Linguistics and Social Justice: Language, Education, and Human Rights
Course facts
- Payment: Free, no certificate
- Credits: Non Credit
- Learning style: Self-paced, start anytime
- Resources: Lecture Videos
- Before you start: None
MIT OpenCourseWare details
- As taught in: Fall 2021
- Department: Linguistics and Philosophy
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Video seminar on language, education and human rights: Haitian Kreyol, creoles worldwide and minoritized languages, with guests working in the field.
Some 40% of children cannot study in their home languages, even as linguists prize those same languages for research. This seminar asks what linguists owe those communities. It starts with Haiti, where most children learn in French while speaking Kreyol, then hears guests working on language rights in places as far apart as Seychelles, Alaska and Shetland.
What You Will Achieve
- Analyze a case of linguistic discrimination and its effects
- Compare language policies across communities
- Explain how linguists can make research more accessible
- Draft a project or policy paper for a speech community
Program Overview
Haiti as a Case Study
The first sessions build the seminar’s central case.
- Creole studies from a Haitian perspective
- The MIT-Haiti Initiative
- Language activism in a diasporic space
Creoles Around the World
Guests then bring in other creole settings.
- Seychelles’ language policy
- The Kreol paradox in Mauritius
- French Creole in Trinidad & Tobago and Venezuela
- Cabo Verdean in education
Minoritized Languages
The final sessions look beyond creoles.
- Standardization processes
- Decolonizing Iñupiaq language curricula
- Grassroots language technology
- Language friendly schools
Course Completion
Job Outlook
This work is relevant to language policy, mother-tongue education, international development and community-based linguistic research.
Good for: Linguists, educators and policy readers concerned with language rights and mother-tongue education.
Keep in mind: Lecture videos are the only resource type listed, and no reading list is included. It is organized around guests, so topics change sharply each week and arguments are not built up in sequence.
Bottom line: A moving and clear-eyed series of talks that makes a strong case for linguistics as public service.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do the case studies come from?
Haiti, Seychelles, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, the wider Caribbean, Alaska, Ireland, New Zealand, Shetland and Cabo Verde, along with work on the Ch'ol language.
Who gives the talks?
All sessions after the first two feature guest lecturers, including linguists, educators, activists and a Haitian ambassador at UNESCO.
What did students produce?
A prospectus for a project on one instance of linguistic discrimination, a class presentation, and a final write-up, perhaps a draft policy paper.
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