Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
2nd International Symposium on Social Justice in ELT: “Promoting Social Issues in Language Education”, Sinop, Türkiye, 21 - 22 Ekim 2022
Examining Coursebook Content through Social Justice
Coursebooks are indispensable for language classrooms since they serve as ready-made teaching materials – if not prescribed curricula – that help teachers with their lesson plans, activities, and so on. They, however, are not neutral teaching artifacts. Coursebooks are inherently shaped by multiple hegemonic ideologies and economic motives (Gray & Block, 2014; Pennycook, 2001; Risager, 2021). Therefore, language teachers need to employ a critical lens towards choosing and implementing coursebooks in English language teaching (ELT) classrooms.
Addressing this issue, this presentation aims to inform participants about conducting coursebook evaluation utilizing social justice language education as its pedagogical lens. I will first provide a critical framework for coursebook evaluation and adaptation that will help teachers engage in ‘guided’ coursebook evaluation from a social justice perspective. Second, I will conduct a sample coursebook evaluation and adaptation process focusing on how environmental justice as part of social justice can be conveyed in language coursebooks. Finally, I will offer several strategies for social justice language education that will allow language teachers to consider the many stakeholders involved in the process of schooling and work towards building a community that is driven towards social action.
The contributions of this study can be two fold for the Symposium. First, it discusses one of the underrepresented areas, environmental justice and thus it might add to the breadth and depth of conversations and discussions on Social Justice. Second, the presentation might contribute to the development of Social Justice agents, mainly teachers and teacher educators, who might take their learning to their institutions and promote environmental justice in their teaching/learning settings.
References
Gray, J. & Block, D. (2014). ‘All middle class now? Evolving representations of the working
class in the neoliberal era—the case of ELT textbooks.’ In N. Harwood (Ed.), English language teaching textbooks: Content, consumption, production (pp. 45–71). Palgrave Macmillan.
Pennycook, A. (2001). Critical applied linguistics: A critical introduction. Lawrence Erlbaum.
Risager, K. (2021). Language textbooks: windows to the world. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 34(2), 119-132.