Multilingualism And Sustainability: Letter from the Editors
Laura B. Liu, Indiana University Columbus, Indiana, USA
Kirti Kapur, National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi, India
Nelli Bondareva, University of the People, Pasadena, USA
TESOL’s Fall 2025 Bi-Multilingual Education Interest Section (BMEIS) Newsletter, Multilingual Connections, centers on the intersection of multilingualism and sustainability. It includes five pieces that demonstrate and examine teaching and teacher education practices, policies and ideas contributing to the sustainability of heritage cultures, languages, and identities, with a spotlight on the significant role that language plays in this. From New York to Assam, India to General Santos in the Philippines, to Chiayi and Taipei, Taiwan this newsletter presents perspectives on multilingualism and sustainability from the U.S., South Asia, Southeast and East Asia. This newsletter recognizes the value of bringing these sustainability pieces together in dialogue, as globalization increases the impact world regions have on one another, for better and for worse. Delores’ (1996) Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century describes four pillars of learning toward a sustainable global future, including the pillars of learning to know, to do, to live together, to be – with a fifth more recently added pillar, learning to transform oneself and society. Each of the pieces in this newsletter addresses one if not all three of these pillars. Global ethics necessitate understanding what sustainability means and looks like in specific localities within and across national, cultural, and linguistic boundaries. Lin and Wu (2025) highlight the importance of engaging multilingual communities in broader sustainability movements, while Shah and Rodieck (2025) conclude the need to recognize “unique personal and life trajectories that may differ significantly from the broader cultural context of their communities” (p. 80). The individual and the collective are essential in attaining cultural, linguistic, and other sustainability measures. In working toward these aims, this newsletter explores the intersections of multilingualism and sustainability along a continuum including regions, communities, and individuals, and as purposed in K-12, teacher education, and faculty classroom practices and personal-professional development.
The first piece in this newsletter demonstrates engaging cultural and linguistic funds of knowledge (Moll, 2019; Vélez-Ibáñez & Greenberg, 1992) in middle school science instruction -- and how this enhances student motivation and learning. This paper shares three cases: 1) a 6th grader engaging Taoist funds of knowledge to critique a westernized food web; 2) 7th graders who engage translanguaging in scientific discussion of energy flow in food pyramids to trace ingredients for a favorite dish back to the sun as an energy source; and 3) 8th graders explore energy transformations with cultural artifacts.
The second piece in the newsletter shares strategic policy support for culturally and linguistically sustaining teaching practices. Boruah’s paper, Translingual Resourcefulness for Sustainable Place Based English Language Education in Multilingual Assam, describes how meaningful heritage language use in English instruction is supported by educational policies in Assam, India to strengthen India’s multilingual, social context through linguistically responsive, place-based educational practices. The third piece provides an example for how teacher education courses can play a key role in contributing to cultural and linguistic sustainability. Deutsch and Wolfe are two education students who authored Using Linguistic Diversity to Enrich the Classroom: Insights from a Virtual U.S.-Filipino Undergraduate Experience. This study examines an international virtual learning exchange between their own and another teacher education course in the Philippines. The authors draw on the theories of culturally responsive teaching and student voice amplification to describe how the learning exchange fostered curiosity, empathy, and global awareness as international peers discussed their daily lives.
The fourth piece in this newsletter builds on the first three focused on K-12 and university teaching practices to consider the role of teacher education faculty in sustainability work. Tu, Lin, and Li wrote Three Stories of Language, Learning, and Teaching: Sustaining Multilingual Futures and Fluid Identities across Taiwan and the U.S. In this, three teacher education faculty share autobiographical experiences showing how colonialism and globalization have shaped their translanguage learning and teaching experiences, and how their intersectional identities (faculty, mom, researcher) provide agency and a platform to advocate for multilingual realities. Finally, this newsletter concludes with Translanguaging as a Flow: A Conversation with Dr. Angel Lin, an interview by Dr. Ching-Ching Lin. This conversation highlights Dr. Angel Lin’s trailblazing role in translanguaging practice and research in the Global South, and highlights the key role of language in sustainability movements, as noted in her 2023 Conversation Analysis, Critical Literacy, and Translanguaging in Flows: Reflections on My Intellectual Journey.
Collectively, the pieces in this newsletter demonstrate the complexity and integrity of sustainability, as a global goal and local work that involves learning the languages of other nations, cultures, or professions, while recognizing our own cultures, nations, and professions may be the other to others. Sustainability is a work as fulfilling as challenging, a project with endless partners and endless aims. It is a work that keeps our classrooms busy with purposeful work, while connecting the communities involved. At the very least this newsletter is a reminder to begin, continue, and persist in learning and sustaining the multiple languages that surround us, and the significance of language to our lived experiences.
References
Bogdanova, R., Silina, M., & Renigere, R. (2017). Ecological approach to education and healthcare. Discourse and Communication for Sustainable Education, 8(1), 64–80.
Delors, J. (1996). Learning: The Treasure Within. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
González, N., Moll, L., & Amanti, C. (Eds.). (2005) Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
JadAllah, M., Zhang, J., & Enriquez-Andrade, A. (2025). Leveraging students’ funds of knowledge, language, and identity: A case for STEM education in the United States. In L.B. Liu, N. Mohamed, C.C. Lin, C. Bauler, & K. Kapur (Eds.), Funds of knowledge in teacher education: Sustaining local diversity amidst global standards (pp. 367-384). IGI Global Scientific Publishers.
Lin, A. M. Y. (2023). Conversation analysis, critical literacies, translanguaging and flows: The influences on my intellectual journey. In J. Ávila (Ed.), Leaders in English language arts education research: Intellectual self-portraits (pp. 151-162). Berlin: Brill.
Lin, C.C., & Wu, (2025). Navigating Taiwan’s bilingual 2030 policy: Unveiling teachers’ glocalization efforts and agency. Journal of Multilingual Education Research (13).
Moll, L.C. (2019). Elaborating funds of knowledge: Community-oriented practices in international contexts. Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice, 68, 130-138.
Shah, A. & Rodieck, N. (2025). Voices of identity: Integrating lived experiences in responsive education. In L.B. Liu, N. Mohamed, C.C. Lin, C.V. Bauler, and K. Kapur (Eds.), Funds of knowledge in teacher education: Sustaining local diversity amidst global standards (pp. 79-98). IGI Global Scientific Publishers.
Vélez-Ibáñez, C., & Greenberg, J. (1992). Formation and transformation of Funds of Knowledge among U.S.–Mexican households. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 23(4), 313–335.
Laura B. Liu is Associate Professor of teacher education and the English as a New Language Program Coordinator at Indiana University Columbus. Her key research areas focus on glocalization, diversity sustaining teaching practices, and teacher international professional development. Laura served as faculty at Beijing Normal University’s Center for Teacher Education Research, after completing her postdoctoral work there on teacher educator international professional development as 仁 (ren).
Kirti Kapur is a Professor of English at NCERT, New Delhi, India. As a Fulbright Fellow 2021, she conducted research in multicultural education and TESOL at Hawaii Pacific University, USA. Her areas of work are the development of syllabi, textual materials, comparative research, and teachers’ handbooks. She has led over 100+ teacher training workshops across all stages of school education. She has contributed to over 90 papers (national and international) on cultural contexts and language learning. She has trained teachers from Afghanistan, Tibet, and Mauritius on making ELT effective and learner-centric in their context.
Nelli Bondareva is an English language educator, literacy specialist, and independent researcher with teaching experience in Armenia, Russia, China, and the United States. She designs literature-rich, student-centered lessons that build global competence and a love for reading. Nelli shares her work through conferences and publications, focusing on heritage language maintenance, translanguaging, and innovative approaches to literacy development for multilingual learners.