Reader in Critical Applied Linguistics, Manchester Metropolitan University. Editor @CritStudsEd. Leverhulme Prize 2026-2029.
Manchester, UK
Joined November 2015
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tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…
An oracy framework for England’s schools: linguistic justice edition
Open access and out now in Educational Review
what a diverse bunch! 🫣
I'm not particularly exercised about Alpha School one way or the other, and I don't know the work of all of them, but there are very few on this team that I'd feel comfortable as an advocate for the effective use of inquiry. But there are several who actively advocate against it.
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Ian Cushing retweeted
this article is dedicated to all those pre-service and early career teachers who have been told or felt under pressure to change, monitor, or completely abandon their natural accents and other ways of using perfectly legitimate language 💕 doi.org/10.1080/01425692.202…
Ian Cushing retweeted
In my new open access article on the concept of linguistic justice, I argue that we have a lot to learn from the history of social justice and the many different ways it has been defined.
doi.org/10.1177/146879682615…
ALT The left side of the article contains a screen cap for an article titled "What can linguistic justice researchers and practitioners learn from more than a century of social justice debates?" On the top right of the image is a QR code, and below that is the logo for the journal Ethnicities.
i spent the last 12 months doing prep work, reading, developing partnerships with schools, and writing ethics - and tomorrow my @LeverhulmeTrust grant officially begins. 3 years focused work on institutional linguistic justice in schools in England and the US 🌸
i am still in shock but I have won a Philip Leverhulme Prize. starting in autumn 2026 for 3 years, i’ll be looking at linguistic justice in schools, particularly in how children and teachers engage in radical, grassroots activism for structural change. 🌸 leverhulme.ac.uk/news/2025PL…
if you are interested in debates about oracy which move beyond whether schools should correct non-standard spoken grammar or not (they shouldn’t) and you want to connect oracy to linguistic justice and interconnected social justice efforts then see here 🌸doi.org/10.1080/00131911.202…
Ian Cushing retweeted
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…
An oracy framework for England’s schools: linguistic justice edition
Open access and out now in Educational Review
beyond the obvious pedagogical flaws with teaching scripts, remember that they are generally produced by transnational corporations who generate serious economic profit for themselves by (wrongly) convincing teachers that scripts make teaching more equitable and efficient.
Actors use scripts. Musicians use sheet music. Surgeons follow established procedures.
Why are scripts for teachers treated as an affront to professionalism?
@ehanford explains why Direct Instruction uses them.
Ian Cushing retweeted
As someone who is undertaking a dissertation at Masters level on the effects of translanguaging in placed based enquiry I cannot stress the importance of reading this if you’re interested in oracy in education. #geographyteacher
schools giving increased attention to language sounds good but it comes with many risks - the most obvious being the further entrenchment of deficit thinking. me and @choudrey_s anticipate this and how to resist it in our linguistic justice oracy framework doi.org/10.1080/00131911.202…
Ian Cushing retweeted
#TeamEnglish really worth the readcans reflection.
schools giving increased attention to language sounds good but it comes with many risks - the most obvious being the further entrenchment of deficit thinking. me and @choudrey_s anticipate this and how to resist it in our linguistic justice oracy framework doi.org/10.1080/00131911.202…
schools giving increased attention to language sounds good but it comes with many risks - the most obvious being the further entrenchment of deficit thinking. me and @choudrey_s anticipate this and how to resist it in our linguistic justice oracy framework doi.org/10.1080/00131911.202…
“With AI on the rise, we need to go harder on the skills that makes us human, like oracy.
That ability to articulate yourself confidently is central to success in work and life, but for too long it’s been a marker of privilege.
Now it will become the right of every child.”
Read more 👇
thetimes.com/uk/politics/art…
Ian Cushing retweeted
New: new book lifts lid on children’s “strict school” experiences
educationuncovered.co.uk/new…
Interviews set out alleged impact of behaviour management policies at Athena Learning Trust and the Ted Wragg trust.
Ian Cushing retweeted
Another way to kill a language, that you didn't mention in your book: get Gove to create the Year 6 language curriculum, where he'll stuff it full of decontextualised 'grammar', and use that as a metric for 'expected levels of writing', divorced from meaning, effect, audience
wow - thank you so much for shouting out How To Kill A Language @campbellclaret!! And how nice to hear @michaelgove defending the UK’s language diversity.
I’m on a mission to raise awareness about linguicide - to get the word on the UK’s number 1 podcast is… 🥹
i am working on some transcript data of a teacher telling children that they must 'speak in full sentences' in which he pauses, coughs, says errm a lot, repeats words, apologises, gets confused, is confusing, and my god how is this idea of 'speak in full sentences' still alive 😵💫
Ian Cushing retweeted
The turnover for Ruth Miskin Literacy Limited (the company behind the popular Read Write Inc. phonics programme) was £13.3 million for the financial year ending 31 March 2025.
if Tom Bennett’s classist and essentialist views on families living in poverty surprises you, then you haven’t been paying attention for the last decade. but remember the guy isn’t an aberration. he’s a mouthpiece for how bipartisan governments view and treat working class life.
Ian Cushing retweeted
Who is the ‘we’ that considers ‘lower levels’ of behavioural socialisation associated with ‘poverty’? This risks reproduction of classist, deficit framing where the problem is located in those experiencing ‘poverty’ rather than the conditions that produce and sustain poverty?
Always great analysis from Andrew, who appears to be one of the very few who bother to do so. Exclusions overwhelmingly associated with relative poverty, not ethnicity.
This is particularly important when we consider what exclusions are based on: the behaviour of the student. Which makes sense, when we consider the lower levels of behavioural socialisation associated with circumstances of poverty.
Almost all important outcomes of children in school boil down to their exhibited behaviour: learning, safety, consequences etc. Therefore getting behaviour right is the first step to raising standards on every area.
celebrating linguistic plurality and diversity in schools is fine but that is limited and meaningless if it takes place without efforts for broader structural transformation. that is one of the core arguments we make here doi.org/10.1080/00131911.202…
Ian Cushing retweeted
New research of mine now published open access 🔓 in Critical Inquiry in Language Studies: 'Word rich or word poor? Deficit discourses, raciolinguistic ideologies and the resurgence of the ‘word gap’ in England’s education policy'. A short thread below 👇tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…
'Too many staff make errors in their standard spoken English when they teach. In some cases, this means that they model bad habits or teach incorrect grammar. Leaders should make sure that all staff, when they teach, use correct standard English'. (Ofsted 2019) 😶
A message from Sir Martyn Oliver, our Chief Inspector, this #NationalInclusionWeek 🌟
ALT True inclusion means asking whether every child – no matter their background and needs – feels like they can achieve, belong and thrive. I've long said that if you get it right for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable, you get it right for everyone. This idea is at the heart of Ofsted's work during National Inclusion Week and every other week of the year!
Ian Cushing retweeted
I invite you to imagine a Black or even Asian professor running a leftwing indoctrination compound in their home in Cambridge as 'alternative college', & then caught on camera offering to break law to funnel dodgy donations & rig a poll to fool the British media & voting public.