ABSTRACT
The main aim of this final chapter is to provide ideas for moving forward. Whilst acknowledging all that we have written about in the previous chapters, it looks beyond these themes to a more personalised approach to development. We begin by examining the importance of considering our own values and principles for teaching and learning and then move on to 9link this with the importance of teacher agency. The benefits of professional learning and development are discussed, with reference to resources you may find useful. We provide some examples of mistakes we have made along the way, with the intention of reassuring our readers that, as humans, these mistakes are inevitable, to be embraced and will help us move forward. The chapter, and indeed the book, concludes with a final author dialogue, where we put forward our vision for the future in terms of language-aware classrooms.
Before we finish this introduction, we wanted to share a quote from a child in Virginia’s class many years ago, who said, ‘I love it when you read to us, miss, as I can hear the voices in my head and picture all the people’. We hope that, through this book, you will hear the voices of many, picture different circumstances and contexts, embrace differences and be inspired to be an advocate for the overt celebration of language and culture and to be an ally to all those you encounter within this challenging yet rewarding entity that is learning and teaching.
