Dr. Mama Adobea Nii-Owoo

Dr. Mama Adobea Nii-Owoo is a critical applied sociolinguist with a background in language planning and policy, comparative international education, multiliteracies, multilingual education, language revitalization and teacher education. She is particularly interested in how literacy pedagogy for racialized and minoritized multilingual learners of English as a second language is addressed in policy and pedagogical frameworks at the individual, social, and national levels within pre-tertiary educational systems.

Her research draws on often-overlooked histories and methodologies within the theoretical canon of the Global South and is inspired by Southern and Decolonial theories as well as Africanist concepts such as Sankofa—learning from the past—and Ubuntu—compassionate reciprocity toward people and nature. She employs a multimethodological framework within critical qualitative inquiry for her empirical work: integrating archival methods, document analysis, qualitative interviewing, critical policy sociology, ethnographic methods and participatory action research. Her expertise encompasses visual, narrative, and cinematic storytelling techniques that effectively communicate theoretical and methodological insights to diverse audiences for social impact. Her research is notably featured in the documentary film "No Vernacular!" which explores the complexities of African multilingualism and language policy in Ghana.