My work examines language and inequality in schools, with a focus on how policies concerned with language are shaped by standard language and raciolinguistic ideologies.

Grants

Spencer Foundation. 2022-2025. Challenging raciolinguistic ideologies in teacher education policy and practice.

British Association of Applied Linguistics. 2022-2023. Challenging language discrimination in schools: toward a typology of teacher-led resistance.

BERA BCF Curriculum Investigation Grant. 2021-2022. Sounding right, sounding white: language, race and curriculum in secondary education.

EHU RIF. 2021-2023. Transatlantic language policing: stigma and surveillance in UK and USA schools.

United Kingdom Literacy Association. 2021. “You’ll never be as good as the white kids in their language”: Using children’s literature to explore, challenge and resist intersectional language discrimination. 

Recent publications

Cushing, I. (2022). Word rich or word poor? Deficit discourses, raciolinguistic ideologies and the resurgence of the 'word gap' in England's education policy. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2022.2102014

Cushing, I & Snell, J. (2022). The (white) ears of Ofsted: a raciolinguistic perspective on the listening practices of the schools inspectorate. Language in Society. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404522000094

Cushing, I & Carter, A. (2021). Using Young Adult fiction to interrogate raciolinguistic ideologies. Literacy. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/lit.12277

Cushing, Georgiou, A & Karatsareas, P. (2021). Language policing in mainstream and complementary schools in the UK. Special issue of International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2021.1933894

Cushing, I & Helks, M. (2021). Exploring primary and secondary students’ experiences of grammar teaching and testing in England. English in Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/04250494.2021.1898282

Cushing, I. (2021). Policy mechanisms of the standard language ideology in England’s education system. Journal of Language, Identity and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2021.1877542

Cushing, I. (2021). Language, discipline and ‘teaching like a champion’. British Educational Research Journal 47(1): 23-41. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3696

Cushing, I. (2020). Grammar tests, de facto policy and pedagogical coercion in England’s primary schools. Language Policy. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-020-09571-z

Cushing, I. (2020). ‘Say it like the Queen’: the standard language ideology and language policy making in English primary schools. Language, Culture and Curriculum. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2020.1840578

Cushing, I. (2020). The policy and policing of language in schools. Language in Society 49(3): 425-450. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404519000848

Cushing, I. (2020). Power, politics and language education policy mechanisms: a response to Hudson. Language in Society 49(3): 461-475. https://doi.org/10.1017/S004740452000038X

I joined the Faculty in December 2021 after posts at Brunel University London and University College London. I completed my PhD in Educational Linguistics in 2018, and worked as a secondary school teacher prior to this. 

My work challenges language ideologies in education policy and practice, especially those which work against marginalised students and teachers. My current research is investigating how teachers might resist such ideologies in their practice, and I am leading research projects funded by the British Association of Applied Linguistics, the Spencer Foundation and the British Educational Research Association.

I sit on the UK Literacy Association Research Sub-Committee.

I teach on the following modules:

SEN1002 Beginning Language Study

SEN2002 Further Studies in the English Language

SEN3002 Language and Schools

I also supervise doctoral students.

• Language and inequality in schools
• Race and raciolinguistic ideologies
• Histories of linguistic oppression in schools
• Teacher-led resistance to linguistic racism and oppression

I am currently joint PI on two externally funded research projects:

• Challenging raciolinguistic ideologies in transatlantic teacher education policy (Spencer Foundation, with Dr Clara Vaz Bauler, Adelphi University, NY, USA)
• Challenging language discrimination in schools: toward a typology of teacher-led resistance (British Association of Applied Linguistics, with Dan Clayton, English and Media Centre, UK)