Khawla M Badwan | Manchester Metropolitan University (original) (raw)

Papers by Khawla M Badwan

Multilingualism and Multimodality: Working at the Intersections. Bristol: Multilingual Matters., 2023

The questions, debates, and arguments that this book presents respond to a range of contemporary ... more The questions, debates, and arguments that this book presents respond to a range of contemporary ontological and epistemological challenges in the fields of literacy studies, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics and education. These fields, among many other social (sub-)disciplines, continue to grapple with the legacy of colonialism that has been crucial to sustaining narrow understandings and framings of what counts as 'language' and 'literacy' and who is seen as a 'knower', 'user' and 'speaker' within White epistemological frames that centre Whiteness as the normal way of being. Such frames, Budach tells us in this volume, inform the colonially entrenched values and discourses of state monolingualism that stubbornly control educational systems in ways that are restrictive and restricting. This book engages with De Sousa Santos' (2018, viii) call for changing the world 'while constantly reinterpreting it'. Throughout its different parts and chapters, the readers are reminded that through engaging with the world multilingually and multimodally, we stand a better chance of coming to grips with its infinite multiplicity of knowledges, while challenging, and moving beyond, universal claims, general theories and grand narratives. What the authors in this book tell us is that we need to labour together towards an expansive politics of knowledge about language and literacy in order to produce future goodness that embraces, fosters, and affirms different ways of meaningmaking, especially those ways that are otherwise deemed 'odd', 'irrelevant' or 'nothing' in oppressive homogenising educational structures. This book offers spotlights of liberation which are traceable and hopeful, yet messy, challenging, uncomfortable, and far from being straightforward. What the authors in this book show us is that it is possible to claim language and literacy back, liberating it from its self-claimed masters who for a very long time have continued to guard against change under ideological claims of protecting language and literacy 'standards' and ethical claims of giving marginalised people tools for 'social mobility' through insisting that their minoritised, racialised, substandard ways of speaking and meaning-making need fixing in the direction of the White speaker (Alim, 2019). This book turns these claims on their heads, rejecting a vision of language and literacy that can be separated from the world, with its complexity, diversity, mobility and multimodality.

Impact

This article reports on a project that engages primary-school children in climate change educatio... more This article reports on a project that engages primary-school children in climate change education through various activities rooted in the practice of listening differently to different types of voice. These engagements place children's experiences and embodiment at the heart of education research and practice. We reflect on the importance of moving beyond the 'learn-now-act-later' approach (Waldron, et al, 2019) to draw on the untapped capacity of children 'to collectively envision a better future' (Kagawa and Selby 2010, 5). We discuss the envisioning of the school-what it means and how it matters. The article sketches out a vision that entails opening up the curriculum as an expanding spiral beyond the classroom.

Intercultural Pedagogies for Higher Education in Conditions of Conflict and Crises: Culture, Identity, Language, 2023

In this chapter, I present a pedagogical approach that demonstrates the potential for embracing v... more In this chapter, I present a pedagogical approach that demonstrates the potential for embracing vulnerability as a critical intercultural pedagogy, inspired by feminist and post-humanist thinking. I start by discussing my positionality as an educator from the Global South teaching about language, culture and communication to a diverse student population situated in the Global North. After that, I introduce three types of vulnerability: individual, collective and disciplinary. Individual vulnerability stems from the need to unthink mastery (Singh, 2018) in order to decreate the self (Weil, 2002) and challenge binaries and hierarchical orderings upon which Western knowledge is constructed (Foucault, 1980, 1984). Collective vulnerability highlights the inevitable dependence on one another and on everything around us (Butler, 2004). As a pedagogical approach, it critiques, and responds to, notions such as competence, mastery and confidence in our cultural knowledge and worldviews. It enables new ways for unlearning essentialism and easy fixes in order to embrace

Springer eBooks, 2021

This chapter discusses language in relation to mobility. It puzzles about how we can talk about w... more This chapter discusses language in relation to mobility. It puzzles about how we can talk about what happens to language when individuals move across time and space in an age of globalisation. Some of the earlier attempts of discussing semiotic mobility in relation to language and globalisation come from (Blommaert in The sociolinguistics of globalization, Cambridge University Press, 2010) where he emphasises the usefulness of sociolinguistic scales. In response to this (Canagarajah in Translingual practice: Global Englishes and cosmopolitan relations, Routledge, 2013), argues against the rigid nature of scale theorisation by opening conceptual doors for individual agency. Badwan’s research with mobile languaging subjects (Badwan in Negotiating rates of exchange: Arab academic sojourners’ sociolinguistic trajectories in the UK, PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 2015; Badwan and Simpson in Applied Linguistic Review, 2019) presents an ecological orientation to theorising semiotic mobility. This chapter presents these different views on language and mobility and what they could possibly mean for the mobile languaging subjects.

In this chapter, I present research findings from a study on university lecturers' views towards ... more In this chapter, I present research findings from a study on university lecturers' views towards English as a medium of instruction in a public university in Tunisia. Through semi-structured interviews with four university lecturers, this chapter highlights the tensions between the global status of English and the local requirements that reinforce the status of French in the Tunisian job market. Furthermore, the study finds that the lack of a coherent educational language policy can produce sentiments of professional anxiety among university lecturers who are concerned about the delivery of equitable education that prepares students for employment. The chapter concludes with recommendations for policy makers on the importance of developing a language policy in consultation with different stakeholders, including employers. It also emphasises the need to consider issues of language access, inequalities and epistemic injustice as part of any national efforts to develop educational language policies.

Springer eBooks, 2021

This chapter explores an exciting marriage between applied linguistics and social geography. Rese... more This chapter explores an exciting marriage between applied linguistics and social geography. Researchers in social geography have explored the relationship between space, place, people and time in an age of globalisation (Massey in For space, Sage, 2005). This discussion was further extended in sociolinguistics with studies raising questions on the relationship between language and place, the role of language in the carvings of (un)belonging, and the continuous debates on linguistic rights and symbolic violence. This chapter discusses notions such as ‘place’, ‘spatiality’, ‘hospitality’, ‘foster-ship’, and ‘(un)mooring’ and how they feed into wider discussions about the links between language, identity and place in contexts described as ‘diverse’, ‘super-diverse’ or ‘hyper-diverse’.

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Jan 2, 2020

Routledge eBooks, May 16, 2022

Kingdom. She is Research Consultant for the British Council in Tunisia, researching the project r... more Kingdom. She is Research Consultant for the British Council in Tunisia, researching the project reported on here. Khawla holds a Doctorate in Education from the University of Leeds. She previously conducted research funded by the UK Council for International Students' Affairs (UKCISA) and won the Paul Wembley Award for Innovation in International Education 2017. She is currently authoring a book entitled Language in a globalised world: Perspectives on mobility and contact to be published by Palgrave Macmillan. Her research interests cover sociolinguistics of globalisation, language and place, language policy, language motivation and intercultural communication.

Discourse & Society, Aug 1, 2018

The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been gi... more The candidate confirms that the work submitted is her own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference has been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement.

International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Apr 12, 2022

Springer eBooks, 2021

This chapter engages with the question, ‘who are we in an age of globalisation and mobility?’. To... more This chapter engages with the question, ‘who are we in an age of globalisation and mobility?’. To answer this question, the chapter discusses identity at an individual level before discussing place identity in contexts of linguistic and ethnic diversity. The chapter highlights identity struggles, feeling strange and being in-between in the face of socially desired moulds established through normalising discourses. In addition, it addresses how languaging enables and inhibits identity subjectivities mediated through power structures and emotions. It also problematises the ‘city’ as a site for linguistic diversity and argues for the importance of researching different levels of granularity (Schneider, 2020) in order inform narratives about place identity, as well as narratives about those who inhabit a certain place.

Springer eBooks, 2021

This chapter introduces and discusses language as a concern for social justice. It starts by outl... more This chapter introduces and discusses language as a concern for social justice. It starts by outlining different approaches to social justice, and how these approaches inform language education in different and contradictory ways. After that, it addresses the inseparability of language from all the protected characteristics in the UK anti-discrimination law (The Equality Act 2010), arguing for the need to protect language from oppressive and discriminatory practices and ideologies. The chapter moves on to present a roadmap for language advocacy based on awareness, solidarity and activism before it ends with a problematisation of ‘grievable’ language and strategic essentialism.

Mobilities, Oct 30, 2020

Mobility in the context of higher education is often privileged to large(r)scale international mo... more Mobility in the context of higher education is often privileged to large(r)scale international movements, neglecting the everyday mobilities practiced by students. This is important, as banal mobilities constitute important affective experiences for students. In responding to calls for a microbodily mobilities approach to student geographies in the UK, we draw on semi-structured interviews conducted with university students aged 18-25 studying in Greater Manchester. Through discussing the complex, multilayered everyday walking mobilities of students, we illuminate how embodied, emotional and affective walking mobility practices shape students' experiences and identities. Findings show that, for students in our study, moorings are often as important as mobilities to identity formation, and place attachment. Bringing to the fore the embodied, emotional and affective nature of student micro-mobilities is necessary, since various forms of movement and stillness are important to student wellbeing, enabling students to have space and time to think, reflect, and form attachments and belonging with people and spaces. This paper has implications for higher education and urban designers. We contend that it is crucial to draw attention to students' experiences of walking and sitting in the city, which significantly contribute to constructing sense of place and belonging to the university city.

Multilingual Matters eBooks, Dec 31, 2023

Routledge eBooks, Mar 22, 2023

Language in a Globalised World, 2021

This chapter offers some reflections on my experience of teaching Language in a Globalised World,... more This chapter offers some reflections on my experience of teaching Language in a Globalised World, a taught postgraduate module. The chapter starts by discussing my own wonderments about my role as a language educator and presents some critical moments in my professional language teaching career that have led me to do things differently. After that, the chapter addresses two types of vulnerabilities in the context of teaching about language: personal and collective. These vulnerabilities, coupled with a pedagogy of shaking the confidence and challenging notions of mastery, have produced creative de-colonised epistemologies that have taken my students and me on an unpredictable journey towards resilient and hopeful entanglements.

This research project investigated how international students are affected by UK higher education... more This research project investigated how international students are affected by UK higher education online marketing strategies and the extent to which such strategies shape students’ expectations of life in the UK. The study first analysed the marketing discourses used by three UK higher education (HE) institutions in one of the main UK super-diverse cities. Next, it featured student voice through individual and group interviews to explore whether or not students’ expectations of life in the UK match their lived experiences and the implications of any mismatches on their overall student experience. This research aimed to provide useful information about transparent student recruitment which has the potential to affect marketing and recruitment strategies in the sector.

Discourse & Society, 2018

Multilingualism and Multimodality: Working at the Intersections. Bristol: Multilingual Matters., 2023

Impact

Intercultural Pedagogies for Higher Education in Conditions of Conflict and Crises: Culture, Identity, Language, 2023

Springer eBooks, 2021

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Jan 2, 2020

Routledge eBooks, May 16, 2022

Discourse & Society, Aug 1, 2018

International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Apr 12, 2022

Springer eBooks, 2021

Mobilities, Oct 30, 2020

Multilingual Matters eBooks, Dec 31, 2023

Routledge eBooks, Mar 22, 2023

Language in a Globalised World, 2021

Discourse & Society, 2018

Framing the Issue Employing effective classroom strategies has been one of the main goals underpi... more Framing the Issue Employing effective classroom strategies has been one of the main goals underpinning the different language-teaching methods, approaches, and pedagogies since the 1940s. The notion of effectiveness has been strongly linked with the different views of what language is, how teaching should be done, who is a good teacher/ learner, what roles should teachers and learners have in the classroom, and what the relationship between the classroom and the outside world should be (in other words, what the purpose of classroom instruction should be). In addition, the " effectiveness " of classroom strategies can be measured against a long list of factors depending on how the purpose of classroom instruction is perceived by the different educational stakeholders (teachers, parents, educationalists, students, etc.). As a result, the effectiveness of classroom strategies can be measured, among many other factors, against whether or not (a) they allow the students to achieve highly on summative assignments, (b) they develop important skills that students will need to use in out-of-class settings, and (c) they make the students enjoy the process of learning and therefore become key developing practitioners of learning (Allwright & Hanks, 2009). On the other hand, language teachers continue to aspire to employ what they would refer to as " effective classroom strategies, " but are more likely to be faced with differing perspectives regarding whether or not what they do is effective. This entry traces the historical development of classroom practices as shaped by the different teaching pedagogies, then offers some insights into what can be seen as effective, flexible, and inclusive classroom strategies without aiming to present an exhaustive list or an immediate recipe.

This is a book about mobility, roots, and identities while struggling to go 'home' or go 'free' i... more This is a book about mobility, roots, and identities while struggling to go 'home' or go 'free' in an increasingly globalised world. It is based on a project in Canada which investigates the lived experiences and personal trajectories of franco-mobile workers. The project, interestingly, considers both mobility across time and across space to construct an understanding of the challenges faced by francophone Canadian mobile workers who try to sustain a sense of a nation, belonging, and continuous cultural histories while trying to catch up with the impacts of globalisation and neoliberalism on the global and local economies of which they are part. The book aims to construct a discourse of 'roots and routes', 'mobilities and moorings' to discuss how a nation can be reimagined at times when rooted communities are no longer sustainable. In particular, it looks at how language in mobile Canadian francophone communities continues to be a marker for belonging as well as a commodity which, on its own, does not facilitate social mobility for uneducated francophone workers who typically have to mobilise digging more sites in the extraction industry. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize that late capitalism and the unprecedented scale of global mobility and migration have prevented the construction of a homogenous society with monolingual ideologies and a standard language, which significantly disturbs and challenges the canonical image of a nation. Still, the authors maintain that the concept of a 'nation' as the 'usual' way to organise and describe ourselves is unlikely to disappear because many individuals will continue to create bridges as they move back and forth. The book discusses the historical status of English and French in Canada and how under changes in colonial conditions in 1755 Britain demanded allegiance to the crown. Failing to achieve this, many French settlers were deported while others took shelter in certain parts of Canada. Such political tensions rendered the French language as problematic. This affected the lives of francophone Canadians who initially continued to gather in certain cities and worked mainly in the extraction industry, digging natural resources. Such job profiles affected francophone workers in two ways: a) they were expected to be always on the move and b) they were less educated and mainly monolingual as their jobs did not require educational qualifications. However, with the rise of knowledge and service industry and the introduction of new bureaucratic procedures for applying for jobs via online applications and written resumes outlining skills and qualifications, many monolingual francophone workers have been left at disadvantage because they lacked major human resources such as English language and IT skills. As a result, many were driven to look for less demanding jobs in places afar, receive new training, or wait for government initiatives to keep them locally. This created tensions between what it means to be a francophone Canadian rooted in a land (if at all possible) and a flexible worker released from ties to land and nation. In response to these changing conditions, two types of francophone mobile workers emerged: resource extraction workers on whom English was imposed and who did not seem to have much to say about linguistic identity and cultural entrepreneurs who had more to say about nationalist understanding of linguistic identity. The authors, then, move to link these two types with class positions arguing that francophones elites have benefitted from sustaining nationalism to preserve their status in francophone communities. However, the rise of cosmopolitan bilingual francophones and the commodification of 'French-ness' have destabilised what it means to be a 'francophone'. This was further complicated by the arrival of immigrants and their families filling service sector jobs. The discussion presented throughout the book offers an understanding of how nations are relationally constructed among stakeholders in processes strongly tied to economic changes, class dynamics, mobility and immobility as well as the potential to have forms of symbolic capital convertible to

Teaching in Higher Education, 2022

Higher education's 'Language Problem' Globalisation, for which language is a pivotal instrument, ... more Higher education's 'Language Problem' Globalisation, for which language is a pivotal instrument, is defined by Giddens (1990) as the 'intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities' (64). Though it is a contested terrain, of globalisationsfrom above and from below (Torres 2009), there are both negative and positive effects on any society. The globalisation of higher education has elevated the international status of colonial languages, such as English, to the status of a global academic lingua franca, with universities today both collaborating and competing on a worldwide scale in the pursuit of knowledge production. In many international contexts, English has emerged as the language of choice for those undertaking and offering university education, and, subsequently, has become not only a valuable commodity in the global economy (O'Regan 2021), but also a language associated with reproducing certain epistemological stances and worldviews (Santos 2014). The imposition of a powerful language as a medium of instruction is far from a 'neutral' pedagogical decision. Rather, it is a profoundly political and cultural dilemma for people who are compelled to learn it and use it for teaching within higher education. Its imposition can also elicit sentiments of cultural erasure, occupation, and identity loss (Skuttnabb-Kangas et al. 2009), and lead to linguistic and cultural displacements (Phillipson 2017). Language, therefore, carries much more than communicative value. It creates mechanisms of symbolic power (see Badwan 2020), and can act as a tool for symbolic violence (Bourdieu 1991). This brings to the fore what we refer to in this editorial as higher education's 'Language Problem'.