Decolonizing English: a proposal for implementing alternative ways of knowing and being in education

ABSTRACT

There is a need to decolonize English in order to reframe our relationships with fellow beings and our environment. English can frame water or oil as infinite, uncountable nouns , a tree as an inanimate, unconscious being, traditional and respected territories as wasteland, and animals as wildlife. With the current climate crisis, we know that these categorizations  fall short and can normalize environmental racism and injustice. A more equitable and sustainable way to use language would be to question the worldview or belief system that informs “ecologically destructive” assumptions and perceptions. The English language also carries a colonial and assimilationist legacy. In many cases, this colonial history is omitted in our history books or plainly avoided in many forms of curriculum. The danger of ignoring this legacy resides in the human exceptionalism, or “epistemological error”, which dominates the current mainstream Western worldview, colonial education, and the English language. This paper proposes decolonizing the English language and exemplifies how we can do this and why we should learn from and implement ecocentric worldviews, such as those which are Indigenous.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

The author would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada for their research support.

Notes on contributors

Paul J. Meighan

Paul John Meighan (Miadhachàin)-Chiblow is a Gàidheal (Scottish Gael) from Glasgow, Scotland. He is currently a PhD candidate and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Joseph-Armand Bombardier scholar at the Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE), McGill University, Montréal, Canada. Paul has a background in translating and teaching English as a Second/Foreign Language, Spanish and French at secondary, college, and university level internationally. His research interests include Indigenous language revitalization, decolonial education, and heritage language pedagogy. Paul would like to say miigwetch and tapadh leibh to his family, friends and mentors for all their support on this lifelong learning journey.