Critical Pedagogy:Stereotyping as Oppression

This chapter argues that stereotyping is a form of oppression that can be addressed in the foreign language classroom through Critical Pedagogy. Oppression can be defined as any form of social injustice, whereby people are inhibited to exercise their capacities and to express their needs, thoughts and feelings, with marginalisation, powerlessness, discrimination and othering being perhaps some of the most dangerous facets of oppression. The aim of this chapter is threefold. Firstly, theoretical constructs pertaining to stereotyping are defined with a view to developing a grammar of interculture to be applied in language teaching. Secondly, the focus shifts to reviewing the literature of empirical work on reducing stereotypes in the field of social psychology; and finally the chapter ends with a discussion of critical pedagogy as an approach to manage stereotypes in language and intercultural education

Literature for critical cultural awareness

The purpose of the study described in this chapter is to demonstrate how gender stereotypes can be uncovered in language teaching, whilst refining the notion of ‘critical cultural awareness’ through the concepts of ‘ideology’ and ‘essentialism’. The research was located in the British Higher Education sector and consisted of three case studies replicated with different groups of learners totalling 68 final year honours undergraduates learning the Spanish language. It focused on bringing views of Hispanic gender identities to the fore as a consciousness-raising pedagogical strategy through the reading of a short story about the experiences of two women from the impoverished suburbs of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The research comprises documentary data (students’ diaries) and conversational data (class discussions, oral presentations and interviews). The chapter describes the teaching approach and the ways in which students reacted and responded to the literary text. It also provides empirical evidence of what ‘critical cultural awareness’ means in this study with suggestions of how it can be pedagogically developed. The results of the study indicate that when literature is used as a consciousness-raising resource, it can lead to an increased awareness of ethnocentric views and the impact that these can have on intercultural relationships

Intercultural communication and critical pedagogy: deconstructing stereotypes for the development of critical cultural awareness in language education

This study researches the problem of gender stereotypes that Spanish language undergraduates uphold against Hispanics and develops critical pedagogical approaches through the reading of a literary text for the deconstruction of such stereotypes so that students can think and act in less biased and prejudiced ways. This thesis develops the argument that stereotyping is a form of oppression, and through empirical research in three case studies, this research demonstrates that stereotypical oppression can be addressed by Critical Pedagogyfor the development of „critical cultural awareness‟. This thesis provides answers to three operational sub-questions addressed in each of the three case studies, which contribute to answering the main overarching question in this study of how can Critical Pedagogy help in the deconstruction of stereotypes for the development of „critical cultural awareness‟. This study found that a literary text can bring stereotypical thinking out to the fore for analysis and reflection, and that a reader-response approach to literature can trigger past experiences that reveal essentialising discourses of otherness. The research reviews the effectiveness of the use of an „identity-focused‟ critical pedagogical intervention for the development of a „self-regulation strategy‟ as a mental reasoning exercise to control bias and stereotyping. The results indicate that students tend to transpose stereotypical binaries and create new ones, whilst developing further views of cultural realities as being fluid, dynamic and contradictory, constantly being reconstructed and renegotiated. However, the findings indicate that a „self-regulation strategy‟ may be insufficient to appreciate the oppressive nature of stereotyping. Therefore, a Critical „Pedagogy-of-the-Oppressed‟ intervention is implemented, whereby students describe and „name‟ their own experiences of suffering stereotyping during their year-abroad experiences with narratives of stigmatisation, discrimination, exclusion and marginalisation. A tentative pedagogical model, a teaching tool and a „grammar of interculture‟ emerge from this study for the deconstruction of stereotypes in the development of „critical cultural awareness‟ for practical teaching practice and classroom use

Kindness in a Pedagogy for Sustainable Development Goals

Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires new approaches to education appropriate to local circumstances. This paper describes a ‘pedagogy of SDGs’ from a practitioner’s perspective using personal teaching experience with undergraduate students in the British higher education sector, where I lecture in Intercultural Communication and Spanish

Language and Intercultural Citizenship Education for a Culture of Peace:The Malvinas/Falklands Project

In recent decades the critical turn in language education has gained tremendous teaching and research attention. Within this context, this chapter describes an online international project with university language students in Argentina and England as an approach to create a culture of peace through the discussion of the Malvinas/Falklands Conflict. Given the sensitive nature of this topic, the chapter examines the active political engagement and civic participation of the students to promote self and social change. It also offers an analysis of the levels of criticality achieved and the intercultural citizenship competences developed. An overview of the implementation of IT tools used in the online intercultural communication phase of the project is also provided, such as Wiki, Facebook, Skype and Elluminate Live! (a virtual classroom made available for the project by the University of East Anglia). This chapter reveals that the confrontation the students experienced with linguistic and cultural otherness stimulated their critical analysis, whilst focusing on developing a respectful understanding of the event and the need for cooperative conflict resolution

Human Rights Education in Language Teaching

As intercultural communication in language teaching is extending to citizenship education, there is an increasing need for research focusing on the implementation of theory into practice. With Critical Pedagogy as its driving principle, this chapter examines an online international project between language undergraduates within Argentina and the UK as an approach to human rights education in language teaching. It provides an overview of the pedagogical interventions designed to enhance awareness of democratic participation by empowering the students to become ‘transformative intellectuals’, engaged in self and social change through knowledge and action. The findings show the educational value of the project through the development of intercultural citizenship competences, such as decentring, empathy and solidarity, whilst creating an international community of ‘naming’ the world through photos, quotes, images, symbols and slogans

Is there a place for forgiveness and discomforting pedagogies in the foreign language classroom in higher education

This article describes a project in which university language students communicated across the globe to address a topic of human rights violations. The aim of the article is to answer the question of whether there is a place in language education for forgiveness and discomforting pedagogies. This focus is new in the field. It begins with an overview of intercultural citizenship education, followed by the pedagogical intervention and case study. It continues with a description of theoretical developments in forgiveness and discomforting pedagogies and provides an analysis of the data from the project with these lenses. Findings indicate that students displayed varying forms of emotional investment as they mediated interculturally with their interlocutors and the ghosts of those who suffered from human rights abuse in the past. The research demonstrates that forgiveness and discomforting pedagogies do have a place in language teaching when combined with intercultural citizenship education.Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociale

Is there a place for forgiveness and discomforting pedagogies in the foreign language classroom in higher education?

This article describes a project in which university language students communicated across the globe to address a topic of human rights violations. The aim of the article is to answer the question of whether there is a place in language education for forgiveness and discomforting pedagogies. This focus is new in the field. It begins with an overview of intercultural citizenship education, followed by the pedagogical intervention and case study. It continues with a description of theoretical developments in forgiveness and discomforting pedagogies and provides an analysis of the data from the project with these lenses. Findings indicate that students displayed varying forms of emotional investment as they mediated interculturally with their interlocutors and the ghosts of those who suffered from human rights abuse in the past. The research demonstrates that forgiveness and discomforting pedagogies do have a place in language teaching when combined with intercultural citizenship education

Beyond teaching languages for communication — Humanistic perspectives and practices

Our purpose is to trace and explain theoretical and practical developments in foreign/world language teaching over the last decade or more. Language teaching in its modern form, from the Reform Movement of the late 19th century, has focused upon the need for learners to learn or acquire a foreign language in order to use it for communication. Other purposes involve language learning as an intellectual exercise, the development of a language faculty, and opening (young) people’s eyes to new worlds by introducing them to other countries. Here, we argue that these purposes are reasonable and enriching, but only if they are combined. We suggest that, by taking a humanistic perspective, language teaching can go beyond communication as a dominant purpose. This humanistic perspective is realised through two complementary developments. One is to emphasise that learners are members of various communities, including their local community, their national community, and a world community. The second is to pay attention to the fact that learners bring to the classroom their concerns and fears, especially in times of crisis. Language teachers, who are not only instructors in skills but educators of the whole person, should respond to their learners’ needs both as denizens of their society and as unique individuals. We first explain the theoretical framework and how it has evolved and then describe two experimental projects, one which focuses on the societal needs and one which adds to this a response to the affective needs of learners. We finally discuss how a recent controversy might be addressed in the language teaching class

Competences for democratic culture: An empirical study of an intercultural citizenship project in language pedagogy

This article reports on a pedagogical intervention in foreign language teaching in higher education. It analizes the competences developed by Argentinian and UK-based students as they used Skype to design a leaflet that addressed a real world issue: the Argentinian military dictatorship and its manipulation of the 1978 Football World Cup. The data consists of students’ discussions of this highly disturbing human rights issue. A first level of analysis focused on identifying evidence of competences using the Council of Europe’s conceptual model of ‘competences for democratic culture’ (2016). In a second level of analysis, the data was categorized within the framework of Article 2.2 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training (2011). This research study provides an empirical test of these two frameworks in the field of language education, an aspect that has not been investigated before. It also contributes to our understanding of the potential of intercultural citizenship projects in achieving the goals of human rights education in foreign language teaching. Results indicate the development of substantial competences for democratic culture defined in the Council of Europe’s model