New Editors’ Introduction

As we step in as new co-editors of the Journal of Language, Identity & Education (JLIE), we would like to introduce ourselves and say a few words about our vision for the journal. JLIE was the brainchild of Thomas Ricento and Terrence Wiley. Just as anyone who adopts someone else’s child would take their responsibility very seriously, we are feeling the weight of the baton Tom and Terry passed on to us after 14 years of outstanding editorship. We will do our utmost in ensuring JLIE’s continuing success and relevance. Terry and Tom envisioned the journal to be an interdisciplinary forum for “both original research and critical studies on the intersections of language, identity, and education in global and local contexts” (Ricento & Wiley, 2002, p. 4), and this focus will remain unchanged under our editorship. At the center of the journal’s scope is our shared interest in issues related to language, and under our editorship, JLIE will continue to serve as a forum for discussion on how issues of language learning and teaching impact individual and community identities and intersect with educational practices and policies. This journal also has had a strong international scope. In the past 14 volumes JLIE has published articles by authors from 37 countries and on topics of education and identity in connection with 69 languages. We intend to maintain this strong international outlook.

At the same time, it is often the case that as new editors step in to lead a journal, they begin to put their own imprint on the journal. We expect it to be the case with our editorship as well. First of all, we are both committed to publishing the kinds of studies that make tangible differences in the lives of language learners, teachers, and language minority communities broadly construed, as opposed to theoretical papers for the sake of arguing theory. Yasuko is a former English language learner who learned English in a stark sink-or-swim environment in the U.K. She is committed to creating more dignifying and rewarding language learning environments for language minority students. Wayne, a former ESL and Khmer bilingual teacher, has witnessed firsthand the impact of language and education policies on schools and communities, and is committed to promoting high quality instruction for language minority students. Thus, it personally matters to us that the studies we publish in JLIE ultimately contribute to improving the lives of language learners, teachers, and members of bilingual and multilingual communities. JLIE was also originally intended to be an outlet for “critical studies on the implications of monoculturalist approaches to education and their consequences for minorities and diverse societies” (Ricento & Wiley, 2002, p. 4). However, in the last several years, the journal has been focusing on publishing studies that richly describe interrelationships among language, identity, and education around the world, and consequently, the critical focus has perhaps received less attention. We would like to return to the critical focus and welcome submissions that address questions of how monolinguistic and monoculturalist approaches to education reproduce existing power relations in society and narrow the range of identities that individual language learners and teachers can claim for themselves. Likewise, we encourage submissions highlighting the potential of multilingual and multicultural approaches to counteract and challenge existing societal forces.

We also would like to see more diversified theoretical frameworks and methodologies used to explore issues of language, identity, and education. JLIE in recent years has published a number of studies that employ theories involving linguistic/cultural capital, investment, imagined communities, heteroglossia, and situated learning, among others, as theoretical frameworks. Although these theories have been and will continue to be indisputably useful, we also welcome new theories that can shed a different light on issues of language, identity, and education. Similarly, many studies in recent issues have employed what Merriam (2009) calls “basic qualitative research” (p. 22) with an emphasis on interview data alone. Such studies have provided valuable findings and will continue to be considered. However, we would welcome more diversity and rigor in qualitative research design, including, for example, rich ethnographic studies that include observations and document analyses along with interviews, as well as critical discourse analyses that connect micro-level discourses to macro-level policies and hegemonies. Further, we believe that statistical analyses, when done rigorously and appropriately, can provide valuable insights into policies and practices related to language, identity, and education. In sum, we welcome submissions that make contributions not only in terms of findings but also in terms of offering new theoretical frameworks and/or new methodological approaches to exploring interrelationships between language, identity, and education.

Readers will also notice some changes in our publishing practices. First, we will move from five to six issues per year, beginning with this volume, to accommodate the growing amount of research being conducted in the field and the increasing number of submissions to JLIE. Second, rather than printing several separate issues, we will print two triple issues (issues 1-3 and issues 4-6) per year. Third, accepted manuscripts ready for publication will be published online first on JLIE’s journal site (http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/hlie) before they appear in print. Thus, authors’ work will be published faster, and readers will have immediate access to the latest JLIE articles. Finally, in addition to future special issues featuring new articles, we will periodically curate virtual special issues consisting of collections of past JLIE articles on a particular topic, or highlighting the most frequently read JLIE articles.

As we move forward, our editorial team is buzzing with new energy and excitement. We welcome Karen Lillie as our new Associate Editor, and Juliet Langman as our new Book Review Editor. We welcome suggestions for new ideas, feature, and special issues, and look forward to receiving submissions from around the world.