Tackling linguistic discrimination in higher education: a student-staff collaborative approach

Abstract

Abstract The field has long been committed to critically exploring the role of language in systemic inequality and social injustice. More recently, a growing body of research has explored these issues not just as ‘real-world’ problems but also as issues in Higher Education (HE). This article adds to this work by introducing a staff–student collaborative model which is designed to tackle linguistic discrimination in HE. The approach, which we have implemented at the University of Edinburgh, engages student societies that campaign for the rights of working-class and state-educated students as language activists. We provide an overview of our strategy focussing on three main activities: (1) student-led campaigns that combine lived experiences with academic research, (2) two large-scale events that bring together researchers, students, and stakeholders, and (3) continuing professional development courses that provide explicit training in identifying and tackling linguistic discrimination in the classroom. Through this discussion, we demonstrate that a collaborative enterprise between staff and students committed to addressing structural and social inequality can be a transformational force in addressing linguistic discrimination in HE.