17th May 2022 – GISIG Showcase (IATEFL Belfast)

The 2022 Global Issues Showcase featured a fantastic line up of ELT professionals from around the world. The one thing they all had in common? An interest in raising awareness and taking action on issues of economic, social and environmental injustice, through their work as English Language educators. Read on to find out more about our speakers’ proposals and the issues they covered on the day.

Teaching with attitude: Disrupting initial teacher training with critical literacy
Rose Aylett (UK)

If language teaching is to foster criticality for active and reflective social involvement amongst learners, language teachers themselves should also be critically literate practitioners. Using Lewison et al.’s (2002) four dimensions framework of critical literacy, this talk will explore practical ideas to disrupt the status quo in initial teacher education, by embedding action for social justice within our course design.

Presentation (pdf)

Diversity in materials: there’s no room for single stories
Akemi Iwasa (Brazil)

In this talk, the presenter will introduce the concept of social justice education and comment on the positive impact that materials that cater for diversity have on all English language learners. Practical ideas about how to be attentive to students’ needs and foster the development of empathy skills will be shared.

Presentation (pdf)

English language teacher expertise in India: A participatory case study
Jason Anderson (UK)

This talk will share findings and implications from my PhD study involving eight expert secondary teachers of English from across India. As well as highlighting important similarities and differences among the participants’ practice, cognition and professionalism, I will argue that similar studies in low-income contexts can help to build a knowledge base for effective pedagogy across the Global South.

Presentation (pdf)

Remote theatre to build a sense of global belonging
Amal Mukhairez (Palestine)

In HUP’s international remote theatre projects, students and teachers in Palestine collaborate with peers in another country to rehearse and perform remote plays. I’ll report on how this process improves attitudes towards the learning and teaching of English in UNRWA schools in Gaza, by providing motivating opportunities to use English in real contexts and developing a sense of global belonging.

Is ELT guilty of Greenwashing?
James Taylor (Brazil)

Lessons about the environment are everywhere in ELT materials. Barely a coursebook is printed without a unit on green issues, but is the scope of these lessons wide enough? In this talk I will examine how environmental issues are presented to our students and question if we are really tackling the true issues that we face today.

Presentation (pdf)

GISIG Open Forum – Connecting critical educators to advocate for social justice in ELT

All were welcome to pop along to the meet our committee members, network with like-minded critical educators and find out more about ongoing GISIG activities and events. Participants engaged in our latest Conversation for Change – a lively, interactive, action-oriented discussion on the global issues themes arising from the 2022 Belfast Conference.