S1 E7: Language Education and Discrimination – Dr. Ania Byerly

Much Language Such Talk

Dr. Ania Byerly is a Senior Teaching Fellow in Language Education at the Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh. She has worked with a variety of the university’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, such as MSc TESOL and MSc Language Education, Initial Teacher Education, BA Childhood Practice. Ania is a qualified Early Years and Primary School teacher, specialising in Teaching English as a Foreign Language to young children.

She has also worked with Edinburgh’s English as an Additional Language Service supporting bilingual Polish English Speakers in Edinburgh schools and nurseries. Ania focuses on student teachers and school teachers developing an understanding of various social justice issues: from social class, ethnicity and 'race' through to linguistic and religious diversity.

She is also going to be a part of the ‘Teaching that Matters for Migrant Students: Understanding Levers of Integration in Scotland, Finland, and Sweden’ (TEAMS) project in collaboration with ten researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh, Stockholm, Jyvaskyla and Turku, who will study how teachers, schools and education systems facilitate migrant integration in schools. In particular, the project aims to identify educational practices and structural conditions that facilitate opportunities for migrants’ academic success, cross-cultural socialization, and developing a sense of belonging in their school communities.

Go to our website to read the transcript!

MLST is brought to you by volunteers at Bilingualism Matters Edinburgh. The views of our guests don’t always reflect our own, as we hope to provide an accessible platform for the findings of current research and the perspectives of experts. For more resources like definitions of linguistic terms, episode transcripts, and information about the team, go to our website at www.mlstpodcast.com.

Recorded on 09/12/2020

Music: Arc of the Sun by The 126ersssssss

Sound effects: Record scratches by filmsndfx