Diversity, social justice and inclusion in language education

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Find, select and critically evaluate relevant academic publications addressing diversity and social justice issues and needs in (E)LT
• Assess the applicability of Critical and Social Justice-oriented Language Pedagogies and interventional strategies across diverse global contexts
• Conduct theoretically-informed analysis of real-world curricula, materials and classroom practices, explaining how they reproduce local/global struggles and proposing alternative interventions towards a more socially-just contextualised (E)LT practice that benefits groups or individuals previously marginalised.
• Identify how in/exclusion, oppression/empowerment, in/equity can be reinforced or deconstructed in diverse and changing 21st century language education classrooms

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Evaluate extant or newly designed social justice proposals for the language classroom (materials, training, interventions, pedagogical recommendations), assessing their relative strengths and weaknesses
• Identify and select reputable and autoritative sources on the subject to build your own well-informed approaches to the classroom and/or to provide research-informed input for educational institutions
• Monitor your own understanding of a complex phenomenon and identify and take appropriate steps to address your own comprehension, interpretation and information gaps
• Communicate authoritatively and diplomatically about the subject matter seen in this module using disciplinary language that is suitable for a range of academic and practitioner audiences

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the dynamics of power, agency, and identity in educational settings, and the ways in which they influence classroom practices, teacher beliefs, and student experiences of empowerment, learning or marginalisation
• Approaches to undertake situated analyses of the conditions, resources, and posssible outcomes of developing alternative and social justice oriented pedagogies, materials or curricula across diverse contexts, informed by leading scholarly debates and key local case studies from both the global north and the global south
• the various principles, motivations, strategies and significance of Critical Language Pedagogies (CLP) in contemporary language education, and their potential to promote inclusivity, social justice, and decolonization in language learning environments, while preparing your future students to become socially responsible communicators and language users
• the dimensions of diversity and inequality, such as linguistic diversity, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic disparities, gender, sexuality, disability, and religious differences, that may impact language teaching and learning in various contexts

The syllabus seeks to maintain a balance between introducing and revising necessary theoretical concepts/frameworks and analysing 'real-world' classroom-based implementations, obstacles, and debates through the study of published pedagogical interventions and practitioner-led initiatives (e.g. action research).

Following an initial familiarisation with key constructs in critical language pedagogies (CLP) and decolonial proposals for the classroom (e.g. social justice, empowerment, advocacy) , the syllabus explores principles, outcomes and obstacles in the implementation of social justice-informed approaches in diverse language education contexts. Each week will focus on a particular dimension of potential inclusion/marginalisation.

In addition, valuable face-to-face time will be dedicated to discussing assignment selection and progress. This will take the form of classroom-based discussions of the assingment brief, in-class planning and non-assessed student presentations.

Indicative syllabus themes and structure:

• Social justice for the (E)LT classroom? Contextualising UNESCO's call for more inclusive (language) education.
• Setting the theoretical bases: key concepts and aims in CLP y and Decolonial pedagogies.
• Uncovering and reverting linguistic discrimination and monolingualism-informed inequities in the (E)LT classroom.
• Understanding issues of class, and socioeconomic or rural/urban divides in our student cohorts.
• Gender and sexuality in ELT: representational debates in (E)LT materials and linguistic models.
• Planning a disability and functional diversity-friendly (E)LT curriculum.
• Understanding the assignment brief & initial planning.
• Addressing emotionality: understanding and nurturing teacher and student affective well-being.
• Undoing race and ethnicity-related discriminations in (E)LT materials and institutional practice.
• Analysing cultural diversity and representation in (E)LT: making room for indigenous students' culture in Colombian ELT (case study).
• Towards decolonial global citizenship education for (E)LT?
• Student presentations: assignment progress & formative feedback.

The teaching and learning in this module will entail a hybrid approach of lecture and seminar style face-to-face sessions and independent study time.

We will co-construct content knowledge and skills through the following activities:

Tutor exposition and analysis

Discussion of curated articles and book chapters

Student-led reflective analysis of relevant issues in known/given contexts

Student-led search of sources of relevant information, classroom materials and academic literature (e.g. textbooks, policies, exams, studies related to social justice informed pedagogies seen in the module) to contribute new 'local' insights to the class

Informal group activities and exercises

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.