A compelling article by @iancushing.bsky.social Schools don't have to subscribe to language deficit views. In one school a leader 'had run whole-school training on asset-based pedagogies, which included a sharp critique and rejection of dominant word gap narratives.'

A brillliant, fascinating article by @iancushing.bsky.social about the word gap concept - but also about the whole ecology of our current education system, uncovered by tracing the experiences of one teacher and what these reveal about the system as a whole.

The Word Gap ™️ is something most teachers learn by osmosis. Given that what we think it means is not correct, we need to unlearn it, and dig at the biases that made it so attractive and idea in the first place.

A really great read about the tyranny of the "word gap"; like a "zombie statistic", it refuses to die, despite its troubling & misleading origins. The article reminds me of www-tandfonline-com.soton.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.... which shows how such thinking plays out in practice.

new article published open access in Reading Research Quarterly 💫 Follow the word gap: the social life of a deficit concept doi.org/10.1002/rrq.... i trace how deficit ideologies associated with the 'word gap' get reproduced - and rejected - in teacher education and schools.

what does ‘misbehaviour’ sound like? in new open access work i ask this question in the context of school discipline policies, looking at how ideologies of ‘im/proper language’ and ‘im/proper behaviour’ coalesce and get co-constructed with one another. doi.org/10.1080/0962...

And by explicitly rejecting 'behavior as communication', the deficit framing of 'misbehaviour' precludes any curiosity or empathy about why kids with developing brains & bodies might disengage, intentionally or not, with systems designed by adults to serve the obscure purposes of adult society.

100% COMPLIANCE

in analysing 563 behaviour policies from the 34 largest multi-academy trusts in England, i show how 'misbehaviour' is associated with a constellation of linguistic features - these are of course not empirically connected, but ideologically connected.

few things in life are inevitable but one of the most inevitable things has to be Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion being exported from schools to prisons. 🤷‍♀️ improvingteaching.co.uk/2025/09/07/i...

Scotland’s leading academic on refugees warns that British political rhetoric is taking the UK ‘into the foothills of genocide’ Professor Alison Phipps, Unesco chair in refugee integration at Glasgow University, says demonisation will end in deaths www.heraldscotland.com/news/2544663...

How "'misbehaviour' is associated with a constellation of linguistic features." God, this made me livid!

Interesting crossover between what is described here and neurodivergence

Tom Bennett is in the news again talking about strict behaviour policies and many of these are linked to tech to monitor etc. So here again is Ian’s work that explains how much of these policies are ableist and racist or discriminatory. Tom’s #rED25 lacked focus on the marginalised as usual

Our new book is published! You can read the first chapter for free here www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/1...

excited coz the new issue of Rethinking Schools arrived. this continues to be an amazing source of inspiration and resourcefulness for teachers invested in social justice struggles. also omg we need a version of this from and for teachers in the UK 💜

Disappointing to see Teach Like a Champion content included here. @iancushing.bsky.social’s work offers an important critique on compliance-based methodology & tracks how these commercial resources have infiltrated ed policy. bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

I'm going to make notes on Kamran Khan's plenary so follow away. #baal2025

Y'all! I'm super honored to be the keynote speaker at next year's Georgetown University Linguistics Roundtable Conference. The theme is Futuring Linguistics! What does the future of linguistics look like? Come engage w/ us in the big questions! gurt.georgetown.edu/gurt-2026-un...

Coming soon in Reading Research Quarterly 💫 Follow the word gap: the social life of a deficit concept

remember that word gap narratives and ideologies don’t just frame marginalised children as linguistically deficient but also point the finger at their parents for their allegedly inferior parenting skills. the stigma attached to the word gap is intergenerational.

‘Censorship’: over 115 scholars condemn cancellation of Harvard journal issue on Palestine www.theguardian.com/education/20...

last month 15 amazing teachers came to manchester for a 2-day summer school on linguistic justice. it was taught by me and april baker-bell. here we are doing our summaries at the end of day 2. we're organising a summer school in detroit next year, and manchester again soon. 💜

"Books are dangerous. This is why repressive regimes try to exile and kill those who write them, confiscate and close libraries and bookshops, and ban and burn books that contradict their narratives and the image they want to present to the outside world" www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

📢Literacy in primary classrooms conference 📅⌚ 9.30am, Saturday, 13 September. Discover practical and inspiring ideas to enhance your classroom. Join our workshops on inclusion, reading for pleasure, and much more. ✏️ Book your place now 👉 bit.ly/4kPJ8IT

Well this is quite exciting: Michel Foucault’s personal library has been catalogued and will be searchable online from this September eman-archives.org/Foucault-fic... 🗃

This is what happens in a genocide when it’s too late to stop it and the denial and humanitarian camouflage have already killed thousands and thousands more are on the brink because of a criminal regime. This is when the enablers jump ship. It’s a stage in #genocide.

academic promotions are always a collective effort and i am so thankful to all those who have supported me in my promotion to Reader in Critical Applied Linguistics. 🎉 now it's my turn to do more to support early career researchers and push the discipline in new directions 🌸🫶

i asked my 5 year old what language is and he said it’s like when words come out of your body and into someone else’s 💕

Race Ethnicity and Education are advertising for a new editor-in-chief / team of editors: think.taylorandfrancis.com/editor_recru...

“My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” writes Omer Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University. “I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognize one when I see one.”

equating sexual harassment with being working class is such an effective way of being both misogynistic *and* classist

The police have arrested more than 20 people in London for carrying placards that said: "I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action". Among those removed by police was Reverend Sue Parfitt, who is 83

15 amazing teachers came together over two days and explored how to reject deficit thinking and dismantle white linguistic supremacy in schools 🌟

it’s day 2 of our summer school for teachers on linguistic justice and April Baker-Bell is here in Manchester from Michigan to lead sessions on anti-Black linguistic racism and pro-Black language pedagogy 💫

me and @snelljulia.bsky.social are doing a joint keynote at this UKLA/NEU conference, talking about futures of linguistic justice and designing linguistically just schools 💜 www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/literacy-i...

londonenglishteachers.com/about/forthc... Talking about Oracy this weekend with great talks from @iancushing.bsky.social and Su Hippesley (UCL) and workshops from Let’s Think in English, and English teachers from across London. Still tickets left!

I’m also uncomfortable with uncritical discourse on oracy. @iancushing.bsky.social’s work is outstanding on this issue. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

omg adding to syllabus immediately

Don’t forget: Talking About Oracy from @lateteachers.bsky.social at @ucl.ac.uk IOE July 5th! londonenglishteachers.com/about/forthc... @draperel.bsky.social @engmediacentre.bsky.social @englishassociation.bsky.social @natefeed.bsky.social @headofenglish.bsky.social @runrober.bsky.social

Recommended: Teacher Education: Time to listen to the experts again (UK) radicalscholarship.com/2025/06/27/r... @iancushing.bsky.social

University-based teacher educators say they have been treated dreadfully by central government - now a new report from @iancushing.bsky.social is calling for them to have a much more significant role in ITE again www.timeshighereducation.com/news/relax-s... via @twilliamsthe.bsky.social

the London Association for the Teaching of English conference is on Saturday 5 July and is all about oracy. i am giving keynote on oracy, deficit thinking, and linguistic in/justice 🌸 londonenglishteachers.com/about/forthc...

Labour appears set to plough ahead with billions of pounds of cuts a year to disability benefits, after this week’s spending review failed to offer any suggestion of a U-turn. #SpendingReview #WelfareNotWarfare #TakingThePip www.disabilitynewsservice.com/government-o...

New publication out with the late great @jmhenner.bsky.social and @anthrodad.bsky.social The #Deaf Childhood Experiences Scale aims to provide data on deaf life factors with the goal of better understanding... quality of life outcomes among deaf populations. academic.oup.com/jdsde/articl... 1/6

Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine. Free Palestine.

these teachers were 🔥. all working to resist linguistic injustice in spite of dominant deficit discourses about language, individualistic theories of social change, oppressive policy pressures, and inadequate school management 💕

20 teachers are at MMU for 2 days of a summer school on linguistic justice and they are amazing 💕

critical sociologists of education are here at MMU for a full day symposium of Ofsted and educational injustice

in rainy London i just walked past the incredible New Beacon Books and the George Padmore Archive which sits above it, housing decades of materials of anti-racist resistance against white supremacist schooling 💕