Erina Iwasaki is a Lecturer in the International and Comparative Education program at Teachers College Columbia University. She received her Bachelors of Arts (Licence) in philosophy, her Master of Arts in political and moral philosophy from the Université Paris-Sorbonne IV, and her PhD in Comparative and International Education from Teachers College Columbia University. Between her Masters and her PhD, Erina worked as a French language instructor, a school administrator, and a preschool and elementary school teacher.
Erina's research interests lie in language issues in educational development, particularly examining the efforts of ethnolinguistically non-dominant communities to advocate and implement education in their own languages.
Her research is currently located in West Africa (Senegal) and Southeast Asia (Myanmar).
Key research words: Bi-/multilingual education; L1-based MLE; mother-tongue based multilingual education; literacy; West Africa; Southeast Asia; language ideologies; decolonization; decoloniality; language-in-education policy; transitional political regimes; policy studies; qualitative methods
Journal Articles
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
Williams, J. T., & Iwasaki, E. (2022). “Reframing Policy and Practice: Languages in Education as Resources for Peace in Myanmar,” in Wong, M. (eds.), Teaching for Peace and Social Justice in Myanmar: Identity, Agency, and Critical Pedagogy. Bloomsbury, 117-133.