Epistemic Reciprocity Through a Decolonial Crip Literacy in Accommodated Language Education for Adults

Abstract

This linguistic ethnography was conducted in accommodated language education in Sweden, aimed at adult learners with deafness, hearing impairment, post-traumatic stress disorder, migration stress, or intellectual disability, here, focusing on the latter group, who attended Swedish language learning courses. We empirically investigate a decolonial crip literacy, by connecting language education to epistemic reciprocity. The decolonial lens is understood with regard to the marginalized and dis-abled body, under-represented in Applied Linguistics. More specifically, we focus on teacher positionality and ethical stance-taking among three of the teachers, to contribute an in-depth and situated account of a decolonial crip literacy, as counteracts of ableism and linguicism, and an orientation toward epistemic justice. Based on our linguistic ethnographic data, we suggest that the decolonial crip literacy project engages with disability-as-difference, positioning the dis-abled body as knower, via epistemic reciprocity, which is communicated through a multiplicity of communicative resources, materialities, and creativity. The paper contributes both to the theorizing of injustice in language education and to alternatives in pedagogical practice.