Dr. Vander Tavares, Associate Professor at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, is editor of the latest publication of Critical Perspectives on Diversity in English Language Education (ELT). This scholarly discourse arrives as a timely volume, standing out amid ongoing critical policies and intense debates over the present state and future trajectory of higher education. This collection of global perspectives brings together work by established and emerging scholars in ELT who investigate diversity-related issues.
This book critically examines contemporary understandings of long-standing discourses that confront ideologies reproducing inequality and systemic biases within diversity framings. Even though liberal policies and ideologies promote care and plurality, there are still practices, systems, and institutions that disproportionately discourage full participation from multilingual students and faculty in higher education (Kang et al., 2026). The studies in this book are especially timely in the wake of current challenges in the U.S. educational system. It employs a range of methodologies and approaches to diversity-related issues in ELT, including teacher identity, policymaking, and material design. Moreover, this book engages in discourse on the impacts of generative AI on ELT and on how diversity is missing or reimagined in traditional English-language areas such as ESL/EFL, English as a lingua franca, and TESOL. My advisor, classmates, and I collaborated on a chapter titled “Multilinguals As Legitimate Citizens in U.S. Higher Education: Collaborative Autoethnography.” As a researcher and participant in this study, I am pleased to provide a brief synopsis of the study, its findings, and implications.
Illinois Associate Professor of Education and Center for Global Studies Advisory Board Member Dr. Hyun-Sook Kang and colleagues produced a collaborative autoethnography to explore how multilingual students and faculty perceive the role of English in enabling or constraining academic mobility. In addition, we investigate the language practices and strategies adopted to participate in academic and social spaces at an internationalized university. Drawing on the theory of linguistic citizenship, our work demonstrates that the experiences of multilingual graduate students and faculty extend beyond proficiency and assimilation attempts. Rather than treating multilingualism as a metric of language ability, they reconceptualize it as continuous negotiations for participation in scholarly discourse and for affirming agency, voice, and identity. Linguistic citizenship shifts the focus from skill to right (Stroud & Kerfoot, 2020) - the right to participate in society through one’s own linguistic repertoire. Consequently, we can begin to address institutional accountability, questioning the level of support provided to facilitate meaningful participation.
Through collaborative autoethnography, we utilized our personal reflections, thoughts, and experiences as primary data, demonstrating how researchers can reclaim intellectual authority during the research process. This empowering method integrates autobiography, collaboration, and ethnography, leveraging personal life stories to explore broader social phenomena. Within this framework, linguistic diversity encompasses not just multilingual individuals, but also:
- those from regions where English is less common,
- dialectally and ethnically diverse domestic students, and
- faculty members whose native language is not English.
These multi-layered forms of diversity highlight the complex nature of language variation and reveal how shared academic environments often fail to fully include diverse, multilingual speakers. Addressing this issue is critical, as participation remains restricted by rigid, Eurocentric, and unfair standards defining legitimate English usage. The strategies and practices discussed in the chapter are relatable to academics in the field and offer a glimpse into how each person exercised their agency and voice in their journey.
These findings highlight the need for shifts in institutional and pedagogical strategies to develop truly inclusive academic communities (Kang et al., 2026). As participants in these academic environments, we must recognize and encourage the acknowledgment that diverse linguistic backgrounds are valuable assets in higher education and language acquisition. By framing linguistic legitimacy in postsecondary environments, our work emphasizes that language must be understood more broadly as a form of social and emotional capital and a form of status. Our use of language is inherently non-neutral; everything from a speaker’s accent to when they use their linguistic skills carries connotations linked to their identity.
Examining the specific ways scholars navigate these deep-rooted standards remains crucial for enhancing institutional support for multilingual faculty and students. Ultimately, this chapter provides a balanced assessment of both the obstacles we faced and the strategies we developed to thrive and advance within an internationalized educational landscape.
Read more on Springer Nature Link. University login is required; please email: carruth3@illinois.edu to request a PDF version of the full chapter.
References
Kang, H.-S., Broscritto, E., Carruth, J., Jangjou, P., & Xu, C. S. (2026). Multilinguals as legitimate citizens in U.S. higher education: Collaborative autoethnography. In V. Tavares (Ed.), Critical perspectives on diversity in English language education (pp. 253–276). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-11430-3
Stroud, C.. (2018). Linguistic Citizenship as Utopia. Multilingual Margins: A journal of multilingualism from the periphery. 2. 22. 10.14426/mm.v2i2.70.
Tavares, V. (2026). Who is “diverse” and what is “diversity” in English language education? In V. Tavares (Ed.), Critical perspectives on diversity in English language education (pp. 1–38). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-11430-3_1
