Introduction to the Special Issue

Welcome to this special issue, which centers on critical language awareness (CLA) as a framework for working with multilingual students in U.S. schools. The seminal idea for the issue arose from a colloquium, Language Aware Teaching in Multilingual and Remote Contexts, organized by TESOL’s Research Professional Council and held during the 2021 TESOL Convention. By 2021, the educational community was reeling from the effects of COVID-19 and the inescapable evidence that the pandemic had exacerbated already-existing educational inequities globally. These were especially seen in lower-income urban and rural school districts—social geographies that tend to overlap with racialized and linguistically marginalized communities. In the U.S., the disproportionate impact on schools in these communities was widely reported. With educational equity both an ongoing and urgent concern, the research colloquium highlighted instructional approaches that center multilingual students’ linguistic and cultural knowledge in school curricula through critical and liberatory teaching that seeks social change. This issue unpacks the ideological, pedagogical, and practical complexities, as well as the possibilities reported by teacher educators, pre- and in-service teachers, and students as they engaged these approaches in their multilingual classrooms.

Instructional approaches committed to leveraging community languages, language practices, and knowledge in school curricula have gained traction in teacher education programs over the past three decades. Among these approaches, funds of knowledge research (Moll et al., 1992); linguistically and culturally sustaining pedagogies (Paris & Alim, 2017); linguistic landscape research (Shohamy & Gorter, 2009); youth participatory action research (Cammarota & Fine, 2008); and translanguaging (García et al., 2017) are represented in this issue. Yet those involved in the work of education have reported tensions between these approaches and established ideologies and practices in school settings. In the U.S., where English monolingualism rather than bilingualism has been predominantly promoted as an educational goal, there is a need to recognize and affirm the multilingual nature of schools as the worldwide norm (García, 2016), and to support and de-isolate teachers as they take up instructional approaches that value diverse forms of community knowledge. The articles in this issue demonstrate how CLA offers such an avenue. By illustrating how centering students’ languages, language practices, and knowledge unearths ideological and structural challenges, these CLA-focused articles offer possibilities for how teachers and students can be empowered by alternative pedagogies that engage their own decision-making along the way.

Critical language awareness

CLA is an instructional approach that is perhaps best understood in terms of its explicit goals for social change in the direction of equity and democracy (Clark & Ivanic, 1999; Fairclough, 2010; García, 2016). With historical roots in critical pedagogy (Freire, 1968/2000), critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1989), and the language awareness movement in Europe during the 1980s (Clark & Ivanic, 1999), CLA brings into view language as discourse, purposeful social practice that shapes and is shaped by power relations. CLA therefore includes a range of language topics (see Janks, 1991), yet its subject matter also includes the intersections of language and power as they manifest in societies and institutions such as schools. By analyzing participants’ experiences with the differentiating and positioning functions of language, CLA examines the social relations inscribed in school curricula.

Clark and Ivanic (1999) described CLA as both an instructional framework (based in questioning the status quo while acknowledging students’ expectations for achievement within the status quo) and as a curricular aim (consciousness-raising about the intersections of language and power in social contexts—situational, institutional, and societal). Clark and Ivanic argued that language learning objectives should include learners’ “consciousness and control over the way they use language and over the way they are positioned by other people’s use of language” (Clark & Ivanic, 1999, p. 64). Taking up Freire’s (1968/2000) notion of situated consciousness-raising, conscientização, and including discourse as the subject of inquiry in school curricula, they argued that critical awareness leads to action to “contribute to changing social inequities inscribed in discourse practices, and thus to be more responsible citizens” (Clark & Ivanic, 1999, p. 64).

The language awareness movement of the 1980s took a comparative approach to language instruction, making explicit the rich language variation in communities, schools, and individual linguistic repertoires, ultimately expanding space for linguistic diversity in European school language programs. For instance, working in the language awareness framework in France, Hélot and Young (2006) found language awareness to be a model for facilitating linguistic diversity by inclusion of community languages in an elementary school where prestige languages were taught. Svalberg (2007) identified a set of language awareness teaching principles that included investigating language as a dynamic phenomenon and involving learners in speaking analytically about language. Thus, the language awareness movement, oriented to language as an object of study, set the stage for developing criticality in language education and the curricular aim of examining discourse. Clark and Ivanic (1999), along with Fairclough (1992) and other scholars in CLA, asserted that a critical understanding of language as social practice should be included in education. As Fairclough (2010) later put it:

Our concern was that language awareness programmes should be informed by critical views of language and discourse, as well as a conception of language learning which integrated the development of the learner’s language awareness with the learner’s own prior experience and with the development of capacities for practice, including creative and innovative forms of practice. (Fairclough 2010, p. 529, emphasis added)

This special issue takes such a stance, emphasizing participants’ experiences with languages and capacity for innovation. The CLA framework positions students as co-constructors of knowledge—speakers, authors, analysts, researchers, and as innovators and shapers of language, signaling the potential for social change.

As a framework that is intentional about examining the social contexts and power dynamics of language use, CLA is both synergistic with the critical and liberatory approaches represented in this issue, and a conceptual tool for clarifying, from the perspectives of those involved, what happens in specific school contexts when these approaches are harnessed. In addition, recognizing that all learning is mediated through language, this Special Issue extends applications of CLA from its origins in language and literacy instruction to a span of PK-20 school contexts and includes teachers as well as students, emphasizing their experiences and decision-making processes.

These experiences are presented through research projects in linguistically diverse urban settings located in the northeastern and southeastern U.S. The contributors to the issue interweave opportunities for CLA analysis with curricular design grounded in funds of knowledge research by two bilingual education teachers in PK-12 schools (McConnochie & González, 2023), culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogy introduced into the curriculum by a middle-school science teacher (Rutt & Chang-Bacon, 2023), linguistic landscape research by college students in an Asian American Studies course (McPherron & An, 2023), reflections on a youth participatory action research experience by veteran teachers (Fu et al., 2023), and implementations of translanguaging by pre-service teachers in a teacher education course (Zhang-Wu & Tian, 2023).

Critical language awareness: Why this, why now?

As an instructional framework historically rooted in critical pedagogy, critical discourse analysis, and the language awareness movement, CLA encourages teachers and students to actively examine the sociohistorical and sociopolitical connectedness of language and power relations. In the current era, characterized by political conflict, geographical displacement, and access to socially-mediated information, the capacity to participate in pluralistic, democratic societies demands explicit conversations in classrooms and in teacher education about language, power, and the uses of language to maintain unequal power relations (Achugar, 2015; García, 2016). Such examination and reflection have particular relevance for English learners (Huang, 2013) and for speakers of marginalized “non-standard” varieties of English (Alim, 2010) whose experiences, knowledge, and languages are likely to be excluded from school curricula. In addition to these conversations, with the understanding that teachers create and frame opportunities for students to use languages, there has been increased global attention paid to the central role of language and power dynamics in all teaching (regardless of content-area focus) and to the kinds of knowledge of and about language that teachers should have to work in multilingual classrooms (Alim, 2005; Bunch, 2013; García, 2016; Paulsrud et al., 2021; Wernicke et al., 2021). CLA provides a useful and inclusive framework for such conversations.

The renewed interest in CLA within the critical pedagogy tradition is evidenced by recent special issues in education and applied linguistics journals. In addition to the current issue of the Journal of Language, Identity & Education, these include Linguistics and Education (Achugar, 2015); Educational Sciences (Crookes, 2021); Languages (Beaudrie, 2023), Journal of Second Language Writing (Shapiro & Leonard, 2023) and the Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices (Zhang-Wu & Tian, 2024). The surge of scholarship in CLA is also represented in diverse contexts in applied linguistics. These include second language writing classrooms (Shapiro, 2022), where proposed avenues for implementing CLA include sociolinguistics, critical academic literacies, media/discourse analysis, and communicating across differences. In teacher education, Godley et al. (2015) proposed a CLA framework for pre-service teachers in English language arts. Shepard-Carey and Gopalakrishnan (2021), working in ESL/EFL teacher education and noting the need for examples of instruction in CLA, have suggested a dialogic model for developing critical consciousness of race, language, and identity in English teaching. Similarly, Seltzer (2022) described critical translingual awareness, a framework for preparing translanguaging teachers of English, that engages with CLA by raising consciousness of sociohistorical intersections of language and power. Critical multilingual awareness (CMLA) is a framework for teacher education proposed by García (2016) that unites language knowledge with CLA themes: pluralism as a feature of democratic citizenship; historical awareness of colonial and imperialist linguistic oppression; and language as a malleable social construct (García, 2016, p. 268). In critical biliteracy studies, Chang-Bacon and Colomer (2022) foreground students’ own language awareness and attention to racial and linguistic power dynamics, particularly in increasingly popular dual-language and Seal of Biliteracy programming in the U.S. Decolonizing language teaching and teacher education (e.g., López-Gopar et al., 2021; Motha, 2014) prioritizes developing critical awareness of the ways in which teaching English functions to perpetuate colonial relationships while placing English teaching itself at the periphery of academic institutions. While these frameworks emerge from different contexts (and we wish to acknowledge that many other contexts are not included here), they resonate with one another through a curricular focus on the power dynamics of language that reflects themes in the CLA tradition.

As a justice-oriented framework, CLA also facilitates concrete pedagogical actions that contribute to social change. As Alim (2010) explained, “CLA developed as a means to go beyond cognitive [language] awareness and move toward social and political consciousness-raising and action” (p. 215), (re)framing opportunities to (re)define power relations, which we see reflected in this issue as opportunities for student/teacher reflection, agency, and decision-making. Each of the articles in this issue highlights the voices and actions of those doing the work of teaching and learning as they make decisions about how to engage with the linguistic resources available to them, while bringing together approaches to instruction that otherwise may be implemented in isolation.

Engaging teachers’ and students’ decision-making

Ultimately, language is at the center of achieving not only equitable access to a meaningful education (Hornberger, 2006), but concrete rights beyond access to education (such as the right to non-discrimination; see Hult & Hornberger, 2016). The articles in this issue explore how teachers implement pedagogies that embrace languages as a resource and a right, as described by Ruiz (1984, 2010), mobilize school routines as spaces for reflection on languages and language practices, and take action to center student knowledge in their classroom planning. They take as their starting point designing educational spaces for using the linguistic and cultural resources that students have available to them and conclude with recommendations for teacher education programs and professional development. This special issue examines:

• What happens when teachers and teacher educators take action to implement asset-based and critical approaches in their curricular design?

• What kinds of individual and institutional supports facilitate (or hinder) such action?

• How can we help teachers, teacher candidates, and students develop critical understanding of the intersections of language, race, power, and equity in U.S. schools, with the aim of full access to and participation in education?

In this special issue

This special issue assumes that there is much to be learned about the specific ways in which those doing the work of education grapple with the dominance of monolingual, English-language ideology that permeates school policy, discourse, and measures of achievement. We learn that language teachers alone cannot support bi/multilingual students and that a language component is essential in content area teacher education. We see emerging possibilities for further collaboration among researchers, teacher educators, teachers, and students as they consider how to facilitate meaningful participation in education. Here, we note the underlying sense of hope, liberation, and joy in creativity that, in our view, is a foundational part of the critical tradition.

While representing a momentum toward including and expanding meaning-making resources available to students, this research also affirms that students as well as teachers recognize the functional aspects of language in differentiating and (re)producing power differences. Taken as a whole, this research illustrates the various ways in which students and teachers act on what they know about the workings of language and power in school and community contexts when offered the opportunity to do so. Yet the articles are intentional about unpacking the challenges encountered in the process. Similar themes emerged from this special issue’s review of Translanguaging and Transformative Teaching for Emergent Bilingual Students: Lessons from the CUNY-NYSIEB Project (Fox & Guzmán Antelo, 2023). The reviewers identified a need in the field for more attention to the ideological and curricular challenges that teachers and teacher educators encounter, and if/how these were overcome. Thus, the articles in this issue do not necessarily claim success in solving the challenges that come with implementing justice-oriented pedagogies in tandem with CLA, but rather implement CLA to clarify the steps for those involved. We expect that learning from teachers and students will contribute to improving how to implement a CLA dimension in education programs.

Yet we cannot avoid the fact that as teacher educators and researchers, we ourselves are positioned to value and privilege multilingual community resources, while students and teachers may not be. These tensions are reflected in the special issue. As such, this collection of articles extends the CLA literature to closely examine cases of implementing asset-based and critical approaches to education in tandem with CLA, clarify the steps taken, and the challenges involved. These studies ultimately transcend the theoretical to apply critically language aware teaching with a priority on exploring the agency of teachers and students to enact change. As Freire wrote in 1968, giving voice to contradictions and conflicts is itself an act of critical consciousness that can lead to the generation of new possibilities. We believe the perspectives of teachers and students presented in this issue illuminate a practical path toward achieving and sustaining meaningful, critically-grounded education programming. In closing, we warmly thank the JLIE editors for this opportunity to make visible the educational experiences of teachers and students from a CLA lens.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jessie Hutchison Curtis

Jessie Hutchison Curtis is a part time faculty member of the English Department Writing Program at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, where she works with international graduate students. Her teaching experience includes ESL and Language Arts in middle school, college, and adult literacy programs, as well as in teacher education. Her teaching and research interests in educational equity include preparing teachers for working in multilingual contexts and addressing theory-practice gaps through research collaborations. Her work has been published in a number of academic journals including the International Journal of Multicultural Education, Critical Multilingualism Studies, and Second Language Research and Practice.

Qianqian Zhang-Wu

Qianqian Zhang-Wu is Assistant Professor of English and Director of Multilingual Writing at Northeastern University. Her research and teaching focuses on language, race, and power in multilingual communication and translingual practices. As a passionate educator, Zhang-Wu is winner of the 2023 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Outstanding Teaching Award. As a nerdy researcher, Zhang-Wu published extensively in the field of applied linguistics and writing studies, and her articles appear in TESOL Quarterly, Written Communication, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, and College English among various other academic journals. Her recent book Languaging Myths and Realities: Journeys of Chinese International Students (Multilingual Matters, 2021) is winner of the 2022 Best Book Award at the Comparative and International Education Society (Study Abroad and International Students SIG), 2023 CCCC Research Impact Award, and 2023 CCCC Advancement of Knowledge Award Honorable Mention.

Chris K. Chang-Bacon

Chris K. Chang-Bacon is Assistant Professor at the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development. His research explores equity in multilingual and multicultural contexts. As a former ESL teacher in Massachusetts, South Korea, and Morocco, Chang-Bacon’s scholarship is informed by the dynamic language practices young people bring to classrooms.