Article

Toward Linguistic Justice: Conceptual Schemes for Immigrants, Refugees, and Migrants

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Abstract

This conceptual essay argues that many access and equity issues facing marginalized populations in higher education is owed to a postsecondary polyglossia, or, a penetrable, learned, set of unique language registers necessary for one to access and navigate institutions of higher education both inside and outside of their physical and metaphysical walls. Facilitating the transmission of this postsecondary polyglossia is Donald Davidson’s notion of the conceptual scheme, or, structures meant to interpret and transmit culture through language. Through Davidson and others, the postsecondary polyglossia is shown to permeate the totality of U.S. higher education, albeit inadvertently and through natural, institutional evolution. Ultimately, the postsecondary polyglossia must be made more accessible to immigrants, refugees, and migrants hoping to attend U.S. institutions of higher education and reap its many social, cultural, and economic benefits.

Keywords: Higher Education, sociolinguistics, agency, language, pragmatism

How to Cite:

Taylor, Z. W., (2018) “Toward Linguistic Justice: Conceptual Schemes for Immigrants, Refugees, and Migrants”, Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis 7(1).