Erina Iwasaki holds a PhD in International and Comparative Education with a specialization in Philosophy from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, U.S. She was Lecturer in the same program in 2022-23, and is currently consulting in international education and working in a post-doctoral position at the University of Notre Dame.

Erina’s dissertation research (2022) examined the role of key advocates in language-in-education policy change in Senegal. She is interested in the efforts of ethnolinguistically non-dominant communities to advocate and implement education in their own languages. She has extensive work and research experience in Senegal and Myanmar.

Recent publications:

Iwasaki, I. (forthcoming). Senegal’s national bilingual education policy: Tthe role of Senegalese militant.e.s of national languages. In Kosonen, K. & Benson, C. (Eds.),Including Non-Dominant Languages in Educational Policy Change: Key Actors and Agency. Multilingual Matters.

Wong, K., Iwasaki, E., Benson, C. & Lhagyal, D. (2023). Decolonizing research findings in multilingual education: Using multilingual (re)sources to develop a database for international research. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2023.2168514

Williams, J. & Iwasaki, E. (2022). Reframing policy and practice: Languages in education as resources for peace in Myanmar. In Wong, M. (eds.), Teaching for Peace and Social Justice in Myanmar: Identity, Agency, and Critical Pedagogy, 117-133. Bloomsbury.

Professor Mbacké Diagne holds a PhD in Language, Literature and Societies from INALCO, Paris. He is Research Director of the Laboratory of English and African Linguistics and Grammar (LiGaa) and Researcher in Applied Linguistics at the Center for Applied Linguistics (CLAD) at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal.

As a specialist in bilingual education, Mbacké has trained bilingual teachers in using Senegalese languages. He currently serves as Inspector General of National Languages at the Senegalese Ministry of Education, working with the government to define a national policy for the advancement of national languages in adult literacy and formal primary education.

Recent publications:

Diagne, M. (2022). The FCFA currency: An eminently linguistic issue. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Studies, 4(1), 1-8.

Goudiaby, A. & Diagne, M. (2020). Expression de la couleur et degré de codabilité dans deux langues du Senegal : le wolof et gujɐɐhɐr (parler nyun). Revue Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée, de Littérature et d’Education 3(3), 51-68.

Kimmo Kosonen holds a PhD in Education from the University of Joensuu, Finland. He is Senior Literacy and Education Consultant for SIL International and a Lecturer at Payap University, Chiang Mai, Thailand. He is also a member of the UNESCO Bangkok MLE Working Group.

Kimmo’s research interests include language-in-education policy, local language development, and MLE in non-dominant languages.

Recent publications:

Kosonen, K. & Benson, C. (2021). Bringing non-dominant languages into education systems: Change from above, from below, from the side—or a combination?. In Benson, C. & Kosonen, K. (Eds.), Language Issues in Comparative Education II, pp. 25-56) Brill.

Kosonen, K. & Person, K. (2021). Language policy and planning in mainland Southeast Asia. In Sidwell, P., & Jenny, M. (Eds.), The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia: A Comprehensive Guide (Vol. 8), pp. 907-926. De Gruyter Mouton.

Xolisa Guzula holds a PhD in Multilingual and Multiliteracies Education from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. She is Senior Lecturer in Multilingual and Multiliteracies Education at UCT.

Xoli is an early literacy specialist with interests in biliteracy development, emergent literacy, bi/multilingual education, language and literacy as social practice, multi-literacies and multi-modality, third spaces and bilingual children's literature.

Xoli is an experienced teacher trainer in early literacy, biliteracy and community literacy training. She is a storyteller, author and translator of children's literature into ixiXhosa. She is a co-founder of a network of community literacy clubs emerging across South Africa.

Recent publications:

Guzula, X. (2022). De/coloniality in South African language in education policy: Resisting the marginalisation of African language speaking children. In C. McKinney and P. Christie (Eds), Decoloniality, Language and Literacy: Conversations with Teacher Educators. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Guzula, X. (2019). Moving beyond artificial linguistic binaries in the education of African Language speaking children: A case for simultaneous biliteracy development. Special Issue of Perspectives in Education, 36 (2), 1-14.

Kevin Wong holds a PhD in Teaching and Learning from New York University, U.S. Kevin is Assistant Professor of Education and Chair of the MA in TESOL Program at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, U.S.

Kevin draws from his biracial, multilingual upbringing in Hong Kong to examine language learning among children, with a particular interest in new language learning and heritage language maintenance. As a former public elementary school teacher, he is committed to educational equity for linguistically and culturally diverse students worldwide.

Recent publications:

Wong, K. M., Iwasaki, E., Benson, C. & Lhagyal, D. (2023). Decolonizing research findings in multilingual education: Using multilingual (re)sources to develop a database for international research. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2023.2168514

Wong, K. M. & Tian, Z. (2022). Chinese-English dual language bilingual education in the United States 美国中英双语沉浸式教学. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 43(6), 477-486.

Wong, K. M. & Benson, C. (2019). Policy and practice in L1-based multilingual education: Challenges and steps forward. FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education, 5(3), 1-11.

Maria Mercedes (Ched) Arzadon holds a PhD in Anthropology and Sociology of Education from the University of the Philippines, where she is a faculty member at the College of Education. Her dissertation (2021) was an ethnography of storybook making for L1-Based Multilingual Education (MLE) in an Indigenous community.

Ched has led MLE teacher training, materials production, and policy development. Recently, she led the drafting of the MLE Operations Manual for the Philippines Department of Education. She manages a blogsite and social media pages for her advocacies.

Selected publications:

Arzadon, M. & Colicol, F. (forthcoming). Teacher professional agency and synergistic actions among top-side-bottom actors. In Kosonen, K. & Benson, C. (Eds.), Including Non-Dominant Languages in Educational Policy Change: Key Actors and Agency. Multilingual Matters.

Arzadon, M. (2021). Policy enactment in MTB-MLE big book making among teachers in Buguias, Benguet. Unpublished dissertation, University of the Philippines.

Arzadon, M., Igcalinos, A., Zubiri, L., Cortez, A., Awid, M. & Gumba, L. (2016). Regional Research on the Use of Language(s) in Classrooms in Ethnolinguistic Communities: Philippines. Research resport. UNESCO Bangkok.

Jessica Ball holds a PhD in Psychology and a Master of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley, U.S. She is Professor Emerita at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. She is Director of the Early Childhood Development Intercultural Partnerships Program (www.ecdip.org) and former Director of the First Nations Partnerships Program.

Jessica specializes in strategies that optimize the social determinants of wellness to support the best possible outcomes for children and families. Her scholarly expertise and professional experience includes situational analysis, needs assessment, program planning and evaluation of L1 based multilingual education initiatives around the world. For over three decades she has supported efforts to strengthen endangered Indigenous languages through parent involvement and teacher education.

Recent publications:

Ball, J., & Smith, M. (2023). A more-than-language approach to inclusion of Indigenous children in education: reflections on Cambodia’s Multilingual Education Plan. Journal on the Role of Language in Education. https://doi.org/10.36534/erlj.2022.02.01 www.ecdip.org/resources/

Ball, J., & Smith, M. (2021). Essential components of multilingual education implementation: A case study of Cambodia’s Multilingual Education National Action Plan. Current Issues in Language Planning. DOI: 10.1080/144664208.2021.2-13060 www.ecdip.org/resources/

Naashia Mohamed is a Senior Lecturer of TESOL at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her teaching and research contribute to understanding how school and society can empower racially and linguistically marginalised children, youth, and families to achieve greater social equity.

Naashia’s research illustrates how home languages serve as powerful resources for students, helping them not only to attain academic success, but to promote second language and literacy development. Her publications critically analyse educational policies and practices in the Maldives and New Zealand contexts to promote those that validate multilingual learners' assets while building on their ethnolinguistic identities.

Recent publications:

Mohamed, N. (2024). Building positive identities in multilingual, multicultural spaces: One case study of an ECE setting in New Zealand. In Erlam, R. (Ed.), Teaching the Linguistically Diverse Learner in Aotearoa New Zealand. NZCER Press.

Mohamed, N. (2024). Building Global Englishes into a pre-service teacher education curriculum. In Selvi, A. F. & Kocaman, C. (Eds.), International Perspectives on Critical English Language Teacher Education: Theory and Practice. Bloomsbury.

Mohamed, N. (2024). Narratives of (un)belonging: Language management and identity negotiations in two immigrant families in New Zealand. In Dunmore, S., Rosiak, K., & Taylor, C. (Eds.), New Approaches to Language and Identity in Contexts of Migration and Diaspora. Routledge.

Lydiah Kiramba holds a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on bilingual education, linguistic diversity, second language acquisition, and teacher education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is an Associate Professor of Educational Linguistics in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Lydiah’s research in Kenya and the U.S. examines the communicative practices of multilingual, multicultural students in diverse classrooms, focusing on how students use their communicative repertoires in language and content learning contexts. She also explores the literacies of im/migrants and multilingual populations in K-12 classrooms. Her research sheds light on how multilingual/multicultural students use their funds of knowledge in the classroom, and how educators can leverage this knowledge to foster sustainable literacy development.

Selected publications: 

Kiramba, L.K., Deng, Q., Guo, X. Yunes-Koch, A., Viesca, K. (2023). Community language ideologies: Implications for language policy and practice. Linguistics and Education. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2023.101251

Kiramba, L. K. (2019). Heteroglossic practices in a multilingual science classroom. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(4), 445–458. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1267695

Kiramba, L. K. (2017). Multilingual literacies: Invisible representation of literacy in a rural classroom. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 61(3), 267–277. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.690

Kiramba, L. K. (2017). Translanguaging in the writing of emergent multilinguals. International Multilingual Research Journal, 11(2), 115–130. https://doi.org/10.1080/19313152.2016.1239457