We Are Because We Speak: Ubuntu and Mapping the First Decade of Language Issues SIG

• In Event: Languages and literacies: What lessons for theory and policy from practice?

Abstract

Overview and Objectives
This workshop provides interactive opportunities for dialogue about results from an ongoing research project (the LISIG study) mapping the first decade of scholarship and collaboration by the Language Issues SIG (LISIG). We explore how language issues are central to humanist education, and identify areas of convergence and divergence within language and education research.

Target Audience
All LISIG members and CIES conference participants who have interest in language issues and their role in humanist education are encouraged to attend.

Instructional Goals
The goals of the workshop are to: (I) share findings from the LISIG study; (II) receive workshop participant feedback on findings and anticipated next steps; (III) advance the CIES community’s imagination of the role of language in humanist education, and (IV) model CIES SIG self-study as a form of scholarly inquiry. It is a forum for participants to engage in discussions about the ways in which theoretical, thematic, methodological, and regional interests of CIES members shape the overall intellectual contours of the larger fields of CIE. It challenges CIES members to thoughtfully consider how their works contribute to the evolution and epistemological reconfigurations germane to continuity and change in CIES.

Planned Workshop Activities
Activity Part 1: Review of LISIG Study Findings (25 min)
Part 1 of the workshop will review LISIG study findings in four areas:

A. Analysis of Language and Education CIES presentations and papers (2003-2013)
B. Interviews with LISIG founders and long-time members
C. Survey of LISIG members
D. Analysis of Language and Education university courses and syllabi

Activity Part 2: Small Group Analyses (40 min)

In this part of the workshop we will break into four small groups, each reviewing and discussing one of the following:

1. Potential theoretical directions based on bibliographic and membership analysis above
2. Potential methodological directions based on bibliographic and membership analysis above
3. Potential thematic directions based on bibliographic and membership analysis above
4. Potential regional foci based on bibliographic and membership analysis above

Each group will review our materials and prepare a 5-minute presentation of reflections, critiques, extensions, questions, and reactions. Special consideration will be made for how language issues relate to and support the realization of humanist education.

Activity Part 3: Large Group Dialogue (25 min)

Our workshop will conclude by hearing from each of the four small groups above.

Significance of the LISIG 2014 Study to the Field of Comparative and International Education
This effort to reflect upon and map the geographies of our language research and collaboration experiences will enhance the comprehensiveness, effectiveness, diversity, and sustainability of the Comparative and Education Society (CIES). It will do this by providing a forum for dialogue on how CIES members can build on previous scholarship to promote new and long-term research agendas, improved opportunities for scholarship and professional development partnerships, deeper appreciation for the long and rich history of CIES scholarship, strengthened sense of CIES identity(ies), as well as the improved opportunities for mentorship and initiation support for novice educational researchers. It will also model to other SIGs the scholarly significance of investigating their histories and intellectual contours within CIES.

Authors

• Desmond Odugu, Lake Forest College

• Christopher Shephard, Insider Expeditions