Pratiques langagières - terrains, méthodes, théories

• Ian Cushing (Manchester Metropolitain University) : Designing futures of linguistic justice: teachers dismantling deficit thinking in schools

Deficit thinking is a person-centred, victim-blaming ideology which deflects attention away from structural injustices and frames marginalised communities as deficient and requiring remediation – especially about language, and especially in schools. Whilst such ideologies are long-standing and pervasive, recent work has exposed a resurgence of deficit thinking about language in England’s education policy architecture. This talk examines efforts by teachers to dismantle deficit thinking in the pursuit of linguistic justice. It draws on data from a longitudinal project where I collaborated closely with a group of teachers in coordinated attempts to dismantle deficit thinking at individual, departmental, and institutional levels. As part of this collaboration, we designed a flexible, proactive framework for anti-deficit struggles about language. This included rejecting dominant language ideologies; teachers as activists; cross movement solidarity and collective struggles; institutional support; building on historical efforts, and abolitionist visions for transformative change. I talk through aspects of this framework and its potential in contributing to linguistic justice efforts.