Special Journal Issue on Linguistic Diversity Published by Futures Initiative Students
Cover image of Bellaterra journal by Rita Fitipaldi
We are delighted to announce that graduate students in the Fall 2015 Futures Initiative course on Global Perspectives on Language and Education have published a collection of their work in Bellaterra Journal of Teaching and Learning Language and Literature. The special issue, “Linguistic Diversity, Equity, and Pedagogical Innovation in Higher Education,” was edited by students Demet Arpacik, María Cioè-Peña & Benjamin Kinsella, with Maryann Polesinelli & Esteban Rodríguez. The monograph reports on the results of a series of case studies conducted across several campuses of the City University of New York within the context of the Global Perspectives on Language and Education course, sponsored by the Futures Initiative.
Taught by Professors Ofelia García and Carmina Makar, the course engaged students in critically thinking about how language policies in society and education are linked to sociopolitical ideologies in different nation-states. The seminar focused on the role that language policies, enacted from the top, have played in constructing, sometimes, better futures, but other times, inequities and differences among speakers with various social characteristics. New York City and CUNY served as a laboratory to study the language practices of different communities and to reflect on the relationship between those practices and the language policies in New York City schools.
The full issue is available open-access on Bellaterra’s website. Congratulations to all who contributed their work and edited the collection!