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Decolonising and Indianising ELT through anthrogogicity, potentiality,  equity and inclusivity

By Dr. Shree Deepa and Dr. Geetha Durairajan

Why have we used the  2 terms, Indianising and decolonising in our title?

The field of English language education has always had a colonial tinge to it. We Asians, who speak and use English as a second language, have always been made to feel inferior because we are  seen as only English language learners, not users. We wanted to work on our own terms and conditions with others who feel the same. As supposed “mere language learners”  we have landed up thinking of language only as a skill to be “developed and mastered”. We would like to move from this, from being  merely human language users to becoming humane, and talk about the potentiality that any language has, not just English, to be used in a constructive, neutral or destructive manner.

What did we do to ensure this?

As ELE practitioners who wanted to ground and root English teaching in India and decentralise it the two of us, started an association ELSSA, English Language Studies in South Asia and decided that we would have 4 broad focus areas namely multilingualism, equity, inclusivity and potentiality, all focusing only on the education of adults in mainstream contexts.

How did we go about Indianising and decolonising?

In order to  get an India-oriented focus, we reached out to young Indian scholars working in Universities and colleges, and not the so called ‘exported experts’ in the field.  We collaborated with another association, ELTIF and organised a series of talks.  In them, we spoke about the  ways in which adults can be taught and tested in multilingual India, the kind of materials that ought to be used for this to happen. We also looked at the pedagogic nature of both literature teaching and research supervision and how technology  makes no distinction between adults and children.

Why the term anthrogogy?

We as a group of like-minded teachers believe that there is a big difference between teaching children, which is pedagogic, and teaching adults, which has been termed as andragogic; but 'andra' means male and we wanted to include everyone.   Also, andragogy refers to  making adults literate, and is used only with open and distance learning.  We therefore use the term anthrogogy,  which is all about teaching adults in mainstream contexts.

Who is an adult?

Anyone who has the right to vote in a national election(who is over 18 years of age in India for example).

What are we doing now?

With the success of our talks we decided to stay with anthrogogicity and explore various ways in which it can be used in educational contexts.  Many other like-minded teachers are writing for us and we are in the process of bringing out an edited volume in the form of a book.  Our contributors are working on a wide range of areas apart from theorising, like the teaching of grammar/writing, the nature of group work, the relationship between mentor and mentees, self reflection, etc.

What are our future plans?

We would like to expand the membership of our association and reach out to Asian countries. Practicing or future teachers interested in looking at equity, equality, and multilingualism  as assets are welcome to join us. Membership is FREE as of now!

Please reach out to us if you have any queries.  Before we end, we would like to thank Dr. Shravasti Chakraborty and Dr. Sruti Narra for  being our techies. Without them, this padlet poster presentation would never have seen the light of day.

Our mail ids:

shreedeepa@uohyd.ac.in

geetha@efluniversity.ac.in

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Proposed Book on Anthrogogy                   Tentative Chapters  

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Proposed Book on Anthrogogy                   Tentative Chapters  

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ELTIF (English Language Teachers' Interaction Forum) Lecture Series

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ELTIF (English Language Teachers' Interaction Forum) Lecture Series

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Deepa, Shree. (2022a ). Pedagogic Practices in Higher Education and Peter Pan syndrome: An Appraisal.  Fortell: 45:164-173.

Deepa, Shree. (2022b). Verbal Disposition: The Need for Language Potentiality in
Anthrogogic Spaces. Journal of English Language Teaching, 64(6), 17-24.

Knowles, M (1950) Informal Adult Education, Chicago: Association Press, pages 9-10.

Trott, D. C. (1991, October). Anthrogogy. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education, Montreal, Quebec.

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All the members of ELSSA are committed to ensure equity and equality in their own teaching-learning contexts and foster them wherever they are involved as social beings.

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Going Beyond Language Proficiency into Language Potentiality: further directions

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Going Beyond Language Proficiency into Language Potentiality: further directions

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Verbal Disposition, Humane constructive language use (deepa, 2022b) and projects around this area is being researched by the members.

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Not pedagogy, not Andragogy (Knowles)

but 'Anthrogogy' Trott (1991; Deepa, 2022a): Is there a generic set of principles that guide learning/education of adults in mainstream higher education?

Education of adults is teaching adult students in the higher education classrooms. Adults who are 18 years+ of biological age.

Why does this matter to us as language teachers?

In the Indian context, English is still a compulsory course taught in all undergraduate programs barring a few specialised fields like Medicine or Law and centred around the US and European countries.

Anthrogogy definition: all inclusive(all genders, languages, cultures, disciplines, capabilities etc) term than mere andragogy that speaks more of informal or non formal adult education or continuing education or lifelong learning.

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Our Adult: Any person with voting rights, who has joined a mainstream undergraduate or above degree programme in a formal higher education institute. 

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Our Adult: Any person with voting rights, who has joined a mainstream undergraduate or above degree programme in a formal higher education institute. 

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Decentralising, Decolonising and therefore aim at Indianising  ELT through Anthrogogicity, Potentiality, Equity and Inclusivity.

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Decentralising, Decolonising and therefore aim at Indianising  ELT through Anthrogogicity, Potentiality, Equity and Inclusivity.

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Dr. Shree Deepa, shreedeepa@uohyd.ac.in
Dr. Geetha Durairajan, geetha@efluniversity.ac.in
The Organisation: ELSSA (English Language Studies in South Asia)
ELSSA Founder members: Dr Shree Deepa, Dr Geetha Durairajan, Dr Deepesh Chandrasekharan, Dr Mahananda Pathak, 2021 to 2023

Technical team for this poster on behalf of ELSSA : Dr Shravasti Chakravarty and Dr Sruti Narra

Aim: to promote fresh perspectives in the teaching and learning of English in the South Asian context.

What: a collective of like-minded teacher professionals involved in mainstream higher education contexts (mHEs). Membership is open and free, with an approval from the founder members.

Why: to find local and glocal directions to the emerging needs and realtime scenarios of teaching English in India

Current Areas of Focus: Anthrogogy, Inclusivity, Equity Studies, Multi-Disciplinarity, Language Potentiality

Current work:  Series of online lectures (First series was with ELTIF), working on an edited book with contributions from teachers teaching in mainstream higher education classrooms.

Future Plans: Integrate teacher voices from South Asia and offer a platform that fosters professional development through constructive academic debates and dialogues through webinars, publications and informal chats through WhatsApp groups.