Page 13 - Linguistically Diverse Educational Contexts

reflection, and equality-oriented, inclusive education, and which moves away from monolingual and monocultural curricula towards socially oriented, plurilingual educational programmes. This is a form of language pedagogy understood as a practical, socially engaged educational discourse and action, transdisciplinary in nature, which is embedded in educational linguistics and critical pedagogy since this approach supports and develops language education and learning in ways that promote social justice (Graham, 2012).
In Chapter 4 I address issues of curriculum design. I have first-hand experience of this: I have written and reviewed many educational materials in the field of language education, and I have had the opportunity to work with publishers such as Pearson and Macmillan as a materials writer. Therefore, I know how difficult it is to get well-known publishers to include materials with a critical pedagogy orientation in their regular publishing repertoire. Textbooks from well-known publishers tend to omit unpopular topics, for example those concerning poverty or socially excluded groups. They do not use critical pedagogy as a tool in language education4 to promote social justice and inclusive education. For me personally, the most important issue in education is to give voice to learners and to include everyone in the process.
My research is grounded in the social sciences and humanities. I want to understand what role language plays in society and in education, what impact language education in its broadest sense has on those who participate in it. My starting point is social responsibility as a fundamental component of school curricula and building a culture of learning.
The thorough analysis of the literature on the subject conducted by me and the findings of my research bring new knowledge concerning broadly understood language education in Poland, showing it through the prism of the concept of language pedagogy enriched with the perspective of critical pedagogy and educational linguistics. They show the multidimensionality of the concept, combining the areas of plurilingualism, translingualism, (critical) pluriliteracies, and intercultural competences, together with multimodal and plurilingual practices used in the co-design of educational programmes. Such a perspective could contribute to the development of practical and critical wisdom and being reflective. It could also be a response to the challenges of the teaching and learning processes of foreign/second languages that arise from cultural and linguistic diversity in today's world.
The above theoretical considerations motivated me to create a language course/student manual for English language learning entitled Inclusive, Plurilingual and Pluricultural Learning Environment for English Language Learning5 published by the Lower Silesia University Press6. The course is based on scientific evidence and pedagogical reflection on language learning designs. The course aims to move
4 Crookes, 2010, pp. 333–348
5The course is available athttps://rozwoj.dsw.edu.pl/?page_id=802
6 The course was created as part of the project "Accessible University. Studying? No obstacles! A university friendly to people with disabilities". It complies with WCAG 2.1 standards and can be used by students with disabilities.
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