ELT and social justice: opportunities in a time of chaos
"In this plenary, I will look at the arguments for including social justice issues in ELT classrooms. I will summarise the literature, referencing major theorists such as John Dewey, Paulo Freire, and bell hooks. I will also examine relevant ideas and movements: critical pedagogy and conscientização; participatory teaching/learning; problem-posing and dialogic methods; “poor man’s pedagogy”; service learning; and “the banking method” versus education as the practice of freedom. Moving from theory to practice, I will then show ways in which teachers can include social justice issues in the classroom. These activities include drama, poetry, images, community projects, and so on. I will conclude with some remarks about professional development and the concept of education for social justice. I will stress that the ideas in this talk are not a methodology or a recipe for becoming a better teacher. They are a “way of being”. Each idea, each activity must be made afresh, re-created every time the teacher steps into the classroom"
http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2017
My first impression:
A witty, good story teller, fine entertainer, charming presenter with a very good Portuguese accent -if I may add- that talks brilliantly about deep issues like "How can we use social justice in the classroom?"
He also mentioned/paraphrased a couple of quotes:
- Education is transformation.
- The basic of all education is love.
- Education starts from Students experience and reinforces or challenges status quo.
We can incorporate social issues into the classroom> some if the teaching tools he mentioned:
- Pictures
- I wonder ...
- Asking questions about photos.
- Poems - where students are the writers
- I remember ... *social changes
- I am from ...
- Drama - where students are "spectactors"
- Community projects
- Teachable moments
- Storytelling
A practical hands-on approach!
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