Linguistic injustice and language discrimination in schools will be explored and challenged in a pioneering three-year study led by a Manchester Met linguistics researcher.
Dr Ian Cushing has been awarded a prestigious 2025 Philip Leverhulme Prize in Languages and Literatures by the Leverhulme Trust in recognition of his innovative research into linguistic injustice, language discrimination in education, and language and social justice.
The Philip Leverhulme Prize of £100,000 recognises and celebrates the achievements of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future careers are exceptionally promising.
From accent-based discrimination to deficit thinking in education around non-standard English, linguistic injustice is a long-standing issue in schools in England, and around the world.
Language discrimination affects the most marginalised members of the school community whose often stigmatised language practices are connected to broader experiences of injustice.
To address this under-researched area, this new study aims to advance knowledge and understanding of linguistic justice and enable transformative change in schools and national education policy.
This will involve international fieldwork in the US, taking inspiration and learnings from sociolinguistics and teachers who are already combatting linguistic injustice in schools.
Dr Cushing will also undertake an extensive review of linguistic justice and historical campaigns to combat language discrimination in schools and develop a framework in collaboration with teachers and young people to enable linguistic justice in schools and influence change in national policy and practice. He will host events and workshops for teachers, and write a book on transformative linguistic justice efforts in schools.
Dr Ian Cushing, Reader in Critical Applied Linguistics at Manchester Met, said: “It is an honour to be awarded this prize and generous funding from the Leverhulme Trust. The project will allow me a unique opportunity to collaborate with linguistically marginalised children and teachers to imagine and design how schools can be more linguistically equitable places. The award might have my name on it, but it has been enabled through years of work with teachers and children who are engaged in daily linguistic justice struggles. This project is for them.”
Linguistic justice recognises linguistic diversity in all its forms, encompassing variation across race, class, gender, multilingualism, and disability.
Drawing on lived experiences of affected communities in England’s schools, Dr Cushing will work in collaboration with teachers and young people to diagnose problems, propose solutions and motivate people to participate in collective action to influence structural change.
