The past few decades have been marked by an exponential growth in the interdisciplinary field of applied linguistics, which has noticeably advanced our collective understandings of how languages are learned and taught, as well as of how language policies have direct and indirect implications for language education and language teacher education (LTE) in particular. However, most of this burgeoning literature, theoretical orientations, and practices emanate from the global north. This situation has prompted scholars to call for a critical applied linguistics orientation (CAL, henceforth, Pennycook, 2022) to engage in more ethical and responsive alternative models of LTE. A CAL turn demands that as teacher educators we unsettle the common one-size-fits-all approach to teacher education based on highly Eurocentric and formulaic foundations, often having a de facto homogenizing effect on LTE programs across the globe. Among these, we must contest the persisting classist, monolingual, neocolonial, neoliberal, neo-national, gendered, and raciolinguistic narratives that are still highly pervasive in LTE (Kumaravadivelu, 2012; Pennycook, 2022, Wei & Garcia, 2022). In this presentation, three Canadian-based teacher educators discuss and showcase their various attempts to unpack and unsettle these multiple narratives in their respective LTE programs building on Kumaravadivelu's (2012) three operating principles of particularity, practicality, and possibility.
In the first contribution, Sreemali, shares her experiences using artistic generativity to help teacher candidates unpack their multiple identities and understand how these inform an evolving sense of their teaching selves at the University of Manitoba. These artistic renditions of themselves provide opportunities for self-reflection and dialogue with their peers resulting in holistic pedagogical interpretations of what is locally and personally relevant, which is at the core of Kumaravadivelu's principle of particularity in LTE.
Next, Marlon introduces an LTE practicum course he developed. In this course, student-teachers from York University in Toronto observed and collaborated with experienced professors and teacher candidates in Colombia via Zoom. This opportunity afforded teacher candidates a counter-hegemonic alternative to the native speaker narrative as non-native Colombian teachers hosted and mentored Canadian students. Teacher candidates followed the principle of practicality, and visual ethnography to observe and intervene in international language classrooms.
Last, Antoinette, introduces 'Me mapping' as a pedagogical tool that allows diverse learners and student teachers to showcase their plurilingual repertoires and important milestones in their lives, while sharing their dreams and hopes for the future. Me maps allowed student teachers to imagine and unleash their unbound futures, which lines up with the operating principle of possibility.
The presenters will engage in a multiethnographic dialogue to discuss parallels between their three contexts and experiences, allowing them to make a strong case to continue to shake the foundations of LTE.
References
Kumaravadivelu, B. (2012). Language teacher education for a global society: A modular model for knowing, analyzing, recognizing, doing, and seeing. Routledge.
Pennycook, A. (2022). Critical applied linguistics in the 2020s. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 1-21.
Wei, L., & García, O. (2022). Not a First Language but one Repertoire: Translanguaging as a Decolonizing Project. RELC Journal.
