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20230719T101520230719T1800Europe/Amsterdam[SYMP26] Deconstructing the “critical” in critical pedagogies: Teacher and Learner PerspectivesHybrid Session (onsite/online)AILA 2023 - 20th Anniversary Congress Lyon Editioncellule.congres@ens-lyon.fr
Just What is Critical Race Theory, and What's it Doing in a Nice Place Like the World Language Classroom?
[SYMP26] Deconstructing the “critical” in critical pedagogies: Teacher and Learner Perspectives10:15 AM - 06:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 08:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 16:00:00 UTC
"Just what is Critical Race Theory [CRT], and what's it doing in a nice field like education?" Gloria Ladson-Billings (2009) first posed this question in 1998, while more recently, Allison Crump (2014) has theorized what she calls "LangCrit," or "Critical Language and Race Theory," to examine the intersection of language use and the propagation of racism in its various forms. This paper looks at specific applications of CRT in a university-level Spanish program in the Silicon Valley, California (United States), along with some of the program's venues of community-engaged language learning. It likewise considers the potential for LangCrit alongside CRT as tools to aid language students in understanding the intersections of racism and social inequity with language and identity. The paper finds that CRT is indeed an invaluable tool, and that LangCrit likewise holds vast potential for enhancing language students' social justice learning and linguistic advancement.
When Gloria Ladson-Billings (2009) posed the question "Just what is Critical Race Theory, and what's it doing in a nice field like education?" in 1998, she heralded a new era, introducing to educators what had served theretofore as a means of theorizing structural racial inequalities in the law. Ladson-Billings and others applied critical race theory (CRT) as an essential analytical tool for systemic racial injustice in education, and indeed, in the whole of society.
But if CRT has applications to the field of education generally, what might be the some of the specific benefits of its implementation in the world language classroom? Can CRT likewise help inform language students about structural inequalities in target cultures as well as their own? Even, or perhaps especially, in times when CRT has come under fire from the political right, is this set of theories a similarly helpful tool for learners who want to understand more deeply the inner workings of the target culture as well as their own, and, ultimately, to come to a deeper understanding of the human capacity to create and vigorously sustain injustice, as well as to vibrantly and resiliently combat it? Finally, in courses that include community-engaged language learning (CELL), how does CRT help students grow in understanding of the community with which they interact, and where do we see evidence of learners' transformational growth?
This paper explores these questions through the application of two long-standing CRT principles, that of intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1995) and community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005), and their application in one practitioner's university-level CELL classrooms before, during, and in (what is hoped will be) the waning months of the pandemic. Looking at Intermediate and Advanced Spanish students in CELL programs that couple them with adult workers in the Silicon Valley, California (United States), the paper provides details of social justice curricula, classroom materials, learner-initiated activities, and student gains in understanding societal inequities while advancing linguistically.
Ultimately, the paper argues that CRT is an essential tool for language classrooms, with seemingly limitless potential for helping students deepen their understandings of "ways in which race, racism, and racialization intersect with issues of language, belonging, and identity" Crump (2014).
Crenshaw, K. (1995). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity, politics, and violence against women of color. Critical Race Theory: The key writings that formed the movement. Crenshaw, K., Gotanda, N., Peller, G. and Thomas, K. (Eds.). New York: The New Press. Crump, A. (2014). Introducing LangCrit: Critical language and race theory. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies (11)3, 207-224. Ladson-Billings, G. (2009). "Just what is critical race theory, and what's it doing in a nice field like education?" Foundations of critical race theory in education. Taylor, E. Gillborn, D., and Ladson-Billings, G. (Eds.). New York and London: Routledge. Yosso, T. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A Critical Race Theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race, Ethnicity and Education (8)1, 69-91.
Learner identity and curricular development: Building communities of critical inquiry in language classrooms
Oral Presentation[SYMP26] Deconstructing the “critical” in critical pedagogies: Teacher and Learner Perspectives10:15 AM - 06:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 08:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 16:00:00 UTC
Learner identity and curricular development: Building communities of critical inquiry in language classrooms
According to Johnson and Randolph (2015), critical approaches to language learning must address difference, power, and social stratification in the classroom and in the world. This is a challenging accomplishment, since students entering the collegiate foreign language classroom bring a vast variety of social-cultural experiences. Therefore, our research project and associated curriculum development project is grounded in a systematic assessment of the diverse needs and interests of our students. Data collection for the needs assessment occurred in beginning and intermediate-level French language courses across three institutions of higher education in the United States: A private liberal arts college in New England, a peer-institution in the South, and a public HBCU. In the first part of our presentation, we will share nuanced insights from the three institutional contexts about student perceptions of their identities, and how they position themselves towards other cultures. The second part of our presentation will demonstrate curricular implications. Based on our findings, we designed and tested the impact of three instructional units that focused explicitly on diversity and equity in language education. These units aimed at providing students with opportunities to collectively and individually reflect on subjects related to language and power, inclusive language use, and language and critical cultural awareness. Our data suggests that the units transformed the classroom into a community of critical inquiry, as students developed an awareness of how language education often perpetuates inequities due to historical and current injustices. They developed an awareness that such inequities exist even in their classroom. We will conclude by highlighting that curriculum developers must first attempt to better understand who their students really are, before being able to design learning experiences that can effectively address the many inherent systemic inequities that are deeply woven into educational practices, interactions, and institutions.
Bibliography Randolph Jr, L. J., & Johnson, S. M. (2017). Social justice in the language classroom: A call to action. Dimension, 99, 121.
A critical and multiliteracies-based pedagogical approach to project-based learning in the second language classroom
Oral Presentation[SYMP26] Deconstructing the “critical” in critical pedagogies: Teacher and Learner Perspectives10:15 AM - 06:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 08:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 16:00:00 UTC
Nieto (2010) argues that critical pedagogy is an "exploder of myths," because it explores and critically analyzes whole truths that consider all perspectives. This kind of pedagogy has been taken up quite naturally in world language classes as these spaces are ones in which issues surrounding language ideology, social justice, and identity can be critically examined. Still, the gap between theory and practice is broad (Reagan & Osborn, 2020). This gap might be bridged through critical thinking, action and social change, content mastery, awareness of multicultural group dynamics, and personal reflection (Hackman, 2005).
This presentation highlights findings from a study designed to bridge this gap between theory and practice of critical pedagogy. In an introductory French course, students from various linguistic backgrounds presented on and critically analyzed historical and linguistic information about a French-speaking country. Students also read and presented on short reflections by francophone authors discussing their relationship with the language, why they use it, and the interplay between the history of that country and the author's work. The students then wrote reflections on the similarities and differences between their relationships with the language and the various authors' relationships they and their peers presented on. Their reflections were an integral part of the critical pedagogical approach and specifically entailed a discussion of their identities.
Student projects and reflections were thematically analyzed (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to explore how the students critically engaged with the content of the projects. Findings demonstrated the benefits of multimodal project-based learning grounded in critical pedagogy through student discussions of identity, multiculturalism and multilingualism, and colonialism.
This project shows the possibility of unifying several pedagogical approaches in the world language classroom. It incorporated pedagogical acts associated with a pedagogy of multiliteracies, the acts of analyzing both functionally and critically, and made use of authentic texts (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009). The project-based learning approach provided a natural path to action and social change, through critical thinking, content mastery, and trust of students' knowledge and experience, specifically their multicultural identities (Brydon-Miller, 2006). By bringing Hackman's (2005) concepts into play with a multiliteracies lens in a project-based, multilingual learning environment, this research project demonstrates the possibility of using critical pedagogies to explore timely and meaningful issues in a beginner-level world language classroom.
Braun, & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa Brydon-Miller, M. (2006). Photovoice and Freiran critical pedagogy: Providing a liberatory theoretical framework to project-based learning in second language education. In G. H. Beckett & P. C. Miller (Eds.), Project-Based Second and Froeign Language Education: Past, Present, and Future (pp. 41–54). Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2009). "Multiliteracies": New Literacies, New Learning. In Pedagogies: An International Journal, 4(3), 164–195. https://doi.org/10.1080/15544800903076044 Hackman. (2005). Five Essential Components for Social Justice Education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 38(2), 103–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665680590935034 Nieto, S. (2010). Language, culture, and teaching: critical perspectives. Routledge. Norton, B. (2008). Identity, language learning, and critical pedagogies. Encyclopedia of language and education, 6, 45-59.
Presenters Rachel Floyd Ph.D. Candidate, University Of Arizona
Critical thinking through Content Language Integrated Learning - an interdisciplinary, bilingual (Spanish-German) teaching unit that fosters Global Education
Oral Presentation[SYMP26] Deconstructing the “critical” in critical pedagogies: Teacher and Learner Perspectives10:15 AM - 06:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 08:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 16:00:00 UTC
This presentation aims at providing information on and insights into a current PhD project in the area of Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) that deals with Critical Thinking (CT) in cross-curricular and cross-linguistic instruction. In the research project, self-designed project lessons on the topic "Feminism, violence against women and femicides in Spanish-speaking countries" were conducted as an Action Research project at a German high school in the context of a Spanish-German bilingual program. Since subject matter learning is seen as an effective tool for CT, this project also uses Task-based learning (TBL) with real-life content. The analysis of student products developed in and outside of class will be the main focus of the presentation. The question how teachers and students critically engage with cultural and linguistic content, when and how students develop arguments orally and in writing, as well as other factors such as the educational, social and cultural environment of the students will be considered.
Nowadays, Critical Thinking (CT) is considered to be one of the most important competences in our globalized and socially complex world and, therefore, "a significant goal" of language classes and "an integral part of […] language education" (Yuan, Stapleton 2019, 40, 48). Lacorte and Atienza even argue that a "giro crítico" (2018, 139), which translates to "critical turn", already began in the mid-1990s. Despite this clear demand, CT is rarely part of (language) classes or even school curricula. The lack of research on CT in schools is taken as the starting point for this paper. It aims at providing information on and insights into a current PhD project in the area of Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) that deals with Critical Thinking in cross-curricular and cross-linguistic instruction. In the research project, self-designed project lessons (cf. Lacorte, Atienza 2018, 145) were conducted as an Action Research project (cf. Yuan, Stapleton 2019, 47f.) at a high school in Lower Saxony, Germany in the context of a Spanish-German bilingual program. The students of an 11th grade class were introduced to the topic "Feminism, violence against women and femicides in Spanish-speaking countries." This topic, which is part of Global Education, was dealt with on different levels and by means of different methodological approaches. Learners develop critical literacy "through interactive activities" (Yuan, Stapleton 2019, 41) by addressing critical content and questions (Lacorte, Atienza 2018, 145) and by developing a multi-perspective view. Since subject matter learning is seen as an effective tool for CT (Jones 2009), this project also uses Task-based learning (TBL) with real-life content. For example, the teacher guided the students through a practice in which they had to empathize with diverse roles. The students developed a freeze frame based on the questions the teacher asked them with regard to their individuals roles (cf. Büter 2018, 17). This practice encouraged the students to reflect on their roles, different life circumstances and "thereby broaden[ed] their horizons and instill[ed] a sense of CT" (Yuan, Stapleton 2019, 43f.). This exercise as well as other student products, developed in and outside of class, and their analysis will be the main focus of the presentation. In my talk, I will deal with the question how teachers and students critically engage with cultural and linguistic content.
Critical Intercultural Learning in a Pre-Primary Multilingual Awareness-Raising Program
Oral Presentation[SYMP26] Deconstructing the “critical” in critical pedagogies: Teacher and Learner Perspectives10:15 AM - 06:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 08:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 16:00:00 UTC
In the field of language education, several models of intercultural learning have emphasized the intricate relationship between language and culture. Among the most cited are Byram's (1997) theory of intercultural communicative competence and Kramsch's work on third places (1993), and later, symbolic competence (2006). These models delineate components or identify dimensions of intercultural competence, and Kramsch's theory makes tighter connections between linguistic elements and the sense-making around these that support intercultural competence. These two models also crucially underscore the centrality of critical awareness (Byram, 1997) and the centrality of symbolic power in language use and learning (Kramsch, 2006; Kramsch & Whiteside, 2008); however, these prevalent models do not theorize how intercultural competence develops nor do they connect development of interculturality with pedagogical or curricular design processes. Building from these theoretical foundations and drawing on both Svalberg's (2009) model of engagement with language and meaning-based theories of the ways language and culture connect (Halliday, 1978), especially in language learning settings (Kearney, 2016), we have fashioned a model of Growing Multilingual Awareness in early childhood (forthcoming) and begin the presentation in detailing the model in order to anchor our subsequent discussion of empirical analyses. To counter a nation-state focused or monolithic view of cultures and of interculturality, we developed and implemented the Growing Multilingual Awareness program with pre-primary learners. The program aimed to provide an interactional environment that would, to whatever extent possible, promote semiotic awareness and empowerment (as opposed to focusing on communicative proficiency). This program was in place over the course of six years and was implemented in 33 classrooms among 539 children. The primary source of data collected were video-recorded observations of classroom interactions, which were initially analyzed through the lens of Svalberg's engagement with language model and then with the model we developed to capture other dimensions of children's sense-making around language. Our presentation highlights examples from the program (video and transcripts) that illustrate how young children can and do develop critical intercultural awareness and exercise semiotic empowerment in interactions around new language(s). We show both how the program succeeded and sometimes failed to foster engagement with language, critical consciousness and semiotic empowerment among learners in the pre-primary setting. We summarize some key insights for developing interculturality in practice in the early childhood classroom and advance the argument that a critical lens for thinking about world languages education and pursuing development of criticality through world languages education are both potential routes to challenging pervasive monolingual ideologies and alternatively socializing multilingual norms and orientations among learners in the U.S.
Toward a Justice Oriented Approach: Addressing Equity Issues in K-12 U.S. World Language Programs
Oral Presentation[SYMP26] Deconstructing the “critical” in critical pedagogies: Teacher and Learner Perspectives10:15 AM - 06:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 08:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 16:00:00 UTC
World language programs in the US experience a myriad of equity issues. Some issues are a result of programmatic structures, while others are imposed on programs by the school, district, or state, or at the micro and macro levels. These equity issues became even more pronounced in light of the global pandemic and the movement toward racial justice in 2020. In response, a number of teachers and world language supervisors have begun to consider and respond to issues of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. Yet the extent to which teachers and supervisors are working to dismantle inequitable policies and practices affecting language programs is impacted by different factors; additionally, the extent to which teachers and supervisors can identify the significance and impact of equity issues varies. This mixed methods research study reports on the beliefs, practices, and efforts of K-12 U.S. world language teachers and world language supervisors from two racially and linguistically diverse states as they move toward developing a justice-oriented approach to language programming, teaching, and learning.
Privilege plays a significant role in world language (WL) education. Studying what some still refer to as "foreign" language has been described as a colonialist, imperialist, and elitist endeavor (Lanvers, 2017; Macedo, 2019) that is targeted toward white students and students with ample resources. Scholars also suggest that there is a need for more intentional critical and culturally sustaining pedagogies in WL education to address issues of equity in both the curriculum and instruction (Baggett, 2020; Glynn et al., 2018; Osborn, 2006). Equity issues, structural and organizational, have been defined more broadly in schooling contexts, such as tracking, retention, standardized testing, curriculum, pedagogy, climate and physical structure, disciplinary policies, and the limited roles of students, teachers, families, and communities (Nieto & Bode, 2018). However, the extent to which WL teachers, supervisors, and administrators are aware of these threats to justice and equity, or may be working to dismantle them, is less clear. The framework that guided this study emphasizes the dialectical relationship between institutional structures and agency (Sewell, 1992). This mixed methods study involved 236 WL teachers and 12 supervisors and aims to answer the following research questions: (1) What are WL educators' and WL supervisors' perceptions of equity issues in their schools, communities, and WL programs? (2) What are WL teachers and supervisors doing in response to these issues? The findings from a questionnaire revealed that although the teachers could identify key equity issues in their schools, some still felt that the issues had little impact on their programs. The teachers' agency to take action and address the equity issues also varied greatly from passive action to sustained, engaged action. Focus groups with WL supervisors demonstrated that although they were able to more easily identify equity issues affecting language programs, they varied in their abilities to describe meaningful, effective steps toward addressing the issues.
Baggett, H. (2020). Relevance, representation, and responsibility: Exploring WL teachers' critical consciousness and pedagogies. L2 Journal, 12(2), 34–54. https://doi.org/10.5070/L212246037 Glynn, C., Wesely, P., & Wassell, B. (2018). Words and actions: Teaching languages through the lens of social justice. 2nd ed. ACTFL. Lanvers, U. (2017). Elitism in language learning in the UK. In D. R. Rivers & K. Zotzmann, (Eds.) Isms in language education (pp. 50-73). De Gruyter Mouton. Macedo, D. (Ed.). (2019). Decolonizing foreign language education: The misteaching of English and other colonial languages. Routledge. Nieto, S., & Bode, P. (2018). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (7th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Osborn, T. (2006). Teaching foreign languages for Social Justice: A sourcebook of principles and practices. In Teaching WLs for Social Justice. Taylor and Francis. Sewell Jr, W. H. (1992). A theory of structure: Duality, agency, and transformation. American Journal of Sociology, 98(1), 1-29.
Critical Intercultural Learning among Teachers of French
Oral Presentation[SYMP26] Deconstructing the “critical” in critical pedagogies: Teacher and Learner Perspectives10:15 AM - 06:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 08:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 16:00:00 UTC
In order for language learners to develop critical cultural awareness (Byram, 1997) and symbolic competence (Kramsch, 2006), they need to experience pedagogies that stretch their meaning-making potentials and repertoires (Kearney, 2016). Yet, language teachers often feel ill-equipped to address culture and interculturality at all in their classrooms (Sercu, 2006), and we know little about the interculturality of language teachers themselves and the processes through which it develops. In this paper, we propose and document ways to intentionally cultivate a critical intercultural pedagogy in language teachers, and analyze the processes through which teachers' critical pedagogies develop. We report on a qualitative study designed and conducted in two connected courses on interculturality, offered during a summer study abroad program for North American teachers of French, in Angers, France. We first describe the context and curriculum for these courses, which focused on concepts in intercultural learning and teaching, such as meaning potentials and the relationship between language and culture. In these courses, teachers critically engage with concepts and practices related to critical cultural awareness, symbolic competence, multiliteracies, multimodality, intertextuality and design. During the program, teachers gathered and created texts, largely through design-based, place-based, and walking pedagogies that promoted intentional, sensorily-grounded and reflective exploration of the physical and social spaces that study abroad made possible. While in Angers, the participating teachers collaboratively and critically reflected on their own intercultural experiences, in light of these constructs and of their own embodied, sensory, and emplaced experiences. Collectively, we then explicitly connected these experiences to possibilities for language classroom teaching, mutating personal intercultural experiences into a shared repository of all types of texts as well as specific ideas for how these texts could anchor lessons and units in the teachers' K-12 classrooms in the U.S. This qualitative research study investigates 1) how French teachers on a short-term study abroad program developed critical intercultural pedagogies; and 2) how they demonstrated applications to their own teaching contexts and practice. The data collected include video recordings of some class sessions; the text sets collected and created during the program; the lesson ideas the teachers generated and a pre- and post-course survey. Inductive coding, informed by our theoretical frames, was carried out by both researchers, and line-by-line interactional analysis was carried out on transcripts of classroom interactions. We share illustrative examples both from teachers' sense-making discussions and the teaching plans they created and implemented in their K12 classrooms in order to show how critical intercultural pedagogies can flourish as a result of language teachers' experiences abroad. References
Byram, M. (1997). Teaching and assessing intercultural competence. Multilingual Matters.
Kearney, E. (2016). Intercultural learning in modern language education: Expanding meaning-making potentials. Multilingual Matters.
Kramsch, C. (2006). From communicative competence to symbolic competence. Modern Language Journal, 90(2), 249-252.
Sercu, L. (2016). The foreign language and intercultural competence teacher: The acquisition of a new professional identity. Intercultural Education, 17(1), 55-72.
Engaging in critical sociolinguistic inquiry and embodied practice through a translanguaging stance
Oral Presentation[SYMP26] Deconstructing the “critical” in critical pedagogies: Teacher and Learner Perspectives10:15 AM - 06:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 08:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 16:00:00 UTC
Engaging with the symposium theme, this paper proposes a renewed vision of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) through a translanguaging (TL) stance, grounded in critical sociolinguistic inquiry and embodied practice. A TL theory of language asserts an activist agenda to dismantle mono/lingualism, inviting a more dynamic and expansive view of multilingualism that actively challenges linguistic hierarchies and associated ideologies to recognize networks of meaning distributed across linguistic and nonlinguistic forms. This openness to all resources beyond language commensurates with the emerging posthumanist and new materialist perspectives in applied linguistics to consider how bodies, objects, and space intersect as wider assemblages, inciting critical citizenship in ethical interdependence between the human and natural world. Grounded in this understanding, we propose a systematic, coherent TL methodology for TESOL and language education, engaging teachers and students in critical sociolinguistic inquiry and embodied practice to support interrogation of language and power, mapping inter- and intra-actions in the human, social and eco-environment. Providing examples from classroom studies and teacher education research, we discuss implications for both K–12 classrooms and postsecondary educational contexts.
Engaging with the symposium theme, this conceptual paper addresses why critical sociolinguistic inquiry is important to carry out in second language classes and how it may support teachers in implementing critical pedagogies. Broadly, our argument asserts a renewed vision of teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) through a translanguaging (TL) stance, emphasizing critical sociolinguistic inquiry and embodied practice. Drawing on experience in language and teacher education across K–12 and postsecondary contexts both in Canada and other countries, we have come to understand that while textbooks and ready-made resources are useful references, teaching and learning comes alive when it connects with who students are and what concerns and interests them, which generates possibilities for sociolinguistic inquiry and anchors language learning and use in addressing social issues. However, current dominant approaches to TESOL continue to follow the ideology of pragmatism (Benesch, 1993), frequently dominated by skills-based curricula (i.e., reading, writing, listening, speaking) and structured, prescriptive, and generalized teaching strategies, methods and approaches. Unless grounded in problem-posing inquiry, this pragmatic approach can reinforce and uphold the status quo, rather than allowing students to recognize, explore, and question how such topics can affect personal, political, economic, and cultural lives. Language and literacy (particularly print-based) have been privileged representational practices, raising the question of what is missing in understanding meaning and meaning making from a merely humanist perspective. Taking up the call from García et al. (2021) to decolonize and challenge the abyssal line – that is, arbitrary division that renders invisible and irrelevant the experiences and knowledges of minoritized communities (de Sousa Santos, 2018) - we draw on TL to assert an activist agenda to dismantle mono/lingualism, inviting a more dynamic and expansive view of multilingualism that recognizes networks of meaning distributed across linguistic and nonlinguistic forms. This openness to all resources beyond language commensurates with the emerging posthumanist and new materialist perspectives in applied linguistics to consider how bodies, objects, and space intersect as wider assemblages, inciting critical citizenship in ethical interdependence between the human and natural world. Emergent from this understanding, we propose a systematic, coherent TL methodology for TESOL, engaging teachers and students in critical sociolinguistic inquiry and embodied practice to support interrogation of language and power, mapping intra-actions in the human, social and eco-environment. Engaging a broader and more encompassing trans-systemic TL theorization, we present a heuristic model with which to articulate teaching and learning practices that fully reflect, mobilize and strengthen assemblages of meaning making and repertoires of practice across the human and natural world. With this approach teachers might explore with students ways of doing/being/knowing in reflexivity towards different forms of inequity, particularly one's privilege and complicity and ethical responsibility within the sociocultural, sociopolitical, and eco-world. Illustrated with examples from classroom practice, the presentation will make visible how this model can be applied to explore how language functions and intersects with power, drawing attention to cultural, eco-social and political circumstances that mediate language teaching and use.
Developing critical multilingual language awareness (CMLA): The impact of coursework on preservice teachers’ language ideologies and pedagogical practices
Oral Presentation[SYMP26] Deconstructing the “critical” in critical pedagogies: Teacher and Learner Perspectives10:15 AM - 06:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 08:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 16:00:00 UTC
Teacher education has increasingly integrated diversity-focused pedagogical approaches into their programs in order to better prepare future teachers for increasingly linguistically diverse student populations (Shepard-Carey & Gopalakrishnan, 2021). One such approach, Critical Multilingual Language Awareness, or CMLA, offers a promising avenue forward to cultivate pre-service teachers' critical awareness of the various dimensions of language. Recently developed by Prasad and Lory (2020), CMLA represents an adaptation of James and Garret's (1992) models, which identifies five domains involved in cultivating pre-service teachers' language awareness: the cognitive, social, affective, performance and power domain. Building on these domains and rather than focusing only on languages, Prasad and Lory's CMLA framework reconceptualizes and extends the body of LA work in Europe and Canada by focusing on language users and their communicative repertoires (García, 2017). Crucially, power is placed at the center of their framework. As it has the potential to problematize power in different ways – along the lines of race, social class, gender, language hierarchies, etc. – CMLA can open new paths for multilingual, anti-racist and culturally-and-linguistically sustaining pedagogies. This study explores the impact of CMLA course work on the pedagogical beliefs and practices of preservice teachers at a large Midwestern U.S. university. A survey gauging students' evolving awareness of the five aforementioned CMLA domains was administered at the beginning (n = 40) and end (n = 26) of the semester-long course work. Additionally, lesson artifacts (e.g., lesson plans, language portraits, reflections) were collected across adjacent courses and, at the end of the semester, in-depth student (n = 4) and instructor (n = 3) interviews were conducted to contextualize the data. Based on a quantitative analysis of the survey data, and an iterative and recursive analysis of the qualitative data through the five CMLA domains, this paper addresses preservice teachers' developing awareness of language ideologies that impact English learners' equitable access to educational opportunities. Our findings point to a clear tension between the acceptance of a multilingual ideology and an evolving understanding of how to apply CMLA to their teaching practice. We will discuss how our findings can lead to a more effective implementation of CMLA in teacher education coursework and thus help pre-service teachers become 'moral agents of change' (Kubanyiova & Crookes, 2016, p. 119).
García, O. (2017). Critical multilingual language awareness and teacher education. In J. Cenoz, D. Gorter, & S. May (Eds.), Language awareness and multilingualism (pp. 263-280). Springer. James, C., & Garrett, P. (Eds.). (1992). Language awareness in the classroom. Longman. Kubanyiova, M., & Crookes, G. (2016). Re‐envisioning the roles, tasks, and contributions of language teachers in the multilingual era of language education research and practice. The Modern Language Journal, 100(S1), 117-132. Prasad, G., & Lory, M. P. (2020). Linguistic and Cultural Collaboration in Schools: Reconciling Majority and Minoritized Language Users. TESOL Quarterly, 54(4), 797-822. Shepard-Carey, L., & Gopalakrishnan, A. (2021). Developing critical language awareness in future English language educators across institutions and courses, Language Awareness, 1-18. Published online November 15.
“Delving deeper”: Affordances, constraints, and supports for implementing critical inquiry in language education
Oral Presentation[SYMP26] Deconstructing the “critical” in critical pedagogies: Teacher and Learner Perspectives10:15 AM - 06:00 PM (Europe/Amsterdam) 2023/07/19 08:15:00 UTC - 2024/07/19 16:00:00 UTC
Critical inquiry is at the heart of critical pedagogies such as multiliteracies and social justice approaches (Hackman, 2005; New London Group 1996). Although many language teachers have embraced such approaches, implementing critical inquiry in the classroom can be difficult. For example, Wassell, Wesely & Glynn (2019) reported that multiple factors inhibit K-16 language teachers' ability to engage students in challenging conversations including fear of backlash, students' linguistic proficiency, and lack of time for curricular innovation. Additionally, Rowland et al. (2014) and Menke and Paesani (2019) reported that multiliteracies instructional materials underemphasized the framework's critical components, though the reason why remained unclear. This present study aims to deepen our understanding of how critical inquiry is carried out in language classes by answering the following research questions: What facilitates and constrains the implementation of critical inquiry? What experiences and resources support teachers' understanding of critical pedagogies? This qualitative study examines the experiences of 4 postsecondary language instructors developing curricular units grounded in multiliteracies and social justice pedagogies. Data collected at various points of the curriculum development process include questionnaires, interviews, consultation meetings, group work sessions, and classroom observations. Using the lens of Sociocultural Theory (van Lier, 2004; Vygotsky, 1978) and multicycle descriptive coding (Saldaña, 2016), we analyze the mediational and environmental affordances and constraints that influence how instructors planned for critical inquiry in instruction as well as the tools and systems that supported their understanding of critical pedagogies and how to implement them. Preliminary findings suggest that multiple factors afford and constrain the implementation of critical inquiry in language education that are both individual (e.g., the instructors' interest in the topic, their [dis]comfort with conflict, pedagogical strategies, etc.) and contextual (e.g., adequate linguistic and conceptual scaffolding, institutional context, time, etc.). Among the tools and systems that supported instructors' conceptual understanding and implementation of critical inquiry are workshops and consultations with pedagogical experts, an iterative, reflective planning process, and peer collaboration. Implications for teacher professional development to support critical inquiry in language education will be discussed.
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Rachel Floyd
Beth Wassell
Christelle Palpacuer Lee
Sunny Man Chu Lau