Opening ideological and implementational spaces for multilingual/plurilingual policies and practices in education: a snapshot of scholarly activism in Pakistan

The study proposes that Critical Multilingual Language Awareness (CMLA) can be deployed as a productive theoretical construct for scholarly activism in a country such as Pakistan where multilingualism and linguistic diversity have historically been seen as problems than assets in education. We illustrate that such activism can transform orientations and deconstruct myths/misconceptions about bi/multilingual/plurilingual education as research suggests greater public glorification of the dominant languages such as English and Urdu vis-a-vis native languages. Given the subtractive linguistic ecology, this paper explores how prevailing orientations about native languages can be neutralized and positively transformed. The study suggests how scholars/researchers or activists can create 'ideological and implementational spaces' [Hornberger, N. H. (2003). Continua of biliteracy: An ecological framework for educational policy, research, and practice in multilingual settings. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters;...