Who Gets to Learn, and in What Language?

About the Guest 

Mercy Martins is a language-in-education researcher whose work examines how language shapes access, participation, and legitimacy within educational systems.

Her research centres on decolonising language in education, with a focus on how English-medium instruction can create uneven learning conditions, particularly for students navigating layered linguistic and social expectations. She engages these questions through a broader interest in development, policy, and the lived realities of learners across the Global South.

Currently a doctoral researcher at the University of Bath, with postgraduate study in Development and Security at the University of Bristol, her work draws on interdisciplinary experience across research, education, and policy environments. This allows her to approach educational questions not only as theoretical concerns, but as practical and systemic challenges.

Her perspective is further shaped by her background and experience across diverse institutional and social contexts, informing a sustained focus on inclusion, equity, and the relationship between language, power, and opportunity.

In this conversation, her work speaks directly to a central question:

when language becomes a condition for belonging, who is left outside?

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