The languages challenge: ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion for languages in schools

What do languages have to do with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion? Just about everything – from how our international schools view and handle linguistic diversity, to how multilingual learners (and staff) are included or excluded from learning.

What does it mean, and what does it look, feel and sound like, to truly embrace linguistic diversity as a beneficial influence for all staff and students in international schools?

Participants will leave the session with a renewed understanding of how languages relate to diversity, equity, and inclusion in international schools, with an understanding of the key evidence base that relates to our approaches to languages, and with a clear understanding of how to move forward in auditing their school’s approached to language through a DEI lens.

About the presenter

Eowyn Crisfield, BEd TESL/MA Applied Linguistics, is a Senior Lecturer in English Language and TESOL at Oxford Brookes University and a Canadian-educated specialist in languages across the curriculum, including EAL, home languages, bilingual and immersion education, super-diverse schools and translanguaging.

Her focus is on equal access to learning and language development for all students and on enhancing approaches to linguistic diversity in schools. She is author of the recent book ‘Bilingual Families: A practical language planning guide (2021) and co-author of “Linguistic and Cultural Innovation in Schools: The Languages Challenge” (2018 with Jane Spiro). 

For: Senior leaders, senior leadership teams, school owners