Language, Education and Transnationalism: An Introduction

Abstract

This special issue of Papers in Applied Linguistics brings together eight articles and an interview that provide a wide range of perspectives on the topic of transnationalism. Much research in applied linguistics highlights the growing importance of globalisation and transnational mobility, but often takes these processes and their effects to be self-evident and self-explanatory (BRIGGS; MCCORMICK & WAY, 2008). As such, this special issue addresses the ways in which transnational movements of populations, linguistic practices, ideology, knowledge and capital shape educational policies and practices related to language. It is concerned with migration, internationalisation of educational provision, student mobility, and global communications. The present text and the majority of the articles that follow are in English, yet each author is inevitably engaged in transidiomatic practices (JACQUEMET, 2005) through work that engages with variations, and mixes of, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Haitian Creole, amongst other linguistic forms. The authors also share a commitment to critical scholarship that promotes democratic schooling and society, questioning the commodification of education and reproduction of oppressive social relations by highlighting issues of power and ideology, including those involved in the geopolitics of north-south relations. Below, we provide some context on the two interrelated types of circulation that will be addressed in the subsequent papers: that of heterogeneous linguistic formations and that of culturally diverse populations. As guest editors, we write from, and into, contrasting locations within these global movements. Brazil is a country with small contemporary migratory movements, but a long and brutal