Glocally situated advocacy for transformative language education

Abstract

Abstract Language ideologies have been widely examined in applied linguistics, yet less attention has been paid to how ideological awareness informs advocacy and transformative action in language education. This introductory article frames the contributions to this special issue by conceptualizing advocacy as a glocally situated, relational, and action-oriented process through which educators, researchers, communities, and policymakers respond to linguistic inequities. Synthesizing six studies conducted across diverse educational contexts, we highlight how advocacy is enacted through community engagement, teacher agency, institutional negotiation, and critical reflexivity. Building on these contributions, we outline an advocacy-oriented pedagogical perspective that extends critical language awareness toward transformative praxis, clarify key conceptual terms, and identify directions for future research on advocacy in language education committed to equity and social justice.