Multilingualism is a gift that provides richer children’s and adults’ learning experiences, stronger family engagement, and ultimately, inclusive and equitable communities. This panel of leading global language and education scholars centers on innovative research, policy, and practices of multilingualism for adults, children, and families. Panel members will describe their individual work on promoting multilingual educational practices in international contexts and illustrate the various projects they are working on to further support multilingualism for learners and families. Panel members will also discuss how their work is interconnected and what practices, tools, and tips can be used to support multilingualism in all contexts.
Panelists:
Dr. Alexis Cherewka, World Education
Alexis Cherewka is an adult educator, researcher, and technical assistance provider with 10 years of experience. She has a PhD in lifelong learning and adult education from Penn State University, and her research interests focus on how adult educators and adult education policy can support a more equitable educational experience for all adult learners.
Dr. Rafael Lomeu Gomes, The Arctic University of Norway (Tromsø)
Rafael Lomeu Gomes is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UiT The Arctic University of Norway and a guest researcher at MultiLing – Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan, University of Oslo. His work as a sociolinguist analyses the role of language in social processes that perpetuate or challenge various forms of inequity along axes of gender, race, social class, and nationality in multilingual contexts shaped by immigration. In the past decade, he has been particularly interested in the ways in which language practices in everyday interactions of multilingual families are shaped by broader social, cultural, economic, and political processes.
Dr. Kendall King, University of Minnesota, USA
Kendall A. King (PhD, University of Pennsylvania) is Professor of Multilingual Education at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches and researches in the areas of sociolinguistics and language policy, with an emphasis on heritage language students and family language policy. Her recent work attempts to support family multilingualism through providing greater equity and access to state seals of biliteracy.
Dr. Leketi Makalela, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Leketi Makalela is a full professor and founding Director of the Hub for Multilingual Education and Literacies at the University of the Witwatersrand. He obtained his PhD from Michigan State University with combined specializations in linguistics, literacy and education. He is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at City University of New York. His research areas include translanguaging, multilingual education and literacies. He is a Brated researcher and a holder of the National Research Foundation SARCHi Chair on Advancing African Languages for Social Inclusion and Access. He pioneered a globally acclaimed theoretical model: “ubuntu translanguaging” and its pedagogical equivalent, “ubuntu translanguaging pedagogy” to normalize simultaneous learning and teaching in more than one language in complex multilingual education systems.
Dr. Yecid Ortega, Queen’s Belfast University, Northern Ireland
Yecid Ortega is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics & TESOL at Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland. He has vast international experience in language teacher education, decolonial and humanizing approaches to research as well as pluriversal applied linguistics. He currently explores alternative forms of research including but not limited to creative and critical methodologies to understand one’s place in the world.