radical tolerance: practical feminist pedagogy for the working eap instructor
TRANSCRIPT
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
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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.
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
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
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...
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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]