Discourses, Practices, and Realities of Multilingualism in Higher Education
Bibliographic record
Abstract
This Perspectives article explores the changing sociolinguistic realities of Canadian postsecondary institutions focusing on tensions and contradictions around two prominent discourses: internationalization and indigenization of higher education. In doing so, we focus on a common challenge: English dominance in Canadian universities. This linguistic hegemony persists in a time of Truth and Reconciliation and indigenization of education as well as within the intensified discourse of internationalization in the new global political economy. As professors of language education in two prairie province universities, we draw on examples from our own contexts and consider the potential mismatches between positive discourses about multilingualism and practices and structural realities that do not support on-the-ground multilingualism. We situate our discussion within a larger social, political economic context of contemporary colonialism and capitalism. Our goal is to introduce a critique of the ongoing role Canadian universities play in producing settler colonialism and English monolingualism as well as to provide suggestions to engage more meaningfully with multilingualism in today’s higher education across Canada. Cet article de Perspectives explore l’évolution des réalités sociolinguistiques des établissements postsecondaires canadiens en mettant l’accent sur les tensions et les contradictions qui entourent deux discours très répandus : l’internationalisation et l’autochtonisation de l’enseignement supérieur. Dans ce cadre, nous nous concentrons sur un défi commun : la dominance de la langue anglaise dans les universités canadiennes. Cette hégémonie linguistique persiste à une époque caractérisée par des notions de Vérité et Réconciliation et d’autochtonisation de l’éducation, et elle s’inscrit également dans un discours intensifié d’internationalisation au sein de la nouvelle économie politique mondiale. Professeures de langues dans deux universités différentes des Prairies canadiennes, nous nous appuyons sur des exemples tirés de nos propres contextes et nous penchons sur les possibilités d’inadéquation entre des discours positifs sur le multilinguisme et des pratiques et des réalités structurelles qui ne soutiennent pas le multiculturalisme sur le terrain. Nous inscrivons notre discussion dans le contexte plus large du colonialisme et du capitalisme contemporains. Notre objectif est d’entamer une critique du rôle que les universités canadiennes continuent de jouer dans la production d’un colonialisme de peuplement et d’un monolinguisme anglophone, et également de fournir des suggestions en faveur d’un engagement plus significatif envers le multiculturalisme dans l’enseignement supérieur actuel à travers le Canada.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.006 | 0.007 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.003 | 0.005 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.030 | 0.047 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.016 | 0.005 |
| Open science | 0.002 | 0.008 |
| Research integrity | 0.002 | 0.003 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".