Towards a social and epistemic justice approach for exploring the injustices of English as a Medium of Instruction in basic education

ABSTRACT

There are millions of children attending English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) government schools for their basic education. The vast majority of these are in countries across the Global South. In these contexts, EMI policy decisions are rarely based on educational arguments while global learning discussions exist with limited engagement with the challenges of EMI. This is despite a significant evidence base that highlights the widespread impact that EMI has both on educational quality and inequalities. A recent British Council position paper suggests that EMI research tends to be descriptive, perceptions-based and lacking in theoretical underpinning. This paper responds to this critique by bringing together critical theories of social and epistemic justice to develop a series of questions that could be used to interrogate the multiple ways that EMI impacts children’s basic education in the Global South.

KEYWORDS:

• Learning
• English Medium Instruction
• epistemic justice
• social justice

Acknowledgements

With thanks to the feedback from colleagues (Graham Nutbrown, Harry Kuchah, Alphonse Uworwabayeho, Audrey Msimanga and Paul Denley) and the constructive, critical reviews from two anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. At the time of writing, the Rwandan Education Board have suggested that English will become the medium from Primary one.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council under Grant [ES/S001972/1].