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Dr Ian Cushing

Senior Lecturer in English and Education

Secondary, Further Education & Training

Department: Secondary, Further Education & Training

ORCID logo https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1752-1411 View full profile

Profile

Biography

I joined the Faculty in December 2021 after posts at Brunel University London and University College London. I completed my PhD in Educational Linguistics in 2018, and worked as a secondary school teacher prior to this. 

My work challenges language ideologies in education policy and practice, especially those which work against marginalised students and teachers. My current research is investigating how teachers might resist such ideologies in their practice, and I am leading research projects funded by the British Association of Applied Linguistics, the Spencer Foundation and the British Educational Research Association.

I sit on the UK Literacy Association Research Sub-Committee.

I was the co-recipient of the 2022 UKLA Brenda Eastwood Award for Diversity & Inclusion.

Research Interests

  • Language and inequality in schools
  • Race and raciolinguistic ideologies
  • Histories of linguistic oppression in schools
  • Teacher-led resistance to linguistic racism and oppression

I am currently joint PI on two externally funded research projects:

  • Challenging raciolinguistic ideologies in transatlantic teacher education policy (Spencer Foundation, with Dr Clara Vaz Bauler, Adelphi University, NY, USA)
  • Challenging language discrimination in schools: toward a typology of teacher-led resistance (British Association of Applied Linguistics, with Dan Clayton, English and Media Centre, UK)

I am in the early stages of co-editing a special issue on race, language and (in)equality for English in Education (with Furzeen Ahmed, April Baker-Bell and Dan Clayton).

Teaching

I teach on the following modules:

SEN1002 Beginning Language Study

SEN2002 Further Studies in the English Language

SEN3002 Language and Schools

I also supervise doctoral students.