia. She has extensive experience in teaching and research across languages, Latin American studies, literary studies, and sociology, at various universities in Australia. Her current research explores ontology and language(s)/languaging.

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    and Laura Gurney

    Dr. Laura Gurney is Senior Lecturer in Te Kura Toi Tangata School of Education, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Her areas of specialization include languages education, higher education, and the theorization of languages/languaging.

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Published/Copyright: March 4, 2025

Abstract

This paper discusses critical pedagogies in relation to critical language studies. We explore how a posthumanist approach – framed through language ontologies and based on onto-epistemic analysis – may shape critical pedagogies for language education. We specifically ask, how are critical pedagogies transformed by ontology? The paper provides an overview of the core characteristics and goals of critical pedagogies in relation to epistemology-based claims and the ideological critique of language in the humanist tradition. This is followed by an introduction to language ontologies, with a focus on the worlding of language and on ontology as heuristic. This discussion expands how language – or rather, language(s)/languaging – is understood, and considers implications of language ontologies for critical pedagogies in languages education. Finally, the paper turns to praxis – the coming together of theory and practice to transform the world (Kubota, Ryuko & Elizabeth R. Miller. 2017. Re-examining and re-envisioning criticality in language studies: Theories and praxis. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 14(2–3). 129–157. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2017.1290500.) – to outline how a posthumanist critical pedagogy recalibrates critical language studies as onto-epistemic claims.


Corresponding author: Eugenia Demuro, Research Strategies Australia, Sydney, Australia, E-mail:

About the authors

Eugenia Demuro

Dr. Eugenia Demuro is Chief Operations Officer at Research Strategies Australia. She has extensive experience in teaching and research across languages, Latin American studies, literary studies, and sociology, at various universities in Australia. Her current research explores ontology and language(s)/languaging.

Laura Gurney

Dr. Laura Gurney is Senior Lecturer in Te Kura Toi Tangata School of Education, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Her areas of specialization include languages education, higher education, and the theorization of languages/languaging.

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Received: 2024-01-17
Accepted: 2024-08-22
Published Online: 2025-03-04
Published in Print: 2025-05-26

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