Workable Accents

Vijay A. Ramjattan is Assistant Professor in the Language and Literacies Education department at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1: Theorizing Workable AccentsChapter 2: Achieving and Expanding IntelligibilityChapter 3: Displaying and Creating ExpertiseChapter 4: Being Acceptable to Others and OneselfChapter 5: Workable Accents and (International Teaching Assistant) WorkConclusionReferencesIndexAbout the Author

With this book, Ramjattan establishes himself as the leading thinker on accentism in educational linguistics and beyond. Not only does this book bring together utterly pressing matters of political economy, higher education, racialization, and labour consciousness, it provides strategies for casting off oppressive models around what makes a good teacher. By listening closely to teachers of various multilingual competencies, Ramjattan undoes allegedly common-sense notions around how and when accent is assessed and assessible, identifies precisely how it is used as supremacist wedge to keep people down and out of power, and discerns what schools and universities need to do to provide a truly just workplace for all. In a moment inclined toward cynical impulses and reactionary dread, this is instead a book driven by justice, commitment, attentiveness, respect for people, and clarity of educational purpose.