Centre for Language Education Research - Seminar Series

School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen’s University Belfast 

Social Justice in English language teaching: challenges and opportunities for classroom practice

Abstract: English language teaching (ELT) pedagogy has focused its attention on content and structure for communication purposes for a long time. Recently, teaching for inclusion, equity and diversity has become the norm in language education. Teachers and researchers require to learn and put in action plans to continue this important work. The first part of this presentation will describe an ethnographic case study with English teachers and their students in Colombia as they created a curriculum for social justice to respond to local social problems. The second part will present the classroom possibilities for English teachers to address issues of social justice from different pedagogical perspectives and the potential stumbling blocks that teachers might encounter during this process. Dr Ortega will finish by providing some implications and recommendations for pedagogy and research in TESOL and applied linguistics.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Yecid Ortega finished his doctoral programme in Language and Literacies Education with a collaborative specialization in Comparative International and Development Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE – University of Toronto). He has over 20 years of experience in research and education in the USA, Canada and Latin America. He has facilitated professional development training workshops and has worked with English language educators creating social justice and anti-oppressive curriculum to address issues that affect the most marginalized communities in international contexts.