New Edited Volume Published! Changing Perspectives Towards Linguistic Diversity in Education

We are extremely proud to announce the publication of the book Changing Perspectives Towards Linguistic Diversity in Education: Promoting Social Cohesion Through Agency, edited by our Marta Guarda and Maria Stopfner and by Gabriela Meier (University of Exeter), and published by Springer in the Educational Linguistics series (Vol. 71).

This book explores the need for a change in perspectives towards linguistic diversity and pluri/multilingual education, and highlights the role of teachers, students, caregivers, and researchers, as agents of social cohesion in today’s complex societies. It examines how a change in perspectives on the part of these social actors can challenge dominant language ideologies and trigger more equitable, just and cohesive educational environments and social communities that honour and leverage the linguistic repertoire of each individual. While the agency of students and teachers has been brought to the fore by a number of publications on pluri/multilingual education, this dimension is particularly relevant for researchers themselves, whose agency and epistemic stance are paramount in the construction and interpretation of observed phenomena. In this respect, this book tackles this aspect by means of autobiographical narratives, in which each author/researcher provides insights into experiences in their professional and/or personal life that had an impact on the way they see their agentive role in society.

We are deeply grateful to all contributors for their expertise, commitment and thoughtful engagement throughout this project. We do hope that their voices, together with ours, will make this volume a rich and inspiring resource for researchers, practitioners, policymakers and graduate students working in the fields of pluri/multilingualism, education and social cohesion.

The book is available here: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-032-16440-7