Teaching World Languages for Social Justice

Abstract

The arguments in favor of language education have proceeded largely from perspectives that have failed to critically examine the marketplace ideology pervasive in the field. These ideological influences not only hold our endeavors in tension with stated objectives, but influence language education in Christian settings in ways that are inconsistent with a broader responsibility to fellow humans. The author explicates the contexts of foreign language advocacy in the United States, and comments on the challenges for Christian educators.If I stood before you today, 1 claiming to quote scripture, I would likely be challenged on the following "verses": Blessed are the marketable, for they shall inherit the earth; And do not forget to be efficient for with such sacrifices God is pleased; Good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world.Understandably, such distortions of scripture are not consistent with a Christian world-view. However, I would submit that for many foreign language education programs in Christian settings, such distortions have infiltrated a great deal of our curricular thinking.For several years, I have argued that a number of language educators are growing increasingly dissatisfied with the status quo of our profession, citing the "standards movement" as part of the root of their dissatisfaction. I reasoned that it feels as though language curricula are being "sterilized" and packaged in a way that eliminates much of the creativity 11-23

The Relative Priority of Conceptual and Procedural Knowledge in University Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE) Programs: Perspectives of In-Service Language Teachers in New Jersey

“…The conceptual items were designed with two ideals of teacher identity in mind: "teacher as theorizing practitioner" and "teacher as global citizen." The survey items of theoretical knowledge, action research, information on graduate programs, framework for organizing language programs, and framework for evaluating materials relate to "teachers as theorizing practitioners" (Richards, 2008;Tsui, 2011) in that these forms of conceptual knowledge make it possible for language teachers to generate knowledge about their own professional practice and to achieve praxis (Osborn, 2006).…”

Exploring the transformative potential of English language teaching for social justice: Introducing the special issue

“…The literature is abundant when it comes to studies that situate language at the intersection of societal, structural, and institutional inequalities (e.g., Avineri, Graham, Johnson, Conley Riner, & Rosa, 2019; Block, Gray, & Holborow, 2012; Heller, 2010; Holborow, 1999, 2015). Language teaching for social justice has been an imperative in curriculum design in many language instruction contexts such as English language arts (Alsup & Miller, 2014; Bender‐Slack, 2015; Dover, 2013), foreign language education (Bigelow, 2016; Cammarata, 2016; Ennser‐Kananen, 2016; Glynn, Wesely, & Wassell, 2018; Osborn, 2006; Reagan & Osborn, 2002), dual language education (DeMatthews & Izquierdo, 2016), and English as a second language (ESL) in the United States, including Indigenous, immigrant, and minority groups (Blackledge, 1999; McEachron & Bhatti, 2015; Nzai & Reeves, 2014; Skutnabb‐Kangas, 2009; Theodaris & O’Toole, 2011). With the growing interest in social justice teacher education, teacher candidates are now prepared to teach in ways that lessen “the inequalities … and the injustices that exist in societies beyond systems of schooling, in access to shelter, food, healthcare, transportation, access to meaningful work that pays a living wage and so on” (Zeichner, 2011, p. 7).…”

Re‐Envisioning the Roles, Tasks, and Contributions of Language Teachers in the Multilingual Era of Language Education Research and Practice

“…Critical pedagogy has become a standard guest at many a language conference and probably creeps into at least some advanced university language classes and informs some heritage language programs. For World Languages, we have the steady output of senior scholars such as Osborn (), Reagan (), Kubota (), and many others; particularly for heritage and bilingual education, we can rely on both long established and more recent lines of work (cf. García, ; Kramsch & von Hoene, ; Leeman & Roman–Mendoza, ) manifested by numerous and diverse scholars.…”