Call for abstract proposals
Proposed Title: Decolonial Turns in TESOL Research: Epistemologies, Methods and Pedagogies
Editors
Leonardo Veliz
University of New England, Australia
Waqar Ali Shah
Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Pakistan
Suresh Canagarajah
Pennsylvania State University, USA
Scope and rationale
This edited volume, Decolonial Turns in TESOL Research: Epistemologies, Methods and Pedagogies, intervenes in ongoing debates about knowledge production in TESOL research by critically interrogating the epistemological and methodological orthodoxies that continue to shape the field. While TESOL and applied linguistics have increasingly, and rather tokenistically embraced notions of diversity, inclusion, and multilingualism, the epistemological and methodological foundations underpinning much of the research remains deeply entangled with the privileging of Western, modernist, positivist, and ostensibly “neutral” approaches to knowledge generation that marginalize alternative epistemologies, ontologies, and ways of being (Kubota, 2020; Phyak, 2021). As decolonial scholars such as Grosfoguel (2007) note, in order to decolonize knowledge, it is necessary to “take seriously the epistemic perspectives/cosmo-logies/insights of critical thinkers from the Global South thinking from and with subalternized racial/ethnic/sexual spaces and bodies” (p. 212). A decolonial epistemic project, he argues, cannot be based on the “abstract universals” derived from the Western canon (including the Left Western canon), but instead must emerge through critical dialogue among diverse epistemic, ethical, and political projects toward a pluriversal rather than a universal world.
Tuck and Yang (2014, p. 813) describe research dominated by Western paradigms as “an invasion” that reproduces settler colonial knowledge within the academy. Decolonial scholars have therefore questioned the tendency to approach decolonial work through modernist theoretical frameworks, arguing instead for relational and non-dualist ontologies that challenge binary understandings of language, knowledge, and social change (Canagarajah, 2026). In this sense, coloniality operates not only through the internalization of linguistic and epistemic hierarchies, but also through institutional structures and dominant research paradigms that shape learners’, teachers’, teacher educators’, and researchers’ understandings of language, pedagogies, legitimacy, linguistic competence, proficiency, academic worth, and what counts as valid knowledge in TESOL and Applied Linguistics (Gobena et al., 2024). According to Ndhlovu (2021), methodologies shape the nature of the research questions we ask, and ultimately the content of the answers we produce – what we look for and overlook in our datasets. Accordingly, he describes the field of language studies and sociolinguistics as being in a state of “methodological stasis,” “a situation where we have remained tied to methodologies that sustain the very same epistemological hegemonies we are seeking to unsettle” (p. 196). This critique has also been extended to contemporary frameworks such as translanguaging, prompting calls for greater reflexivity regarding the ideologies and epistemologies that inform research practices (Phyak, 2022; Dovchin & Canagarajah, 2019).
Recent scholarship in TESOL and applied linguistics has increasingly unsettled colonial Eurocentric foundations by foregrounding the embodied, relational, and ecological nature of knowledge production. Canagarajah (2023b) argues that Eurocentric traditions have historically treated texts and knowledge as autonomous and instrumental, whereas many Indigenous and Global South traditions conceptualize knowledge as relational, embodied, distributed, and socially situated. Knowledge, in this view, is not simply “produced” by isolated individuals but emerges through interaction, mobility, repertoires, and lived ecological engagement with others and the world. By the same token, Makalela and Lemmenyane (2026) highlight the essence and nature of African Indigenous epistemologies as being “deeply rooted in orality, communal relations, and ecological attunement [which] challenge the individualistic, abstract, and decontextualized norms of Western academic knowledge” (p. 81). Similarly, other decolonial scholars have called for more place-responsive and relational approaches to language education that center Indigenous knowledges, local ecologies, and ethical accountability (Meighan & Hammine, 2026).
On a broader level, unsettling these Eurocentric foundations requires non-Eurocentric cosmovisions in applied linguistics that open up possibilities for colonized and Indigenous communities across the world (Pennycook & Makoni, 2020). Decolonial scholars have proposed alternative linguistic, epistemological, and methodological cosmovisions that challenge Eurocentric understandings of language, knowledge, competence, and pedagogy. Drawing on South Asian, Indigenous, and other Southern traditions, these perspectives conceptualize language and semiosis as relationally embedded within communities, environments, and broader ecologies of life (Khubchandani, 1997; Canagarajah, 2023b; Demuro & Gurney, 2021).
Methodologically, decolonial scholars have advanced a range of approaches, including Tangsing (Phyak, 2022), hybrid narratives (Castañeda-Londoño et al., 2024), and kincentric and relational methodologies (Meighan, 2026). These approaches foreground community participation, Indigenous epistemologies, researcher reflexivity, relational accountability, and locally grounded forms of meaning-making. They also challenge extractive traditions of research that commodify the experiences of marginalized communities and instead seek more ethical, dialogic, and community-centered modes of inquiry.
Scholars have also engaged in praxis-oriented scholarship informed by Southern and decolonial frameworks aimed at transforming colonial discourses and practices in TESOL (Shah & Anjum, 2026; Syed, 2026). Such work has reimagined pedagogy through plurilingual, trans-semiotic, multimodal, and place-responsive approaches that challenge monolingual, Eurocentric, and technocratic assumptions about teaching and learning (Canagarajah, 2023a). Canagarajah (2023a) further discusses decolonization as pedagogy, arguing for a pedagogy of becoming that cultivates dispositions necessary to negotiate meanings across diverse and emergent communicative contexts.
With this background in mind, this edited collection seeks submissions focusing on epistemologies, methodologies, and pedagogies in TESOL research. By decolonial turns, we refer to emerging epistemological, methodological, pedagogical, and institutional shifts in TESOL that reshape the coloniality of TESOL knowledge, language, and research. These turns seek to foreground relational, ecological, pluriversal, and contextually grounded approaches to TESOL research and education by delinking from the Euro-modernist imperial logic of doing research. TESOL requires a counter-discourse emphasizing the role and power of scholars from Southern and decolonial perspectives to not only theorize, but also develop their own methods of gathering empirical data to support their theoretical arguments and contribute to the transformation of TESOL practices (Phyak, 2022). By doing so, we advance the agenda of epistemological, methodological, and praxis-oriented scholarship while turning research from the “ugliest word” (Smith, 2012) into a meaningful and dialogic practice for Indigenous and colonized communities globally. As Denscombe (2025) argues, the decolonial project challenges not only colonial political structures but also the enduring legacy of “colonial ways of thinking” that continue to shape contemporary institutions, including research itself.
This volume seeks proposals on any of the below or other related areas:
Timeline
Abstract proposals due: 30 September 2026
Abstract review process completed by: 20 October 2026
Chapter submission: 31 March 2027
Chapter review process: April-May 2027
Please submit/upload a 300-word abstract proposal and a short (50-70 word) biographical statement to the following Google Form.
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