Critical Practices in ELT as a Project of Possibilities or a Banal Discourse

Sung, Kiwan; Pederson, Rod

doi:10.1007/978-94-6091-797-4_8

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…It has been suggested that if ELT practitioners want to be change agents, they should not only engage in reflection but research their teaching practice (Sung, 2012). Ten of the participants in this study had published research about their experiences and this required the rigour of systematic enquiry and high levels of reflective and critical thinking.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transforming Teaching and Learning in ELT Through Critical Pedagogy

Jeyaraj

Harland

2014

Journal of Transformative Education

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In this study, the voices of academics who use critical pedagogy in English language teaching have been brought together to shed light on how this practice transforms teaching and learning. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with academics from Canada, Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, and Turkey. Teachers were exposed to considerable emotional upheaval and sometimes risk as they sought to change student worldviews, and student transformation was evident both inside and outside the academy. Students learned their new language through ideas that truly mattered to them instead of learning through neutral knowledge contexts. We conclude that critical pedagogy requires a balance between critical reflection and action as teachers learn to cope with the unexpected in their classrooms. It is suggested that teachers follow up students after graduation in order to determine the long-term impact of critical pedagogy on teaching and learning.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transforming Teaching and Learning in ELT Through Critical Pedagogy

Jeyaraj

Harland

2014

Journal of Transformative Education

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“…While Hong Kong, mainland China, South Korea and Singapore have reported significant growth in using neoliberal evaluations of economy and education, critical assessments also indicate significant marginalization and exploitation of teachers and school communities (Lim and Apple, 2016). I’m thus encouraged by the collaborations and solidarity across Greater China, as well as in East and Southeast Asia, between critical scholarship and other forms of social justice work (Constable, 2009; Lau, 2017; Sung and Pederson, 2012). For our next steps in Hong Kong, the research team I coordinate is piloting a long-term educational pipeline project to develop diverse cohorts of undergraduates as critical educators and action researchers in the SAR (Chang, 2017).…”

Section: Praxis and Possibility: Challenging Dehumanizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging issues of teaching and social justice in Greater China: Neoliberalism and critical pedagogy in Hong Kong

Chang

McLaren

2018

Policy Futures in Education

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From the Americas to Asia, neoliberal policy restructuring continues to present major challenges to educational equity. In Hong Kong, teacher educators grapple with training students in pedagogy they believe in, versus the daily status quo of high-stakes exam prep, privatized “shadow education,” and a system seemingly pushed to the brink of neoliberal social efficiency. Indeed, in recent years, Hong Kong has recorded top rankings on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Programme for International Student Assessment, along with record-setting protests and student suicides. Like in the USA, neoliberalization of teacher education in Hong Kong has proffered dilemmas of standardized curricula, evaluation, and licensure, often under the guise of “21st century skills and technology.” Both regions also face perpetual threats of being under- or de-funded, based on “data-driven” decision-making and leadership that are supposedly more accountable and efficient. Unsurprisingly, neoliberal policies and practices have often exacerbated inequities in teaching and learning, especially for communities labelled as minority or working-class. Within traditions of critical pedagogy, this article’s authors engage in a discussion on how educators and students are navigating the neoliberal behemoth and developing more inclusive spaces across local contexts of language, class, and culture. Based on the authors’ research in the Americas and Greater China, this article interrogates some of the junctures and ruptures of neoliberal education in Hong Kong, long-held as bridge between “East” and “West.” The article draws from the first author Benji Chang’s action research projects with pre-and in-service teachers in the region, which examines how they are critiquing and challenging dominant discourses of neoliberalism (e.g., positivism, standardization, and market-economy), and what brings hope. Given Hong Kong’s history of colonization with Europe and the USA, and the ever-expanding dominance of mainland China, this article makes a contribution to international scholarship concerned with teacher education and social justice.

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“…I am using the term development satirically here as government authorities tend to conflate development with Englishization or mimicking of "western" practices. English is often perceived as a vehicle for both individual and national development and equated with success in many countries in South and Southeast Asia (Sung, 2012), including in Nepal. In other terms this can also be labelled ideology of economic benefit.…”

Section: Inherent Ideological Tensions: Excerpts From the Surveymentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating the Local and Global in Nepalese EAP: Inherent Ideological Tensions and Possible Pathways

Kafle¹

2015

J NELTA

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This article explores ideological tensions and possible directions to solutions in Nepalese EAP pedagogy in the context of increasingly interdependent world. Seventeen EAP professionals responded to a qualitative online survey disseminated through the Nepal English Language Teachers’ Association listserv, personal emails and other social networking sites. Data was analyzed from the perspective of language ideologies. The main ideological tensions as indicated by the teachers are grouped under three interrelated headings: top-down imposition, buying into Standard English as a panacea for all problems, and disconnect between policy and practice. Based on these findings, the article argues that whereas the top-down imposition is connected with the ideology of development, buying into Standard English with ideologies of linguistic fixity and purism, and the disconnect between policy and practice with the ideology of nationalism and language ownership. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/nelta.v19i1-2.12082 Journal of NELTA, Vol 19 No. 1-2, December 2014: 77-87

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Critical Practices in ELT as a Project of Possibilities or a Banal Discourse

Cited by 9 publications

References 10 publications

Transforming Teaching and Learning in ELT Through Critical Pedagogy

Transforming Teaching and Learning in ELT Through Critical Pedagogy

Emerging issues of teaching and social justice in Greater China: Neoliberalism and critical pedagogy in Hong Kong

Negotiating the Local and Global in Nepalese EAP: Inherent Ideological Tensions and Possible Pathways

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