Introduction

Tēnā koe / hello,

I am a Professor of Education in Te Puna Wānanga (School of Māori and Indigenous Education) at the University of Auckland/Waipapa Taumata Rau and an internationally recognized authority on language policy, language rights, Indigenous language education, and bi/multilingual education. I have published 26 books and over 120 articles and chapters on these and related topics – see my Google Scholar here.

Throughout my academic career, I have explored and critiqued the limits of the monocultural and monolingual precepts underpinning approaches to language policy and language education which, too often, negatively impact on Indigenous and other linguistically minoritized (often bi/multilingual) students. This work is grounded in Aotearoa New Zealand but has extended to a wide range of Indigenous and related linguistically minoritized contexts worldwide.

I also bring a wide-ranging interdisciplinary understanding to these issues, including a background in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, education, and sociology. This has allowed me to examine, particularly in my work on language rights, the wider sociohistorical and sociopolitical influences – most notably, the preoccupation with linguistic homogeneity in modern nation-states – that reinforce these monolingual tendencies in language and education policy and practice.

Research foci

My work on language policy and language rights (LR) for Indigenous and other minoritized language groups, which now includes over 30 publications, has been described as “redefin[ing] the scholarly landscape” (Ency. of Applied Linguistics), and has been published in the fields of sociology, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, education, law, political theory, and economics. The influence of my LR work is most clearly reflected in my award winning book, Language and minority rights, now in its 2nd edition (Longman, 2001, 2008; Routledge 2012). In this and related work, I explore a wide range of Indigenous and minoritized language contexts, including, among others, te reo Māori (the Māori language) and Pacific languages in Aotearoa New Zealand, Welsh and Irish in the UK, Navajo and Spanish in the US, Catalan and Basque in Spain, and French in Quebec.

In relation to wider LR and language policy, I have provided academic and  related policy development for the United Nations (Office of Strategic Planning, Paris), the UN Rapporteur on Minority Rights (Asia and Pacific regions), UNESCO, European Commission, New Zealand Human Rights’ Commission, Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori/Māori Language Commission, and Ministry of Pacific Peoples. I have also acted as a legal expert witness on LR for the Ontario Supreme Court in Canada and for the Waitangi Tribunal in New Zealand.

During my career, I have led international academic discussions in a range of related areas. My work on critical multiculturalism, for example, integrates and advances various critical theoretical threads such as antiracist education, critical race theory, and critical pedagogy to offer a fuller analysis of oppression and institutionalization of unequal power relations in education. This work is reflected in my first book, Making multicultural education work (Multilingual Matters, 1994), along with two key edited collections, Critical multiculturalism: Rethinking multicultural and antiracist education (Routledge, 1999) and, co-edited with Christine Sleeter, Critical multiculturalism: From theory to praxis (Routledge, 2010).

In close collaboration with Indigenous colleagues, I have curated key developments in Indigenous language education, both nationally and internationally, including an edited collection, Indigenous community-based education (Multilingual Matters, 1999) and a number of journal special issues in Comparative Education (39, 2: 2003) International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (8, 5: 2005) and Journal of Language, Identity and Education (13, 4: 2014). I have also provided expert advice on Indigenous language and bilingual education in academic and policy contexts as diverse as Myanmar, Samoa, Vanuatu, Micronesia, Korea, Hong Kong, Norway, Basque Country, Estonia, Finland, Ireland and Wales.

Over the last decade, I have been at the forefront of the “multilingual turn” in language education, addressing and contesting the monolingual precepts that continue to underpin (so many) language and education policies and practices toward linguistically diverse students. This is most clearly reflected in my edited volume, The multilingual turn: Implications for SLA, bilingual education, and TESOL (Routledge, 2014), my subsequent engagement with the Douglas Fir Group in Second Language Acquisition (Modern Language Journal 2019 Supplement), and contributions to related discussions on sociolinguistic superdiversity and translanguaging (see, e.g. Sociolinguistica 36, 1-2, 2022 and the Afterword in Jeff MacSwan’s Multilingual perspectives on translanguaging, Multilingual Matters, 2022).

My most recent work, drawing on my interdisciplinary understandings of the sociology of nationalism, critical race theory, and language ideologies, focuses on the issue of linguistic racism. Two important recent contributions here include a special issue on linguistic racism in Ethnicities and my co-edited volume, with Blanca Caldas, Critical ethnography, language, race/ism and inequality (Routledge, 2023).

Key roles

I have co-edited with Tariq Modood the interdisciplinary journal of sociology and politics Ethnicities (Sage), since its inception in 2001, and was Associate Editor of Language Policy (Springer) from 2005-2015. I am the Series Editor/Editor in Chief of the 10-volume benchmark Encyclopedia of Language Education (3rd ed., Springer, 2017). I am also a co-editor of two book series: Language, Education and Diversity (Multilingual Matters) and Studies in Minority Languages and Communities (Palgrave/Springer).

Research projects

Over the course of my career, I have led a wide range of funded research projects. These include, among others, the review of best practices in Māori-medium education (2004) and LEAP (Language Enhancing the Academic Achievement of Pasifika; 2005) – one of the first projects internationally to develop a research-led web-based professional development resource for teachers working with bilingual students in English-medium education contexts. More recently (2019), I have conducted reviews of Pacific bilingual education in Aotearoa New Zealand and Māori language policy.

I am currently working on a number of related research projects with my colleagues, Mi Yung Park, and Peter Keegan, on linguistic diversity and discrimination in higher education.

Awards and recognition

I have received numerous national and international awards over the course of my career. My books Language and minority rights and The multilingual turn were both shortlisted for the British Association of Applied Linguistics Book Prize, while Language and minority rights received an American Library Association Best Choice Book Award. I was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in 2008 at Arizona State University, researching Navajo language education, and City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate School, researching Spanish-English dual language education. I was elected a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2015, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand/Te Apārangi (FRSNZ) in 2016. I received the McKenzie Award from the New Zealand Association for Research in Education (NZARE) for my lifetime contribution to educational research in 2018, the RSNZ Mason Durie Medal as New Zealand’s preeminent social scientist in 2023, and the University of Auckland’s Research Excellence Medal in 2024. I have also given over 50 invited keynote lectures around the world.

Other

I am an adult language learner of te reo Māori (the Māori language) and speak, read, write, and teach in both English and te reo Māori.

My wife and fellow Auckland academic, Dr Mi Yung Park, and I live in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland with our beloved Welsh Terrier, Olive.