One aim of foreign language teaching is to broaden learners' worldviews and promote intercultural communication. Less discussed, however, are domestic diversity and sociopolitical issues. Through a survey of university students of Japanese, Spanish, and Swahili, the authors of this study investigated diversity in the classroom, students' backgrounds and learning experiences, and their perceptions about the relationship between foreign language learning and issues of race, gender, class, and social justice. The study found more racial diversity in Japanese and Swahili than in Spanish classes and in beginning Spanish classes than in advanced Spanish classes. Beginning Spanish students related foreign language learning with social justice issues less frequently than did advanced students. A follow‐up survey revealed stigmatized experiences and detachment from ethnic identity among some minority students.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine how digital technologies were introduced in a collaborative literacy intervention to address a population long underserved by traditional schools: the Aboriginals of Canada.Design/methodology/approachSituated within a critical ethnographic project, this paper examines how digital technologies were introduced. The questions focused on: how can critical multiliteracies be used to engage students, in both academic and digital literacies development? In what ways does participation in multimodal media production provide evidence of teachers and students' critical literacy development?FindingsDigital literacies as a part of multiliteracies were developed in teaching contexts where learning is challenged by many factors.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper reports on the achievement and the struggles that remain. Implications for further research and teacher education are also drawn from the experience of implementing a broader definition of literacy in academic settings with Aboriginal students of Canada.Originality/valueThe inclusion of a digital curriculum provides possibilities for greater academic success for marginalized students in both mainstream and alternative schools.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.