Decolonizing bilingualism: Translanguaging in education

Talk by professor emerita Ofelia García (The Graduate Center City University of New York) in the Digital series of talks on plurilingualism and interculturality.

Generally, education is conducted in the dominant language of the nation-state, and when bilingual education exists, a language other than that of the nation-state is additionally used. But these efforts rely on colonial understandings of language, race and gender that have produced the inequities in education that continue to create differences and oppress many. The concept of translanguaging is here offered as a way to decolonize these understandings and how to then educate in ways that start with the linguistic, cultural, and knowledge production practices of racialized bilingual/multilingual students.  

Ofelia García has kindly given permission to record her presentation: