Reader in Critical Applied Linguistics, Manchester Metropolitan University. Editor @CritStudsEd. Leverhulme Prize 2026-2029.
Manchester, UK
Joined November 2015
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An oracy framework for England’s schools: linguistic justice edition
Open access and out now in Educational Review
beyond the obvious pedagogical flaws with teaching scripts, remember that they are generally produced by transnational corporations who generate serious economic profit for themselves by (wrongly) convincing teachers that scripts make teaching more equitable and efficient.
Actors use scripts. Musicians use sheet music. Surgeons follow established procedures.
Why are scripts for teachers treated as an affront to professionalism?
@ehanford explains why Direct Instruction uses them.
Ian Cushing retweeted
As someone who is undertaking a dissertation at Masters level on the effects of translanguaging in placed based enquiry I cannot stress the importance of reading this if you’re interested in oracy in education. #geographyteacher
schools giving increased attention to language sounds good but it comes with many risks - the most obvious being the further entrenchment of deficit thinking. me and @choudrey_s anticipate this and how to resist it in our linguistic justice oracy framework doi.org/10.1080/00131911.202…
Ian Cushing retweeted
#TeamEnglish really worth the readcans reflection.
schools giving increased attention to language sounds good but it comes with many risks - the most obvious being the further entrenchment of deficit thinking. me and @choudrey_s anticipate this and how to resist it in our linguistic justice oracy framework doi.org/10.1080/00131911.202…
schools giving increased attention to language sounds good but it comes with many risks - the most obvious being the further entrenchment of deficit thinking. me and @choudrey_s anticipate this and how to resist it in our linguistic justice oracy framework doi.org/10.1080/00131911.202…
“With AI on the rise, we need to go harder on the skills that makes us human, like oracy.
That ability to articulate yourself confidently is central to success in work and life, but for too long it’s been a marker of privilege.
Now it will become the right of every child.”
Read more 👇
thetimes.com/uk/politics/art…
Ian Cushing retweeted
New: new book lifts lid on children’s “strict school” experiences
educationuncovered.co.uk/new…
Interviews set out alleged impact of behaviour management policies at Athena Learning Trust and the Ted Wragg trust.
Ian Cushing retweeted
Another way to kill a language, that you didn't mention in your book: get Gove to create the Year 6 language curriculum, where he'll stuff it full of decontextualised 'grammar', and use that as a metric for 'expected levels of writing', divorced from meaning, effect, audience
wow - thank you so much for shouting out How To Kill A Language @campbellclaret!! And how nice to hear @michaelgove defending the UK’s language diversity.
I’m on a mission to raise awareness about linguicide - to get the word on the UK’s number 1 podcast is… 🥹
i am working on some transcript data of a teacher telling children that they must 'speak in full sentences' in which he pauses, coughs, says errm a lot, repeats words, apologises, gets confused, is confusing, and my god how is this idea of 'speak in full sentences' still alive 😵💫
Ian Cushing retweeted
The turnover for Ruth Miskin Literacy Limited (the company behind the popular Read Write Inc. phonics programme) was £13.3 million for the financial year ending 31 March 2025.
if Tom Bennett’s classist and essentialist views on families living in poverty surprises you, then you haven’t been paying attention for the last decade. but remember the guy isn’t an aberration. he’s a mouthpiece for how bipartisan governments view and treat working class life.
Ian Cushing retweeted
Who is the ‘we’ that considers ‘lower levels’ of behavioural socialisation associated with ‘poverty’? This risks reproduction of classist, deficit framing where the problem is located in those experiencing ‘poverty’ rather than the conditions that produce and sustain poverty?
Always great analysis from Andrew, who appears to be one of the very few who bother to do so. Exclusions overwhelmingly associated with relative poverty, not ethnicity.
This is particularly important when we consider what exclusions are based on: the behaviour of the student. Which makes sense, when we consider the lower levels of behavioural socialisation associated with circumstances of poverty.
Almost all important outcomes of children in school boil down to their exhibited behaviour: learning, safety, consequences etc. Therefore getting behaviour right is the first step to raising standards on every area.
celebrating linguistic plurality and diversity in schools is fine but that is limited and meaningless if it takes place without efforts for broader structural transformation. that is one of the core arguments we make here doi.org/10.1080/00131911.202…
Ian Cushing retweeted
New research of mine now published open access 🔓 in Critical Inquiry in Language Studies: 'Word rich or word poor? Deficit discourses, raciolinguistic ideologies and the resurgence of the ‘word gap’ in England’s education policy'. A short thread below 👇tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.…
'Too many staff make errors in their standard spoken English when they teach. In some cases, this means that they model bad habits or teach incorrect grammar. Leaders should make sure that all staff, when they teach, use correct standard English'. (Ofsted 2019) 😶
A message from Sir Martyn Oliver, our Chief Inspector, this #NationalInclusionWeek 🌟
ALT True inclusion means asking whether every child – no matter their background and needs – feels like they can achieve, belong and thrive. I've long said that if you get it right for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable, you get it right for everyone. This idea is at the heart of Ofsted's work during National Inclusion Week and every other week of the year!
Ian Cushing retweeted
I invite you to imagine a Black or even Asian professor running a leftwing indoctrination compound in their home in Cambridge as 'alternative college', & then caught on camera offering to break law to funnel dodgy donations & rig a poll to fool the British media & voting public.
Ian Cushing retweeted
The Arday-Orr Gap is the official terminology to describe double standards in the media on academia.
Ian Cushing retweeted
Just a reminder @jtworr teaches 'ethics' to undergraduates at Cambridge University
youtu.be/aXut3s90rUI
Ian Cushing retweeted
This is the time when we hold the line for every Black person. You recognise racist riots when they are in the streets trying to kill and burn Black people as they did in the UK and Ireland in summer. This is the academic equivalent of that racist lynch mob. Hold the line!
Ian Cushing retweeted
We are looking for a post-doctoral research fellow for a Horizon Europe funded project with the title of the LIL-ECHOES (Living Cultural Labs: Empowering Communities through Intercultural Encounters in Virtual Worlds).
ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/search…
honoured to contribute to this collection remembering the legacy of Deborah’s work 💜
In September's emagazine - online now - 3 prominent linguists talk about the work of Professor Deborah Cameron and the importance of her legacy, and the emag editors remember her strong association and support for the magazine and our work.
englishandmedia.co.uk/emc-ma…
