radical tolerance: practical feminist pedagogy for the working eap instructor

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Radical Tolerance Practical Feminist Pedagogy for the Working EAP Instructor

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Radical Tolerance

Practical Feminist Pedagogy for the Working EAP Instructor

Greetings!

Courtney King

English Language Lecturer

Central Michigan University

MA English Literature (Washington State University)

MA TESOL (Central Michigan University)2

Place your screenshot here

3

PollEverywhere

▪ On your mobile phone, open a web browser.

▪ Go to pollev.com/courtneyking584 to participate in our survey.

▪ Keep this tab open. We will have an exit survey as well.

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TerminologyWhat is this nonsense? Explain yourself!

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Radical ToleranceA commitment to acceptance that overlooks

your own political leanings. A vision of all students as whole and already knowledgeable

when they arrive in your classroom.

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Intersectional FeminismFeminism with the understanding that all

marginalized groups must be uplifted. Intersectional feminists will fight for the rights of others (even when they do not directly affect the person fighting) in order to move forward

the cause of equality.

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Intersectional Feminist PedagogyA teaching philosophy that draws on a variety of methods to serve the specific students present in the classroom. Highly

student-centered and communicative, this approach draws on existing frameworks to emphasize fair representation and the

acceptance of a variety of viewpoints. Materials are often authentic and authored by diverse populations.

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Critical PedagogyA practice of teaching that always questions the expectations of

the student and the teacher. All aspects of a person are taken into account (like intersectional feminism) and no single facet of identity is focused on. Extremely student-led. Questioning

authority is at the forefront and conflict is often encouraged in order to reach personal growth.

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Empowerment EducationTeaching that works to raise up marginalized voices and question the forces that put students and teachers in that

position. Used frequently in Adult Ed. courses, empowerment education is also very student-led with the teacher and

students acting as partner-facilitators (a position uncomfortable, but not without its benefits).

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IntersectionalFeminist

Pedagogy

CriticalPedagogy

EmpowermentEducation

Starts with gender

Starts with ethnicity

Student-Centered

Political

Caring

Flexible

Culture Circles

Adult Ed

Health Education

Women’s Studies

English Literature & Comp.

PauloFreire

Sarah Benesch

TESOL

bell hooks

Alastair Pennycook

Henry Giroux

Social Work

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EvidenceIs this really a problem? What evidence do we have

that feminist pedagogy works?

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Will feminist pedagogy help me reach my language teaching goals?

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Traditional English Language ClassroomWolfe (2000) p. 59

Boys Girls

Average Number of Turns 25 22

Average Length of Turns 39.5 seconds 82.5 seconds

Average Time Reading Aloud 39.5 seconds 82.5 seconds

Average Total Talk Time 32.6 seconds 51.3 seconds

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Student-Centered English Language ClassroomWolfe (2000) p. 63

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Boys Girls

Average Number of Turns 79 84

Average Length of Turns 10.1 seconds 12.2 seconds

Average Resistance Time 2.7 seconds 0 seconds

Average Total Talk Time 797.9 seconds 1024.8 seconds

How do students perform in feminist English language classrooms?

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Wang, Chao, and Liao (2011)

▪ Taiwanese vocational education program

▪ A feminist English language classroom was assessed next to a

control group.

▪ Male and female students in the experimental (poststructuralist

feminist) group did as well as or better than the control group in

all categories and significantly outperformed the control group

in critical thinking.

▪ Male and female students also reported higher satisfaction with

the poststructuralist feminist classroom.

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Wang, Chao, and Liao (2011)

▪ Taiwanese vocational education program

▪ A feminist English language classroom was assessed next to a

control group.

▪ Male and female students in the experimental (poststructuralist

feminist) group did as well as or better than the control group in

all categories and significantly outperformed the control group

in critical thinking.

▪ Male and female students also reported higher satisfaction with

the poststructuralist feminist classroom.

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In other words...

We need more dataWho wants to start a new research project?

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What Can We Do?How can we implement it in our classrooms? Is it

extra work that we don’t have time for?

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Assume Students Arrive Already-Knowing

Even if what they know goes against your political stance. Your students’ world views are valid and not yours to change. This is radical

tolerance and it is hard.

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Learn and Say Their NamesEven if they’re hard. Practice everyday. Make flashcards if you have to. This shouldn’t be a radical act, but we may be the only teachers they have that bother to learn to correctly

pronounce their names in America.21

Demonstrate Care and Check-In Often

Find out if students are safe, healthy, and adapting to their new life in America. Exit

tickets are great for this.

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Allow Students to Help Shape the Course

Let them have input in the syllabus-creation, rule-writing, and assignment design.

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Adopt a Dialogic Pedagogy of Community

(Wong, 2006)

Learner-centered, with question-asking at the core of every activity (from Ss and teachers).

Student needs come first and assignment design is based on student interest.

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Make Use of Modified Culture Circles (Friere, 1970)

Students gather and discuss what plagues them and teacher and students work together to find solutions. The language that students need to solve their problems (such as the generic

conventions of a letter to a state representative) are then learned.

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Practice Affirmative ActionPerhaps the most contentious suggestion, this simply means you

make a conscious decision to call on women, use females as examples, and select materials authored by women. I assure you,

no men will suffer from your choices.

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Start a Reading GroupFind like-minded colleagues at your university (or not! Google

Hangouts work great for this) and read literature to support your practice. Discuss strategies and ideas at monthly meetings.

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What About You?Share your stories! What have you experienced in the

classroom to support or work against this notion?

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Let’s shift the power.

Group #1Have you practiced empowerment education or

feminist/critical pedagogy before? What did that look like?

Group #2Which of your current classroom practices fit into

this model?

Group #3Why does the idea of implementing feminist pedagogy into our classroom give us pause?

Group #4How do you feel about the f-word (feminism)? Does it

make you feel more comfortable to call it critical pedagogy? Empowerment education? Why do these

words hold different weight?

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Place your screenshot here

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PollEverywhere

▪ On your mobile phone, open a web browser.

▪ Go to pollev.com/courtneyking584 to participate in our survey.

Primary References

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● Berlin, J. A. (2003) Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures: Refiguring College English Studies. Anderson, SC: Parlor Press.

● Crookes, G. V. (2013). Critical ELT in action: Foundations, promises, praxis. Routledge.

● Eckert, P. & McConnell-Ginet, S. (2013). Language and gender. Cambridge University Press.

● Friere, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Continuum International Publishing Group Limited.

● Gore, J. M. (1993). The struggle for pedagogy: Critical and feminist discourses as regimes of truth. New York: Routledge.

● Grey, M. (2009). Ethnographers of difference in a critical EAP community-becoming. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 8(2), 121-133.

● Mackie, A. (1999). Possibilities for feminism in ESL education and research. TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 566-573.

● Schenke (1996). Feminist theory and the ESL classroom not just a “Social Issue”: Teaching feminist in ESL. TESOL Quarterly, 30(1), 155-159.

● Vandrick S. (1994). Feminist pedagogy and ESL. College ESL. 4(2). pp. 69-93.

● Wang, Y., Chao, C., & Liao, H. (2011). Poststructural feminist pedagogy in English instruction of vocational-and-technical education. Higher Education, 61(2), 109-139.

● Willett, J., & Jeannot, M. (1993). Resistance to taking a critical stance. TESOL Quarterly, 477-495.

● Wolfe, P. (2000). Gender and language in four secondary, ESL classrooms. Equity & Excellance in Education, 33(1), 57-66.

● Wong, S. (2006). Dialogic Approaches to TESOL: Where the Gingko Tree Grows. New York: Routledge.

● Yepez, M. E. (1994). An observation of gender-specific teacher behavior in the ESL classroom. Sex Roles, 30(1-2), 121-133.

Additional Reading

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● Bohmer, S. K.. (1989). Resistance to Generalizations in the Classroom. Feminist Teacher,4(2/3), 53–56.

● Bondestam, F. (2011). Resisting the discourse on resistance: Theorizing experiences from an action research project on feminist pedagogy in different learning cultures in Sweden. Feminist Teacher, 21(2), 139-152.

● Golden, C. (1985). The radicalization of a teacher. The Feminist Teacher Anthology:Pedagogies and Classroom Strategies. Ed. Cohee, G. E. New York: Teachers College Press.

● Morgan, B. & Vandrick, S. (2009) Imagining a peace curriculum: What second-language education brings to the table. Peace & Change. 34(4) p. 510-532.

● Saleem, F. & Zubair, S. (2013). (Under)representing women in curricula: A content analysis of Urdu and English textbooks at the primary level in Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies. 20(1) pp. 57-71.

● Warren (1989). Rewriting the future: The feminist challenge to the malestream curriculum. The Feminist Teacher Anthology: Pedagogies and Classroom Strategies. Ed. Cohee, G. E. New York: Teachers College Press.

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Thank you so much for your time!

Any questions?

You can find me at courtneyelizabethking.com & [email protected]