Global Research Collective for Anti-Oppressive Practices in Language Education (GRC)
The primary objective of the Global Research Collective for Anti-Oppressive Practices in Language Education (GRC) is to build a sustainable international network of graduate students, faculty members and community leaders who will collaboratively investigate the local, national, and global forces that enable or constrain anti-oppressive practices in second/additional language education. Pursuing formal education in a second/additional language can be academically disadvantageous, emotionally laborious and, at times, socially alienating. In our time of rising xenophobia, racism and classism, the importance of taking an anti-oppressive approach to language education cannot be overstated. However, what constitutes oppression in/through language education is highly context dependent. Therefore, we believe that developing anti-oppressive approaches to language education requires an understanding of how oppression takes place in different contexts around the world and how the conditions of such oppression continue to evolve with time. Through this shared space, we hope to address the following questions:
- In our changing times and in our different contexts, what constitutes oppressive practices in language education?
- How can we develop anti-oppressive approaches to language education?
- What local, national, or global conditions shape, enable, or constrain such approaches to education?
- What are the fears, risks, and rewards of taking an anti-oppressive stance in language education?
As we engage in discussion with each other, through this global research collective, we aspire to achieve the following goals:
- Build connections among language education researchers across geographical and linguistic divides,
- Identify research priorities and innovative methodologies for anti-oppressive practices,
- Design and carry out collaborative studies to address new challenges in changing times,
- Address local concerns in light of global changes, and
- Create and share innovative and practical resources in multiple languages.
UBC’s Point Grey Campus is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam people. The land it is situated on has always been a place of learning for the Musqueam people, who for millennia have passed on in their culture, history, and traditions from one generation to the next on this site.
Funding:
LLED RITs Seed Grant
Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia
Website developed by: Sadia Shad