It’s hard to be what you cannot see: Subjectification and inclusion within the languages curriculum

KAREN HANRAHAN, IOE, UCL’S FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND SOCIETY, UK HANNAH VENTISEI, CLAPTON GIRLS’ ACADEMY, UK Biesta (2015) argues that education serves three overlapping purposes: qualification (developing knowledge and skills), socialisation (becoming part of existing social and cultural norms and traditions) and subjectification (developing students’ agency or ‘subject-ness’). In advocating for a ‘flipped curriculum’ – which places subjectification at the heart of education, with qualification and socialisation playing supporting roles – Biesta (2022) contends that education ultimately involves learning ‘what it means to exist in and with the world in a grown-up way’ (p. 51). In this article, we consider the extent to which the current languages curriculum supports this ‘flipped’ view of education, enabling students to explore the world and their place within it alongside acquiring important linguistic knowledge and cultural understanding. How can the