As a “nomad researcher”, I will draw from multiple migration experiences (Madagascar, Kenya, Canada, France, England, New Caledonia, Martinique) as well as a plurilingual standpoint to promote creatively inclusive teacher education. Inclusive pedagogy generally means student-centered approaches. If it equally refers to the principle of epistemic justice (Medina, 2011; Mohanty, 1989; Fricker, 2007), then educators, professors, scientists, trainers – in a word “experts”– have to concede to sharing their expertise status with students, trainees and members of larger society. In this paper, decentering linguistic expertise will be discussed as an ethical education posture especially when it comes to teaching in (post)colonial contexts or with communities that are minorized based on linguistic features. It is also a highly efficient way of preparing future teachers to integrate the didactic value of their classrooms’ cultural, linguistic and experiential diversity. Finally, on a long-term basis, the proactive inclusion of students’ expertise in pre-service teacher education contributes to (re)building every students’ self-esteem. However little it may be, such impact always repercusses to empowering minorized children, families, communities and decision-makers for we are dealing with the preparation of culturally-sensitive professionals in the field of education. As a concrete illustration of decentered language expertise and epistemic justice, I will present a creatively inclusive project carried out in a pre-service teacher program at the University of New Caledonia (2018-2020). In collaboration with local artists, the aim was to foster a better understanding of “linguistic micro-aggressions” (Razafimandimbimanana & Wacalie, 2020) both within student body and larger society. One of the innovative dimensions here was the use of pluriartistic mediation (photography, narrative biographies, street-art) at university level. Decentering linguistic expertise also calls for us researchers to rethink how we produce, share and embody scientific knowledge.

Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Clarendon Press. Medina, J. (2011). The Epistemology of Resistance: Gender and Racial Oppression, Epistemic Injustice, and Resistant Imaginations. Oxford University Press Mohanty, C. (1989). « On Race and Voice: Challenges for Liberal Education in the 1990s”. Cultural Critique, no. 14: 179-208. Razafimandimbimanana, E., Wacalie, F. (2020). « Une forme insidieuse de mépris : les micro-agressions linguistiques en Nouvelle-Calédonie », Lidil, 61. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/lidil/7477