Transepistemic academia

Pakistani academia - schools, colleges and universities - is largely characterised by linguistic and epistemic hierarchisation. This means, on the one hand, the country's education policy discourse privileges English as a language of instruction in classrooms as compared to local languages; and on the other hand, it mystifies certain ideologies reproduced and legitimised through academic knowledge. These ideologies in the form of class division, gender inequalities and colonial legacies seem to control the mind of not only learners but also teachers and academicians. As a consequence, a greater part of curricula, pedagogy, learning and research as intellectual activities is trapped within these ideological landscapes.

An example of English language education in Pakistan may provide some insight into how the curriculum and pedagogy differ between the government and the private sectors, with English being associated with a greater symbolic value and prestige in either case. Most elite private educational institutions in different parts of the country have an English-only policy. Moreover, they follow a foreign curriculum exported from countries in the West, more particularly the US and the UK. This curriculum comprises a set of social values, culture and ideals not indigenous to the country. As a contrast, the government sector appears to maintain national narratives and colonial ideologies through national policies and curricula, as evidenced by the use of English, the teaching of Anglo-western literature, and Eurocentric pedagogical practices and research practices, as is often evident in university research and teaching. As a result, in both cases, what remains at stake is a wide range of local languages, traditions and knowledge existing in different parts of the country.

Such silence and marginalisation of local languages, cultures and knowledge from diverse ethnic, religious and economically underprivileged backgrounds is inevitable for a number of reasons.

First, education is viewed as a representation of and service to the privileged, and knowledge of the dominant social groups is considered legitimate.

Second, education is thought to be a cognitive activity as glorifying the 'past' (no matter how distorted or fractured it is) as well as retaining colonial legacies.

Third, education is used as an ideological apparatus to control learners' consciousness and a means for social conditioning.

Fourth, education is viewed as a commodity to enhance social and economic capital.

Fifth, languages are also seen as resources for economic prosperity, progress and social mobility rather than resources for meaning-making processes that contribute to the formation of societies and their rich cultures.

Lastly, acquiring proficiency in a specific language and learning specific accents is viewed in relation to psychological superiority and intelligence, thus reflecting and reinforcing the colonial ideologies.

Such views, prevalent in the country, tend to affect the overall academic fabric and perpetuate hierarchical knowledge and linguistic structures. This has resulted in an increased tendency for individuals to acquire linguistic and educational capitals so that they can adapt to the global market, which is influenced by capitalist and neoliberal ideologies. These ideologies emphasise competition, consumerism, credentialism, and developing knowledge and skills related to the market. It does not, however, imply that we should not gain market knowledge, skills and languages that will contribute to our economic advancement and improve our quality of life. A matter of concern is the way in which such learning takes place at the expense of paying a little attention to local languages, knowledge and intellectual traditions as a result of dominant ideologies underlying education and language use. It is worth arguing that such ideologies about language and education are to some extent part of thinking that idealises the Western knowledge and languages while denigrating the local cultures, languages and values. It is not only particular about Pakistan, but many South Asian, African, Latin American and other countries in the world have been experiencing similar problems against the global imperialist powers as well as their own ideological attempts for the social cohesion and integration of their societies.

Against these ideologies and orthodoxies, there is an alternative that critical education and language scholars suggest as transepistemic and translingual education. Such an alternative embraces principles of diversity, locality, globality, knowledge as a network, use of multilingualism, language as a resource for meaning making process and language fluidity. Transepistemic academia is thought in terms of respectful and non-hierarchical knowledge co-creation while engaging with languages, peoples, cultures and lands. Whereas translingualism suggests how we as human beings bring our multilingual resources in communication and social interaction rather than merely relying on separate languages. In addition, we also use multisemiotic resources, such as visuals, gestures, objects and instruments in our meaning making process. Taken together, transepistemic and translingualism put forward the idea about how we think of education and languages in terms of non-hierarchy and epistemic justice by challenging the dominant ideologies at local or global fronts.

The transepistemic academia in Pakistan would entail disrupting hierarchies where specific ideologies are deeply entrenched in the academic knowledge - the dominant national narratives that favour specific interest groups, colonial legacies, class disparity through different curricula and pedagogies, gender biases and exclusion of religious minorities. Thinking in terms of transepistemic education and translingualism has two implications. Firstly, it would provide equal opportunities for all linguistic, religious, gender and social groups to have their knowledge and languages treated equally through policies and practices. In addition, such an orientation would have political implications, since language is often viewed in relation to identity politics. Language ideologies of this type were Eurocentric constructions of the 20th century that contributed to the formation of nation-states and became part of ethnic consciousness in a colonial era. On the contrary, languages have always co-existed and evolved through interaction with each other in multilingual societies. In this view, transepistemic academia in Pakistan would help not only to reframe the academic spaces based on linguistic and knowledge equalities, but also to prepare learners as social beings committed to diversity, social justice and struggle for co-existence. The transepistemic academia would promote diversity and re-existence by delinking from imperialist ideologies and local orthodoxies.