Southern multilingualisms and transknowledging: towards restoring plurality in applied linguistics and education

The purpose of this article is to offer a historiographical account and theoretical perspective of transknowledging as central to ‘multilingualisms,’ intimately connected with communality and humanity in plural societies. This discussion continues earlier work that identifies transknowledging as one of three major characteristics of southern multilingualisms: (i) plural, multidimensional multilingualisms purposefully used for specific functions (Heugh 1999. Languages, development and reconstructing education in South Africa. International Journal of Educational Development 19(4-5). 301–313); (ii) expression and exertion of linguistic agency and voice, i.e., ‘linguistic citizenship’ (Stroud 2001. African mother-tongue programmes and the politics of language: Linguistic citizenship versus linguistic human rights. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 22(4). 339–355); and (iii) reciprocal exchange and translation of knowledge, i.e., ‘transknowledging’ (Heugh 2021. Southern multilingualisms, translanguaging and transknowledging in inclusive and sustainable education. In P. Harding-Esch & H. Coleman (eds.), Language and the sustainable development goals , 37–47. British Council). Southern multilingualisms with their triangular balance of characteristics occur alongside or intersect with several further sets of equibalanced triangular associations that have underpinned human societies for millennia. These include epistemologies, cosmologies and ontologies; logos, ethos and pathos; pasts, presents and futures. Missing from many discussions of linguistic plurality has been recognition of the triangular relationality of transknowledging alongside linguistic citizenship and the multidimensionality and plurality of multilingualisms. Recognising the importance of keeping these relationalities and pluralities in balance as central to homo sapiens amans and convivial societies has consequences for how educators and linguists weigh the ethos, pathos and logos of their work.