Colonialingualism in Education and Policy

Colonialingualism is the privileging of dominant colonial languages, knowledges, and neoliberal valorizations of diversity. The benefits of multilingualism are widely accepted and encouraged. Translanguaging and plurilingual approaches have been important for envisaging more equitable (language) education and policy and have received much attention in recent years. While they have both been significant in disrupting the harms of monolingual and monocultural bias, inequities persist. The languages implemented in translanguaging or plurilingual classrooms still predominantly reflect and privilege the knowledge and belief systems of dominant, nation-state, official, and colonial languages as opposed to those of endangered and Indigenous languages. The ongoing privileging of dominant colonial knowledges, languages, and “neoliberal valorizations of diversity” in education and policy is colonialingualism. Colonialingualism, covertly or overtly, upholds colonial legacies, imperial mindsets, and inequitable practices.