Plenary Sessions

Title: Language education policies in Europe: a plurilingual laboratory for inclusion and democracy?

In terms of language policy, Europe seems to be the opposite of India. While Europe is associated with the spread of colonialism and the development of nation states and their languages, India suffered under English, French and other European colonisation and still struggles to manage its diverse languages and cultures. Both continents are multilingual and have conflicting attitudes towards English. Even after Brexit, Europe is adopting English more and more, while also feeling uncomfortable about its potential impact on its 24 official languages. India has adopted English as an official language alongside 22 others and appears more comfortable with its usage. Thus, in Europe, English can be perceived as a form of new imperialism, whereas in India, as a former colonial language, it is also viewed as a means of achieving the neutral management of its immense cultural and linguistic diversity. How does Europe manage the multilingual laboratory it created with the establishment of the European Union in 1992? What can be learned from the language education policies promoted by the EU? To what extent does the EU comply with its motto of 'United in Diversity' in terms of inclusion and democracy?

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Title: May the Odds Be Ever in Your Favor: Navigating Disruption and Uneven class structure in Higher Education

In the contemporary world the only predictable variable is unpredictable and unprecedented disruption—it may take shape of pandemic, political unrest, economic crises, technology or continue to further seemingly invisible collective intersecting crisis of socio-economic-cultural discrimination and disparity. Higher education organisations, Universities and colleges are arenas of complex multiple interactions and interconnections with inherent ability to impact change and be impacted by change. Disruptions, have clearly discernible consequences for higher education. It becomes imperative to question whether the universities can function as ivory towers; Indian universities are witnessing unsettling transformation where technology as disrupting variable is encountering stratification (caste, class, gender); the present talk draws on statistics from PARAKH 2024 Rashtriya Sarvekshan, Niti Aayog 2025 report on State Public Universities and the concept of ‘Dislocated Complexity’ given by Lorraine Ling and Kay Livingstone to bring into sharp focus that the class room is more unequal than ever before. The institutions of higher education need to move beyond the debate of solving the ‘complexity’ and move to inhabiting it, which entails moving away from abstract theories to the actual precarity of our students. The talk will also delve into the contemporary challenges for literature classrooms, as the role shifts for the teacher to turn into ‘navigational anchor’ than sage on the stage. For literary studies to remain significant and applicable in the age of ‘digital feudalism’ it’s important to ensure contextual density in our syllabi and pedagogy, recognizing the subset of diversity. ‘Agility’ in the structures of higher education: policy design, syllabi, research, educational resources, training is the prerequisite now. It roughly translates into positive adaptation. The talk will weave statistics, theoretical concepts, case studies and offer strategies to navigate these complex times in the classrooms.

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Title: Ethnography and Inclusivity: Exploring Methods, Relations, and Approaches

At the intersection of ethnography and inclusivity lies the key to achieving true representation of your research respondents’ life worlds. As social researchers, we have the ethical responsibility to be inclusive rather than exclude the values, and lived realities of our research subjects. This inclusivity must be ingrained into all stages of research, in order to achieve optimal results through your work. These stages include, but not limited, to the research design, planning and execution of field work to your analysis and writing. An ethical and compassionate ethnographic treatment of the participants of your research is key to achieving the desired social impact. Rather than treating participants as passive agents, this approach allows your research team to extend invitation to them as active agents of the entire project. Some of these techniques include deep ethnography and participant observation. This approach enables our engagement with the research subjects with a healthy amount of reflexivity and transparency.

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Title: Education as minimising epistemic injustice. On the importance of teaching critical thinking

The lecture will present a view on the role of critical thinking education in minimising epistemic injustice. The term in question was coined by the British philosopher Miranda Fricker, in the book Epistemic Injustice: Power & the Ethics of Knowing (1998), to cover situations in which an individual or a group is wronged or silenced, as not having the “capacity as a knower”, which means that their credibility as ones that contribute in epistemic activity is denied. The concept splits into two varieties: testimonial injustice, which occurs when someone is ignored because of their broadly construed identity: gender, race, disability, but also, one can add, social class or political orientation; and hermeneutical injustice, which takes place when someone cannot make themselves understood because of a lack of conceptual resources through which their experience, and thought, can be articulated. My claim is that although such epistemic injustice is embedded in our social structures and language, and thus cannot be totally eradicated from our lives, it can yet be minimized through critical thinking education, not least the pragma dialectical view on argumentation as van Eeemeren and Grootendorst set it out in, e.g. A systematic theory of argumentation: The pragma-dialectical approach (2004). In my view, forming the ability to think critically, especially with the help of pragmadialectical rules of leading discussions, leads to both diminishing testimonial and hermeneutical injustice. I aim to show that one of the goals of education can be seen as a minimization of epistemic injustice.

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Title: Designing Pedagogy for the Underrepresented: Mapping and Navigating the Gaps

This reflection aims to explore pedagogical methods and critical frameworks involved in imagining an inclusive classroom, one in which diverse identities genuinely find recognition and resonance. Central to this inquiry is a question that lies at the heart of inclusive education: what does it truly mean to belong in a classroom? This question assumes particular urgency for marginalised students who navigate socially constructed categories of caste, class, gender, and minority status within educational spaces. Addressing this concern requires more than incremental reform; it calls for a fundamental reimagining of classrooms as transformative spaces where every student is seen, heard, and valued. Therefore, this intervention urges critical attention to existing pedagogical frameworks that remain deeply entangled with practices of discrimination and exclusion. It further engages with contemporary educational discourses to interrogate the dominant project of subject formation shaped by ideals of efficiency, merit, and commodification. Although current educational narratives often claim to promote liberal values of equality and humanism, they frequently reproduce traditional moral orders rooted in family norms, gender roles, and entrenched social hierarchies.The lecture argues that meaningful inclusive pedagogy, particularly for marginalised learners, must confront systemic barriers while actively cultivating cultures of acceptance and affirmation. By fostering supportive learning environments, classrooms can become sites of empowerment rather than exclusion. While the pursuit of inclusive pedagogy is fraught with challenges, its promise lies in nurturing a more equitable, empathetic, and socially just society.