Racial Justice in Multilingual Education: An Introduction and an Invitation

The RJME Editorial Board

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.58117/zdgh-1p35

This journal begins with a shared conviction: that racial justice in multilingual education is not an optional add-on, but a necessity for building learning spaces where every perspective, way of using language, and identity is seen and valued. In what follows, we share the story of how this journal came to be, the purpose and vision that guide it, the commitments that shape our work, and the ways we have tried to live out those commitments in our editorial practices. We also discuss the challenges we have faced in the current political climate, and, finally, we share an invitation for you to join us in building and protecting this space for racial justice in multilingual education.

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The years leading up to this journal launch saw a number of national and international reckonings with racism and the continued need to combat white supremacy on both local and global scales. The COVID-19 pandemic wrought suffering worldwide, with many of the worst impacts disproportionately affecting communities of color. The 2020 murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor galvanized many to protest the longstanding epidemic of police brutality and anti-Black violence in the U.S. For many scholars, particularly those insulated from racism in their personal lives, this was a moment of long-overdue recognition—when issues of race, too often relegated to the category of “culture,” began to move to the forefront in meaningful, tangible ways. For others who had been engaged in this work for decades, many of these efforts seemed less tangible and less timely, representing the tendency of the field to vacillate between marginalizing, tokenizing, then capitalizing on scholarship that centers race and the scholars that work to produce it.

Despite this reckoning, those of us in the field of multilingual education lacked a shared understanding of what racial justice truly means and how it can be enacted. In conversation with scholars across our field, we recognized that, although there were many excellent scholarly venues dedicated to issues of race, and many others to language education, there were few that focused on how these issues overlapped –centering both race and multilingualism in education. In response, we sought to create a space that would both clarify the concept and explore concrete practices for making it real. That space became Racial Justice in Multilingual Education (RJME), and we are thrilled to present it as a platform to collectively explore, define, and enact racial justice within multilingual learning environments, whether in formal education programs or informal communal spaces.

From the beginning, we sought to build a journal that embodies our commitments, not only in content but also in process. We began by assembling an editorial board diverse in thought, approach, positionality, and experience, and we embraced collective decision-making for all matters, major and minor. This intentionality extended to every aspect of our work, from curating cover art to developing review procedures and author agreements. In doing so, we set out to create not just a publication, but a community guided by equity and care.

Our vision centers on transformative practices in education that value linguistic diversity, challenge hierarchies, and promote inclusive, equitable environments. We recognize the intersections of racism, linguicism, ableism, settler colonialism, trans/homophobia, and other systems of oppression that inflict violence and other forms of material harm across our school systems–harms that are too often learned, normalized, and subsequently extended into broader society. Instead, we envision learning spaces grounded in cooperation, belonging, and mutual growth; spaces that foster human dignity and peace while embracing a range of communication practices.

Central to this vision is the disruption of racialized privilege, particularly white supremacy, and the honoring of multilingualism as a core part of the educational process. As such, RJME rejects deficit perspectives on all forms of languaging and instead embraces language learning as a dynamic, identity-expanding journey.

As a platform, RJME, is committed to promoting scholarship that:

● Challenges raciolinguistic ideologies across our fields.

● De-centers whiteness in both practice and publication while centering the experiences of racially minoritized multilingual communities.

● Supports reflective practitioners working with marginalized students.

● Addresses intersections of racism, linguicism, ableism, settler colonialism, trans/homophobia and other systems of oppression.

● Disrupts hierarchies that privilege certain languages or language users.

● Expands definitions of multilingualism to include practices such as Black English, translanguaging, non-verbal communication, and Sign Language.

Our commitment to racial justice is not limited to our vision statement—it shapes every aspect of RJME. This has required our ongoing internal and external reflection, adaptation, and accountability. From the outset, we have made decisions with intentionality, asking how each choice could reflect our values. We commit to continuing to engage in this work, especially as we grow and encounter new challenges across educational landscapes.

Case in point, before our first issue went to press, we confronted the realities of a shifting political landscape. In January 2025, amid a political climate marked by the second Trump presidency and escalating anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, the very words in our journal’s title appeared on banned lists. As many institutions began to distance themselves from equity-focused work, our work here felt threatened. Rather than retreat, we recognized that this climate made RJME’s mission more urgent than ever. The forces attempting to silence racial justice work reaffirmed our responsibility to create and protect spaces for it. It is in this spirit that we present RJME to you: with the conviction that “you must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right” (Parks, 1994, p. 119).

Overview of RJME’s First Issue

For this inaugural issue, we invited scholars from varied disciplines, perspectives, and career stages to share their work on racial justice in multilingual education. We asked them to bring their innovation, creativity, and brilliance to launch RJME—and they delivered. The result is a compilation of scholarship that is at once impactful, intimate, creative, sharp, moving, and deeply human.

The authors in this issue have poured their hearts and souls onto the page. They share stories of heartbreak and triumph, moments of critical reflection, and visions for racial justice in multilingual education, all while advancing the field’s research-based understandings. They also offer tools to help all of us engage in this ongoing work. This collection is both personal and rigorous, imaginative and grounded. Together, these pieces illuminate the promises, possibilities, and potential pitfalls in our collective efforts.

Furthermore, the incredible authors of this first RJME issue also offered expanded views of methods and ways of knowing—pushing beyond traditional scientific epistemologies to embrace embodied experience, spirit, and heart. Several authors center the voices and perspectives of youth or are youth themselves. Therefore, this body of work intentionally redefines what scholarship is, who scholars are, whose perspectives matter, and whose contributions are worthy of publication.

Many pieces in this issue include art, multimodality, and translanguaging—showcasing the power and possibilities of holistic communicative practices within peer-reviewed, open-access scholarship. The entire issue is also highly pedagogical, offering tools and resources that can and should be taken up in a wide range of teaching and learning spaces.

Conclusion

This journal is a labor of love, in the tradition of bell hooks’ (2000) definition: “Love as the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth. Love is as love does. Love is an act of will—namely, both an intention and an action” (p. 4). This is the love at the heart of RJME. We invite you to join us in this work: to imagine, enact, and sustain racial justice in multilingual education—together.

In Love & Solidarity,

The RJME Editorial Board (María Cioè-Peña, Chris Chang-Bacon, Aris Clemons, Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica, Kate Seltzer, Manka Varghese, and Kara Mitchell Viesca)

References

hooks, b. (2000). All about love: New visions. William Morrow.

Parks, R., & Haskins, J. (1994). Quiet strength: The faith, the hope, and the heart of a woman who changed a nation. Zondervan.