Language Teaching for Social Justice

This course aims to increase language teachers’ capacity to benefit from the transformative potential of language instruction to eliminate any kind of discrimination and to raise social justice and equality at large. Some of the objectives of the course include enabling language teachers:

To acquire and employ the appropriate vocabulary and language to identify and address the critical issues discussed;

to develop their critical consciousness through which they will recognize the systems of oppression and inequality;

to better value students’ diversity, to better establish a caring and inclusive learning environment, and to better demonstrate trust and solidarity in the classroom;

to make curricula relevant and applicable to all their students through accommodating and differentiating instruction;

to create a learning environment that promotes critical thinking and agency;

to become curriculum leaders who can participate in complicated conversations and advocate for social change;

This course explores pedagogical principles and practice opportunities for language teachers who would like to integrate social justice issues into their classes. The course will cover the following critical issues:

Immigration and peacebuilding

Environmental education and sustainability

Gender equality

LGBTQ+ inclusive pedagogy

Race and ethnicity

Class and economy