Researching language-in-education in diverse, twenty-first century settings

ABSTRACT

The two opening sections of this Afterword show how the studies in this collection reflect wider trends in research related to language-in-education policy and practice in contemporary contexts of linguistic and cultural diversity: namely, the turn towards interpretive research and the diversification of research sites. The third section focuses on the nature of the innovation in research design and methodology that is evident in the different articles. Attention is drawn to the fact that, in each case, innovation is achieved by locating the research at the interface between research into communicative practices in classrooms and other fields of research in education. The fourth section is devoted to the way in which the authors address the epistemological and methodological challenges that arise in research in linguistically diverse settings. Here, the discussion centres on three main challenges: first, the challenge of dealing with asymmetries in researcher–researched relationships; second, the challenge of creating conditions for engaging in extended dialogue with research participants; and third, the challenge of critical, reflexive work and the need to be prepared to be surprised. The concluding section then calls for research that provides glimpses into avenues for change and development in different areas of language-in-education policy and practice

KEYWORDS:

• Contemporary diversities
• research challenges
• methodological innovation
• researcher–researched asymmetries
• creating dialogic approaches
• critical, reflexive work

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.