Language, Culture and Curriculum

Linguistic racism and discrimination in higher education

Over the last decade or so, scholarly attention has increasingly turned to a (belated) exploration of linguistic racism and discrimination in higher education (HE) (Clement & Petray, 2021; May & Park, 2026). This work in turn is based on interdisciplinary understandings of linguistic variationism, language ideology, linguistic racism, critical race theory (CRT) and raciolinguistics, as well as the concept of racialized microaggressions from social psychology. 

Much of this work to date has been situated in English language dominant HE contexts, particularly North America, and focused on English language use, including dialectal and accent variation. However, there is an emergent focus on linguistic discrimination in relation to the use of the first languages of bi/multilingual students and faculty in these HE contexts, as well a similarly nascent expansion of work exploring linguistic discrimination in HE in non-English language contexts.

In combination, these contributions consistently highlight how monoglossic language policies, pedagogies, and assessment practices in HE entrench deficit perceptions of bi/multilingual faculty and students whose L1 is not the dominant language of instruction. These deficit conceptions are also often aligned/allied with both overt and covert racialized conceptions of bi/multilingual language use.

This special issue of LCC aims specifically to build on, an expand, this recent topic focus. We welcome contributions from any one (or combination) of the theoretical frameworks outlined above, with interdisciplinary and intersectional approaches especially welcome. Likewise, we encourage contributions from HE contexts internationally, with non-English language contexts particularly welcome. Methodologically, we are open to both large scale mixed methods approaches as well as smaller-scale critical and qualitative analyses of these phenomena. Topics of interest for this special issue include but are not restricted to:

• Experiences of linguistic racism and discrimination in HE by faculty and/or students

• Exclusionary monoglossic language policies, pedagogies, and practices in HE and their institutional effects

• Institutional responses to linguistic diversity and discrimination in HE, including heteroglossic counter examples

• HE Equity policies and strategies for combating linguistic discrimination and bias 

• Antiracist and inclusive pedagogies (which include language) within HE

• Plurlingual pedagogies and language policies in HE