ABSTRACT

There are millions of children attending English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) government schools for their basic education. The vast majority of these are in countries across the Global South. In these contexts, EMI policy decisions are rarely based on educational arguments while global learning discussions exist with limited engagement with the challenges of EMI. This is despite a significant evidence base that highlights the widespread impact that EMI has both on educational quality and inequalities. A recent British Council position paper suggests that EMI research tends to be descriptive, perceptions-based and lacking in theoretical underpinning. This paper responds to this critique by bringing together critical theories of social and epistemic justice to develop a series of questions that could be used to interrogate the multiple ways that EMI impacts children’s basic education in the Global South.

摘要

有数百万儿童在以英语为教学语言 (EMI) 的公立学校接受基础教育。其中绝大多数位于全球南方国家。在这些情况下，EMI 政策决策很少基于教育论据，而全球学习讨论存在，但对 EMI 挑战的参与有限。尽管有重要的证据基础突出了 EMI 对教育质量和不平等的广泛影响。英国文化协会最近的一份立场文件表明，EMI 研究往往是描述性的、基于感知的，并且缺乏理论基础。