Ecology, cultural awareness, anti-racism and critical thinking: integrating multiple perspectives in foreign language teaching

This paper aims at presenting a critical approach to teaching ecological, postcolonial and ethnic minority topics in the (foreign language) classroom, describing the need to interrelate these three issues in both research and teaching. It illustrates how Western utilitarian perspectives on both humans and nature must be counterbalanced with alternative stances, such as those provided by indigenous views of reciprocity. With regard to teaching scenarios, it suggests the use of multi-text selections in line with the principle of presenting multiple perspectives on global issues. It suggests that two seemingly contradictory teaching/learning objectives can be combined: bolstering up students’ empathetic skills in understanding ecological and interculturally relevant issues on the one hand and becoming critically aware of textual strategies employed to manipulate readers. We use the hitherto less frequently observed example of the demands of the Chilean indigenous minority of the Mapuche to illustrate how different positions published in the English language on the Internet can be used in the foreign language classroom to discuss the issues at stake here: the inextricable interrelatedness of ecological exploitation of natural resources with processes of sociocultural and economic marginalisation and oppression of ethnic minority groups and their worldviews across the globe.Este artículo busca presentar un acercamiento crítico al tratamiento de la ecología, el postcolonialismo, y las minorías étnicas en las clases de lenguas extranjeras, describiendo la necesidad de establecer una relación entre estas tres temáticas en la investigación y la docencia. Se muestra cómo las perspectivas utilitaristas occidentales sobre el ser humano y la naturaleza deben de contrarrestarse con imaginarios alternativos, como, por ejemplo, aquellos basados en perspectivas indígenas en torno a la reciprocidad. Respecto a los escenarios de enseñanza, se propone el uso de selecciones de textos múltiples, siguiendo el principio de la presentación de diversidad de perspectivas sobre temáticas globales. Así, dos objetivos de aprendizaje aparentemente contradictorios pueden ser combinados: fomentar, por un lado, las habilidades empáticas de los alumnos para comprender las problemáticas ecológicas e interculturales de mayor relevancia en la actualidad, mientras, por el otro lado, inspirar una conciencia crítica en torno a las estrategias textuales empleadas para manipular a los lectores. Nos apoyamos, así pues, en el ejemplo de las demandas de las comunidades Mapuche en Chile para demostrar cómo diferentes posiciones publicadas en internet, en inglés, pueden utilizarse en las aulas de lengua extranjera para discutir sus implicaciones. Estas son la relación intrínseca entre la explotación de recursos naturales con los procesos de marginalización sociocultural y económica, la opresión de grupos minoritarios y las cosmovisiones de los mismos desde perspectivas procedentes de varias partes del mundo

Multimodal take-home exams in online teaching and beyond: constructive and professional alignment in teacher education

The authors propose an alternative to in-class exams (ICEs) based on the higher-order levels of Bloom’s taxonomy as well as both constructive and professional alignment. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, instructors were faced with restructuring both their teaching and assessment. The paper argues that take-home exams (THEs) tailored to the necessities of individual courses are advantageous to an online learning environment in comparison to an ICE and the pitfalls that accompany it, such as online proctoring, lower-level assessment, and the relative lack of constructive/professional alignment. In addition, THEs provide instructors with the possibility to utilize a variety of multimodal material that authentically reflect learner-centered assessment. The authors will continue to implement THEs post-pandemically as they allow for incorporating activities and strategies that are useful to students in their teaching careers

Universities under Threat: Processes of Economization as a Cause for Campus Shootings?

Andreas Brauns Studie widmet sich dem noch recht jungen Gewaltphänomen der Amokläufe an Universitäten, welche der Autor definitorisch als neue Subform von Amok in den Mittelpunkt seiner Analyse stellen will. Diese Taten werden hier als extremes Resultat der universitären Reformbestrebungen und der Ökonomisierung von Hochschulen begriffen, welche er aus deutscher Perspektive auch auf Amerika und Großbritannien zu übertragen versucht. Trotz seiner umfassenden Darstellung der Ökonomisierungsprozesse und ihrer Auswirkungen auf die Wissenschaft und das Individuum bleibt der direkte Zusammenhang dieser Reformeffekte mit Amokläufen an Hochschulen aufgrund der verwendeten Daten und der Argumentationsführung nur schwer nachvollziehbar.Andreas Braun’s book analyses the relatively recent phenomenon of rampage shootings at universities. He defines campus shootings as a new hybrid of forms of excessive violence, such as workplace violence and school shootings. Campus shootings, he argues, are a direct result of an ongoing economization of universities that can be observed internationally. While his account of economization and New Public Management is very detailed, Braun fails to convincingly show how the negative effects of the economization can be seen as an explanation for campus shootings. Instead, based on very little data, he constructs rather oversimplifying causal chains in an attempt to explain rampage shootings at universities

Schools under Fire?

Contrary to popular belief, rampage violence at suburban and rural schools occurred before the infamous Columbine High School shooting in April 1999. While school shootings — before Columbine gained international media attention — were treated as a local rather than a national or even international problem, they are now seen as an emergent phenomenon that has to be addressed with appropriate urgency. In this paper, I want to examine whether school shootings are in fact increasing and address the medial construction of the discourse of emergency that has evolved around these acts of excessive violence. I argue that the public perception of school shootings is inseparably intertwined with the media dynamics in the aftermath of these incidents. In these discursive dynamics, I argue, it can be seen that these acts of violence lay open society’s underlying fears. School shootings, as this paper shows, are closely linked to contemporary media logic and can be understood as examples of the contemporary dynamics of cultural discourses of emergency

Ecología, conciencia cultural, antirracismo y pensamiento cr´ítico: La integración de perspectivas múltiples en la enseñanza de idiomas extranjeros

     This paper aims at presenting a critical approach to teaching ecological, postcolonial and ethnic minority topics in the (foreign language) classroom, describing the need to interrelate these three issues in both research and teaching. It illustrates how Western utilitarian perspectives on both humans and nature must be counterbalanced with alternative stances, such as those provided by indigenous views of reciprocity. With regard to teaching scenarios, it suggests the use of multi-text selections in line with the principle of presenting multiple perspectives on global issues. It suggests that two seemingly contradictory teaching/learning objectives can be combined: bolstering up students’ empathetic skills in understanding ecological and interculturally relevant issues on the one hand and becoming critically aware of textual strategies employed to manipulate readers. We use the hitherto less frequently observed example of the demands of the Chilean indigenous minority of the Mapuche to illustrate how different positions published in the English language on the Internet can be used in the foreign language classroom to discuss the issues at stake here: the inextricable interrelatedness of ecological exploitation of natural resources with processes of sociocultural and economic marginalisation and oppression of ethnic minority groups and their worldviews  across the globe.      Este artículo busca presentar un acercamiento crítico al tratamiento de la ecología, el postcolonialismo, y las minorías étnicas en las clases de lenguas extranjeras, describiendo la necesidad de establecer una relación entre estas tres temáticas en la investigación y la docencia. Se muestra cómo las perspectivas utilitaristas occidentales sobre el ser humano y la naturaleza deben de contrarrestarse con imaginarios alternativos, como, por ejemplo, aquellos basados en perspectivas indígenas en torno a la reciprocidad. Respecto a los escenarios de enseñanza, se propone el uso de selecciones de textos múltiples, siguiendo el principio de la presentación de diversidad de perspectivas sobre temáticas globales. Así, dos objetivos de aprendizaje aparentemente contradictorios pueden ser combinados: fomentar, por un lado, las habilidades empáticas de los alumnos para comprender las problemáticas ecológicas e interculturales de mayor relevancia en la actualidad, mientras, por el otro lado, inspirar una conciencia crítica en torno a las estrategias textuales empleadas para manipular a los lectores. Nos apoyamos, así pues, en el ejemplo de las demandas de las comunidades Mapuche en Chile para demostrar cómo diferentes posiciones publicadas en internet, en inglés, pueden utilizarse en las aulas de lengua extranjera para discutir sus implicaciones. Estas son la relación intrínseca entre la explotación de recursos naturales con los procesos de marginalización sociocultural y económica, la opresión de grupos minoritarios y las cosmovisiones de los mismos desde perspectivas procedentes de varias partes del mundo

Fostering Competences in Digital Exchange Programmes: A Study of Opportunities for Intercultural and Reflexive Teacher Education

Während der Coronapandemie wurden digitale Austauschprogramme ein zentraler Bestandteil unterschiedlicher Internationalisierungsprozesse und -projekte. Aufbauend auf Interviews im Rahmen des Projekts „Interkulturalität und Diversität erleben durch Auslandsstudien“ (IDEAS) an der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena stellt dieser Beitrag die Chancen und Herausforderungen digitaler Austauschprogramme mit besonderem Fokus auf das Lehramtsstudium dar. Mit einem strukturprozessualen Verständnis von Interkulturalität und einer Betonung von Standpunktreflexivität als Professionskompetenz (Bolten, 2020) können datenbasiert die Potenziale digitaler Auslandserfahrungen aufgezeigt werden. So wird deutlich, warum diese Formate auch in Zeiten erhöhter physischer Mobilität einen großen Mehrwert für das (Lehramts-)Studium haben können.During the COVID-19 pandemic, the relevance of virtual exchange to most internationalisation programmes in higher education has increased rapidly. Based on interviews with participants of a digital exchange programme in teacher education, this article presents the opportunities and challenges virtual exchange programmes hold for future teachers. Focusing on the experiences of intercultural encounters in digital spaces and on processes of self-reflexivity and positionality, our data demonstrates that digital exchange proves can be highly beneficial for teacher education – even beyond the pandemic and its restrictions to mobility