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Lesson Resources: Develop Your English with the UN SDGs (Sue Robbins)

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Lesson Resources: Develop Your English with the UN SDGs (Sue Robbins)

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Open access English language textbook published January 2024

'Develop Your English is a transformative expedition into language proficiency, global awareness and sustainable learning.'

'The units represented a diverse range of groups and geographical areas. This inclusivity adds a valuable dimension to the learning experience, offering exposure to a variety of perspectives. It differs from my previous English language learning materials, providing a richer and more globalised context.'

'The content expanded my understanding of global challenges and the interconnectedness of sustainable development efforts significantly.'

'Not all students can afford English classes in addition to purchasing teaching materials, so this textbook is the first I know of that promotes an accessible learning experience.'

'This book infuses fun into language learning and actively engages learners' intelligence'.

'The inclusion of a range of task types prevents readers from becoming bored. The variety enhances the engagement of the reader and enables the assessment of their comprehension on various levels, including information extraction, note-taking, literacy and grammar.'

'This electric English book stands out as a departure from traditional teaching materials in China. The engaging topics, thoughtful design, and seamless connections between sections made it both attractive and inspiring.'

'I found the subject really interesting as well as the reading and writing materials. Something I really enjoyed was how the whole world was represented through the stories, as well as how different accents were used in the podcasts'.

'The interactive practices woven throughout not only engaged me but also proved to be relevant and essential for reinforcing knowledge. I appreciated the effort to make the content both enjoyable and educational.'

'The fact that I can record myself answering the questions is just amazing, and very helpful. I felt confident about the given questions.'

'I especially liked how the vocabulary was brought up in different contexts and explained in different ways. I think it is much easier to learn how to use the word in this way.'

'The tasks are structured in a manner that facilitates the learner's gradual comprehension of the article, and are progressively more challenging.'

'With Develop Your English you end up learning much more than you expected, almost without realising it, motivated by a slowly-cooked curiosity.'

'An aspect that I really liked was the representation of different societies and cultures through each story that is told in text, audio or video. In addition to portraying a range of different accents that are essential to hearing as you learn a language, I was pleased to hear stories that were similar to my own experience, in work or in my own life journey.'

'My critical thinking skill is enhanced considerably. Completing the tasks significantly enhanced my understanding of the text and listening material, reinforcing key concepts. I really appreciated the variety of task types within the units'.

'The smooth transition from one thread to another is a testament to the author's story-telling skills. The seamless flow keeps the reader's attention, creating a continuous and engaging narrative.'

'The textbook is interesting due to its shift from Eurocentric examples to more diverse voices.'

'The automated feedback and instant answers to language tasks were so prompt and helpful. Indeed, they provided valuable guidance, allowing for immediate clarification and reinforcing correct language usage.'

Student Reviewers talking about Develop Your English

TRANSCRIPT: Student Reviewers talking about 'Develop Your English'.

Adan: Hi. This is Adan, and I've done a Masters degree in English Literature. What I liked about Sue's book is that it not only teaches you English, of course that's the primary goal, but at the same time it brings together people from different nationalities like myself - I come from a different country where English is not the first language - but we have a common goal, looking at the world and the environmental aspects.

Winson: Develop Your English is a book whose design is not based on conventional ways of the normal English book - that is building on the grammar in the beginning - but it is designed based on topics, and the topics are based on the SDGs, which is very relatable to our daily lives. Throughout the book there's a lot of phrases and words that are included in the book that are very relatable to us, and able to be used in daily life.

Adan: You're learning the language and at the same time it's like developing a conscience - not only a language conscience but at the same time an environmental conscience and how we can work towards a better world, and better environmentally conscious world.

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Develop your English - Sue Robbins - Lewes

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Develop Your English: with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is an advanced level (B2-C1) open access English language e-textbook published January 2024.

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Celebrating Neurodiversity in Higher Education

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Celebrating Neurodiversity in Higher Education

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Celebrating neurodiversity in Higher Education | BPS

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On the spectrum within art & design practice

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On the spectrum within art & design practice

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RefugEAP is a free online pre-university academic English skills programme for refugee-background students across the UK

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RefugEAP is a free online pre-university academic English skills programme for refugee-background students across the UK. It is for students who need to improve their academic English skills to help them access a degree programme at university, but perhaps have not been able to access a formal pre-sessional English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programme yet. RefugEAP has been developed to meet this need, providing students with an opportunity to continue to develop their academic English skills in a supportive way while they are waiting for more formal opportunities to become available.

The RefugEAP Programme has been developed by staff at the University of Leicester's Sanctuary Seekers' Unit and the University of Leeds Language Centre. It is being kindly supported by dedicated volunteer tutors and a number of partner organisations, including Password Testing (who are providing assessments), Screen Share (who are providing digital devices for students who need them), RefuAid (who are providing wrap-around support and referrals) and Oxford University Press (who have provided online course books).
Listen to a British Council Teaching English podcast featuring the RefugEAP Programme
Watch a video of a presentation entitled Introducing the RefugEAP Programme (from Breaking Barriers Refugee Week 2023).

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RefugEAP Programme | Sanctuary Seekers' Unit | University of Leicester

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Access free online academic English programme RefugEAP for refugees in the UK developed by University of Leicester and University of Leeds and taught by volunteer EAP tutors

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Webinar Recording: Making Space for Inclusive Practice in ELT Training by Davey Young

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Webinar Recording: Making Space for Inclusive Practice in ELT Training by Davey Young

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TESOL International SSDIS   Making space for inclusive practice in ELT training

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ACAS is an organisation which gives employees and employers free, impartial advice on workplace rights, rules and best practice. It also offers training and help to resolve disputes

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Acas | Making working life better for everyone in Britain

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Acas is the workplace expert for England, Wales and Scotland. We provide free and impartial advice for employers and employees, training and help resolve disputes.

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MOOC: Language for Resilience - Teaching English to Refugees and Displaced Learners

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MOOC: Language for Resilience - Teaching English to Refugees and Displaced Learners

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This 9-hour British Council MOOC covers:

How to create a trauma-sensitive learning environment

How to work with limited resources

How to manage challenging behaviour

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Welcome to 'Language for resilience: Teaching English to refugees and displaced learners

As part of our programme to recognise and celebrate World Refugee Day on 20 June, join our Language for Resilience online course for teachers. Throughout the course you will learn effective strategies and techniques to help make your classroom a safe environment. You will learn about the following:

How to create a trauma-sensitive learning environment

How to work with limited resources

How to manage challenging behaviour.

How do I sign up for the course?

Module 1: An introduction to trauma and its effects on the classroom

By the end of this module, you will:

be able to define trauma and understand its possible causes

be able to reflect on the effects on learning and behaviour in the classroom through examples of students and consider the role of the teacher in endings and transitions

learn some interesting ways to create physical and emotional safety through basic strategies

Module 2: Teaching with minimal resources

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

identify the resources available in the classroom.

use a variety of activities when teaching with limited resources and adapt an activity for a particular teaching context

analyse the advantages and disadvantages of different activities and be more resourceful when faced with a low-resource context

Module 3: Dealing with very challenging behaviour

By the end of this module, you will:

be able to understand behaviour as a communication of need - asking what has happened to you rather than what's wrong with you.

be able to recognise unconscious defence mechanisms: breaking negative patterns of interaction: choosing a different response.

learn some practical classroom strategies to manage meaningful communication and interactions.

Start dates and duration

The course begins on 7th June 2022 and lasts for four weeks. Each module involves approximately three hours of study.

Registration for this course closes on 27 June 2022.

Community and forum

The community and forums for this course are on Facebook. You do not need a Facebook account to join.
Join the course community and forum
Cost

Free

Certificates

For participants who successfully complete all tasks and achieve a score of 70% or above in the online exercises, there will be a downloadable certificate of completion at the end of the course.

Level of English required

Minimum CEFR B1

How do I access the course after I have enrolled?

On a desktop or laptop computer

1. Log in to your free TeachingEnglish account.

2. If you have enrolled in the course, you will see 'MY PORTFOLIO' in the menu bar at the top of the page next to the Home button.

3. Move your mouse over MY PORTFOLIO to see the drop-down menu.

4. Click on 'My courses' to access your training.

On a mobile device

1. Log in to your free TeachingEnglish account.

2. Tap the three horizontal lines next to the home button to open the menu.

3. Below 'Home', you will see MY PORTFOLIO and 'My courses' below. Tap on MY PORTFOLIO if you don't see 'My courses'.

4. Tap on 'My courses' to access your training.

Support and troubleshooting

If you have signed up for this course and have problems accessing your learning, please make sure you are logged in, then click or tap the link below:
https://open.teachingenglish.org.uk/Home/MyProgrammes
If you are still having problems accessing your course, please see the advice below:
Problem
I can't register for the course
Possible solution
Please make sure you have created a free account or that you are logged in to your existing account. If registration is available, you will see instructions for 'How do I register for this course?' at the top of this page. If registration is not available, you will see the message 'This course is not available for registration'.
Problem
I can't access the course. I am logged in to my account, but when I click or tap 'My courses' from MY PORTFOLIO I just go to my profile page.
Possible solution
Check that you are not logged into your TeachingEnglish account on a different device or browser. Log out of your account on all devices and browsers, and log in again. Click or tap 'My courses' from MY PORTFOLIO. You should be taken to your training course. If you still can't access your course, log out, clear the cache on your browser and log in again.

Important:

Our courses have a start and end date. After the end date of the course, the material will not be available.
Problem
I can't get my certificate
Possible solution
Certificates are available to participants who complete 70% of the course material. To access your certificate, go to the course platform where you have done your training. Click or tap 'My awards'. If you have completed 70% of the course, your certificate should be available to download.

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Language for resilience: Teaching English to refugees and displaced learners

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Welcome to 'Language for resilience: Teaching English to refugees and displaced learners As part of our programme to recognise and celebrate World Refugee Day on 20 June, join our Language for Resilience online course for teachers. Throughout the course you will learn effective strategies and techniques to help make your classroom a safe environment.

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Report: Finding their way: Journey to university for refugee and asylum seeking young people in Coventry (REUK & Uni of Warwick)

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Report: Finding their way: Journey to university for refugee and asylum seeking young people in Coventry (REUK & Uni of Warwick)

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This is a research study which demonstrates the critical importance of a local university, particularly when working in partnership with local charities and colleges, in addressing barriers to higher education.

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MOOC: Concepts in Sustainable Development

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MOOC: Concepts in Sustainable Development

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For most of human history, the world has experienced sustainability without development. But since we've moved from foraging to farming, we've seen development without sustainability. Growth and world population has come as a result of advances in science and technology. Societies have adapted to these changes, but now population growth threatens to outrun technology. And the material resources required to support unrestrained development are no longer available. Sustainable development is one of the greatest challenges of our time. In this course, we'll learn about the fundamental concepts and ideas that underpin sustainability on a global level.

Universities especially have a major role to play in sustainable development not only through education, but also through their example. Here at Leicester, we've put this at the heart of what we do. The new centre for medicine is the UK's largest nonresidential Passivhaus building. Here the green wall and roof planting promote biodiversity, whilst the building itself has the highest standards of air tightness and temperature control. The building's intelligence systems include a subsoil heat exchange system to prewarm or precool the incoming air. There are heat recovery mechanisms within the ventilation system and automated blinds to keep rooms cool in summer.

The large array of solar panels on the roof and the connection to a heat and power district energy scheme means that the building is largely carbon neutral. Our values of sustainability extend into all facets of our university life. The University of Leicester aspires to develop students who can think and act sustainably. Sustainable development is not just a difficult practical problem where we all do our bit for recycling and turn off unnecessary lights. It's also a conceptual, political and moral problem. In this course, we'll look at what this means. How it implies there are no simple answers to the issues of sustainable development and on the other hand, how an understanding of the complexities can help shape approaches to solutions.

This course raises fundamental issues about the fair use of resources, which will investigate why some countries are less developed than others and the interplay between development and technology. At the University of Leicester, our commitment to a sustainable future for all will cause long term thinking and socially responsible behaviour. Sustainable development isn't just one part of the curriculum in higher education, it's all of the curriculum in one aspect. We aim to develop the talents of our students. In this way we hope to encourage our students to grow as individuals and to contribute to their communities in positive and sustainable ways.

In this course we concentrate on the large scale picture and hope to provide a deeper understanding of what it means to be a global citizen.

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Concepts in Sustainable Development - Online Course - FutureLearn

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For most of human history, the world has experienced sustainability without development. But since we've moved from foraging to farming, we've seen development without sustainability. Growth and world population has come as a result of advances in science and technology. Societies have adapted to these changes, but now population growth threatens to outrun technology.

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This chapter examines the socio-cultural and socio-political changes of the last twenty years in terms of the relationship of language and culture in ELT. It examines the rise of the field of intercultural communication and its relation to language teaching. The chapter discusses the main current issues and key areas of debate concerning the role of culture in ELT. It also discusses future developments in the study of language and culture as they relate to the teaching and learning of English. Language learning and teaching thus has close connections with the field of intercultural communication (ICC), in particular where the notion of culture is concerned. National cultures are being infiltrated by a global culture that speaks global English but might be making meaning differently from English native speakers, and whose cultural points of reference are multiple and changing. The task of English language teachers is to decide which aspect of culture might be relevant to understanding this intensity.

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Politics, power relationships and ELT | Alastair Pennycook | Taylor &

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This chapter examines the socio-cultural and socio-political changes of the last twenty years in terms of the relationship of language and culture in ELT. It ex

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Authors

Jennifer Walsh Marr University of British Columbia

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449

Keywords:
English for Academic Purposes, Critical Pedagogy, International Education, Instructor Precarity

Abstract

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) has become an increasingly prominent sector of the English language teaching profession in British Columbia, providing English language preparation for post-secondary education across a range of disciplines. This theoretical paper gives overviews of EAP and critical pedagogy, then delves into four central tenets that are parallel in both fields: decoding, contextualization, praxis, and critical thinking. Beyond the parallels, it explores both promising initiatives and tensions in the enactment of critical pedagogy in EAP, not least of which is the precarity of many instructors in the field. Recognizing the contributions of EAP and moving the field from the margins of the academy would make for better opportunities to realize the full potential of international students and international education through critical pedagogy.

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The Promise and Precarity of Critical Pedagogy in English for Academic Purposes

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Jennifer Walsh Marr University of British Columbia https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.449 English for Academic Purposes, Critical Pedagogy, International Education, Instructor Precarity English for Academic Purposes (EAP) has become an increasingly prominent sector of the English language teaching profession in British Columbia, providing English language preparation for post-secondary education across a range of disciplines.

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Interview: Teaching Trauma Experienced Learners 

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Interview: Teaching Trauma Experienced Learners 

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Emily Bryson talks with Aleks Palanac about trauma-informed approaches in the refugee language classroom in this interview which is part of National Geographic's Teaching Through Crisis series.

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246 views, 12 likes, 4 loves, 22 comments, 4 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from National Geographic Learning Europe: This event is the third Facebook...

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Webinar Recording: Researching Refugeedom 2022

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Webinar Recording: Researching Refugeedom 2022

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This session from the University of Leicester's Breaking Barriers Refugee Week 2022 showcases three research projects focusing on refugees. Of particular relevance to inclusivity in ELT/EAP is the second presentation (starting at 31:40) entitled Beyond Resilience: Facilitating Learning and Well-Being in the Refugee Language Classroom

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Webinar Recording: Journeys into Volunteering and Activism Panel Discussion

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Webinar Recording: Journeys into Volunteering and Activism Panel Discussion

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Hear about the journeys of four individuals involved in volunteering/activism in the field of refugee education. Featuring Moses Seitler (Refugee Education UK and Screen Share), Anna Jones (RefuAid), Maryam Taher (City of Sanctuary UK and Student Acvtion for Refugees) and Zeeshan Arif (NHS and RefuDoc). Part of the University of Leicester's Breaking Barriers Refugee Week 2022

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Citizens of Change - Journeys into volunteering and activism

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Chapter: A shift from Handmaidens to Enlightened Waiters: EAP Practitioners for a grassroots Sanctuary movement by Aleks Palanac

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Chapter: A shift from Handmaidens to Enlightened Waiters: EAP Practitioners for a grassroots Sanctuary movement by Aleks Palanac

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This is a chapter from BALEAP 2022 Conference Selections, examining the possible roles of the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) practitioner within the constraints of the neo-liberal university and arguing for the adoption of the role of 'advocates for inclusion’ (Benesch, 2001, p. 130) or transformative practitioners

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Conference Presentation: Challenging colonial legacies in EAP

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Conference Presentation: Challenging colonial legacies in EAP

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Please use the password coloniality to access this video recording.

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Webinar Recording from BALEAP 2021: Affective engagement with, and well-being during, an online pre-sessional course by Dr Ide Haghi

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Webinar Recording from BALEAP 2021: Affective engagement with, and well-being during, an online pre-sessional course by Dr Ide Haghi

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Previewing Live Papers 5.3b Ide Haghi.mp4

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Lesson Resources: Develop EAP: A Sustainable Academic English Skills Course

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Lesson Resources: Develop EAP: A Sustainable Academic English Skills Course

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These EAP resources are based around the UN Sustainable Development Goals

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This is a free-to-use course which develops students academic English skills and their awareness of the UN&amp;amp;#39;s Sustainable Development Goals

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A wealth of lesson resources focusing on global issues and social justice, suggested lessons for special days, a brilliant podcast and much much more!

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Welcome to GISIG
What are Global Issues?
Challenges, trends, changes, pressing concerns facing humanity. Some of us are privileged enough to live in places where we don't experience their immediate adverse effect. The default mode of our day-to-day existence pushes them to the periphery of our consciousness. We're too busy to notice, don't have time to think ... and change.

Here are some examples: Population growth. Social inequality. Food shortages. Global warming. Environmental degradation. Lack of safe drinking water. The status of teachers around the world. Sustainable development. Rampant consumerism. The internet revolution. Disappearing species. Human rights. Climate change.
Why global issues in the ELT classroom?
Because we are all world citizens - students and teachers alike. Everything we do affects the rest of the world, and what happens in the rest of the world affects us. Every one of us can make a difference - and we as teachers can reinforce this message by what and how we teach.

This is the special interest group for you, if you also believe that today more than ever it is vital that we Care global, teach local.

GISIG members around the world -->

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What are Global Issues? Challenges, trends, changes, pressing concerns facing humanity. Some of us are privileged enough to live in places where we don't experience their immediate adverse effect. The default mode of our day-to-day existence pushes them to the periphery of our consciousness. We're too busy to notice, don't have time to think ...

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A website to complement the Facebook group of the same name, set up in response to the climate emergency with the goal of turning ELT into a model profession that advocates environmental justice and reduces its carbon footprint so that we can play our part in halting global heating. Their website contains a wealth of resources, links and advice for practitioners

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Online Video Lessons: Renewable English with Harry Waters

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Online Video Lessons: Renewable English with Harry Waters

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Weekly live English lessons broadcast over YouTube focusing on the climate and ecological emergency. There are also lesson materials and a blog

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Introduction

Renewable English was created to help educators and learners in their quest to be more sustainable. In the first series of lessons we look closely at traditional unit themes and look more deeply into our behaviour and see how we can easily make positive changes towards a cleaner, healthier planet.

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Giving educators and learners the tools to raise climate change awareness

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Renewable English was created to help educators and learners in their quest to be more sustainable. In the first series of lessons we look closely at traditional unit themes and look more deeply into our behaviour and see how we can easily make positive changes towards a cleaner, healthier planet.

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Online Materials: New Internationalist Easier English Wiki

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Online Materials: New Internationalist Easier English Wiki

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A range of types of resource (including ready lessons, self-access resources) with a global focus, looking at issues such as the climate emergency

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and are you interested in the world? read these Easier English articles, or choose one of the QUIZZES.

- more than 125, free Ready Lessons to help learners develop speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar. Also see More teaching ideas for many more teaching ideas.

Look at our latest issues:

Issue 530 - March / April 2021 - "Democracy on the edge"

Issue 529 - January / February 2021 - "The biodiversity emergency"

Issue 528 - November / December 2020 - "A caring economy: what would it take?"

Issue 527 - September / October 2020 - "Lessons from the pandemic"

Issue 526 - July / August 2020 - "The Kurds: Betrayed again"

Issue 525 - May / June 2020 - "Take a deep breath: the fight for clean air"

Issue 524 - March / April 2020 - "How we make poverty"

Issue 523 - January / February 2020 - "Borders"

Issue 522 - November / December 2019 - "China in charge"

Issue 521 - September / October 2019 - "Who owns the sea?"

Issue 520 - July / August 2019 - "The right to the city"

Issue 519 - May / June 2019 - "How to avoid climate breakdown"

Issue 518 - March / April 2019 - "Building a new internationalism"

Issue 517 - January / February 2019 - "Trade in turmoil: A chance for justice?"

Issue 516 - November / December 2018 - "The dirt on waste"

Issue 515 - September / October 2018 - "Making peace in a world at war"

Issue 514 - July / August 2018 - "The next financial crisis"

Issue 513 - June 2018 - "A better media is possible"

Issue 512 - May 2018 - "Public ownership rises again"

Issue 511 - April 2018 - "Who cares?"

Issue 510 - March 2018 - "No justice, no peace"

Issue 509 - January / February 2018 - "What's left for the young?"

Issue 508 - December 2017 - "Clampdown!"

Issue 507 - November 2017 - "Humans vs robots"

Issue 506 - October 2017 - "Brazil's soft coup"

Issue 505 - September 2017 - "Bad Education"

Issue 504 - July / August 2017 - "The Equality Effect"

Issue 503 - June 2017 - "Homelessness"

Issue 502 - May 2017 - "West Papua: Freedom in sight?"

Issue 501 - April 2017 - "Populism rises again"

Issue 500 - March 2017 - "Our 500th issue - brave people"

Issue 499 - January / February 2017 - "Sisters and Brothers: Three decades of change in an African village"

Issue 498 - December 2016 - "The Coming War on China / Tax Avoidance"

Issue 497 - November 2016 - "Peace in Colombia?"

Issue 496 - October 2016 - "World Fiction Special"

Issue 495 - September 2016 - "Trade Unions"

Issue 494 - July / August 2016 - "Smily-faced monopolists"

Issue 493 - June 2016 - "After Ebola"

Issue 492 - May 2016 - "Technology justice"

Issue 491 - April 2016 - "Forests"

Issue 490 - March 2016 - "Saudi Arabia and the West"

Issue 489 - January / February 2016 - "Migration"

Issue 488 - December 2015 - "10 Economic Myths"

Issue 487 - November 2015 - "Paris Climate Summit"

Issue 486 - October 2015 - "The Transgender Revolution"

Issue 485 - September 2015 - "Syria's Good Guys"

Issue 484 - July/August 2015 - "Alternatives to Capitalism"

Issue 483 - June 2015 - "Fundamentalism: Power, politics and persuasion"

Issue 482 - May 2015 - "Global Banking"

Issue 481 - April 2015 - "Total control - is Monsanto unstoppable?

Issue 480 - March 2015 - "Renewable energy"

Issue 479 - January / February 2015 - "Democracy in the digital age

Issue 478 - December 2014 - "NGOs: do they help?"

Issue 477 - November 2014 - "Ending the Oil Age"

Issue 476 - October 2014 - "The New Cuba"

Issue 475 - September 2014 - "Gold Trouble"

Issue 474 - July / August 2014 - "Feminism"

Issue 473 - June 2014 - "Save our speech - the politics of language loss"

Issue 472 - May 2014 - "Organ trafficking"

Issue 471 - April 2014 - "The war on whistleblowers"

Issue 470 - March 2014 - "Commodities"

Issue 469 - January / February 2014 - "Why are we locking up migrants?"

Issue 468 - December 2013 - "Fracking"

Issue 467 - November 2013 - "We are able; time to rethink disability"

Issue 466 - October 2013 - "Where have all the girls gone?"

Issue 465 - September 2013 - "Pirates"

Issue 464 - July / August 2013 - "Debt - a global scam"

Issue 463 - June 2013 - "Argentina's challenge"

Issue 462 - May 2013 - "Land grabs"

Issue 461 - April 2013 - "Why is housing in such a state?"

Issue 460 - March 2013 - "What has development done for me?"

Issue 459 - January / February 2013 - "The Feral Rich"

Issue 458 - December 2012 - "Internet Showdown"

Issue 457 - November 2012 - "Bad Medicine"

Issue 456 - October 2012 - "Youth Rising"

Issue 455 - September 2012 - "Drugs Legalization"

Issue 454 - July / August 2012 - "How Co-operatives can save the planet"

Also get these NEW BOOKLETS AT 3 LEVELS: Pre-intermediate, Intermediate and Upper Intermediate:

As the articles are simplified, the words, text structure and quotes may have been changed. For the originals, please see: newint.org

Follow us on Twitter: @EasierNewInt for new articles / contact us at: [email protected]

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New Internationalist Easier English Wiki

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and are you interested in the world? read these Easier English articles, or choose one of the QUIZZES . - more than 125, free Ready Lessons to help learners develop speaking, reading, writing, vocabulary and grammar. Also see More teaching ideas for many more teaching ideas.

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These coursebooks cover topics not normally found in mainstream ELT coursebooks, and do so using a social justice lens. These topics include:

Black, indigenous and people of color

LGBTQIA+

Disabled people

The working class

Non-conventional body types

Refugees

Aspects of faith

Neurodiversity

Immigrants

Non-conventional families

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Raise Up! - A Diverse And Inclusive View Of English Language Teaching

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Diversity and representation have become important social issues in the last few years, and this discussion has filtered through to the ELT world. However this discussion seems to have had little or no effect on international ELT materials.

We feel that, significant improvements need to be made in how various groups in society are included in the most popular international coursebooks. These subjects include:

Women

Black, Asian and minority ethnic people

LGBTQIA+

Disabled people

The working class

Indigenous people

Non-conventional body types

Non-hegemonic countries and cultures

Refugees

People living and working in extreme conditions

Non-urban environments

Elderly people

Aspects of faith

Mental health

In response to this situation, we decided to create Raise Up! Project, starting with a multi-level coursebook containing eight lessons on a variety of subjects including work rules, family, leadership, and rural life. The methodology reflects that normally found in an international mainstream coursebook, as does the design. The book is an attempt to demonstrate how this kind of accessible coursebook can be inclusive without being controversial, and to provide teachers with practical, ready to use lessons that are genuinely diverse and are not currently provided to them by ELT publishers. All of our proceeds go to good causes, and everyone working on Raise Up! is a volunteer.

Below you can find links to learn more about our coursebooks, written by a diverse and global team of writers, editors, proofreaders, illustrators and photographers, follow us on social media, sign up to our newsletter to stay in touch, learn more about our collaborators and the good causes we support, and links to resources so you can learn more about representation in ELT.

Our Project

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The new Raise Up! B1 book Diversity and representation have become important social issues in the last few years, and this discussion has filtered through to the ELT world. However this discussion seems to have had little or no effect on international ELT materials. We feel that, significant improvements need to be made in how...

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Sustainability in Teaching and Learning Padlet Wall

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Sustainability in Teaching and Learning Padlet Wall

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Lots of links to useful teaching resources here from the ESOL/FE sector, among other things

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Blog Post: Pedagogy of Care Gone Massive by Dr Maha Bali

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Blog Post: Pedagogy of Care Gone Massive by Dr Maha Bali

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Bali, M. (2015) Pedagogy of Care – Gone Massive, Hybrid Pedagogy, 20 April. Available at: https://hybridpedagogy.org/pedagogy-of-care-gone-massive/

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Sometimes, the most valuable thing we can offer our students is genuine care for them, their well-being, their happiness. Not just their grades. Not just their learning. But their whole selves.

This article is inspired by a discussion with a friend who suggested that medical ethics should not be about "do no harm" but rather about caring. As one who comes from a family of doctors, I often hear about how medical people sometimes focus on the body and forget to look at the whole person. The same reductionism can be found in education. bell hooks critiques this, calling for educators to engage with students' whole selves, with their souls. Inspired by her, Jesse Stommel and I recently wrote that in seeking to empower students, "teachers must...show the kind of care for the work that only comes when we make ourselves at least somewhat vulnerable."

It is one thing to do this in small classes, but a totally different thing to do it in larger classes, or even online on a massive scale in MOOCs.

I'd like to share a story from my personal experience teaching small classes of eight or so students, then compare it to connectivist MOOCs (aka cMOOCs, where learner engagement is distributed over multiple sites like blogs, Twitter and Facebook) in order to clarify the amount of effort that goes into a cMOOC facilitator behaving in caring ways and maintaining a caring pedagogy.

One day, my student Riham blogged that the most important thing she had learned in class that day was how a teacher can show care for her students. I had been late for class, attending the funeral of a friend's mother. I asked a colleague to meet my students before I came. I made sure not to tell them where I had been (they knew my friend so needed to know) until after class was over. Why? Because I knew that this particular student's mother had recently passed away, and I knew hearing news would affect her; I wanted to be there to hug her when she cried, and not put her through two hours of class time afterwards.

So let me step back from this situation. First of all, I had to know about this student's situation, because she had shared with me; I had to empathize with how it would make her feel, I had to imagine her reaction, and respond in a certain way, and I had to be ready to hug her.

Nel Noddings calls this attentive and receptive "engrossment" of a carer towards others. It also requires action from the cared-for to affirm they feel cared-for.

Now take this to a massive scale.

No, wait.

Even in a small class of eight, I would not normally know if anyone has lost a parent recently, especially on our second meeting of the semester. I actually only knew about this student's situation because I had taught her a year before and we got back in touch before the new semester started, and she had told me. In a normal situation, I would not have known.
Care requires personal knowledge of people. How do you achieve that in a MOOC? Care requires sharing Care requires choosing the most appropriate response Expressing care is sometimes physical. That part is not possible to do online. in the context at hand. How can you envision this on a massive scale? and empathy with others different from ourselves. How do you achieve this at a massive scale with diverse others?
Empathy. I had to recognize that the impact of news of someone else's mother might affect her the way it did. This might sound obvious to many people, but I honestly have to say that I did not fully realize what it meant to lose a parent until I lost my own father. I did not break down when it happened but a part of me was changed forever by the experience, and every time I hear of another person's parent's passing I feel it more profoundly than before-like one hundred times stronger.

I think the reason my student felt comfortable sharing personal information with me is that I do the same. I know about my students' children because I talk about my own child, for example.

I also needed to couple my empathy with action: behavior based on what I imagined her reaction would be. Empathy was imagining how she might feel, while compassion was acting in a way to support her.

And then, this one last thing which cannot be ignored or underestimated: the power of physical support. The power of the hug. Because in our culture it is not inappropriate for me to hug a female student, and also because I knew her well, I could hug her. I could not do it with a male student. I could not do it with a Western student.

But I am writing this article to suggest it is, in fact, possible to practice a pedagogy of care online, in a MOOC. And I will show you how I have experienced it.

In Rhizomatic Learning: The Community is the Curriculum (aka #rhizo14), some tension occurred during the Europe/Africa time zones involving, coincidentally, participants from that region. I remember Dave Cormier, the course facilitator, finding a long Facebook thread, and asking, "What's going on? Is there bullying happening here? Can someone email me what happened while I was asleep?" The participants had been trying to handle the tension amongst themselves (they were, after all, adult autonomous learners), but it still mattered that he cared to ask what was happening. Dave also surveyed participants midway through the MOOC to get feedback on how it was going.

In another MOOC, Connected Courses (aka #ccourses), Howard Rheingold (a co-facilitator) asked for participant feedback. He did this via two different synchronous sessions at different times to listen to participant suggestions on how to make the MOOC better for them, and made changes to the design and running of the MOOC accordingly.

Of course, they also had to observe, recognize that something needed to be done, and that is the hardest part of all, because at the potentially massive scale of a MOOC, you can only pay attention on so many platforms and to so many people. You cannot possibly know every individual or see every blog post, comment, or tweet. This often means that you will miss some things, and in missing them, miss entire consequences built upon them. So there will also always have to be a humility of "knowing we do not know." It is possible that someone enters your space and disrupts it in some way. And you need to realize as a facilitator that this could happen. If brought to your attention, you would probably want to act if it poses danger to participants and they are unable to handle it. Fortunately, most MOOCs and cMOOCs in particular target adults who are able to handle themselves.

Actually, cMOOCs are often more flexible than for-credit courses and are better at a form of care Nel Noddings emphasizes: "Caring teachers listen to [learners] and help them to acquire the knowledge and attitudes needed to achieve their goals, not those of a pre-established curriculum."

There are some incredible facilitators of MOOCs who somehow manage to keep their finger on the pulse. For example, in eLearning and Digital Cultures (aka #edcmooc), the team of facilitators often referred to participant posts by name during the weekly Google Hangouts. Some cMOOC facilitators like Howard Rheingold and Alan Levine in #ccourses make a point of commenting on blog posts of many participants. Some, like Mia Zamora, actively amplify participant posts via Twitter, and I try to mimic their practices when co-facilitating similar experiences. It is time-consuming but also very rewarding-it makes my participation so much more valuable to me even. The key thing about doing it regularly is this: You begin to know each participant as a person and not just as a blog by a faceless writer. You begin to know more about their background, personality, interests, and you get to also ask them more questions about themselves. I have found in MOOCs with many facilitators it is quite possible to have enough people who manage to do this, and amongst them, to cover a wide range of participants. But in a MOOC facilitated by someone alone, it is probably not humanly possible. Because even though in a MOOC like #ccourses only a few of the facilitators engaged fully with participants, the others were handling other parts of the course. I have often seen MOOC participants step in and take facilitator-like roles (this is not strange since I join MOOCs where participants are themselves educators in some other context).

If you want students to share of themselves, to make themselves vulnerable, you need to start with yourself, as bell hooks suggests. And I have seen MOOC facilitators do this. Dave Cormier blogs about explaining #rhizo14 to his son, and it made me comfortable to blog about my own parenting. Alan Levine blogs about his late mother and it makes me comfortable to blog about my late father. Mia Zamora blogs about her thinking behind her teaching, and I do something similar. It is both a kind of modeling, and a kind of opening up. If I feel I know them personally, I feel like I can open myself up to them, too.

Empathy is much more complicated, and for a MOOC with diverse participants, I think it requires sustained engagement with individuals and the building of one-on-one relationships, possibly through private conversation. Thus, it is probably impossible to empathize with hundreds of people of different cultures and backgrounds.

We all make mistakes.

I remember a mistake I made with regards to empathy in a small face-to-face class of around ten students. I am Egyptian but was mainly raised in Kuwait in British schools. I was teaching a class for teachers about the ethics of educational technology. One student (a senior science teacher in her school), talked about how traumatizing the secondary school exams had been for her and that she had cried once during an exam because it had been so hard. My immediate reaction was dismissive: "Why would you cry at an exam? So what that it's hard?" And I failed to recognize the sociocultural complexity of the anxiety these secondary exams imposed on people in Egypt. They were the one and only gateway to college for the majority. I had heard of it, but not experienced it first or even second hand. I couldn't sleep that night because of what I had done, and I sent an email to students apologizing for my reaction and promising to give the student time in the next class to tell her story more fully.

I have seen this in MOOCs as well-a facilitator doing something and later apologizing publicly. I have also admired facilitators who show their vulnerability and their recognition that they don't have all the answers, that they learn from participants. This post by Mimi Ito exemplifies this.

And so this is the thing: In caring, we won't always know all the answers, and we will make mistakes. In a small class we have easier opportunities to rectify our mistakes. In MOOCs, the scale and distances make it much more complex and complicated to show how we care. We will make mistakes. It will hurt us when we realize we have made them and hurt others. Very often, we do not realize we are making mistakes or hurting others, and in the massive scale and high speed of an active MOOC with diverse participants we are just starting to get to know, it is very difficult to notice everything with just two ears and two eyes and no extrasensory perception. Not everything is visible, some people prefer to keep some things private, and some messages are too subtle or nuanced for us to interpret them as intended. It helps if someone enlightens us when something is going wrong or we are making mistakes, to help us understand how we can make it better. But what if they don't, and we don't recognize this ourselves? Well, we are all only human.

Hybrid Pedagogy uses an open collaborative peer review process. This piece was reviewed by Valerie Robin and Rolin Moe.

[Photo, " Curl", by Fio licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.]

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Sometimes, the most valuable thing we can offer our students is genuine care for them, their well-being, their happiness. Not just their grades. Not just their learning. But their whole selves. This article is inspired by a discussion with a friend who suggested that medical ethics should not be about

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Book: Critical English for Academic Purposes: Theory, Politics and Practice by Sarah Benesch

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Book: Critical English for Academic Purposes: Theory, Politics and Practice by Sarah Benesch

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A seminal text in the field of Critical EAP.

Benesch, S. (2001) Critical English for Academic Purposes: Theory, politics and practice. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

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EAP4SJ SIG: What We're About Webinar Recording

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EAP4SJ SIG: What We're About Webinar Recording

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This is the recording of our first ever webinar, in which we laid out the rationale for the EAP4SJ SIG’s existence, scoped out the field and heard from participants regarding which areas of social justice they felt were most pressing with regard to EAP. The write-up and link to the slides are available here: https://eap4socialjustice.net/2020/06/03/eap-for-sj-sig-what-were-about/

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Click here for the rationale for why the EAP4SJ SIG is needed, what areas we regard as falling under the SJ umbrella and examples of SJ work going on in the field of EAP

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Why is the EAP for Social Justice SIG needed?

In the current era, it is difficult to ignore the fact that our universities, our countries and our world are riddled with inequality ... but what has social justice got to do with EAP?

Indeed, pragmatists may argue that the role of the EAP practitioner is, and should continue to be, limited to the nuts and bolts of teaching, learning, curriculum design and assessment, and that involvement in wider ideological concerns is beyond our remit. Such a perspective is often reinforced by the current trends towards the marketisation and commodification of programmes of study within the HE sector, which tends to instrumentalise activities related to these, thereby promoting in some learners and teachers a narrowing in how they see themselves and their roles. When seen in the light of Fromm's humanist philosophy, such instrumentalisation can be regarded in terms of a general shift from being to having; from being a learner (or an educator) to having (or giving) a qualification in order to increase a student's employability prospects through socialising them into existing cultural norms (Molesworth, Nixon & Scullion, 2009). An unequivocal alignment with this stance would imply that one believes that social justice has little to do with either EAP or with the remit of HEIs more generally.

However, there is a small but growing movement against this normative stance, stemming from the work of Freire (1970: foreword), who stated:

There is no such thing as a neutral education process. Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of generations into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes the 'practice of freedom', the means by which men and women deal critically with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.

In terms of how Freirean philosophy has been applied to EAP, it is most overtly evident in the literature on Critical EAP and Academic Literacies, which both use a social justice lens to encourage teachers and learners to critique the underlying power structures of HEIs, specific disciplines, academia more widely and society as a whole in order to challenge inequality in its many forms. Though intuitively appealing to many EAP practitioners who regard themselves as educators in the humanistic tradition and who encourage learners to be learners, these two research streams have not made a significant impact on the mainstream theories and practices of EAP to date (Ding & Bruce, 2017), though Academic Literacies has made more of an impact in the field of Learning Development.

Notwithstanding, if one casts the net more widely into the field of EAP, it is evident that there are other emerging currents of discussion in our profession which have not necessarily overtly been associated with the term "social justice", but which may, under close examination, be regarded as using a social justice lens. One such area of interest to many in the BALEAP community is that of the positioning of the EAP and the EAP practitioner within the neo-liberal university (e.g. Ding & Bruce, 2017; MacDonald, 2016; Hadley, 2015), and recent calls for practitioners to regard this as an opportunity to embrace "third space working" (MacDonald, 2016) and a re-definition their purpose and values (Ding & Bruce, 2017), which, for some, may involve adopting a social justice lens in their work. Indeed, one of the key aims of this SIG is to advocate for such a redefinition, and for social justice to lie at the heart of this.

Another emerging theme evident from a close inspection of recent EAP literature and conference papers (e.g. Jenkins, 2019; Silburn, 2019; Brewer & Whiteside, 2019) is that of widening participation in HE through offering EAP pathways to groups such as forced migrants who traditionally face barriers. In their capacity as linguistic gatekeepers for entry onto academic courses, EAP units are ideally placed to take up the mantle suggested by Benesch (2001:130) of acting as "advocates for inclusion" rather than "enact[ing] exclusionary policies aimed at keeping out non-elite students". EAP practitioners and managers at some HEIs have risen to this challenge, initiating and energising initiatives such as offering free places to forced migrants on pre-sessional programmes and working closely with local charities to provide pathway ESOL classes (see Palanac [2019] for an example of how this is working in practice at the University of Leicester). That EAP practitioners at a number of universities are thinking and acting in a similar vein was evidenced at the April 2019 BALEAP conference, in which there were three presentations focusing on EAP for forced migrants, detailing projects run by EAP practitioners in conjunction with charities such as the Council for At-Risk Academics (CARA), RefuAid and City of Sanctuary UK.

It can be seen from the above examples that there is a good degree of interest and impetus in the BALEAP community for social justice initiatives, even though these may not overtly go by the name "social justice". As noted above, one of the aims of this SIG is to bring these themes together under the umbrella theme of social justice, thus increasing the visibility and potency of the field, and also the potential for cross-fertilisation.

In terms of other potential themes (in addition to the two expanded on above) that might form the focus of this SIG, the following forms a non-exhaustive list:

· Critical Pedagogy (including Critical EAP and Academic Literacies)

· Critiquing /evaluating social justice ideologies

· reflecting social justice issues in EAP content and materials, and promoting student engagement with Critical Pedagogy

· the local versus the global

· the affordances of third space working (related to Whitchurch's [2008:2] notion that the blurring of institutional roles is leading to the creation of "new forms of institutional space" - a sort of third space between professional and academic staff)

· working within and around neo-liberal structures

· marketization, financialisation and commodification versus humanism in HE (the "having" versus "being" dichotomy)

· inclusive and trauma-informed EAP pedagogies

· widening participation

· decolonising the curriculum

· equalities issues (gender, sexual orientation, race, class, etc)

· English as an Academic Lingua Franca versus plurilingualism and translanguaging

· Role of EAP practitioners to promote inter-cultural communication and global citizenship

· Teaching through Compassion and Affective Pedagogy

· supporting EAP students with learning differences (e.g. dyslexia)

· internationalisation at home

· Pre-sessional telecollaboration with students from the Global South

· critical trans-disciplinarity

· "othering" in the academy

· challenging the deficit model of L2 learners

· universities as the "critic and conscience of society"

· education as transformation

· critical thinking and multiple perspectives about social justice issues

· EAP and sustainability

· Identity issues - role and positioning of EAP practitioners and students

· Reducing the attainment gap between traditional and non-traditional students
References
Bond, B. (2019). International students: language, culture and the 'performance of identity'. Teaching in Higher Education.

Benesch, S. (2001) Critical English for Academic Purposes: Theory, politics and practice. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Brewer, S. & Whiteside, K. The Cara Syria programme - combining teaching of English for Academic Purposes and academic and research skills development. Special Section: Language learning for and with refugees in higher education. Editors: Fiona Dalziel and Francesca Helm. Language Learning in Higher Education, 9(1), pp. 161-172. Retrieved 22 Nov. 2019, from doi 10.1515/cercles-2019-0010

Ding, A., & Bruce, I. (2017). The English for Academic Purposes practitioner: Operating on the edge of academia. Palgrave Macmillan.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.). New York: Continuum.

Godfrey, J. & Whong, M. (2019, April). Dual practitioning: A step beyond collaboration. Paper presented at the BALEAP Conference, Leeds, UK.

Hadley, G. (2015). English for Academic Purposes in neo-liberal universities: A critical grounded theory. Springer.

Jenkins, M. (2019, April). EAP for Syrian academics at risk: Facilitating engagement and collaboration. Paper presented at the BALEAP Conference, Leeds, UK.

Jones, D.G., Galvin, K. & Woodhouse, D. (2000). Universities as critic and conscience of society: The role of academic freedom. New Zealand Universities Academic Audit Unit https://www.aqa.ac.nz/sites/all/files/ASQ6%20Critic%20and%20Conscience.pdf

MacDonald, J. (2016). The margins as third space: EAP teacher professionalism in Canadian universities. TESL Canada Journal, 34(11), 106-116. doi: 10.18806/tesl.v34i1.1258

Palanac, A. (2019). Renaissance of the gatekeepers: Establishing a culture of welcome for refugees and asylum seekers at the University of Leicester's English Language Teaching Unit. Special Section: Language learning for and with refugees in higher education. Editors: Fiona Dalziel and Francesca Helm. Language Learning in Higher Education, 9(1), pp. 117-125. Retrieved 26 Oct. 2019, from doi: 10.1515/cercles-2019-0006

Silburn, R. (2019, April). Community engagement as a way of training future EAP practitioners. Paper presented at the BALEAP Conference, Leeds, UK.

Taylor, S. (2019, April). The professional identity of EAP practitioners: Professional knowledge, scholarship and research. Paper presented at the BALEAP Conference, Leeds, UK.

Whitchurch, C. (2008). Shifting identities and blurring boundaries: The emergence of Third Space professionals in UK higher education. Higher Education Quarterly, 62(4) 377-396.

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Why is the EAP for Social Justice SIG needed? In the current era, it is difficult to ignore the fact that our universities, our countries and our world are riddled with inequality ... but what has social justice got to do with EAP? Indeed, pragmatists may argue that the role of the EAP practitioner is,...

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We have curated a whole other Padlet wall on the topic of Race in ELT/EAP :)

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Blog Post: The Dillemmas of an LGBTQ+ English Language Teacher

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Blog Post: The Dillemmas of an LGBTQ+ English Language Teacher

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To come out, or not to come out? This is the question I have been facing for as long as I can remember. Born and bred in Poland, the most homophobic country in the EU (Rainbow Europe, 2021), I had stayed in the 'closet' for most of my life. It was not until I arrived in the UK that, at the age of 24, I mustered up enough courage to come out to my family and friends. Although I have come a long way in terms of self-acceptance and openness, I have not been brave enough to come out to my learners. I work as an ESOL teacher in the North of England, with learners aged 14-16. Many of them are of Asian, African and Eastern European origin, which increases my wariness even more, as I am aware their backgrounds may be even more homophobic than Poland. Consequently, I go to great lengths to hide this particular part of my identity from them, convincing myself I'm not obliged to share my personal life with anyone. Nevertheless, I simultaneously feel that, as a language teacher, I am, in a way, limited. I can't, for instance, use personal stories as teaching opportunities, or build better relationships with my students by being honest with them. This inability to be a 'whole' person in the classroom and the constant fear of being 'caught red-handed' by my learners made me question the suitability of my identity for the teaching profession many times. It also inspired me to embark on a personal quest (which took the form of my MA dissertation project) to investigate whether other LGBTQ+ English language teachers working in the UK face similar issues, bearing in mind the UK is a relatively tolerant country where LGBTQ+ people are legally protected by the Equality Act 2010 and can enter into civil partnerships/marriages and adopt children (Stonewall, 2018).

According to literature, language teachers' identities are extremely multidimensional (Schutz et al., 2018), comprising such components as one's place of origin, accent, race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation (Yazan & Rudolph, 2018). All of these might have an important impact on one's teaching (Varghese et al., 2005). Kayi-Aydar (2019) argues the way teachers perceive themselves may tremendously influence their professional development/relationships, pedagogical choices and classroom practices, impacting their teaching abilities. Not having to conceal a significant part of one's identity contributes to classroom dynamics and learning processes; open queer teachers may, for instance, illustrate the importance of honesty (Lander, 2018). For some, this may even be a precondition for successful/confident teaching, facilitating richer debates, enhancing student awareness/tolerance and encouraging them to express opinions more freely (Orlov & Allen, 2014). Although teachers' sexuality may not be an appropriate classroom topic, it is easy for heterosexuals to mention their husbands/wives, and if a female teacher is married, her name is often prefixed with Mrs (Gray, 2010), which Connell (2015:69) calls "the invisible privileges granted straight teachers". Contrastingly, many LGBTQ+ teachers have to declare their sexuality (Gray, 2010). Connell (2015) places them in three categories:

Splitters try to separate their personal and professional life by staying in the closet. A "lack of discursive space" for non-heteronormative identities in the workplace usually renders them invisible and/or silenced (Gray, 2013a). Some do not know how/when to do it whereas others think it is inappropriate/unprofessional, too personal or irrelevant. Others claim educators should be 'neutral'; worry about being pigeonholed or losing their students' respect. One's internalised homophobia may be a factor, too, and those working with children may fear accusations of 'recruitment' (i.e. trying to indoctrinate children into homosexuality) and/or 'molestation' (Connell, 2015; Snelbecker, 1994). Splitting may also impact one's life decisions, e.g. living outside the catchment area (Lee, 2019).

Knitters implement their queerness at work, which may range from coming out solely to colleagues to a full identity incorporation (Connell, 2015). Some carefully plan their disclosure, often integrating it into the curriculum (Leal & Crookes, 2018); others do it more casually/spontaneously, when good opportunities arise (Snelbecker, 1994). Usually, a friendly relationship with learners helps (ibid.). Many feel obliged to be visible/vocal LGBTQ+ role models (Henderson, 2017, Leal & Crookes 2018), educating learners about the LGBTQ+ myths and realities and combating homophobia/stereotypes (Snelbecker, 1994). For others, hiding is simply too costly emotionally (Gray, 2013a), making them feel inauthentic, hampered and stressed (Orlov & Allen, 2014). Moreover, self-disclosure can develop one's rapport with learners; let them be their genuine selves and evoke greater feelings of fulfilment (Leal & Crookes, 2018).

Quitters fail to achieve the above and cannot function as teachers at all, choosing a new career or moving into administration positions requiring less teacher-student interaction (Connell, 2015).

As a firm 'splitter' myself, I wished to discover the percentage of 'splitters', 'knitters' and 'quitters' out there. To achieve this, I adopted a mixed-methods approach (Dörnyei, 2007). My study, conducted in 2020, was open to practitioners from various ELT settings including EAL in primary/secondary schools, ESOL in further education, and EAP at universities. In total, 35 queer-identifying teachers completed the survey and 4 took part in the follow-up semi-structured interviews. I used content analysis to quantify all the qualitative data (Dörnyei, 2007).

The questionnaire revealed almost all of the LGBTQ+ questionnaire respondents (97%) thought their queer identity was compatible with their teaching role and they had never thought they should not be teachers because of it. However, only about half of them (54%) felt free to fully

express their identities in the classroom. 29% felt limited at work due to their identities and 34% thought it has a negative impact on their quality of teaching. 31% felt they were in a worse position than their straight colleagues (in terms of teaching opportunities and feeling comfortable) and 37% sometimes felt jealous when their straight colleagues talked freely/openly about their personal lives. When asked about their private lives by learners (e.g. about being married), 63% of the LGBTQ+ teachers told them the truth. The interviews showed that the queer teachers found it easier to be fully themselves in the UK than in other countries, but also stressed the importance of their right to privacy. Interestingly, 23% of the LGBTQ+ respondents had made career decisions based on their queer identities; 6% made life decisions based on their queer status (e.g. buying a house outside the catchment area) and 11% suffered from mental health issues caused by being a queer teacher (e.g. stress/anxiety caused by hiding from students).

While most of the questionnaire respondents were 'out' to all/most/some of their close friends (91%), family members (74%), colleagues (65%) and managers (57%), only 34% came out to all/most/some of their learners. Some of them neither manifested nor denied their sexuality. Those questionnaire respondents who had come out to their learners gave various reasons for this decision; the top three answers were:

(1) to be a role model for LGBTQ+ learners

(2) to broaden learners' cultural knowledge

(3) to educate learners about LGBTQ+ myths and realities.

The 'role model' factor was particularly emphasised by the interviewees. The top three coming out strategies among the questionnaire respondents were:

(1) spontaneously, when a good opportunity presents itself

(2) wearing an LGBTQ+ symbol, or having it in the classroom

(3) establishing a rapport with learners first.

The significance of a friendly relationship was highlighted by the interviewees. Moreover, none of the 'out' questionnaire respondents reported negative reactions from their learners; on the contrary, the reactions were either positive/mostly positive (65%) or neutral (35%), which was confirmed by the interviews.

Those survey respondents who were not 'out' to any/some of their learners provided several reasons, however, the top three answers were:

(1) to avoid confrontation with culturally/religiously conservative learners (2) feeling this is not relevant/important to their teaching role

(3) to avoid confusing learners with limited cultural knowledge.

The interviewees additionally emphasised people's ignorance and traditional views.

My small-scale research suggested about half of the LGBTQ+ teachers based in the UK are feeling comfortable to fully express their identities in the workplace. Most of them seem to accept themselves and feel comfortable in their own skin, and very few made career/life decisions based purely on their queerness, which suggests more and more of queer teachers are determined to live and work wherever they like.

Nevertheless, although most of the LGBTQ+ teachers are 'out' to their colleagues, only 1/3 have come out to their learners; therefore, they could be described as 'splitters'. The main reason given was to avoid conflict with religiously conservative learners who have limited cultural competence. This therefore implies that teaching international learners in the UK may involve extra obstacles for queer teachers, which may be less the case for non-ELT contexts.

Those LGBTQ+ teachers who do come out to their learners do so for various reasons but mostly to act as role models for potential queer students. Others come out as they feel obliged to educate learners and broaden their horizons. Depending on the situation, my participants used a variety of coming out strategies; however, it was confirmed that developing a close bond with learners is crucial for one's coming out decision. Interestingly, none of the 'out' respondents/interviewees reported negative reactions to their coming outs, which might suggest that being an openly queer teacher is not such a 'big deal' as one might imagine, or, simply, that these teachers felt comfortable with their students and knew them well enough to gauge that they would take this information well. This would therefore imply that the tutors who didn't tell their students did so as they had accurately predicted that for their specific student group this wouldn't go too well.

It seems it would make a huge difference if more LGBTQ+ teachers were brave enough to come out and fully embrace their identities. Personally, I have not yet officially come out to any of my learners, although I am sure most of them have an inkling. Am I going to? Definitely. It is just a matter of time. And courage.

If there are any LGBTQ+ English language teachers reading this article, I have several questions for you. Are you 'out' to your learners? Why? Why not? Do you openly discuss your personal life in class when suitable? Are there any limitations? Please share your story in the comments below or contribute to the Emerging Voices Padlet here https://padlet.com/eap4socialjustice/zwyhw6oji4pq5rlf.

If you'd like to contribute to Tweet Meet discussion, we're launching our first #EAP4SJ #EmergingVoices Tweet Meet on Monday 11 October 2021 at 1:15 - 2:15pm BST - you'll also be able to join the Twitter event later if the time is unsuitable. We're looking forward to hearing from you!
Author:
K. is an English language practitioner working in West Yorkshire, England. Having previously taught EAL within secondary education, he is currently teaching ESOL at an FE college to learners aged 14-16. In the future, he would like to pursue a career in higher education, as an EAP tutor. He holds both the Cambridge DELTA and a Master's degree in English Language Teaching. His most recent academic interests centre around language teacher identity and queer pedagogy, and their implications for the ELT classroom. So far, he has published two articles.
References:
Connell, C. (2015). School's Out. Gay and Lesbian Teachers in the Classroom. California: University of California Press.

Dörnyei, Z. (2007). Research Methods in Applied Linguistics. Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed Methodologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Equality Act (2010). Chapter 15. Available from:

< http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/pdfs/ukpga_20100015_en.pdf&gt; [Accessed 30th July 2021].

Gray, E. M. (2010). 'Miss, Are You Bisexual?' The (Re)Production of Heteronormativity within Schools and the Negotiation of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Teachers' Private and Professional Worlds. [Ph.D. Thesis]. Lancashire, UK: Lancaster University.

Gray, E. M. (2013). Coming out as a Lesbian, Gay or Bisexual Teacher. Negotiating Private and

Henderson, H. (2017). Silence, Obligation and Fear in the Possible Selves of UK LGBT-Identified Teachers. Gender and Education, 31 (7), pp. 1-17.

Kayi-Aydar, H. (2019). Language Teacher Identity. Language Teaching, 52 (3), pp. 281-295.

Lander, R. (2018). Queer English Language Teacher Identity: A Narrative Exploration in Colombia. Profile: Issues In Teachers' Professional Development, 20 (1), pp. 89-101.

Leal, P. & Crookes, G. V. (2018). "Most of my Students Kept Saying, 'I never Met a Gay Person'": A Queer English Language Teacher's Agency for Social Justice, System, 79, pp. 1-11.

Lee, C. (2019). How do Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Teachers Experience UK Rural School Communities? Social Sciences, 8 (249), pp. 1-14.

Orlov, J. M. & Allen, K. R. (2014). Being Who I Am: Effective Teaching, Learning, Student Support, and Societal Change Through LGBQ Faculty Freedom. Journal of Homosexuality, 61 (7), pp. 1025-1052.

Professional Worlds. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, 13 (6), pp. 702-714.

Rainbow Europe. (2021). Country Ranking. Available from:

< https://www.rainbow-europe.org/country-ranking#eu&gt; [Accessed 30th July 2021].

Schutz, P.A., Hong, J. & Francis, D. C. (2018). Research on Teacher Identity. Mapping Challenges and Innovations. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.

Snelbecker, K. A. (1994). Speaking Out: A Survey of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Teachers of ESOL in the USA. [Master's Thesis]. Brattleboro, Vermont: School for International Training.

Stonewall. (2018). Global Workplace Briefings 2018. United Kingdom. Available from: < https://www.stonewall.org.uk/system/files/uk_global_workplace_briefing_2018.pdf&gt; [Accessed 30th July 2021].

Varghese, M., Morgan, B., Johnston, B. & Johnson, K. A. (2005). Theorizing Language Teacher Identity: Three Perspectives and Beyond. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 4 (1), pp. 21-44.

Yazan, B. & Rudolph, H. (2018). Criticality, Teacher Identity and (In)equity in English Language Teaching: Issues and Implications. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer International Publishing.

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The Dilemmas of an LGBTQ+ English Language Teacher by K.

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To come out, or not to come out? This is the question I have been facing for as long as I can remember. Born and bred in Poland, the most homophobic country in the EU (Rainbow Europe, 2021), I had ...

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Let's Talk About Race in EAP webinar recording.mp4

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Let's Talk About Race in EAP: Practitioner Perspectives - Webinar Recording

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Let's Talk About Race in EAP: Practitioner Perspectives - Webinar Recording

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You can access our webinar recording here, and the write-up and slides are available here: https://eap4socialjustice.net/2020/08/28/lets-talk-about-race-in-eap-practitioner-perspectives/

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Let's Talk Abour Race in EAP webinar recording.mp4

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Let's Keep Talking About Race in EAP: Reflections on Learning and Next Steps - Blog Post

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Let's Keep Talking About Race in EAP: Reflections on Learning and Next Steps - Blog Post

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A commemorative blog post to mark the sad anniversary of George Floyd's murder, in which we reflect on how far the EAP4SJ SIG has been able to meet its goal to "encourage learning, reflection and, ultimately, action” in this area. In this commemorative post we share what we’ve learnt, where we’ve gone wrong, and how we plan to keep working towards addressing race inequality issues in EAP

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MINNEAPOLIS , MINNESOTA - MAY 31: The makeshift memorial and mural outside Cup Foods where George Floyd was murdered (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Today marks the sad anniversary of George Floyd's murder. Whilst we are relieved to see that some justice has been served in his case, we are well aware that similar injustices continue to affect families and communities across the world. We have also seen the Covid-19 pandemic disproportionately affect people racialised as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. It is clear there is still a lot of work to be done to move towards race equality.

Last summer, we posted a statement in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. In that post, we posed a number of questions on race and racism within our EAP community and we have subsequently sought answers via events we've attended and some we've hosted. We promised that events we held would "...encourage learning, reflection and, ultimately, action". In this commemorative post we share what we've learnt, where we've gone wrong, and how we plan to keep working towards addressing race inequality issues in EAP.

Lessons learnt

In our BLM statement, we highlighted that the absence of discussions on these topics in EAP was notable. Keen to start to address this, we put on a webinar entitled Let's Talk About Race in EAP: Practitioner Perspectives. We heard from two EAP practitioners, Henry James Robinson and Lorraine Mighty, who shared invaluable insights into how their lived experience of how race, racism and white privilege intersect with EAP touches on a wide range of issues and practices within the sector, including those related to employment, transnational education, the internationalisation agenda, Western epistemology, critical pedagogy and decolonisation.

To help us continue our learning, we turned our attention to our foundations in the fields of English Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, and work which was being done to examine race and ELT. One important article released in May 2020 entitled Worth the Risk: Towards Decentring Whiteness in ELT (by J.P.B. Gerald) argues for a critical examination of whiteness in the field of ELT, and the deleterious impact that it has on racialised students and teachers. Gerald expanded on his article in an IATEFL ESOL SIG webinar held in August 2020, and was subsequently invited to attend an EAP in Ireland reading group which focused on his article and the implications for our sector. This led to a fruitful discussion, which, along with Gerald's presentation, can be accessed here. It was refreshing to see these ideas being explored in EAP circles.

We were also able to gain useful insights from turning our gaze to the HE sector in general. One promising development was the landmark Advance HE declaration that many Scottish universities have now endorsed, acknowledging that:

"Racism exists on our campuses and in our society.  Call it  what it is and  reject it  in all its forms. We  stand united  against  racism."

Whilst acknowledgement is a great step forward, it is not always a simple task to recognise racism in all its forms, especially with regard to structural racism, which is covert and often difficult to hold to account (Eddo-Lodge, 2017:64). Indeed, sometimes attempts to hold it to account are off the mark. In a webinar hosted by Cardiff University in May 2021 entitled Decolonising 'Safe Spaces': Talking Race, Faith and Culture in Post-Race Eduscapes, Prof. Heidi Mirza made the point that much of the change that has occurred with regard to race relations in HE can be regarded as performative, a 'tick box' culture, and that true equality, the 'holy grail' of social justice education, can only be achieved when teachers become transformative agents, developing reciprocal relationships with their students, and giving them their love, their care and their time. Mirza's conceptualisation of racial justice here is not new; it builds upon the notion of engaged, 'transformative pedagogy' championed by bell hooks, through which a teacher helps to build community and creates an environment in which students come to 'recognise the value of each individual voice' (hooks, 1994:40).

This connection between equity, justice and the adoption of a relational approach in the classroom was further underlined in Dr. Maha Bali's conceptualisation of a pedagogy of equity and care in her plenary talk at the BALEAP 2021 conference, entitled Creating Equitable, Caring Communities Online (which we outlined in a recent blog post). A particularly useful analogy which she proposed to demonstrate the role of the teacher in this relationship is that of the teacher-as-host in the space of the classroom, recognising that

"they own that space, that they have power in it, and that they are actively responsible for making students feel at home, as welcome guests. The perception that all members of a class are always naturally able to participate as equals in that space is an illusion; marginality can be both visible and invisible, and equitable conditions need to be actively and consciously created by the person who wields the most power in that space, and who therefore has the responsibility to wield it with intentional equity - the teacher." (EAP4SJ, 2021)

That this conceptualisation is relevant not only for teachers in the classroom but for us as a SIG committee hosting discussions about race and other social justice issues pertaining to our field is a lesson we learned the hard way.
Learning from our mistakes
This lesson came about as a result of an exchange which occurred in the plenary session of the Visions of Social Responsibility World Cafe which we hosted at the BALEAP Kent PIM in November 2020. Having been discussing the concept of white privilege in a break-out room discussion, one participant expressed their view in the wrap-up session that, though they were white, they did not feel privileged, as they felt marginalised in the sector by English not being their L1, and had been getting by on precarious contracts for years. With little time, and perhaps not enough preparation to respond to this challenge, we acknowledged this form of marginalisation but failed to make clear that, despite this, the participant would still be benefitting from white privilege - as explained well by John Amaechi in this video. Thanks to feedback from another participant we realise that by not fully explaining how other marginalisation differs to those associated with race, some of our members who identify as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic may have felt unsafe in that space. For this, we apologise unreservedly.

This critical incident prompted us to reflect deeply on our role as a SIG, and the concept of "safe space", which we had been so keen to enact. Prior to this incident, we had felt that our role was to create spaces in which participants could be free to speak openly and without judgement about their thoughts, feelings and experiences on a number of SJ-related topics, in line with the conceptualisation of "safe space" employed by Jackson (2014, in Flesner & Von der Lippe, 2019:277). However, we were not taking into account the structurally asymmetrical nature of the power relations which can come into play in discussions of sensitive topics (Callan, 2016, in Flesner & Von der Lippe) such as race and white privilege. We realised that, as outlined by Applebaum (2008:412), by giving space to a white participant to express this position unchallenged, the effect had been one of re-centering whiteness in this exchange and re-marginalising the experiences of those who are already marginalised in our field and beyond.

In the light of this insight, Maha Bali's conceptualisation of teacher-as-host has renewed potency. If applied to our role as hosts of SIG events, it becomes evident that, in an inequitable world, simply creating a space for discussion is not enough; a good host is responsible for ensuring that the conditions in which that discussion is conducted are equitable, and that all participants not only feel welcome but also feel included and able to contribute without fear of being (re)marginalised. The challenge then becomes how to reconcile this with encouraging an open and constructive discussion of thoughts, feelings and ideas. There is no straightforward solution to this challenge, but there are a number of steps which we intend to take to move things forward.
Next steps
These include:

we have created a Padlet page containing a range of useful starting points for EAP and ELT practitioners interested in developing their thinking and practice in the areas of race and white privilege. The resources there range from short bite-size videos to books, articles and webinars with foci including issues relating to race and racism in EAP/ELT, Higher Education and wider society. We hope there is something for everyone. This Padlet can be accessed here, and we encourage you to explore the resources there and to add any further useful resources to this resources bank too

we commit to making space for colleagues to learn about issues of race and racism and discuss/share actions we can take to be anti-racist in our EAP practice and within our institutions. Our first action on this will be to hold a Reading Group on Friday 25th June 12.00-13.00 BST. The article we will be reading is Race and Language Teaching by Dr Kerry Soo Von Esch, Dr Suhanthie Motha and Prof Ryuko Kubota. Further details about this session will be available soon and publicised via our website, our Twitter feed and the EAP4SJ and BALEAP JISCmail lists

we will actively provide a platform for the voices of colleagues racialised as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic to be centred in our conversations around the holistic enhancement of EAP practices

in response to the recent announcement of the BALEAP Enacting Social Justice in EAP Practice funding stream, we strongly encourage EAP practitioners to apply for this, and it is a fantastic opportunity for issues around race, racism and white privilege to be spotlighted in one or more of the proposals

through our work in other areas of social justice within EAP, such as climate justice, we intend to keep reiterating the links with racial justice to keep this issue on the agenda and to foster a sense of shared solidarity

Final thoughts
We have called this blog post "Let's keep talking about race in EAP" ... and that's exactly what we intend to do. It hasn't always been a smooth journey - it's been a steep learning curve for us and we're still learning. We apologise for the errors we have made and we commit to do better.

A key learning on this journey towards creating a sector which is self-aware when it comes to race and white privilege, and is willing and able to take steps to tackle race inequality, is the vital importance of a variety of voices in the conversation, which helps us keep learning from each other. We were very happy to recently welcome Lorraine Mighty onto our SIG committee, who has brought, among many other things, the perspective of a Black EAP practitioner to our work, which is something which we were previously sorely lacking. Our thinking and development has been greatly enriched from diversifying our committee in this way.

We recognise that there are many other people who are marginalised based on other protected characteristics, class and/or native speakerism. We will aim to make space for multiple conversations to happen but as a small group of volunteers we're conscious of the limitations on what we can realistically achieve in any given year. We welcome any suggestions on activities that our members may want to lead on which align with our broader SIG aims. So please do get in touch if you have any ideas you would like our support on.

That said, discussing issues of race, racism and anti-racist practice will be one of our areas of focus over the next year. With this in mind, we would like to reiterate our pledge from our BLM statement last year - "As the EAP for Social Justice SIG, as teachers, and as human beings, we stand in solidarity with all who have to live with such effects of racism and white privilege, however subtle or overt, every day of their lives. We also stand with those who wish to work actively towards eliminating it in its many forms".

We look forward to working with you over the forthcoming year and beyond as we continue to make the changes needed to our individual practice and institutional structures to address race inequality.
References
Applebaum, B. (2008) 'Doesn't my experience count?' White students, the authority of experience and social justice pedagogy. Race, Ethnicity and Education, 11:4, 405-414. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13613320802478945

EAP4SJ (2021) 'Teasing out the social justice strands from the BALEAP 2021 conference', EAP for Social Justice, 27 April. Available at: https://eap4socialjustice.net/2021/04/27/teasing-out-the-social-justice-strands-from-the-baleap-2021-conference/ (Accessed: 23 May 2021)

Eddo-Lodge, R. (2017) Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race. London: Bloomsbury

Flesner, K. & Von der Lippe, M. (2019) Being safe from what and safe for whom? A critical discussion of the conceptual metaphor of 'safe space'. Intercultural Education, 30:3, 275-288. DOI: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14675986.2019.1540102

Gerald, J.P.B. (2020) Worth the Risk: Decentring Whiteness in ELT. BC TEAL Journal, 5:1, 44-54. Available at: https://ojs-o.library.ubc.ca/index.php/BCTJ/article/view/345

hooks, bell (1994) Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge: New York

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Let's Keep Talking About Race in EAP - Reflections on Learning and Next Steps

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MINNEAPOLIS , MINNESOTA - MAY 31: The makeshift memorial and mural outside Cup Foods where George Floyd was murdered (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) Today marks the sad anniversary of George Floyd's murder. Whilst we are relieved to see that some justice has been served in his case, we are well aware...

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Equity Unbound presents strategies for creating online communities built on principles of equity and care that produce learning spaces in which all students can flourish

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Webinar Recording: Negotiating diverse identities in telecollaborations by John Corbett

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Webinar Recording: Negotiating diverse identities in telecollaborations by John Corbett

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Article: Towards a Trauma-Informed ELT Pedagogy for Refugees by Aleks Palanac

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Article: Towards a Trauma-Informed ELT Pedagogy for Refugees by Aleks Palanac

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Long Read: Pre-Sessional Telecollaboration with the Global South by Bill Guariento

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Long Read: Pre-Sessional Telecollaboration with the Global South by Bill Guariento

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- Bill Guariento -
Abstract
This paper discusses the potential offered by telecollaborative links between universities in the Global North and the Global South. It draws on data from the English for Academic Study Telecollaboration (EAST) project, an online pre-sessional partnership between Science, Engineering and Technology students at the University of Glasgow and at the Islamic University of Gaza. This is an ongoing project, now in its sixth year, which has attempted to follow a critical pedagogies agenda, and is examined here from a Freirean perspective. It looks for evidence of transformative outcomes for the students involved and analyses the extent to which a 5-week online collaboration can work to empower the most vulnerable of stakeholders, and to challenge received attitudes and practices. The paper concludes that pre-sessional English language telecollaboration that juxtaposes areas of peace and conflict can offer particular opportunities for the dialogue that, in Freire's view (1996: 69) leads, through action and reflection, to 'naming' - and thereby potentially changing - the world.
Introduction
In 1972, Michel Foucault co-founded the Groupe d'Information sur les Prisons (GIP) in France. The stated intent was:

....to make known what the prison is: who goes there, how and why they go there, what happens there, and what the life of the prisoners is, and that, equally, of the surveillance personnel; what the buildings, the food, and hygiene are like; how the internal regulations, medical control, and the workshops function; how one gets out...(Peters and Besley, 2014: 102)

Megaphone in hand, the GIP shouted over prison walls, and the prisoners shouted back. The intent was to allow the prisoners' voices to be heard, and to render salient to wider French society their prison system, and an underlying societal control that most were happy to leave invisible and unquestioned.

This paper argues that the current Western model of Higher Education has effectively created a 'wall', similar to that highlighted by Foucault, which works to exclude students from less privileged parts of the world. It suggests that new affordances presented by telecollaboration may allow students from the Global South to 'talk back' (Pennycook, 1998), revealing - as did Foucault's GIP - the difficulties they experience and the underlying power imbalances; challenging problems of inclusion/exclusion and social justice; and enhancing awareness of different contexts and ways of being and doing.

The paper does so by looking at a telecollaborative project that has linked pre-sessional English language students in science-related subjects at the University of Glasgow with their peers at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG): the English for Academic Study Telecollaboration (EAST) project.

Since 2012, the inhabitants of Gaza have been to all effects imprisoned by border-closures imposed by Israel and Egypt; it is difficult in fact to imagine any area in the world where the analogy to Foucault's wall is more apposite. EAST represents an attempt to overcome this isolation for Gazan students, while providing Glasgow-based students with the language practice that will enable them to enter their chosen courses at the University of Glasgow. Over a five-week period every summer since 2015, Glasgow-based students have engaged in telecollaborative tasks with peers in Gaza to try to find solutions to Gaza-specific engineering challenges using English as the medium for communication.

This paper starts with an overview of Foucault's theories of power, relating them specifically to the current internationalisation agenda within the UK higher education system. It then looks at the affordances of telecollaboration with overseas partners, focusing specifically on one area that offers real potential, but which has been neglected to date: telecollaborative partnerships between the Global North and South. Using the (extreme) case of Gaza, it exemplifies this potential - and the many challenges - through an analysis of data gathered from five iterations of EAST held to date. It concludes that pre-sessional students based in the Global North and their peers in the Global South can mutually gain, in terms both of enhanced language skills and of increased intercultural awareness.
Literature review Higher Education: the power to exclude
In his seminal work Discipline and Punish (1977) Foucault built on his work with the GIP to outline the wider way that power works in contemporary society. He went on to develop the concept of 'governmentality' (Foucault, 1994a), that is, the creation of the 'correct' types of subjects not by overt coercion, but through suggestion, resulting in the internalising of discipline and self-policing practices by a given person or wider community (Foucault, 1994b). He terms these limits (1994c: 131) "regimes of truth", working to provide (usually unaware) subjects with the boundaries within which they may shape themselves, and beyond which they will struggle to act. Foucault describes the indirect control that results (1994c: 341) as the "conduct of conduct". Concepts linked to governmentality are of direct relevance to issues currently facing higher education.

Within universities worldwide, the dominant regime of truth since the early 1980s has been one driven by a neoliberal ethos (Torres, 2011; Shor et al., 2017), marked by competition for resources and for students. This growing marketisation of higher education has also occurred in the UK, where there has long been pressure (Davies, 2006; Barnett, 2007; Fazackerley, 2019) to provide students with the 'value' that the fees introduced in the 1990's warrant, a phenomenon that van der Wende (2017) has termed 'academic capitalism'. Faculties need to justify themselves on economic grounds, hence quality needs to be quantifiable, leading to what Morrissey (2015: 615) describes as "a new academic subjectivity defined by accountability and performance". Subject-areas within the arts and humanities have been particularly susceptible to cuts and closures (Ball, 2016). Shor et al. (2017: 5) make a link between these growing constraints and the 'conduct of conduct', stating that institutions, schools and universities now function as "disciplinary instruments", rewarding with more privilege those who already hold privilege; they argue that an institutional predilection of ranking for 'quality' actually hides an underlying attempt at subordination, i.e. a coded narrative to justify in equality. Directly referencing Foucault, they claim that since the late 1970s universities have deliberately allowed less space for unearthing "subjugated knowledges" and "disqualified discourses" (Shor et al., 2017: 4). Postcolonial (Nyamnjoh, 2016) and feminist (Naples, 1998; Hekman, 2018) paradigms offer ways forward that foreground an emotional and a political resistance to this regime of truth.

However, many doubt whether healthy research and levels of curiosity (see e.g. Giroux, 2002; Shor et al., 2017) or even a basic ethics of care (Atkins, 2009; Lorey, 2015; Jeffery, 2018) can continue to flourish under such a market-led ethos. Such financial imperatives have helped drive significant increases (Otten, 2003; Boden and Epstein, 2006) in the numbers of international students.
Internationalisation and Diversity
In the academic year 2016/17, students from outwith the European Union amounted to 13% of the total student-body in the UK (UKCISA, 2018). These numbers ought in theory to bring an increased diversity on campus and the students, whether domestic or international, to be benefiting from this intermingling and the opportunity for "re-invention" (Coleman, 2015: 42) that it can provide. However, this is often not the case. Firstly, most such mobilities involve moves from one Global North country to another (van der Wende, 2017: 6). Secondly, the very significantly higher non-EU overseas student-fees also mean that any students from the Global South generally come from relatively privileged backgrounds, and from markets that provide easy routes for student-recruiters; at UK level, Chinese students predominate, and made up 32% of non-EU international students in 2016/17 (UKCISA, 2018). In short, the growth in overseas student numbers doesn't necessarily mean a proportionate growth in diversity, whether in terms of social background or of L1.

If one problem is the lack of diversity among incoming student-groups, another is the fact that those students who are able to travel from the Global South to the UK for a university education often find that contacts with home-based students are quite rare or, when they do occur, remain superficial (Coleman [2015]; see also Bargel [1998] re mobilities to Germany; Gurin [1999] re the USA). Ideally students would be able to attend dedicated courses in inter-cultural communication that allow them to juxtapose their own ethnic and cultural identities with those of others (Crosbie, 2014: 97), even to discover and explore how the wider framework of power relations (as outlined by Foucault) might impact these identities (Kumaravadivelu, 2008: 107). But few degrees can find space for such courses in-sessionally, in already crowded timetables, and as a result there is a danger that any study period spent abroad will have only a limited sociocultural value (see Roberts et al., 2001; Schweisfurth and Gu, 2009; Wells et al., 2019), with surprisingly limited on-campus possibilities for meaningful intercultural contacts. Otten (2003: 15) usefully summarises the rarity / superficiality of the contacts that can result as "exchange without encounters".
Increasing diversity via telecollaboration
One way to address this lack of diversity is via telecollaboration, which O'Dowd and O'Rourke (2019: 1) define as:

... bringing together groups of learners from different cultural contexts for extended periods of online intercultural collaboration and interaction. This is done as an integrated part of the students' educational programmes and under the guidance of educators or expert facilitators.

The lack of diversity among the incoming student-population ought, in theory, to favour the development of telecollaborative contact with international students from less privileged backgrounds, thereby presenting interesting issues of content, identity and power while addressing a social justice agenda, and Kumaravadivelu (2008: 107) suggests that such encounters, outwith the Global North, can lead to truly transformative change for those involved. However, Helm (2015: 204) notes that links with the Global South are in fact relatively unusual, and more recent studies (see e.g. Plutino et al., 2019; Turula et al., 2019) still present an overwhelmingly Global North focus (the latter albeit from a social justice perspective). While stating that "the promotion of understanding across national and cultural divides.... is more pressing than ever", O'Dowd and O'Rourke (2019:4) include only one mention of telecollaborative projects involving Global South partners (Soliya, discussed below). Projects that do involve Global South partners rarely touch on the most disadvantaged: Starke-Meyerring and Wilson's 2008 overview of telecollaborations included partners in Mexico, China, Brazil and Nicaragua; all still qualified for Overseas Development Assistance in 2020, yet only the last is currently defined by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2019) as a Lower Middle Income Country.

Examples of engagement with poorer and/or more politically isolated areas are therefore rare, but they do exist: Imperiale (2017), writing of a collaboration with Palestine, discusses a telecollaborative English course enabling English literature students to move beyond competence models in order to 'write back' (Pennycook, 1998; Holliday, 2007), expressing their creativity, imagination and above all cultural resistance via poetry; Fassetta et al. (2017) also talk of a telecollaborative project, involving the teaching of Arabic as a foreign language, again in Palestine, and again purposed for cultural resistance; moving beyond Europe, Kramsch (2013) describes a telecollaborative project linking learners of English literature in the USA and in Iran. Such HE interventions using telecollaborative approaches to raise learners' awareness of a range of challenging situations are cheering, particularly as they involve areas of the world (Palestine and Iran) that have been 'othered' (Saïd, 1993) for decades. However, the number of participants involved in these partnerships tends to be small, and it is also interesting to notice limitations in the range, in terms of subject-matter,of these interventions, which all have a focus on language, arts and the humanities. O'Dowd (2013), looking at barriers to telecollaboration between European universities, presents seven case-studies, five of which (like the works cited previously) involve link-ups between arts and humanities students.

Intercultural dialogue with the Global South involving the arts and humanities - areas which, as we have seen, are particularly threatened by the market-led ethos currently driving UK higher education - is of course to be welcomed, but this paper argues that similar Global North-South dialogue is also needed, in other fields. The next section focuses on one such area, Science, Engineering and Technology (SET)-related subjects, an area that the author's home university was keen to develop. Given the centrality of this field to the overall neo-liberal regime of truth (Foucault, 1994c), and specifically its centrality to the neoliberal agenda within higher education discourses (Morrissey, 2015), this is in fact precisely why an intercultural dialogue involving social justice issues must be championed for SET students.

Engineering and Telecollaboration

SET as a field has attracted growing attention in terms of intercultural studies, but conventionally not from any desire to 'write back' or to overcome barriers to social justice. If HE course-providers in the Global North now emphasise the need to enhance their students' ability to interact with peers across cultures, it is principally as a reflection of employers' concerns regarding graduate-employability. Katehi & Ross (2007), for example, would include intercultural competence (ICC) as a key 'professional awareness' element to any well-grounded tertiary-level engineering course; Downey et al. (2006) note specifically the importance of ICC in enabling the problem-solving element of engineering roles; Schaeffer et al. (2012) focus on the need to develop actual cross-border contacts between students as a means of achieving this ICC; O'Dowd (2012) outlines an unusual poetry-based link-up between Swedish engineering students and students of English in the USA, taking advantage of the fact that all Swedish engineering programmes have a Man, Society and Technology (MST) requirement.

These are all valid examples of virtual mobility, via telecollaboration, in the field of engineering, but each focuses on the creation of links within the Global North. Some initiatives to tap into the creation of North-South SET contacts afforded by the Internet do exist; in the UK, Engineers Without Borders is an example. Each year, a different country or region around the world sends UK universities a broad list of societal challenges (for instance, in 2017/18 from Tanzania, and in 2018/19 from the state of Tamil Nadu in India), and participating UK-based students then choose which to investigate. The students aim to provide a workable, low-tech response to the problem they have chosen, while the programme itself aims to offer "a change of mindset so that the social and environmental impact that engineering can have is recognised" (Engineers Without Borders, 2017). UK-based students can gain valuable learning experiences, and inexpensive and sustainable resources of applicability in the target regions may even result. However, the engagement is purely theoretical, and opportunities for intercultural awareness-raising are limited by the absence of encounters with the potential end-users of any solutions that are proposed.

A programme that does provide such encounters is Soliya, an EU telecollaborative initiative that "aims to expand the reach and scope of the Erasmus+ programme through [...] technology-enabled people-to-people dialogues sustained over a period of time" (Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange). Soliya specifically targets the Southern Mediterranean, and Global North / South partnerships have resulted with universities in Morocco, Egypt, Palestine and Jordan, aiming for "a deeper understanding for the perspectives of others around the world on important socio-political issues", and to develop "21st Century skills such as critical thinking, cross-cultural communication, and media literacy" (Soliya website). The stated aim is the exploration of reasons for friction between the Arab/Muslim and the Western worlds and to "facilitate dialogue between students from diverse backgrounds across the globe" (ibid), thus helping to attain the Council of Europe's (2008) goals for intercultural communicative competence and intercultural dialogue. It also meets principles of Islamic dialogue which Ashki (2006: 6) defines as "a type of communication between people that respects the differences of 'the Other', which allows for true listening in a safe environment that offers possibilities for the transformation of self-awareness in each individual". But, as their website states, Soliya is once again "most commonly integrated into the schools of arts, humanities, social sciences, languages, and international studies"; students studying the sciences are, it acknowledges, represented less frequently.

To summarise, there is a recognised value in broadening engineering education to embrace collaboration with students in other countries, to develop the social skills / inter-cultural competences that co-operation and teamwork can foster. However, busy timetables can be an issue, and interventions that occur tend to provide somewhat superficial contact, focusing on employability skills. If they do involve face-to-face contact, via telecollaboration, this tends to be intra-Global North.
The EAST project: a critical pedagogies SET telecollaboration with the Global South Telecollaboration and critical pedagogy: a digital megaphone?
This section describes the workings of EAST, a project which aims to develop a Global North - South link for SET students using a critical pedagogies approach, i.e. one that moves beyond employability, to touch on questions of power imbalance, and social and political justice, using telecollaboration as a tool.

The concept of critical pedagogies developed from the seminal work of Paulo Freire in Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1996), linking ongoing social injustices to structural imbalances within the educational system. Freire, writing originally in the early 1970s, argued that schools exist to maintain the status quo, and that educators support an invidious 'banking' system (ibid: 58), one which views students as mere 'receptacles' to be 'filled' and readied for a life in which the ability to question or think critically is unnecessary, even dangerous. However, Freire argued that students can develop their full societal potential by questioning authority and, in particular, if they are made aware of their own position within the power-structures that shape their education, a process that he termed 'conscientization'. Parallels with Foucault's thinking on power can be drawn, and Giroux (2020: 717) - in an article on Freire's work - writes that if students can develop "a healthy scepticism about power", there are real possibilities for an openness to innovative change that might challenge the status quo.

In adapting a critical pedagogies approach to include the internet (which didn't exist when Freire wrote Pedagogy of the Oppressed), it must be acknowledged that technology is not neutral; our uses of technologies reflect underlying economic, geographical and cultural power systems (Belz and Thorne, 2005: xviii). Shor et al. (2017: 13) go even further, stating that "technology has been a one-way monologue so loud and pervasive as to exclude critical dialogue about what technology applications mean or engender, or who benefits." In other words, telecollaboration carries its own power-related baggage. However, if we accept that there is a pressing value in linking the Global North and South, then it is difficult to envisage (short of student-mobility - a theme returned to later in this paper) a means of critically linking North and South students that avoids telecollaboration. Guth and Helm (2011: 16) argue that technology can afford new spaces to its users and new forms of interaction (they term it a "relationship revolution") that can challenge traditional power dynamics, while Shor et al. (2017: 14), though clearly doubting the institutional motivations behind the proliferation of online learning initiatives, go on to concede that technology "may be used by ingenious critical teachers to develop students as activists who question knowledge and power in their society". In short, telecollaboration can be developed as a means to foster communication, and might conceivably function as a vehicle for the critical dialogue that is central to Freire's approach.
A pluriliteracies approach to the development of intercultural awareness
EAST is a telecollaborative link which operates under various constraints. It takes place pre-sessionally, i.e. before Glasgow-based international students matriculate, and is a project-based adjunct to an already-existing English language course. Pre-sessional courses are summer language programmes held by host universities in the Global North. They cater for overseas students whose abilities in English are almost at the level required, and their aim is attainment of a university-certified score equivalent to a Secure English Language Test (such as IELTS or TOEFL), which allows direct entry to the bachelors or masters course the students have chosen. In terms therefore of content, academic, subject-specific language skills must remain the main focus of the overall course, to which EAST is an accompaniment, taking place mainly outside the classroom.The final constraint is one of duration; EAST can last only five weeks.

Despite such constraints, since its introduction in summer 2015, EAST has aimed to broaden the reach of SET-specific language-enhancement provision at the University of Glasgow by providing critical-pedagogies-informed project work. Such project work has a solid theoretical underpinning in the expansion over the past 20 years, particularly in Europe, of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) (see e.g. Pérez-Cañado, 2012; Cenoz et al., 2014; Dalton-Puffer et al, 2014), in which the subject is taught via the target language. An overseas telecollaboration allows the addition of intercultural learning opportunities. O'Dowd (2018: 14) summarises the COIL approach (Collaborative Online Intercultural Learning) to telecollaboration that EAST has followed as "the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills, including intercultural competence and critical thinking, while working on shared subject content and also providing [students] with different cultural perspectives on their subject area".

Goris et al. (2019) specifically note the affordances for an increased sense of belonging to an international community, and EAST has in fact developed its original CLIL-based pedagogy to take on elements of a 'pluriliteracies' approach, an extension of CLIL in which students are pushed (via the content-requirements of their project work) to be working at a cognitive level that is more demanding than that of their grammatical ability, i.e. of what Coyle (2015) terms their 'vehicular language'. The problem-posing nature of EAST is central to the development of critical awareness (Freire, 1996: 65) and the built-in need for communication creates extra demands that are crucial for effective learning; as Coyle puts it (2015: 90), deep learning needs to "involve social settings where learners are enabled to articulate their learning before internalising their own interpretation of these concepts on an individual basis".
The development of 'context'
The strength of the EAST project is that it provides these 'social settings', i.e. the 'contexts' which are so important to a Freirean approach that combines learning and social justice.

The Gazan students initially provide various Gaza-specific engineering challenges, and there are few places in the world with so many; three recent wars, coupled with the ongoing blockade by Israel and Egypt, mean that construction materials and mechanical parts are in very short supply. They then mentor the Glasgow-based students (who come principally from China, with significant numbers from Saudi Arabia, and then from a range of other countries) by providing feedback on the responses that these Glasgow-based students propose. The feedback received from Gaza by the Glasgow-based students over the 5-week duration of EAST is content-specific, with no language-related help, in order to ensure that exit scores in language tests at the end of the pre-sessional course are a true reflection of Glasgow-based students' language abilities.

The students who arrive in Glasgow in mid-July to study English for Academic Purposes via the pre-sessional course may sometimes know a little about Gaza, but more often have never heard of it. Even students from the Middle East, who know something of the political background to the Palestine-Israel conflict, tend to lack a true understanding of the economic and humanitarian scale of the problems that the people of Gaza face on a daily basis, and of the ever-present fear of war. And for the few who can be said to arrive in Glasgow with some idea of this scale, it remains nevertheless in the abstract.

Since course-organisers in Glasgow are unable to know beforehand which applicants will in fact materialise from overseas on Day 1, awareness-raising activities for incoming students, prior to their arrival in Scotland, are not feasible. In a plenary lecture on the first afternoon, students newly-arrived in Glasgow are briefly introduced to IUG, and view a video in which they hear a short message from their soon-to-be partners. Glasgow-based students are immediately asked to form small groups (ideally of three) around Gazan engineering-based problems, which the students in Gaza have already identified and sent to the course organisers in Glasgow. For the Glasgow-based students, these groupings are (as far as is possible, given the preponderance of Mandarin-speakers), cross-lingual; a typical Glasgow-group might thus contain two students from China and one from Saudi Arabia, so that even within the Glasgow nexus, an intercultural element is in-built. The next day, course-organisers set up Facebook groups linking Glasgow-based pairs with those based in Gaza. At the end of this week, class-time is dedicated to ensuring that the Glasgow/Gaza groups meet via Skype, Zoom or WhatsApp, initially discuss the problem they will be researching, and get to know one another.

Purely Facebook-mediated student-to-student interactions create an insufficient bond between participants, so face-to-face encounters are timetabled to take place in Week 1 within lesson-time, leading students to feel greater ownership of the evolving collaboration, and to better understand the responsibilities involved (the Glasgow students to their Gazan partners, who have to live with very significant hardships on a daily basis; the Gazan students to their Glasgow partners, whose transition to masters study depends heavily on a successful project-outcome).

The bond created in Week 1 is fundamental to the intercultural learning opportunities that follow over the subsequent four weeks of EAST. Each class has a Writing teacher, who monitors progress on each Glasgow-based student's Gaza-related Subject-Specific Essay, and a Speaking teacher, who ensures that class members are ready for a teleconferenced presentation, delivered in tandem by the Glasgow-based and Gazan students in Week 5. But it is important to stress that the bulk of the lessons are English for Specific Academic Purposes inputs, aimed at developing disciplinary literacies in Speaking, Listening, Reading and Writing skills, and are not tied-in to the subject-matter of the students' EAST projects in any way. It is therefore fundamental that, from the outset, the students feel able to work with their partners in Gaza in autonomy, outside class-time, on whatever SET challenge they have chosen. It is via the Week 1 bond, fostered via a synchronous meeting timetabled in-class, that opportunities for solidarity-building, witnessing and ethics of care (to be discussed later in this paper) will be constructed.

A pre-EAST course, Constructive Feedback (Rolinska and Guariento, 2017) is given to the Gazan students by the course organisers in Glasgow. This is a short online course aiming to help the students in Gaza develop an understanding of how to make use of effective techniques when offering generic feedback, providing skills that will enable the IUG students to support the Glasgow-based students (but which are also purposed to be of value in gaining online work once EAST ends).
The EAST project through a Freirean lens
We have seen that previous attempts to justify telecollaborative exchanges for the development of intercultural awareness among engineering students have been made on the grounds of future graduate-employability but (as Starke-Mayerring and Wilson noted in 2008), in moving beyond competence models, a social justice approach provides a rationale for collaborative work that can be particularly compelling.

However, many facets of the role that telecollaborative interaction between engineering students in the Global North and the Global South can and should play - in particular, the space for a critical pedagogies approach - are challenging to implement. Here we look at the extent to which the EAST project may be said to meet Freire's critical pedagogies precepts. He breaks his capability approach down into four basic stages: selecting a generative theme; codifying this theme; problematising the theme; action (Freire, 1996).
Selecting a generative theme
Freire (1996: 64) suggests that the themes to be examined should be context-specific. Ideally they should emerge from discussion with the subjects or, failing that, from issues that they feel strongly about. The sheer numbers of participants in EAST (196 between Glasgow and Gaza in 2019) precludes Freire's workshop approach to this stage, but a principal strength of EAST is that the engineering challenges are closely related to a context, one provided by the Gazan students and relating the need for engineering answers to the wider (and pressing) needs of Gazan society. Glasgow-based participants are presented with a range of four or five engineering issues to choose from on Day 1, and this choice (within admittedly limited parameters) is an attempt to maintain the democratic principles which are central to Freire's approach.

Codifications can be considered "concrete representations of an aspect of people's lived reality" (Beck and Purcell, 2013: 3), an attempt to develop how we see ourselves in the world, and society in ourselves (Freire, 1996: 47), and in EAST this stage differs very markedly from Freire's. For Freire, students should be developing a 'conscientization' of their own position as oppressed figures. However, it would be inaccurate to describe the majority of Glasgow-based students on the EAST project as 'oppressed' (in any Freirean meaning of the term), as they tend to come from privileged sections of their home communities. For this reason, they need to understand, as far as is possible, what it means to live 'in the shoes' of the Gazan partners they will be working alongside. Where Freire used OHP slides reflecting back basic themes from the lives of his participants to engender 'lived reality', EAST uses videos: a general video on life under blockade in Gaza (The Guardian: 2018); and in some cases engineering-challenge-specific videos produced pre-EAST by the IUG participants, to afford the Glasgow-based participants some idea of what living this reality might involve (see the following example from the EAST website: https://easttelecollaboration.wordpress.com/2016/10/13/a-video-from-gaza/#more-592).
Problematising the theme
This stage has seen the most change over the five iterations of the EAST project. Initially, in 2015, interactions between Glasgow and Gaza took place via Facebook, in the students' own time. However, not only did some students engage too slowly with their respective partners (time, in a 5-week project, is absolutely of the essence) but, more importantly, there was a qualitative shortfall. For Freire (1996: 90), a true exploration of the contradictions inherent in any codification, and the societal factors underpinning these contradictions, can only come about through critical engagement as a result of actual dialogue (he actually specifies conversation, rather than written interaction). From EAST 3, the timetabling of a precious teaching-slot during which students 'meet' their individual partners via videolink (Skype, Zoom or Whatsapp) to discuss the engineering problems together has proven very effective in burrowing down swiftly into the wider cultural, societal and political impacts. The Glasgow-based students realise that they are dealing with something tangible, something that impacts directly on people's lives. The inclusion of these sessions within class-time has allowed the teacher to be present, to monitor and assist, performing a facilitation role similar to that of the 'investigator' as outlined by Freire (1996:93), or to Foucault's holding of the megaphone to enable the voices of the excluded to be heard (in Peters and Besley, 2014: 102).

This final stage is key to Freire's concept of 'praxis', i.e. the idea that thought can and must become action that changes a given situation, a change that then becomes the catalyst for further thought, and further change. In theory, EAST participants will enter this ongoing cycle of thought-change-new thought with each of the ongoing interactions that follow on from the initial, teacher-facilitated videolink at the end of Week 1. In other words, the remaining four weeks of EAST provide students with a cycle of questioning and exploration - a dialogue that invites student to reflect, to be creative, and, rather than simply 'banking' pre-digested information, to develop as activist citizens (Freire, 1996: 65) based around their chosen engineering issue, allowing intercultural learning to occur inductively.

Overall, there are considerable points of difference from Freire's conception of a critical pedagogy here; the Gazan students adopt a less active role than that envisaged by Freire, and from Week 1 onwards, student-student interactions take place without the oversight of a facilitating teacher. However, from a Freirean perspective, the concept of concrete action remains an arbiter of a successful intervention, and is embodied in the joint video-presentation in Week 5. Freire has been criticised (e.g. Elias and Merriam, 1980) for the abstraction with which he outlined his critical pedagogies approach, but in fact this very abstraction provides a malleability that can lead to adaptation and to the embrace of new technologies.

At the same time, it must be emphasised that the students at the two institutions have not been able to operate as equals, and the following section will look at possible reasons for this, at macro-, meso- and micro-levels.
Imbalance: the project sites
Differences in power and wealth at the macro-level are marked indeed. The UK is a wealthy Western European country, ranked 14 th in the UNDP Human Development Index (2019) and is privileged in power terms, too, as one of five permanent members of the United Nations. Palestine is in the Middle East, ranked 119 th in the Human Development Index (ibid), within which the Gaza Strip forms a poorer, non-contiguous part. Palestine as a whole was under British mandate until 1948 and since 1967 has been under Israeli occupation. While the direct occupation of the Gaza Strip ended in 2005, it remains under de facto Israeli control, with very strict limits on entry / egress of both goods and people. Recent statistics on this part of Palestine are telling; 34% of Gaza's population live in 'deep poverty', 44% are unemployed and, as a result of protracted crisis due to blockade by Israel and Egypt, family incomes have fallen significantly since 2011 (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, 2018). The Gaza Strip is also isolated not just geographically and economically, but also politically; Palestine is recognized as a state by many countries, but not by (for example) the UK or USA, and Palestine is also divided internally in political terms, with different ruling authorities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

At a meso-level, the two institutions also differ significantly in terms of power and wealth. The University of Glasgow is a research-driven Russell Group university ranked in the top 100 global universities (THE, 2020). It attracts large numbers of international students every year, while at IUG the geopolitical isolation described above also leads to a near-impossibility of physical movement (whether incoming or outgoing), either by students or staff, and concomitant challenges in the creation and maintenance of research networks. Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) are however well-developed in both institutions - as virtually the only opportunity for any form of employment beyond the Gaza Strip is found online (Fassetta et al., 2017), IUG has recognised and prioritised ICT as one of the only ways to overcome the restriction on physical movement / the economic blockade described above. The power differences relating to language are also relatively small; in Glasgow, course administrators are working in their L1 (a fact that confers clear power advantages), but at IUG English is (with Arabic) one of the two official languages, and is spoken fluently by administrators.

Power differences at the micro-level, i.e. between the students, are perhaps the least marked, as the students involved on the EAST project are all non-native speakers of English (whether pre-sessionally in Glasgow, or in-sessionally at IUG), i.e. using English as a lingua franca. At both institutions they share a particular need (which they recognise) to improve their listening and speaking skills in English (Rolinska et al., 2018).
Methodology
The author's own knowledge of injustices facing Palestine, alongside previous socially-committed links between the University of Glasgow's School of Education and IUG (Hammond, 2012), meant that EAST organisers were able to adopt from the outset a Critical Reflective praxis (Benade, 2015), one that accepts that teaching is essentially a political act (Freire, 1998). EAST was designed to 'perturb' (Beetham and Sharpe, 2013), in this case by using the web to introduce both an emotional (Atkins, 2009) and a political (Naples, 1998) element to an already-existing pre-sessional programme.

However, for its first two years, 2015 and 2016, the project ran with no intended research element; the data gathered, predominantly from anonymised end-of-course questionnaires written in collaboration by University of Glasgow and IUG staff, were purposed to provide participant-feedback that might improve the project for students on any subsequent course, i.e. to evaluate whether and to what extent the telecollaborative element was beneficial to students in Glasgow and at IUG in terms of language skills and intercultural competence, rather than for research purposes. Via these questionnaires, in September 2016 course organisers in both institutions found themselves with what Bryman (2008: 530) terms "a data-set that was waiting for a research question" and an interest in taking the collaboration further.

These two initial years of EAST went beyond an evidencing of reciprocal benefit; they also allowed the development of reciprocal trust and respect. The first iterations of EAST confirmed that a joint social situation (Hekman, 2018) existed, serving to locate potential subject and object on the same critical plane, and this provided the foundation for subsequent research that followed a Participant Action Research (PAR) paradigm. Grant et al. (2008), while admitting that approaches to PAR vary widely, acknowledge the importance of the relationship-building (which took place in the first two years of EAST) to PAR initiatives, within which researcher and researched will need to work alongside one another very closely. They also highlight a continued need for ongoing reflection on the part of the researcher. In these ways PAR can be seen as a logical continuation of a Critical Reflective praxis. But they also stress that a central element of PAR is the attempt to produce action that may (maybe slowly and iteratively) act as a catalyst for social change and, furthermore, that PAR often puts an examination of power-relationships centre-stage. PAR is a paradigm that acknowledges a need for flexibility and is able to adapt to very considerable contextual constraints (Willis and Edward, 2014: 24) - in the case of EAST, the massive impacts of the blockade, and the institutional impact of the embedding within a pre-sessional course - but the data-collection tools outlined below deliberately sought, from EAST 3 onwards, to use a PAR methodology in order to gauge these two specific issues: change; and power.

For reasons of continuity, the anonymised end-of-course questionnaires used for EAST projects 1 and 2 (in 2015 and 2016) remained the main data-source for the EAST projects in 2017 through 2019. Table 1 shows the growing dimensions of the project (particularly in Glasgow), alongside a fairly constant (and unsurprising, given the SET field) preponderance of male students at both institutions.

EAST 1, 2015: UofG

37 students (14 female)

EAST 2, 2016: UofG

31 students (12)

EAST 3, 2017: UofG

81 students (32)

EAST 4, 2018: UofG

140 students (44)

IUG

52 students (22) (+ 10 students on waiting list)

EAST 5, 2019: UofG

171 students (67)

Table 1: EAST project student numbers, 2015-2019
In total, 44 comments (by 41 students) taken from the anonymised post-course student feedback questionnaire are included in the findings section that follows; they are identified by ('Q') after each comment. Though these student comments represent the bulk of the data, the paper also draws on the following inputs: firstly, further contributions from students on the initial 2015 project, taken from Facebook exchanges ('F'), from end-of-course powerpoint slides ('PPT'), or from student comments and video-artefacts included on the EAST website; in addition, the author's own privileged position as course-organiser in Glasgow and as a legitimate outsider (Holliday, 2007) vis-a-vis the Gazans, allows a further perspective, namely field notes ('FN'), taken over the five years of EAST; finally, after the 2019 project, hypotheses gained from collection, analysis and coding of this data were used to inform a teachers' focus group facilitated by the author ('TF') with seven EAST teachers, held in March 2020. The teachers' perspective is also reflected by comments offered during the end-of-course teachers' meeting, the 'Annual Monitoring Review' ('AMR').

Along with quantitative data provided by closed questions (not exploited in this paper), the questionnaires posed the following open questions for each of the five years of the project to the students from both institutions:

What was the greatest thing about participating in the project?
What was the most challenging thing about participating in the project?

What definitely needs to be improved/changed for the project to work better next time?

How do you evaluate the project in terms of raising your cultural awareness? Can you give examples of how you developed it?

Has the project changed you in any way as a person, for example in the ways in which you think or act?

How do you evaluate the project in terms of increasing your knowledge of global issues such as climate change/crisis, poverty, etc? What global issues did you learn about?

The Glasgow-based students were asked the following additional question:

Your partner lives and works in completely different circumstances, often much more disadvantaged than yours. To what extent has the project affected your capacity for compassion and social justice?

Relevant responses to these questions from 2015 and 2016 were retrospectively coded to enable an exploration of themes of potential interest post-2016, and data-collection from EAST projects in 2017, 2018 and 2019 followed a qualitative content approach (Altheide, 2004), with further interplay between additional data collected from the students and from field notes leading in turn to an ongoing (re)conceptualisation of codes / refinement of themes. Data was collected following University of Glasgow ethical compliance procedures.

Ultimately, two research questions emerged, with sub-themes as below:

Research question 1: Is there evidence for transformative change for students?

Making exclusion visible

Raising intercultural awareness

Students' personal transformation

Research question 2: What issues of power-imbalance are evident? How do these impact the students' experience?

Institutional resistance

Ethical challenges relating to power-imbalance

Findings Research Question 1: Is there evidence for transformative change for students? Making exclusion visible
'it was a bridge to many people to let them find out at least what Gaza is ...what is really happening here in Gaza...' (Gaza, F: 2015)

'Having new friends and understating how other people knew about Gaza' (Gaza, Q: 2019)

'Listening to other people from other nationalities thinking with our problems and solve it is very supportive' (Gaza, Q: 2016)

'I also participate in raising cultural awareness about my country and its problems' (Gaza, Q: 2016)

'Make others aware about Gaza and its possibilities, real-situation problems, and culture' (Gaza, Q: 2017)

'It strengthened my confidence and my identity when I explained to them our suffering' (Gaza, Q: 2018)

'Think of all Palestinian students in Gaza who could not travel to pursue their education outside Gaza, who lost their scholarships, who were not able to attend conferences or participate in exchange programs, competitions, or internships' (Gaza, F: 2015)

The following comments reveal that some were saddened that a bridge to the wider world had revealed how little was known about Gaza, others conversely gladdened by learning of support outside the Strip:

'For me the greatest thing is that our voice reach the world by let other people know about Gaza and I really surprised when students [based in Glasgow] say that he did not hear about Gaza City. I am pleased that we show them Gaza which is the beauty, love and life' (Gaza, Q: 2017)

'Also knowing that people in the other side of the world love us and also knowing a lot about us unlike what we were thinking' (Gaza, Q: 2016)

'Talking and discussing Gaza problem with an international student made me happy that there people care and had an interest about my home land' (Gaza, Q: 2018)

'Now I know that there are people who love us and want to help us' (Gaza, Q: 2017)

Just as the comments above from IUG students contain references (e.g. ' bridge'; 'voice'; 'love'; 'care') that suggest an emotional value to EAST, one in which there exists potential for "a horizontal relationship of which mutual trust between the dialoguers is the logical consequence" (Freire, 1996: 72), there is also evidence for a similar empathy being developed among the Glasgow-based students. Nussbaum talks of the importance of what she terms 'affiliation' (2013: 34), "to show concern for other human beings....to be able to imagine the situation of another". We have seen that many Glasgow-based students come from relatively privileged backgrounds, and that organisers hope that some will be able to 'walk in another's shoes'. For these students it is often a first contact with people living in circumstances more challenging than their own:

'It is quite sad to see some people having difficulties living' (Glasgow, Q: 2019)

Yes, it affected much. After I know the live stander, I think I need do better to help them' (Glasgow, Q: 2019)

'Let us realize the current situation in other countries' (Glasgow, Q: 2016)

'Understanding how do poor countries suffer' (Glasgow, Q: 2019)

'This kind of project will aware you that what is happening around us' (Glasgow, Q: 2016)

The dialogue between Glasgow and Gaza constitutes what Freire terms a 'praxis' (1996: 68), an action and reflection that allows students to 'name' the world and, by so doing, potentially to change it. Freire argues that speech-acts carry meaning; by witnessing them, Glasgow-based students are able to legitimise the Gazans' suffering. This is one key

way in which exclusion is challenged, and this is also intertwined with important issues of identity (Hall and du Gay, 2011) that are also raised and addressed by EAST. Gazans are denied travel, and thereby denied so many of the chances - which most students can take for granted - to see themselves from alternate perspectives, and to develop the understanding of the plurality of identities that we all possess. Herrera (1992: 80) provides a parallel that illustrates how this can work. She talks as a primary school teacher from San Francisco, but working in a school in Cairo, which she gradually comes to see not as 'an Egyptian school', but simply as 'a school'; her identity as a primary school teacher subsumes her broader national identity, and (presumably) preconceptions that might serve to exclude. The interactions provided by EAST show that exclusion can be similarly overcome not just by showing the gravity of problems and challenges that may be peculiar to life in Gaza (as in the comments above), but also through the sheer familiarity of many of the engineering challenges proposed; the Glasgow-based students - from China, from Saudi Arabia, etc. - sometimes relate not only to the joy in many of the presentations, but also to the ubiquity of the situations they see. As course-organiser, sympathetic to and well-versed in the Palestinian struggle, the basic banality of the following engineering challenge (quite apart from the joy of its delivery) was a real eye-opener: https://easttelecollaboration.wordpress.com/2015/10/01/another-video-from-gaza/#more-362 (EAST website). This student, presenting on traffic challenges in Gaza, was allowing no space for the researcher's own, stereotyped imaginings of victimhood, as emerges from the following comment, regarding the 2015 EAST presentation themes:

'Traffic, pesticides, litter, car-pollution....life in Gaza seems to throw up pretty similar problems to life here in Scotland!' (FN: 2015)

Moreover, as one teacher (herself of Arab background) noted:

'Also some problems, e.g. Saudi students, may be shared with Gazans, for example political / societal, such as having to wait for a long time to get things done, but not for lack of money' (TF: Teacher 7)

To conclude, whether by highlighting the challenges of life in Gaza, or the commonalities of identity between participants, the overcoming of exclusion (for the Gazan students in particular) has been a key achievement of EAST; where previous to the project many felt excluded, now some may (Yuval-Davis et al., 2019) feel that they belong.
Raising intercultural Awareness
We have seen that internationalisation in the UK is increasing, in response to a variety of global forces, but still leaves the overall student-experience as one of surprising homogeneity. We have likewise seen at IUG a lack of free movement, one that has led to an "enforced monoculturalism" (Imperiale et al., 2017: 43); there are very limited opportunities to study abroad, and incoming students are even rarer. Thus, there is a need to increase ICC in both institutions, and the opportunity to learn about cultures other than their own was a principal attraction mentioned by students both in Glasgow and at IUG:

'I decided to participate in the EAST Project to meet new friends from different backgrounds and cultures' (Gaza, Q: 2019)

'It is my honour that can work with Arabians together, which is I never try it before. And they are very nice people and fill with passion' (Glasgow, Q: 2019)

'When I dealt with others with each one has its own culture, my view of the subject really changed...i actually get to know some cultures and really impressed by some' (Gaza, Q: 2016)

This latter comment above is particularly important; the fact that most Gazan students work on EAST with a Glasgow-based pairing comprising two different nationalities (often Chinese and Saudi) makes the inter-cultural element much more salient - as de Nooy (2006) notes, partnerships with a binary set-up and an overt ICC focus (such as Soliya) risk casting learners into a defensive representative of their culture, but a built-in three-way split in terms of nationality makes this less true of EAST. For some Gazans there was therefore the opportunity to generalize about the value of working interculturally (rather than of comments specific to an any one cultural grouping), as the following comments suggest:
'I learned how to respect the cultures of others....before the project it wasn't a big
thing, but when I dealt with others with each one has its own culture, my view of the subject really changed...' (Gaza, Q: 2016)

'If you ask me what is the most useful thing that you take it from this project i will certainly say the knowledge about cultures, its great thing to share your ideas and thoughts with other people' (Gaza, Q: 2016)

'you have just know them, also you can get a full of useful when you chat with them about their habits, thoughts, living and many thing relating to their lives not just talking about the education or college :)' (Gaza, Q: 2016)

Overall, Glasgow-based students made fewer comments relating to a raising of intercultural awareness. It may be that the Gazans felt more strongly about the theme of interculturality (though it may also reflect the fact that Gazans were on holiday and had more free time, or that the Glasgow-based students were preoccupied with the pass/fail nature of the course). There is evidence elsewhere, however, that the inductive approach to raising intercultural awareness adopted by EAST could successfully impact Glasgow-based students as well; as Dix (2016: 155) puts it, "for a transformative process to occur, the problematic must become my problem or our problem, must be experienced as a construction or obstacle to be overcome." Trying to find a solution to what starts out as engineering problems could touch on a multiplicity of very complex societal, environmental, and political issues. The following three example (taken from the author's field notes during the Week 5 presentations) serve as illustrations, and highlight the importance of Freire's underlying 'context':

'...this [Glasgow-based] group has learned that Optical Character Recognition software struggles to adapt successfully to the complexities of the Arabic script, but also that in Gaza many have damage to their eyesight (due to the conflict / lack of access to adequate healthcare)' (FN: 2016).

'...this [Glasgow-based] group of civil engineers (2 Chinese / 1 Thai) propose a high-rise solution to the housing shortage. They learn that normal building materials = embargoed in Gaza, plus high-rise solution needs electricity for lifts. But power-cuts are so common!' (FN: 2017).

'Telecommunications engineers (1 Saudi / 1 Chinese) with wireless telephony focus; they propose GPS solutions, to help overcome the lack of addresses across the Gaza strip. They have learned that 4G mobile systems exist in Palestine, but only from Israeli providers' (FN: 2017).

Hence students in Glasgow begin by working on an ostensibly subject-related issue, but something more serious may emerge, maybe from the students' research, but (more fundamentally) from the interactions with the partner in Gaza to find, together, a contextually appropriate (Freire, 1996) response. It would of course be fascinating to know what the students really understand by the term 'culture', i.e. the extent to which students see its features as prescribed or essentialized (Holliday, 2007) along ethnic or national lines, but the comments are nonetheless interesting. However, there is evidence here to suggest that learning beyond the acquisition of language and content, i.e. learning of an intercultural nature, has taken place inductively, i.e. without overt training for the development of intercultural awareness and despite the time-constraints under which EAST operates. Bringing together those who have experienced peace in education with those whose education is marred by conflict and siege can thus, I feel, combine interculturality and subject-matter in a meaningful way.
Students' Personal Transformation
We have seen that students appreciated the chance to learn about other cultures, but some also mentioned the opportunity to see perceptions of their own country through the eyes of another, and others even noted themost interesting final step in the raising of intercultural awareness, the opportunity for reflection and to project any learning back onto their own culture and a consideration of the social forces that may have formed meanings, beliefs and behaviours that underpin it (Byram, 1997: 35). The following comments suggest that such deeper and personal transformation can occur for students on EAST, via extra-curricular activities and/or online exchanges between the partners, even though there is no space to timetable explicit intercultural awareness-raising activities:

'In the project, I talked remotely with completely strange people, for the first time in my life, who are from very far country, talk different language, and have new culture to me. This opened my eye about new things, as not all people think the same way, so I should clarify new ideas for people. The idea that might seem obvious for me might not be that clear for other people...' (Gaza, Q: 2018)

'You will get astonished when you hear that i have learned many thing about the problems of my countries that i have never known it is existing' (Gaza, Q: 2016)

The students above reference instances (' made me a courageous and strong human'; 'opened my eye'; 'you will get astonished') that point to personal transformation. It would seem that a chance can be presented, telecollaboratively, for an encounter of significance, providing students with an 'authenticity of task' (see Guariento and Morley, 2001) that is a feature of the real world, but lacking in most UK pre-sessional programmes.

However, such authenticity also suggests a necessity for taking risks. In normal circumstances there is a positive pedagogical benefit to be gained from an approach to learning that places problem-solving at its core; As Wolfe and Alexander (in Coyle, 2015: 96) state, "argumentation and dialogue are not alternative patterns of communication; they are principled approaches to pedagogy". From Canagarajah's "cultural struggle" (2002: 196), through Mezirow's advocacy of "disorienting dilemmas" (2011), to Kumaravadivelu's "disturbing dialogues" (2008: 181), there is a wealth of other research supporting similar approaches. Specific to the raising of intercultural awareness via telecollaboration, Ware & Kramsch (2005: 203) talk of the potential value of "extended episodes of misunderstanding", and O'Dowd (2011: 351) of the "cultural rich points" that may emerge from moments of online friction. As the following comments suggest, there were certainly moments at which the online interactions were uncomfortable, even fraught:

'At the beginning, I didn't know much about Gaza. So I was very careful to talk about some sensitive issues like wars with them' (Glasgow, Q: 2017)

'Since we have different culture background, sometimes I just afraid I will offense their religion without attention' (Glasgow, Q: 2019)

'I find out that our group members from different countries think in different ways, so it's hard to understand each other. We have to explain everything in detail' (Glasgow, Q: 2019)

'Due to the bad situation in Gaza, acquisition of competencies and improving the skills was very hard, this was the basic motivations to join in EAST project. At the beginning, I was worried about this experience and I will fail to communicate with another people who have another culture, thinking, language and another way to life, but as time passed, I started to know that it's a lot easier than I thought. We had two video chatting then we complete chatting by writing, and we had a lot of fun and exchange cultures together. Actually, in the first discussion about our topic, we had a big misunderstanding and my partners were very angry and confused, then it went well. You know, this experience made me realize that I need to live more and be always happy' (Gaza, Q: 2017)

The final student-comment, above, is quoted at length, as it seems to offer support to the many researchers who champion risk-taking, whether in the classroom or online. But it also highlights that these are risks which may well be magnified in any sudden, novel and high-stakes online contact between students in the Global North and South. The siege-related insecurities and fears make these dangers particularly salient in the case of Gaza (Phipps, 2014), and given the long-standing nature of the Palestinian struggle, Argenti and Schramm (2012) argue for a possible collectivised trauma, one that may be transmitted inter-generationally, and which may add to any current trauma that IUG participants are carrying within. The following comments suggest the size of the impact on Glasgow-based participants:

'I just knew that there were wars in Gaza, but I didn't know to what extent they influence in daily life of the people there' (Glasgow, Q: 2016)

'can't believe the truth [of the situation in Gaza]' (Glasgow, Q: 2019)

'...the poverty and bombings....I couldn't begin to imagine the impact of this, let alone the students who knew nothing about Gaza' (TF: Teacher 5)

These comments align with Nussbaum's central capability of affiliation, allowing participants from a SET background (who might otherwise never have the opportunity) to learn about issues of social justice in the Global South. However, as the comments in this section have suggested, when contemplating work with the Global South in general, and with a country such as Palestine in particular, the relationship between risk-taking and personal transformation presents many challenges, and presages ethical issues that we shall examine shortly.
Research Question 2: Impact of power-imbalance
This section now presents evidence relating to research question 2: What issues of power-imbalance are evident? How do these impact the students' experience?
Institutional resistance
It is far from easy to separate the impacts on stakeholders at student-level and at institutional-level, as these are deeply interwoven; for example, a situation in which a student collaborates effectively despite perceptions of initial language-weaknesses might be seen as transformational for the student herself, but it might also reveal to course organisers / the wider institution just what their students are capable of when, via telecollaboration, local generative themes are linked (or as Freire [1996: 101] terms this, 'hinged') to larger social contexts. But that inequalities also exist between the Global North and South at institutional level is of course no surprise; as Koehn and Obamba (2014: 74) note, these social contexts "both generate and reproduce structural power and epistemological hegemonies", and "militate against the construction of symmetrical partnerships".

Such issues of underlying structural power have been sufficiently visible to attract notice from participants at both institutions. Comments concerning the need for more reciprocity in the EAST set-up, suggesting a lack of 'symmetrical partnership', have come from the Glasgow-based students; they are able to see a bias towards the Global North institution at which they are studying, i.e. to note their own privilege. They feel that their Gazan partners ought to be allowed to:

'....write a short essay formally evalauting the solutions provided by [Glasgow-based]sts - this could be in form of short academic presentations too, a couple of slides added on to the Glasgow sts' presentations' (Glasgow, Q: 2015)

'The initial presentation of the problem could be in form of a video - a more extensive presentation of the problem' (Glasgow, Q: 2015)

'IUG sts [should be] given access to Glasgow Library online databases during the project' (Glasgow, Q: 2015)

Understandably, IUG students have made similar points, suggesting that the provision of the pre-EAST Constructive Feedback course, delivered to IUG participants as training prior to EAST and taking place before the Glasgow-based students arrive in Scotland, fails to compensate for the limited role that the IUG students assume during the actual EAST project:

'May be if we swap the role so IUG students give the presentation and [Glasgow-based students] ask questions and giving feedback' (Gaza, Q: 2016)

Some of the suggestions above have been acted upon in subsequent projects; the introductory videos already mentioned, explaining the social impacts of the engineering challenges facing Gaza, became integral to EAST from 2017 onwards, and in 2016 written feedback (both language and content) on IUG students' output was provided, with the help of a British Council ELTRA grant (although this couldn't be sustained, following the unexpected and significant increase in student numbers in Glasgow the following year). The idea of a reversal of roles - as suggested by the IUG students - would necessitate a near-complete rewrite of the accompanying course, to which EAST is an adjunct. The provision of IUG access to the University of Glasgow's library system was explored in depth before EAST 2017, but the computer systems can be made available only to matriculated students.

These reflect factors which are at play at institutional level that will not be visible to the participating students, nor amenable to change by course-organisers. Institutions may see benefits in collaboration of a wider nature than the immediately apparent benefit to the learner, and compromise is a key part of any institutional collaboration, if it is to develop in time and in a mutually beneficial way. Koehn and Obamba (2014: 14) point out that "many high-impact transnational research and development partnerships adopt an approach based on complementarity and equity (italics in original) rather than insisting on the pursuit of complete equality or symmetry between the Northern and Southern partners". IUG administrators are active in overcoming the wider isolation imposed on their country by the Israeli/Egyptian blockade and, importantly to IUG as an institution, there is the important role that IUG plays within Gaza in training graduates in the employability skills that can enable them (as already mentioned) to find scarce jobs, in particular over the internet. Finally, there is almost certainly the kudos of working with a UK Russell Group university.
Ethical challenges relating to power imbalances
Tuhiwai Smith (2012: 18) notes that it is possible for academics in the Global North to develop "ways of working with indigenous groups on a variety of projects in an ongoing and mutually beneficial way", but the EAST project has nevertheless raised significant ethical issues, which are discussed below. These emerge from both the data and from researcher reflexivity (Bourdieu and Wacquand, 1992) on the factors that can influence a research project's design and the ethical implications of bias and power imbalance.

Three specific ethical conundra will be discussed:

How freely can the IUG participants express their voices?

Given a limited audience, why are IUG participants so eager to participate?

Where does EAST sit within wider discourses?

Ethical conundrum 1: How freely can the IUG participants express their voices?
Some students show an awareness of where EAST sits within the wider institutional set-up and, significantly, its links with the world beyond, and express frustration, even anger, with this wider context. Given the gatekeeping nature of the pre-sessional course for the Glasgow-based students, the candour of the following comment (even within the anonymity of the post-course feedback forms) is noteworthy:

'I don't know why we have to do it since these work may not be feasible to the situation in those countries, I feel really bad for this. Are we just making day dreams?' (Glasgow, Q: 2019)

Unsurprisingly, in view of the economic blockade, of the permanent fear of bombardment, and of the political constraints on egress from the Strip, frustrated comments from the IUG students were more frequent. Risager (2007) argues that effective intercultural communication is one that allows participants to 'appropriate' the languages and cultures that are studied, without the need to disguise, or to lose, their own identities. One Gazan student began her presentation with a clear positioning, thus:

'Gaza strip located in historical Palestine which occupied by what called Israel since Nakba in 1947'(Gaza, PPT: 2018)

Although such overt expression of political frustration during EAST has been unusual in public-facing communication, the following comments in post-course feedback show that the frustration, even anger, certainly exists:

'When you talked about cause of problem you could add Israel occupation somehow because this unjust occupation is the main reason for every problem in Gaza' (Gaza, Q: 2018)

'Our problem here in Gaza is purely political; therefore any solutions should be put forward be at the front of freedom and get ride from occupation and then come the role of scientific solution' (Gaza, Q: 2018)

'As a student in Gaza, I have encountered many difficulties and challenges, especially in the last war, where my older brothers have lost due to the brutal Israeli aggression' (Gaza, Q: 2018)

The IUG students clearly have a voice, but these comments cannot be categorised as attempts by the IUG students to 'write back', as the post-EAST student feedback lacked an audience. Given that the real-world impact of a course lasting just five weeks must at most be marginal, an important arbiter of its effectiveness may be measured in terms of the audience that it provides the Global South participants, and in these terms EAST lacked impact. The Gazan participants clearly want to communicate their frustration, but do so rarely in a public-facing manner, which suggests that they did feel obliged to disguise their identities (Risager, 2007). The students wanted and needed to "express their anger" (Nussbaum, 2013: 33), but were unable to do so. This raises a further question of concern; if many Gazan students felt unable to reveal their real identities, why did they choose to participate in EAST?
Ethical conundrum 2: Given a limited audience, why are IUG participants so eager to participate?
This question again reflects student-student power differentials, present in Global North-South interactions, which are significantly reduced in most intra-Global North interactions.

After the first two EAST projects (2015 and 2016), and drawing in part from the "partnership capital" (Koehn and Obamba, 2014: 25) engendered by EAST, the University of Glasgow presented two successive, and successful, bids for Erasmus + International Credit Mobility (ICM) funding in 2017. This appeared on the surface an example of 'complementarity and equity'; a project that had, for two years, benefited in the main the students based in the Global North would now contribute to students from the less privileged partner. But the following comment from an IUG student, at the end of the very first EAST project, already presaged a serious structural issue:

'Now what I really hope is to meet my new friends from Glasgow face to face 🙂 I really wish if I could travel there' (Gaza F: 2015)

This comment from the teaching-team, minuted in the post-course annual monitoring review the following year, talks to a similar concern:

'we suspect some [IUG feedback] may be over-positive, due to Siege (any input is better than no input, or maybe because they hope for travel-opportunities beyond Gaza Strip') (Glasgow AMR: 2016)

In other words, even before an Erasmus + ICM collaboration was mooted, course organisers in Glasgow were aware of a moral dilemma and of underlying power issues linked to involvement with students living in difficult circumstances; there was a fear that the IUG students were captive participants, joining EAST in the tiniest hope of a study-abroad experience, a means of escaping from war, economic hardship, and lack of opportunities.

Subsequent to the successful ICM bids, thirty Gazan students were in fact able to attend courses in Glasgow, for either six or 12 months, and to return to Gaza with credits towards their degrees. Applications to EAST among Gazan students immediately showed an almost threefold increase in 2018 (see Table 1). The end-of-course comments from IUG participants on EAST in 2018 (below) gave actual voice to the teachers' concerns as stated in the annual monitoring review:

'Due to the difficult conditions in which the residents of the Gaza Strip are going through the closure of the crossings, we have not been able to travel abroad.... I hope I have the opportunity to study Master in Britain' (Gaza, Q: 2018)

'This program encouraged me to study English very hard to obtain an international scholarship that allowing me to obtain a master's degree. I hope to get a Master's degree at the University of Glasgow where great efforts are made to make it students unique in their fields' (Gaza, Q: 2018)

'In the end I hope to have another chance to participate in Glasgow University students' educational projects or get a chance to study at the University of Glasgow' (Gaza, Q: 2018)

'This program encouraged me to study English very hard to obtain an international scholarship that allowing me to obtain a master's degree' (Gaza, Q: 2018)

'Now I hope that I will have my postgraduate studies through this program in the UK' (Gaza, Q: 2018)

These comments shed light on what should be a much more seriously-considered ethical consideration in educational projects linking Global North and South institutions, particularly in areas of conflict, than is currently the case. Fassetta and Imperiale (2019: 9), in a recent literature review on indigenous engagement produced for the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, conclude that

....reflections on the role of funding allocations to individuals and/or groups within Indigenous communities (especially relevant in the case of international development projects) and about the power dynamics this may set in motion.....were conspicuously absent from all the literature we examined.

Though EAST has no grants for overseas study linked to it, the problem still remains, in that even the hope in Gaza of possible funding (or travel beyond Gaza) reflects a power dynamic which must perforce be an element when working with such differentials of privilege and opportunity. This doesn't mean that projects such as EAST should not take place. However, as Fassetta and Imperiale (ibid) state, the power dynamics need to be openly acknowledged, and expectations managed.
Ethical conundrum 3: Where does EAST sit within wider discourses?
The teachers on EAST were also aware of the ethics of working in a project such as EAST, i.e. a telecollaboration involving the Global South. In order to understand this awareness, some background to the particular position that English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teachers occupy within the wider university is useful. Their position within the University of Glasgow mirrors the (precarious) situation that EAP teachers occupy at national level.

Ding and Bruce (2017: 195) note that the EAP practitioner is working, at social, generic and textual levels, on a broad remit of discursive competences that are challenging and stimulating, yet whose very breadth set them in an anomalous position within academia. Ding and Bruce outline growing professionalisation initiatives (driven by the British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes), in an attempt to develop EAP from a support-service to an academic field in its own right. At the moment, they say, this move is incomplete, and pre-sessional courses / educators find themselves in a liminal position, with few opportunities for research and with less prestige than subject-lecturers.

This in some ways presents benefits. Teachers and directors of EAP courses, working as 'almost-academics', have greater freedom to adopt student-centred, participatory methods, including the telecollaborative work with unconventional partners described in this paper. While negotiating this position of liminality, they are also working with incoming graduates in the main from China and Saudi Arabia, who may be described as 'almost-students', in need of the language of academia, but also in need of a wider acculturation into university life. The 'hybridity' of the EAP teachers' position (Bhabha, 1994) overlaps with the 'becoming' (Kramsch, 1993) of the students' position. Helm et al. (2012: 107) argue that this affords a potentially very valuable 'third space' of shared understanding and in which conventions are open to challenge, a place which is "constantly constructed and re-constructed by participants who actively engage in dialogue and negotiate identities", and that as such offers many possibilities for creativity and for dialogue.

But at the same time EAP teachers are well aware of the context within which they work, often with short-term contracts. They have a first-hand awareness of what Bourdieu (1986) has termed the social, cultural and symbolic capital, including but also going beyond economic capital, that actors bring to interactions and that can be converted from one form of capital to another, depending on the actor's structural position and agentive power within a given field (their own, vis-a-vis the University, and by extension the IUG students', vis-a-vis their Glasgow-based partners). They tend too to be more aware than most of the power structures that underpin the strong international element to university work. The majority of EAP teachers work overseas through the year, returning to the UK only for the summer, and are well-positioned in their international focus to see through the 'mission statements' with which universities cloak their internationalisation-as-recruitment agenda in internationalisation-as-development garb (Avgousti, 2018).

A focus group was held with seven EAST teachers, in March 2020, guided loosely by the researcher on the basis of the opportunities for student-transformation and the underlying issues of power that inform this paper. The following post-EAST dialogue between teachers, was revealing of their informed position, and more specifically of the doubts and differences of opinion they held regarding their specific role and of their positioning within the wider academic system:

'unfortunately (our students) don't have access to the research in Palestine, i.e. how do those people see things? How can our students get reliable documents? So we do impose a Western perspective on Gaza-related issues. First we impose the Western perspective on Chinese students (via the pre-sessional course) and then we make them report the Western perspective on Gaza!' (TF: Teacher 3)

(jokingly) '....so it's doubly racist and colonialist!' (TF: Teacher 2)

(disagreeing) 'The Western teacher steps back, it ends up as a dialogue between two people whose first language is not English, so the power levels are a lot more even. They have to do this on their own, to collaborate. I mean we're not over-looking them, making sure they're doing this. So there is that free communication there' (TF: Teacher 6)

Teacher 2 seems to be attempting a disarming role in the response given to Teacher 3's position, but shows a realisation of a core concern; as Koehn and Obamba (2014: 78) put it, Global North actors can influence the direction that any student-student interactions will take. Teacher 3's linking of the pre-sessional English language course with 'colonialist' narratives acknowledges the many (see e.g. Phillipson, 1992; Pennycook, 1998; Canagarajah and Selim, 2013; Nyamnjoh, 2016) who link courses such as the University of Glasgow's to the wider and, they argue, exploitative field of ELT which, they feel, perpetuates a status quo that is detrimental to the Global South. The position of English as an 'imperialist' language has, however, been contested (see e.g. Risager, 2007; Hirsch, 2020), and Teacher 6 demurs; she allows the students the agency to overcome this challenge, incidentally acknowledging the Freirean 'teacher-as-facilitator' role.

In the following exchange, teachers are ostensibly discussing organisational issues, i.e. the choice of the engineering problems under discussion, but again underlying issues relating to exclusion and power emerge:

'It's far better to have Gaza involved than not. The alternative would be isolation. But why can't Palestinians think about solving Chinese problems?' (TF: Teacher 2)

'How about working together on UK problems? Though there could be a potential power issue in expecting Chinese students to criticise the host country' (TF: Teacher 3)

A final comment, again from Teacher 3, gets to the very core of the dilemma presented to EAST organisers:

'The main issue for me is lack of balance, in that the Gazans are just basically used, in a way, and they're not getting much out of it' (TF: Teacher 3)

Teacher 6 acknowledges the power carried by the English language, but here Teacher 3 seems to move beyond this; Kramsch (2002: 284) counsels a wariness of the very concept of ICC, as one that "can easily be high-jacked by a global ideology of 'effective communication' Anglo-Saxon style, which speaks an English discourse even as it expresses itself in many different languages". Mignolo (in de Oliveira Andreotti et al., 2015: 23) approaches this more broadly still, talking about the very concept of 'modernity' as representing an 'imperial project', one that takes as a given seamless progress, industrialization, scientific reason, and secularisation; he argues that we need to acknowledge that these 'bright shining concepts' bring a concomitant 'shadow', one of spatiality (i.e. control of lands), ontoepistemic racism (i.e. elimination of difference) and a geopolitics of knowledge production (i.e. an epistemic violence).

The comments from the Gazan students on EAST certainly show the understandable salience of the spatial elements of life in the Gaza Strip, and the comments from the teachers also touch on these ontoepistemic and epistemic issues that Mignolo raises.

The colonial violences perpetrated in the past may be acknowledged by universities, as in the University of Glasgow's grant of £20,000,000 to the University of the West Indies (Karasz, 2019). However, Freire specifically warns about "generous gestures" (1996: 41), and de Oliveira Andreotti et al. (2015) argue that current attempts to decolonise academia emphasise increased access (to knowledge, skills and cultural capital) for the Global South within the existing institutional framework, i.e. without calling into question the integrity of the system itself. For them, Mignolo's 'shadow of modernity' is being addressed, rather, by an 'expansion of modernity'. As such:

....the core business of the university as a credentializing institution for 'emancipated' socially-mobile subjects will remain intact. Radical-reform cannot, in practice, take account of ontological and meta-physical difference, as it cannot promote non-capitalist futurities without shooting itself in the foot(de Oliveira Andreotti et al., 2015: 34).

The overall tenor of the teachers' comments concerning EAST remain very positive (many return each summer, specifically citing the value of the social justice agenda that it tries to offer). However, the comments in this section suggest that their liminal position within academia combined with their wider international (even internationalist) perspectives of UK higher education have brought some to pose the same ethical question as that raised by de Oliveira Andreotti et al. (2015): when a university makes space for a project such as EAST, is the project hacking the system, or is it being hacked by the system?
Conclusions
With this question, we return to the 'conduct of conduct', as posited by Foucault and outlined in the introduction to this paper. By 'shouting over the walls' of French prisons, the GIP cast light on questions of power not only for prisoners, but also within wider French society, and the telecollaborative megaphone has had, I feel, similarly reciprocal effects in Glasgow and in Gaza, and has helped make the question posed by de Oliveira et al. (2015) visible.

The comments from students reported in this paper have permitted not only a gauging of the impact of EAST on the pre-sessional course within which it is situated but, when combined with comments from the teachers on the course and with the author's field notes, they have allowed further reflection on the beliefs and practices of the institution, and even on the policies and ideologies within the field and the extent to which neo-liberal discourses influence the learning environment within UK universities. In summary, the initial 'shouting over the walls' into Gaza has, over the five-year course of EAST, taken on a fascinating (and unexpected) two-way direction, revealing a need to question beliefs and behaviours that academics and students, privileged enough to work and study in the Global North, take for granted. This unmasking of the way that power works is useful not in overturning institutional or (much less) global discourses - an impossibly large task for a small-scale project of this nature - but in allowing a Foucauldian understanding of how we as stakeholders have been 'put together' by discursive practices that influence higher education in the Global North, and (as Brunskell-Evans [2009] notes) to resist and challenge these if we choose to. After five years, EAST remains a project in frustratingly prototypical format, but the evidence offered here does suggest significant, and as yet untapped, potential for such resistance. It is also absolutely vital that the current Covid-related rush to online learning is not used as a vector for further neoliberal assaults on employment rights and work practices at university (Brabazon, 2020), and the presence of socially-rooted projects such as EAST are particularly important in these times as exemplars of online alternatives.

The first stated aim of this paper was to look for evidence for transformative change for students in the EAST Project. While EAST cannot be said to develop a true 'critical consciousness'- the Glasgow-based students cannot be described as 'oppressed' - the forefronting of a context via EAST is key and innovative, and meets a key Freirean precept. Many of the international students based in Glasgow would not otherwise have an opportunity to become interested in or sensitive to situations in the Global South, and for these students EAST is potentially transformative in that the telecollaborative project-work provides a strongly contextualised social justice agenda linked to an area of the world that confronts endemic conflict and injustice. Turning to the students in Gaza, Nussbaum's ten capabilities list many that appear intractable given the circumstances there and (once again) beyond the influence of students or course-organisers of small-scale educational projects such as EAST. But transformative change can in some instances be possible for the Gazan participants, too; as Wolfe and De-Shalit (in Nussbaum, 2013: 44) note, the "fertile functionings" of certain capabilities may, in combination with others, offer unexpected opportunity for change across the broader capability spectrum. Taking Glasgow-based and Gazan students together, EAST certainly lends support to Bikowski's contention (2011) that telecollaboration can be used to enhance students' intercultural awareness inductively, without the need for overt ICC inputs; the inherent authenticity of the collaborative work, the intellectual challenge of the pluriliteracies approach, combined with the empathies - maybe even friendships - that can result, can engender commitment and a resulting potential for the breaking down of barriers. At the most fundamental level, examples presented in this article support Freire's contention that speech-acts carry meaning: "Human beings are not built in silence, but in word, in work, in action-reflection" (Freire, 1996: 69); perhaps the current Covid-related restrictions - which have given those of us from the Global North cause to reconsider much of what we have hitherto taken for granted - may well increase participants' predisposition to just such reflection. EAST certainly offers potential for transformative impact.

The second stated aim of this paper was to examine power-relationships evidenced by the EAST project. EAST demonstrates the risks inherent in working telecollaboratively with the Global South and the concomitant responsibilities that the power-advantages confer on Global North organisers. In the case of working with Gaza, these responsibilities are even more salient; not only are the overt power and wealth differentials very great, but course-organisers are also dealing with an (almost literally) captive audience. However, the examples offered here demonstrate that it would be an over-simplification to cast the Gazans simply as victims, and wrong to deny the Gazan students the agency that all students bring to participation, an agency that is mirrored at institutional level, too. Within her list of capabilities, Nussbaum (2013: 34) specifically notes that institutions play a key role in helping to develop and protect the affiliative function, and EAST has been able to demonstrate the value, at institutional level, of pre-sessional telecollaborative project-work with the Global South. Foucault highlighted the exclusionary effects of existing power structures, but in the context of higher education, before 'subjugated knowledges' and 'disqualified discourses' (Shor et al, 2017) can be confronted and positive impacts on students achieved, relationships at institutional level need to be crafted. Universities in the Global North have lists of 'strategic partners' with whom to prioritise international collaboration, and (by default) these will not include the overwhelming majority of universities from the Global South. Organising link-ups between the Global North and South will only happen given slow and patient relationship-building, collaborating "long enough to build the institutional capacity and human capabilities needed for autonomous project leadership and positive societal outcomes" (Koehn and Obamba, 2014: 25). Massive power differentials exist between actors from the Global North and Global South, but only by setting up opportunities for contact can these power differentials be offered up for examination.
Limitations
This paper has used data that was initially collected for course-evaluation (rather than research) purposes and while other data-inputs are included, for reasons of project-to-project continuity, and given the surprising (and gratifying) growth in student-numbers, the multimodal nature of the interactions, and limited resources, it has needed to rely principally on student-feedback provided by end-of-course questionnaires. A second weakness of the study outlined in this paper has been the lack of attention paid to gender, and this is an area where more work will be very interesting - as a field, SET attracts a disproportionate number of male students, and at the same time, Gaza is an area where gender roles are quite strictly differentiated (and IUG itself is probably more traditional than other Palestinian universities in this respect), and finally, there is a great deal of pertinent research on the gendered nature of internet interactions. A fruitful third area to address would be a targeted exploration of just what students understand by 'culture', and how (if at all) they differentiate it from language or national group. Plans are now underway for a study of the synchronous communication between a targeted number of groups, combined with the use of reflective journals, in an attempt to explore these three areas. Building on this research, and developing the affiliative and emotional impacts outlined here, may also open the way for longer-term collaboration, leading ideally to mutually beneficial in-sessional relationships, and the development of (currently bilateral) Glasgow-Gaza / Glasgow-Chile / Glasgow-Malawi links into a network, drawing mutually on the different skills-sets and range of experience that each participant can bring.
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'Global North/South' describes a political / economic division of the world, rather than geographic.

Though variations in ease of connectivity must be acknowledged, IT infrastructure in the Global South has improved markedly in recent years.

In 2018 an additional 12 overseas participants (not included in this total) joined from INACAP, Chile. In 2019, an additional 11 participants (not included in this total) joined from Malawi University of Science & Technology, 5 from Pontificia Universidad de Valparaiso, and 1 from INACAP. This paper reports only on the relationship between the University of Glasgow and IUG during EAST.

This question, and the final one, are demonstrably leading. Though I recognised this in 2017, they were left unchanged for subsequent gathering of data (again, to preserve overall continuity).

Sic. Quotations from students/teachers are unedited.
About the author

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Pre-sessional English language courses: university telecollaboration as a driver of Global North / South student-contact for engineers

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Bill Guariento - Abstract This paper discusses the potential offered by telecollaborative links between universities in the Global North and the Global South. It draws on data from the English for Academic Study Telecollaboration (EAST) project, an online pre-sessional partnership between Science, Engineering and Technology students at the University of Glasgow and at the Islamic...

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Blog Post: A 'Safe Space' in 'Cyberspace'? Refugee Students in Synchronous Online EAP Classes by Aleks Palanac

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Blog Post: A 'Safe Space' in 'Cyberspace'? Refugee Students in Synchronous Online EAP Classes by Aleks Palanac

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- Aleks Palanac -

The argument for classrooms to be set up as physically and viscerally safe spaces for refugee students and others who have experienced potentially traumatic events is not new (e.g. Horsman, 2004; Kerka, 2002), and the application of this work to English language learning contexts is beginning to gain more momentum and visibility through initiatives such as the recent British Council commissioned Language for Resilience programmes (British Council, 2018; Capstick and Delaney, 2016). But, with COVID-19 lockdown restrictions prompting a sudden need to move our teaching and learning online, it has become necessary to ask how this advice might translate to synchronous online settings. This is particularly pertinent in light of the fact that platforms such as Zoom have recently come under fire in the media for their live sessions being vulnerable to breaches of privacy such as trolling and unauthorised recording by participants, which might be particularly damaging to refugee students needing to protect their identities to safeguard themselves and often also family members back home. How, then, might we take measures to minimise these threats and to foster the creation of safe spaces in cyberspace for refugee students?

As I outlined in a recent article synthesising insights related to trauma-informed ELT pedagogy for refugees (Palanac, 2020), there are many factors which combine to render a classroom a 'safe space', and many of these can be transferred to synchronous online learning contexts. One of these is giving students the opportunity to exercise a degree of control in the space of their classroom. One way of doing this in online contexts is to overtly familiarise students with the features of the synchronous online platform which you are using, which will enable them to make decisions about the degree to which they wish to be 'present' or 'visible' in the online space of the classroom. This might entail allowing them to experiment with: changing their on-screen name (to their first name only, or a pseudonym); turning their video on and off; muting and unmuting themselves; using the chatbox to communicate with the class if they cannot or do not wish to switch their audio on; changing the view of participants to grid view so that they can see all of their classmates (if their videos are turned on), or at least get a better sense of who is in the virtual classroom with them; sending a private message to the teacher to express a concern; and using a virtual background (if they do not wish for others to see their home). However, on this last point, see Barrett-Fox's (2020) recent insightful blog on the limitations of using virtual backgrounds, which includes concerns about these not functioning properly on all devices and potentially not fully preventing other people from appearing on the screen.

Another transferrable strategy from face-to-face trauma-informed ELT pedagogy is to set clear expectations and ground rules from the outset (Furneaux, 2018). This might include: a procedure for turn taking (e.g. raising one's hand in the video or through the 'raise hand' function of certain platforms); agreeing rules about whether and/or when it is permissible for them to record and/or take screenshots of sessions, and what use these screenshots might then be put to; explaining the procedure for using break-out rooms so that, among other things, they know to expect that you may be popping in and out; agreeing whether students are permitted to share the session link and password with others, and, if so, who.

On this last point, there are various further measures which can be put in place to secure the boundaries of the synchronous online classroom against undesirables. For example, with reference to the Zoom platform, guidance compiled by U.C. Berkeley (2020) suggests: the meeting ID and password for the session should not be shared on public forums, but instead sent to participants directly; the 'join before host' option should be unchecked, as should the function which allows students to record the session through their app; and private chat and screen sharing by participants should be disabled. If an undesirable does somehow end up in the session, it is important for a teacher to be aware of the actions which they can immediately take to minimise the risks, including switching a participant's audio and/or video off and removing them from the session.

Whilst it can be seen that some strategies from the trauma-informed ELT pedagogy for refugees can be usefully applied to the synchronous online classroom, these measures are by no means a perfect solution to creating a 'safe space' in online classes. For example, the options of being able to switch one's video off and change one's online name may help a student feel more comfortable in some respects (in terms of protecting their own identity), but the flip side of this is that others in the class may feel uncomfortable not knowing exactly who is in the room with them, which may then reduce their own sense of safety, and may also negatively affect quality of inter-personal interaction and relationship-building. The latter is another key tenet of building a sense of safety in the language classroom, in which students need to feel comfortable enough in their social environment to take risks and make mistakes (e.g. Stone, 1995).

At present, therefore, the indication is that, while there are certainly ways in which teachers and refugee students can mitigate the risks contingent in using online platforms for synchronous EAP teaching and learning, the measures used for increasing the sense of safety of one student may inadvertently lead to other students feeling less safe, or to a potential deterioration in the quality of classroom interaction. Ultimately, as with good face-to-face trauma-informed teaching, a flexible approach should be taken, with teachers making themselves available to listen to students' concerns and needs, and being ready to respond with flexibility and creativity.
References
Barrett-Fox, R. (2020). 'A reminder of who is hurt by insisting that students share images of their personal lives', Any Good Thing, 6 March. Available at: https://anygoodthing.com/2020/04/06/a-reminder-of-who-is-hurt-by-insisting-that-students-share-images-of-their-personal-lives/amp/?__twitter_impression=true (accessed 8 May 2020)

British Council (2018) Language for Resilience: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives. Available at: https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/language_for_resilience_-_cross-disciplinary_perspectives_0.pdf

Capstick, T. & Delaney, M. (2016) Language for Resilience: The Role of Language in Enhancing the Resilience of Syrian Refugees and Host Communities. Available at: https://www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/language-for-resilience-report-en.pdf

Furneaux, C. (2018) 'Trauma and second / foreign language learning' in T. Capstick (ed) Language for Resilience: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives. Available at: www.britishcouncil.org/sites/default/files/language_for_resilience_-_cross-disciplinary_perspectives_0.pdf (accessed 8 May 2020)

Horsman, J. (2004) '"But is it education?": The challenge of creating effective learning for survivors of trauma'. Women's Studies Quarterly 32/1-2: 130-146 www.jstor.org/stable/40004396 (accessed 8 May 2020)

Kerka, S. (2002) 'Trauma and Adult Learning' ERIC Digest 1-8 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED472601.pdf(accessed 8 May 2020)

Palanac, A. (2020). 'Towards a trauma-informed ELT pedagogy for refugees' Language Issues 30/2: 3-14

Stone, N. (1995) 'Teaching ESL to Survivors of Trauma' Prospect 10/3: 49-57U.C. Berkeley (2020). Settings for securing Zoom. [online] Available at: https://security.berkeley.edu/resources/cybersecurity-and-covid-19/settings-securing-zoom (accessed 8 May 2020)
About the author

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A 'safe space' in 'cyberspace'? Refugee students in synchronous online EAP classes

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Aleks Palanac - The argument for classrooms to be set up as physically and viscerally safe spaces for refugee students and others who have experienced potentially traumatic events is not new (e.g. Horsman, 2004; Kerka, 2002), and the application of this work to English language learning contexts is beginning to gain more momentum and...

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Webinar Recording: Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in ELT for Refugee Students

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Webinar Recording: Trauma-Informed Pedagogy in ELT for Refugee Students

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This was our contribution to a '6 SIGs' event, an online symposium focusing on Inclusivity in ELT. Iwona Winiarska-Pringle starts by giving an overview of the EAP4SJ SIG, and the trauma-presentation by Aleks Palanac starts at 7:45

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BALEAP EAP4SJ Trauma-informed pedagogy in ELT for refugee students

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Blog Post: Online Classes as a Remedy for Loneliness and Isolation during COVID-19 by Julie Umarova

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Blog Post: Online Classes as a Remedy for Loneliness and Isolation during COVID-19 by Julie Umarova

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' My husband is in Greece. I'm trying to survive here with my two sons. It is very hard for me. My life made sense with your lessons. It gave me hope. It made my difficult times beautiful.' - Tahmine, 34

These sadness-evoking lines are not from a recent issue of an academic journal or from a best-selling book. Unfortunately, this is a heartfelt confession of one of my refugee students who has been attending free online ESOL classes offered by the charity Leicester City of Sanctuary, in co-operation with the University of Leicester. Moreover, Tahmine expressed her immense relief and joy that online classes served as a blissful escape from loneliness and isolation during these testing times. Unfortunately, this is just a single outcry which reflects the harsh reality of hundreds and thousands of refugees on a daily basis and especially during this period of lockdown.

Indeed, a report entitled ' This is How it Feels to be Lonely', carried out by the charity Forum, emphasizes the fact that:

'...refugees are among the most vulnerable groups in relation to experiencing loneliness. When they arrive in reception country, they face a completely different life in a strange new environment. This situation, in combination with government policies, can make refugees' journey traumatic and damaging for their well-being. Restrictions to entitlements to welfare services and exclusions in employment and housing, along with the possibility of detention and removal are social disconnection factors that are associated with loneliness and can further impact on health and well-being. Because of these restrictions, refugees feel discriminated against, excluded, unloved and lonelier' (Christodoulou, 2014)

Similarly, a recent piece of research carried out by Refugee Action with refugees and asylum seekers found that most of them saw 'loneliness and isolation as their biggest challenge in everyday life' (Refugee Action, 2017). This research involved six focus groups with a total of 41 refugees and asylum seekers across England discussing their experience of loneliness since arriving in the UK. All of them admitted their daily hardship and mental struggle in integrating into the new society and pointed out 'loneliness' as their biggest fear. One of the refugees, Maria, expressed her anxiety and internal fight with the following words: 'It is lonely because you feel isolated and you feel there is no one to help. You feel like a bouncing ball. It can cause depression; it can cause all sorts of mental health problems' (Refugee Action, 2017). Maria's emphasis on mental health is crucial here, as it highlights the fact that loneliness can cause great damage to people's health and psychological well-being. According to the Mental Health Foundation 'loneliness and social isolation can be the catalyst for many mental health problems, including acute stress disorders, irritability, insomnia, emotional distress, mood disorders, including depressive symptoms, fear and panic, anxiety, frustration and boredom, self-harm and even suicide' (Sanders, 2020).

John Donne's (1624) widely quoted line 'No man is an island' is a daily reminder that a human being is a social creature and longs for interpersonal contact (Baumeister, 1995). When Maria and other refugees were asked what helped them to fight their loneliness, they all admitted that attending English classes and community groups helped them to meet new people, to make new friends and feel less lonely. The value of these words should not be underestimated, and this is the reason why English classes should be viewed as a lifebuoy in helping refugees to integrate into British society and help them to overcome the feelings of loneliness and isolation. One of the female refugees went even further and described these opportunities for social interaction as a 'medicine'. In The Loneliness Cure, Kory Floyd equates 'hunger for connection' with other people to 'the air we breathe or the water we drink'. Maybe you don't recognize how valuable these resources are to you when you have them in abundance. Cut off your oxygen supply, though, and you'll quickly appreciate the difference between a luxury and a requirement (Floyd, 2015). Unfortunately, these English classes and community groups which served as an 'oxygen supply' for refugees were abruptly cut off for many people by the COVID-19 pandemic and its resultant lockdown.

This is a very difficult and worrying time for everyone but even more so for refugees, many of whom have already suffered psychological trauma from fleeing war zones and who already have underlying health conditions. This ruthless disease forced most organisations and schools supporting and helping refugees to cancel all face-to-face events. This decision was taken with a very heavy heart in order to shield refugees from this disease. Unfortunately, losing this vital oxygen supply affected refugees enormously. According to a recent survey, some refugees described life as becoming 'unbearably difficult' since the beginning of the pandemic. Nazia Parveen in her article Coronavirus crisis increases suffering of the most vulnerable refugees, points out that 'social isolation is exacerbating multilayered traumas - no distraction means women are suffering from increasing anxiety levels, sleep problems which can lead to suicide ideation' (Parveen, 2020).

This crisis forced refugees to be confined to their houses not only physically but also mentally; however online classes served as a helping hand and rescued them from loneliness and psychological isolation.
Easing refugees' loneliness
Leicester City of Sanctuary, which is known for offering free face-to-face classes to refugees and asylum seekers, was quick to respond in helping to ease refugees' sufferings by swiftly setting up free online ESOL classes for refugees. Refugee students who have been attending online classes have already reported how they have started to feel happier, more optimistic and how these classes have brightened up their mundane days in isolation. 34 year old Dilara said she started to feel better and less lonely because of these classes. Another student, 32 year old Elisa, said: 'I really feel so free and relaxed during these classes.' Muhammed, 34, said at the beginning of lockdown he was very anxious, confused and became moody as a result of this. However, online classes helped him to cope with uncertainty and he started to feel more comfortable. These refugees' 'peaceful state' during online classes reflects findings from a recent survey which suggests that virtual social interactions, online social reading activities and classes can help to reduce the boredom of long-term social isolation and enable them to feel less lonely (Sanders, 2020). Moreover, these classes can be viewed as a light at the end of tunnel which assures refugees that they are not left alone, that they are not forgotten, and it gives them a sense of being cared for and loved.

Refugee Action, which helps refugees who have survived some of the world's worst regimes and gives them the basic support they need to live again with dignity, has already reported that many refugees and people seeking asylum are among the worst affected in this coronavirus emergency. One of the refugees expressed his pain and said: 'Most of us live with depression surrounding what we fled and what we go through every day, the coronavirus fears will definitely add to it. Another refugee added: 'Most of us will feel forgotten' (Refugee Action, 2020).

Nuriye, another one of my refugee students who has been attending online classes admitted how she hasn't felt helpless and forgotten because of these online classes and she could still progress in her language learning and most of all that she has been really enjoying them.
Providing a sense of normality
In COVID-19: How to Cope with Loneliness during the coronavirus pandemic, Lydia Smith highlights how 'human connection is vital for our sense of well-being' in the current crisis. Loneliness is a growing epidemic in the UK with 2.4 million adults feeling lonely according to data from the Office for National Statistics and it has already been mentioned that refugees are in the highest risk group. Dr Elena Touroni, a consultant psychologist and co-founder of My Online Therapy, points out how self-isolation stops us engaging with normal day to day life and emphasizes that 'sticking to a routine' provides a sense of normality. Online classes provide this normality and enables refugees to stick to a routine. Classes take place at the same time and days of the week. Refugee students already underlined how they feel comfortable during online classes and look forward to them every day. Tahmine, one of the refugees in my class, admitted that she waits for classes impatiently every day. 36-year-old Osman also added that online classes gave him a sense of normality: 'We don't know what will happen tomorrow and this uncertainty is worrying; however online classes gave us hope and assurance that the things will go back to normal one day'.
Opening new doors for women with young children
Furthermore, female refugees with young children expressed their great delight and relief that online classes opened up new doors for them to keep up with their studies and to look after their children at the same time. 32 year old Elisa, who has 7 and 4 year old children and whose husband is out at work all day, said that online classes enabled her to self-isolate with her children and continue her language learning. Another student, 28 year old Guzal, pointed out that this is one of the biggest advantages of online classes as she has a young child to look after too. Tahmine, who has 4 and 8 year old boys, supported her online classmates and said that these classes gave her assurance that she is not forgotten. These testimonies above bring to light another very serious problem faced by women refugees.

Government funding for English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in England fell from £203m in 2010 to £90m in 2016 - a real term cut of 60% (Foster& Bolton, 2017). It is evident that this drastic reduction in funding is having a profoundly negative psychological impact, with refugees across England routinely waiting months and in some cases years to access ESOL classes. Women refugees with young children are the most fragile group which is being hit hard by this reduction. Isabelle, one of the refugees who took part in Refugee Action's survey expressed her disbelief: 'The Government has cut classes every year. Last year the ESOL class paid for childcare. But this year they aren't going to pay for that. It is very difficult without childcare' (Refugee Action, 2017).

Online classes on the other hand offer flexibility and assurance to women with young children that they are not forgotten and that they can combine both the language learning and childcare within four walls when they must self-isolate (although it must be acknowledged that balancing childcare and class attendance simultaneously is not a perfect solution).
Creating new opportunities for married couples
Moreover, online classes create new opportunities for married couples to attend the classes at the same time, which was not always possible with face-to-face classes. Manal, another respondent from Refugee Action's survey revealed her sadness: 'I really struggled to get access to English lessons. Every time I went to the job centre they told me that I have to wait longer. A few months ago, they offered me a place at the same time as my husband. I could not attend because of my young son. I was then told that either I or my husband can attend so that one of us could stay with the boy, so I ended up staying home. So, I missed three months. It's clear that online classes enable women to feel less lonely and gives them a sense that they are not left out.

In my online classes, there are currently three married couples who attend online classes at the same time. This creates a very positive, friendly and cheerful atmosphere for the students. This peaceful state of mind is crucial in overcoming these long days of uncertainty when they all have to self-isolate. The majority of the students have already acknowledged that being able to attend classes at the same time with their spouses is one of the biggest advantages of online classes.
Helping students to focus on small achievements
Last but not least, online classes during these uncertain times will help students to focus on small achievements and acknowledge their progress in language learning. Robert Sanders in Covid-19, social isolation and loneliness, has pointed out that this self-isolation during the pandemic will result in people feeling very low and lacking in motivation; however focusing on small achievements can help to foster a sense of competence (Sanders, 2020).

Students attending my online classes have already responded that these classes are keeping them motivated and helping to keep up with their progress. 28 year old Guzal says that, online classes are a big chance for them as these classes enable them to keep on track with their progress. 34 year old Ahmed says that, online classes will make sure that he will not forget anything and it ensures he will be ready to resume face-to-face classes, once everything goes back to normal. Some of the students shared their sad experiences of how they were not able to attend face-to-face classes previously, either because of travel costs or because they were no schools nearby. However, online classes opened up new doors of hope for everyone. These sincere and heartfelt testimonies from the students bring us to conclusion that online classes have been embraced by self-isolating refugees and are giving them the assurance that they are not forgotten, that they are still cared for and loved. Online classes are helping them to feel less lonely, providing them with a routine, giving them a sense of normality, helping them to focus on small achievements, creating new opportunities for women with young children to keep up with their studies, enabling couples to attend the classes at the same time, without either of them feeling that one of them have been left out and, finally, giving them hope that one day everything will go back to normal.

As has been discussed in this post, there are many benefits to online classes. These unprecedented times have shaken every single human being to their deepest cells. The psychological impact of the COVID-19 on people's mental health will be another big area for research for the scientists and doctors for years to come. However, human beings are very fragile, and a quick response in safeguarding their mental well-being is crucial. As has been rationalized above, without any doubt online classes can serve as a vital remedy for loneliness and isolation during this pandemic.
References
Baumeister, Roy, F. (1995). ' The Need to Belong: Desire for Interpersonal Attachments as a Fundamental Human Motivation'. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/15420847_The_Need_to_Belong_Desire_for_Interpersonal_Attachments_as_a_Fundamental_Human_Motivation(accessed 11 June 2020)

Christodoulou,P. (2014). 'This is how it feels to be lonely'. Available at: https://migrantsorganise.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Loneliness-report_The-Forum_UPDATED.pdf (accessed 10 June 2020)

Floyd, K. (2015). ' The Loneliness Cure: Six Strategies for Finding Real Connections in Your Life'. Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-27tDQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Loneliness+Cure:+Six+Strategies+for+Finding+Real+Connections+in+Your+Life&hl= en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjE07Hvg_rpAhU3UBUIHScuCuwQ6AEIJTAA#v=onepage&q=The%20Loneliness%20Cure%3A%20Six%20Strategies%20for%20Finding%20Real%20Connections%20in%20Your%20Life&f=false (accessed 10 June 2020)

Foster, D. & Bolton, P. (2017). 'Adult ESOL in England', House of Commons library Briefing Paper Number 7905, available at:

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-7905/ (accessed 10 June 2020)

Parveen, N. (2020). 'Coronavirus crisis Increases Suffering of Most Vulnerable Refugees'. Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/18/coronavirus-crisis-increases-suffering-of-most-vulnerable-refugees (accessed 12 June 2020)

Refugee Action (2020). 'Our Coronavirus Response: How we're supporting Refugees and People Seeking asylum in the UK.' Available at: https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/coronavirus-response/ (accessed 15 June 2020)

Refugee Action (2017). 'Safe but Alone'. Available at: https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Safe-but-Alone-final.pdf (accessed 10 June 2020)

Sanders, R. (2020). 'COVID-19, Social Isolation and Loneliness'. Available at : https://www.iriss.org.uk/sites/default/files/2020-04/iriss_esss_outline_social_isolation_22042020.pdf (accessed 13 June 2020)

Smyth, L. (2020). ' COVID-19, How to Cope with Loneliness During the Coronavirus' Available at: https://patient.info/news-and-features/covid-19-how-to-cope-with-loneliness-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic (accessed 11 June 2020)
About the author
Julie G. Umarova

Julie Umarova is an independent ESOL/EFL Tutor. She holds Bachelor's and Master's Degree in English Philology, and Master's Degree in English from the University of Loughborough. She worked with different age range groups, starting with primary school children and university students. She has been volunteering/working closely with refugees since September 2019. She has admitted that working with refugees has been an eye-opening experience and one of the most rewarding things that she has done in her life.

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Online Classes as a Remedy for Loneliness and Isolation during COVID-19

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Julie G. Umarova - 'My husband is in Greece. I'm trying to survive here with my two sons. It is very hard for me. My life made sense with your lessons. It gave me hope. It made my difficult times beautiful.' - Tahmine, 34 These sadness-evoking lines are not from a recent issue of...

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Blog Post: Providing pastoral support for refugees on university language programmes: It's not a career - it's a life choice by Pascale Roussel

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Blog Post: Providing pastoral support for refugees on university language programmes: It's not a career - it's a life choice by Pascale Roussel

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- Pascale Roussel -
Podcast version of this post available here
I'm the first point of contact for sanctuary-seeking students - refugees and asylum seekers - at the University of Leicester. I work as Programme Administration Team Leader and University of Sanctuary Facilitator for the Centre for International Training and Education, which includes the English Language Teaching Unit and the Sanctuary Seekers' Unit. We have been offering Sanctuary scholarships for our Pre-sessional English Programmes since October 2017 and quickly learnt that teaching and providing standard pastoral care are not enough. Refugees and asylum seekers have complex needs as a result of the traumatic situations and many challenges they have encountered and are still often encountering on a daily basis. It is therefore absolutely essential that we educate ourselves, and provide dedicated pastoral and wrap-around support to these students. Based on my personal experience and the feedback I have received from our Sanctuary scholars, I can honestly say such support hugely impacts their university experience and chances of succeeding. Not only that, but it makes a massive difference in their lives in general.

Before I outline my approach, just to say I'm not advocating that everyone follows in my footsteps as I realise I've got a very personal approach to the role and a lot of colleagues would probably prefer or recommend maintaining stricter professional boundaries. Everyone needs to find their own way and work-life balance. The more you get involved, the more emotional resilience you'll need and the more mindful you'll need to be when it comes to your own mental health. It's easy to get carried away when you are passionate about a cause and when you care about people as individuals. That being said, I'll now go on to outline my perspective and my approach to providing support to these students.

I'm their mama, their sister, their friend. I'm their go-to person when they have a question or problem, big or small. Maybe they just got refugee status and they are about to lose their NASS accommodation without having been able to secure a new place due to the massively long waiting list. Maybe they can't access their online classes because they can't afford a laptop or internet. Maybe they don't know how to cook a meal from the random can selection they got from the food bank. Maybe they don't know how to make British friends. Maybe they are having an anxiety attack and think they just can't do this assignment or pass that exam or talk to that person. Spoiler: they usually can, they just need someone to believe in them and tell them they can.

In June 2020, one of our students wrote to me to say that he'd lost the project he'd been working on for weeks due to a computer problem. It was a couple of days before it was due for submission. He thought it was literally the end and he'd lost his chance to pass the pre-sessional programme and go to university. I emailed him back straight away to reassure him and encourage him. Here is the response I received two days later:

"Thank you very much for all the nice words. Sometimes, one word changes someone's life and everyone needs this word in some point in his life. I submitted my project yesterday evening. I've worked on it for more than 40 hours without eating or sleeping or even drinking. Before I saw your words, I was deciding to sleep and write an email to the course director that I will not be able to do it even if you give me extra time, but when I saw your words I thought about it and I motivated and started writing anyway. I found myself write quickly and not too bad, of course not like the previous one but not bad at all, this is my opinion at least. I don't know how it goes during grading. I have just woken up after approximately two days without sleeping. I hope now to have enough time to practice for exam. Whatever happens in my exams, I will be happy for doing it. A huge thank you again".

As can be seen, sometimes it only takes a few words to help someone feel like it is possible for them to succeed or to overcome their fear of failure or fear more generally. These fears aren't always rational, but they are very real and need urgent attention. Maybe they are having a flashback after hearing an alarm or an helicopter, or they've just received some bad news from their family back home, and they need someone to listen, reassure them, maybe hold their hand, give them a glass of water, tissue or even a hug (in non-COVID times).

But this is only one side of the coin. Yes, they are fragile, but they are the strongest and most resilient people I know. They've been through so much, they've had to adapt so quickly. They still have ambition, hopes and dreams, and they are capable of achieving them, if given the opportunity and right support. I've talked of the difficulties, but I still have to mention how rewarding and heart-warming working with Sanctuary seekers can be. I'm not just their go-to person when they have problems, I'm also their go-to person when it comes to celebrating their achievements. They will proudly tell me when they get their driving licence - a very important step because it means they will get an ID that doesn't mention their immigration status - or when they get a good grade for an assignment they thought they couldn't do. They will invite me to celebrate Eid with them, their graduation, their wedding. For every baby step or giant leap, small or big victory, I'll share their joy and my heart will swell with pride.

I learn from them every day: geography, history, language, religion, cuisine, psychology, art, you name it! I learn from their stories, experiences and everything they willingly share with me: from the Syrian revolution to the Iranian underground art scene, the Turkish cuisine and traditions, the strong Sudanese community spirit, the richness and poetry of the Arabic language, their journeys to the UK and the many countries they've crossed, how fondly they might remember a kind stranger who helped them along the way, the UK immigration system and its many pitfalls, the intense sense of loss or guilt and loneliness they can feel, their wonderful hospitality, warmth and sense of humour.

They've all been in their own personal lockdown for so long and they are probably the ones who've been the most affected by the COVID-19 lockdown, yet they were the first ones to check on me and offer me their help. The truth is, they are the ones who've carried me through this lockdown, they've given me much needed perspective and the strength and motivation to carry on. I feel a responsibility towards them and that I can't let them down, not because it's my job, but because I care about them and they are, actually, my friends. My life is richer because they are in it and for this I'm grateful.
About the author

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Providing pastoral support for refugees on university language programmes: It's not a career - it's a life choice

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Pascale Roussel - Podcast version of this post available here I'm the first point of contact for sanctuary-seeking students - refugees and asylum seekers - at the University of Leicester. I work as Programme Administration Team Leader and University of Sanctuary Facilitator for the Centre for International Training and Education, which includes the English Language Teaching...

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We have a Padlet wall devoted to this topic, in which practitioners from across the sector share critical incidents and examples of good practice 

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Blog Post: Delivery or Deliveroo? Rethinking the Summer Pre-Sessional

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Blog Post: Delivery or Deliveroo? Rethinking the Summer Pre-Sessional

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Within EAP, pre-sessional courses have become as synonymous with the British summer as washouts at Wimbledon, picnics in the park and saucy postcards from the seaside. The majority of UK universities provide a glossy menu of such courses for international students whose proficiency falls below standard entry requirements (Pearson, 2020, p.420).

If you type the term "pre-sessional" into a search engine, you are confronted with branding as slick as food delivery marketing. But ... imagine a world where restaurants waited for Deliveroo or Just Eat orders to come in before they thought about hiring chefs. Sadly, across much of the HE sector, this is the way in which pre-sessionals are delivered. Generally, teachers are hired from outside the university to deliver these courses on non-permanent contracts, and even staff on permanent contracts associated with these courses sometimes have secondary status within universities. Such practices facilitate accusations that these courses are no more than an exercise in "linguistic corner-cutting for financial gain" (Pearson, 2020, p. 420).

Does anybody actually understand the workload involved in pre-sessionals other the managers, teachers and students who have direct involvement with them? Probably, because of their taking place over the summer and the status of those who teach on them, the answer is an emphatic no. Paradoxically though, if higher education takes the form of Achilles, then pre-sessionals are a heel that needs to be well-covered. These courses are a gateway to thousands of international students entering the UK at the end of every summer. Despite this importance, very little has changed in terms of the status of those who work on them in over two decades (Turner, 2004; Copland and Garton, 2011; Pearson, 2020). Peopled with part-time staff, these courses exist in the margins of someone else's space. Those who work on them are othered.

Even as a teacher on a permanent contract, I have witnessed how contractual agreements need to be made as regards the specific needs of people involved with these courses - whether full-time staff or hired hands. Institutions that pride themselves on their sense of compassion often have a blind spot as regards the need to apply the same principles to staff on pre-sessionals. One example from my own experience comes in how I was made to work from home in the week when a family member died. This was because the university had no formal process for compassionate leave, even though I had already made sacrifices in holiday and research time in a way that colleagues in other departments were not expected to.

The image of someone checking emails on the day of a funeral is a far cry from the yoghurt and yoga offerings of corporate wellbeing. Unfortunately, I am not alone in such an experience and I don't say this in any attempt to cite Hamlet's " Oh, woe is me " speech. I'm doing it as a means of holding a mirror up to the UK Higher Education sector and asking whether it's time to make sure this kind of thing stops happening because in some quarters that's not the exception. It's the norm for those associated with pre-sessional courses because of their status in the university.

At the same time there are many good outcomes from these courses. To begin with, for many teachers their first foray into pre-sessionals is the equivalent of being asked to perform in a West End theatre. It's the chance of a big break, with decent wages for the duration of the show too. Simultaneously, others could argue that this is a false economy. I know people who have built their working lives around the summer bonus of pre-sessional teaching to the detriment of professional development. However, working on these courses is not just about monetary reward - otherwise many conscientious people would simply walk away.

Working on pre-sessional courses is incredibly tough but rewarding, especially for people who have a genuine passion for education. These courses put into practice many of the values that today's universities espouse. They require interactivity and innovative pedagogies. They offer scope for teaching-informed research. They are student-focused. They are international in outlook and characterised by awareness of diversity. Yet this is not really appreciated in universities or sometimes even within Academic English departments themselves. Very often, universities are devoid of other academic life when pre-sessional courses are happening (Copland & Garton, 2011). Thus, when summer ends, these courses and the people who teach on them largely disappear as if they were never there. Paradoxically though, in 3 months, these temporary pre-sessional staff will have taught more than some staff members employed on research contracts year round.

That has to be recognised and valued. We also have to move beyond the culture of victim blaming. When I first wrote a draft of this article, the focus was on how people can enhance their employment prospects in universities after pre-sessional courses. That was to be my attempt at supporting social justice for practitioners on pre-sessional courses. But in doing that I realise now that I was also falling into a trap of victim blaming in suggesting that people somehow always need to do more in order to be accepted and that they should feel guilty about not doing enough to gain that acceptance. A position of true social justice is one that argues for fairness and equity. Therefore, if people are deemed good enough to come into universities and teach a huge number of hours for part of the year, they should be given a greater sense of belonging. If, on the other hand, they are not good enough then why are they not being given the professional development that they need? If they are not good enough to be there year round, then why is higher education not changing the mode of delivery to something more in line with its needs and values?

On the whole then there is a lot of work still to be done in this area, even after several decades of these courses being delivered here in the UK. Decency should not stop at the door of pre-sessional staff rooms. Universities need to balance the need for recruiting students onto their degree programmes with the need to treat staff equitably. Teachers need to be developed properly in this profession. Senior managers need to recognise the stresses involved in running and teaching such courses. Often when they are complete, there is a university-wide culture of acting as if nothing important has happened over the summer. The courses are gone and forgotten, alongside the efforts of those who worked on them.

In line with ideas from Argyris and Schön (1974), universities need to find a balance between 'espoused' and 'actual' practice when it comes to wellbeing. Proper contracts and greater opportunity for work throughout the academic year would be a good starting point, though something more than that is required. The value of pre-sessional courses has to be recognised and that reflected in their status within universities. In their present format, they are largely successful because of the efforts of people who go above and beyond the call of duty outside the regular academic year. There needs to be more recognition of that and also systems designed to make them a more essential part of university life. They are a huge source of revenue and a gateway for so many international students who might not otherwise get to study here, so need to be given the respect across the sector that they fully deserve. In some places that does happen, thankfully, but if it was universal, there wouldn't be such a need for temporary delivery drivers of EAP's staple diet.

We invite you to contribute to Padlet based on this blog release. We have set up the page so that contributors remain anonymous, and would ask you not to name any institutions in your posts (or include any details which would identify an institution). The main purpose of this Padlet is to share experiences and build a picture of current practice across the sector with a view to moving the discussion forward. We hope you find the post useful and engaging, and please do feel free to share the link to the blog post ands the Padlet with any pre-sessional tutors on non-permanent contracts who you know who may not be on this list. We would love to reach them and hear from them too: https://padlet.com/eap4socialjustice/qbhl176vxbaz0a12

REFERENCES
Argyris, C., and D. A. Schön. (1974). Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Copland, F. & Garton, S. (2011) "I felt that I do live in the UK now": International students' self- reports of their English language speaking experiences on a pre-sessional programme. Language and Education, 25(3), 241-255.

Pearson, W.S. (2020). The Effectiveness of Pre‐sessional EAP Programmes in UK Higher Education: A Review of the Evidence. Review of Education, 8(2), pp.420-447.

Shakespeare, W. (2007). Hamlet: The Texts of 1603 and 1623: Third Series. A&C Black.

Turner, J. (2004) Language as academic purpose. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 3(2), 95-109.

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Delivery or Deliveroo? Rethinking the Summer Pre-Sessional

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Within EAP, pre-sessional courses have become as synonymous with the British summer as washouts at Wimbledon, picnics in the park and saucy postcards from the seaside. The majority of UK universities provide a glossy menu of such courses for international students whose proficiency falls below standard entry requirements (Pearson, 2020, p.420).

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Blog Post: Taking Positive Steps to Fight Precarity by Paul Breen

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Blog Post: Taking Positive Steps to Fight Precarity by Paul Breen

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- Paul Breen -

Imagine that EAP were a country, not a subject or a discipline. Where would it sit upon the map of higher education? Would it be an island or somewhere on the edges of the landlocked continent that is academia? Maybe it would be like Korea, an archipelago hanging beneath the udders of the great cash cow that China has become.

Whatever it is, whether Iceland or Madagascar, the island of EAP would have quite a struggle to find a single national identity. Within our broad church, we have people working within mainstream academia, with private providers, with others and even on their own. We are a fusion of backgrounds, interests, ambitions, travels, qualifications and styles. Probably, though, there are a few common features that define us. We are passionate about language and education. We also have aspirations to make a difference to the lives of our students and to see a greater recognition of the important role we play in this area.

Within many universities, pedagogy, interactivity, social justice, affect, wellbeing, internationalisation, inclusivity and diversity are buzz words of the moment. And here we stand in the shadows, practitioners of things long before they become fashionable. They have been a feature of our work for decades. We're almost a Claudette Colvin of modern pedagogic history, the blacksmiths who gave shape to Jeremy Harmer's horseshoe seating formations and Jane Arnold's ideas about affect. Despite that, we sometimes inhabit a secondary space in the world of universities as these wheels are reinvented all around us by others who often attain the status of guru. And yet we had these things in our classrooms in their pigtails, braces and short trousers.

But what is the reason for this? Is it the perception that academia has of language teaching in general and English teaching most specifically? Although EAP staff are not alone in experiencing casualisation, there is an incredibly high amount of it considering the revenue we generate. Though a significant number of us are permanent, the profession is a precarious one for many teachers. Even the etymology of that word 'precarious' captures a sense of many people's conditions.

Precariousness as a term originates from Latin, referring to the act of praying or asking for favours. Those who live in states of precarity are dependent upon the will of others in higher positions. As in the origins of the word, around this time of year, for example, many EAP teachers must feel as if their fate is in the hands of the Gods or at best those who occupy such positions of power that can make or break people's lives.

This is not actually a good state for so many people to be in and goes against so many of the values that today's universities espouse. Casualised labour leaves people in a feeling of being in a permanent underclass, like in that Korean film . Without spoiling that story for anyone, the parasite therein does not refer to the people at the bottom of society. It refers to the rich feeding off the labour of those below them. That, though, is not to be taken as a direct comparison with universities, especially in the age of Covid-19 when purse strings are being tightened and the future is unclear for everyone.

The point I am making is that it can sometimes feel as if the labour of EAP teaching is undervalued. Paradoxically that comes at a time when universities seem ever more interested in professional development. In recent years, learning development centres have proliferated. Many of these exist to promote some of the very ideas that have been commonplace in English Language pedagogy for decades. This has led to some EAP practitioners crossing over into areas of academic development and teacher education. Yet still, there is a lot of work to be done in highlighting the contributions that Academic English staff can make to key areas of focus in the wider university.

Possibly, this is because universities are hierarchical places. A PhD or an Educational Doctorate is traditionally seen as the measure of people's academic value. That is not to say that either of these make someone a better teacher. What they do is to give us greater academic kudos in the higher educational environment. For various reasons EAP doesn't always have this ladder of development shaped by academic qualification alone. Historically we have been estranged from common HE practices in terms of the way that people progress into positions of greater authority.

Those with MA or DELTA qualifications can be found in positions of power whilst others with a PhD could end up in private sector roles for which they are then stigmatised. To those looking in from the outside, that creates an impression which is problematic in the long term. It feeds a perception of us not being as qualified as other academics. Furthermore, if academia thinks of our people at the top as being lesser, then the perception of those at the bottom will be incrementally worse. I've been in situations where I've spoken to senior managers in universities who are surprised that anyone with a PhD might teach on a pre-sessional.

That happens, though, because of the precarious nature of the field that people want to work in. I say want to rather than choose to because our field attracts people with a genuine vocation for educating others. Unfortunately if you want a career in a university it probably isn't enough just to teach. There are a lot of truisms that have come into EAP from the TEFL world. We are language experts and they are subject experts. We understand students. We care about our students. We know our students. These are ideas about ELT expertise shaped by the notion of reaching a plateau of development beyond which there is no need to travel. We cannot stay trapped in our own islands and echo chambers.

In the university environment we do have to travel the extra mile, not in terms of the work we do but in promoting that work within academia. Though our teaching is admirable, universities deal in the currency of scholarship. That's why we need to show that we can be at the forefront of both scholarship and research. That is happening but there is also a world of difference in those very talented people amongst us who have major publications in the field and the more silent minority who don't. Indeed this blog post is more for the latter than the former.

Even if we do not have published research and don't identify as traditional academics, we really need to beat the drum of scholarship at every opportunity. There is a lot of talk about research-informed teaching and teaching-informed research but the scholarship variants of that are just as important. On the BALEAP forum several examples have been given recently of how this is an important part of contexts where in-sessional courses are being run in a discipline-specific manner.

There is a lot of disciplinary collaboration taking place and this is not just happening on in-sessional courses. Sometimes it can feel as if, within the island of EAP, pre- and in-sessional courses are like Cyprus or Ireland, when actually they should be more of a New Zealand. After all, it is on pre-sessional courses that there is often a much greater precarity. I imagine that for many teachers this literally does involve a lot of praying over student numbers, possible roles and returned emails.

Pre-sessional courses are a double-edged sword though. Work proliferates on them because of university business models. Since it does so, there is a disproportionate demand for EAP teachers in the summer when we become the educational world's equivalent of The Isle of Man. We fill up with tourists for a couple of months and then the harsh winter comes where it's back to a land of fewer permanent residents.

This also means that many people's introduction to EAP is in a time of chaos with very little emphasis on professional development and minimal interaction with regular staff. This creates what a teacher-educator friend of mine calls a workforce of people who have been dipping in and out of pre-sessional courses for 20 years but instead of 20 years of experience, have 1 year of experience repeated 20 times. That again is the fault of employment practices and not individuals.

Perhaps as I have suggested elsewhere on the BALEAP discussion forum there is a need for an employment code of practice within EAP that we have to persuade our institutions to adopt so that everything is ethical, equitable and an act of putting into practice the values that universities claim to espouse. We need to do more showcasing of what we bring to higher education and to collaborate more across disciplines, putting ourselves out there as equal partners deserving of equal stature.

We also need to sell ourselves as citizens of a common island, whether teacher or researcher, permanent or part-time, public or private, native speaker or non-native speaking teacher. It is our diversity as a profession that helps define us. That alone might not be enough to change perceptions and perspectives of those around us. But we should at least aspire to it, so that among the first of many moves towards social justice in EAP, nobody's worth as a teacher or a person is determined by their contract type. To quote the great Paul Simon in a paraphrase of someone else, every time we see a colleague in precarity we really ought to think ' there but for the grace of you go I. '
About the author

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FUSION - taking positive steps to fight precarity

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Paul Breen - Imagine that EAP were a country, not a subject or a discipline. Where would it sit upon the map of higher education? Would it be an island or somewhere on the edges of the landlocked continent that is academia? Maybe it would be like Korea, an archipelago hanging beneath the udders of...

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Blog Post: Precarity Reflections by Michele le Roux

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Blog Post: Precarity Reflections by Michele le Roux

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- Michèle le Roux -

In her recent piece in the THES, Rachel Moss suggests that "precarity...[is] as much a state of mind as a state of employment." She shares her own and others' experience of the lasting toll that precarity takes on the mind, even for those who do eventually find more secure employment in higher education (Moss, 2020). This week, others will be commenting in this forum on the material, practical and legal aspects of our predicament; my focus is the psychological and spiritual impacts of precarity.

In Guy Standing's analysis, the experience of the precariat is characterized by the "four As": anger, anomie, anxiety and alienation (Standing, 2011, p. 22). Standing expands on the "frustration at the seemingly blocked avenues for advancing a meaningful life", the "passivity born of despair", "a listlessness associated with sustained defeat" and the alienation that "arises from knowing that what one is doing is not for one's own purpose or for what one could respect or appreciate; it is simply done for others, at their behest" (ibid. p. 22-24). This is an experience not just of mental ill health; this is a spiritual malaise - spiritual suffering. As EAP Practitioners in Precarity our souls are parched: cut off from the wellsprings of vitality, creativity and inspiration, the playfulness of experimentation, the desire to make a difference in the lives of young adults - all the energies which originally nourished our vocation to teach.

In bringing this deprivation to consciousness, I am resourced by the framework of Nonviolent Communication (Rosenberg, 2015). The intention of NVC work is to free us to speak our truth in ways which fulfil our "nature to enjoy giving and receiving in a compassionate manner" (p. 1). At the heart of the practice is learning to name and to take responsibility for our emotions, and to recognize that many "negative" emotions are an expression of universal human needs which are not being met. As EAP Practitioners in Precarity (henceforth EPPs) we are likely to feel, among other things: afraid, angry, anxious, bewildered, despondent, disaffected, discouraged, edgy, embittered, frustrated, helpless, hostile, jealous, overwhelmed, pessimistic, rancorous, resentful, sceptical, spiritless, suspicious, and weary. I have selected these emotions from Rosenberg's much longer list (p. 45-6) as the ones I most immediately recognise in my own experience.

Turning to Rosenberg's list of universal human needs*, most prominent among the many needs which are unmet in precarity are Autonomy needs (choice, ease, independence), Meaning needs (authenticity, competence, creativity, dignity, honesty, integrity, trust, to matter to myself) and the Need to Matter (appreciation, consideration, respect, recognition, to be heard/seen, to be trusted). If, as an EPP, you recognize these emotions and these unmet needs in yourself, you may be feeling some liberation or lightening of the spirit in naming and claiming them as your own; it is also very likely that you will feel a sadness, a poignancy, or a deep sense of longing as you recognize and embrace heartfelt needs which are not being met.

In acknowledging the strength and the toxicity of this cocktail of emotions, we must understand that this spiritual poisoning is the product of our predicament, not the effluent of some inner maladjustment or defect of character. To be working a fixed-term summer contract as an EPP under a line manager who has a permanent position, who most probably has been promoted from the teaching ranks, who may have no aptitude or training for leadership, and who, lacking a vocation for teaching, may be delighted to have escaped the classroom is to be caught in "perfect storm" conditions for breeding envy and resentment (see Greg Hadley's (2015) incisive and entertaining dissection of BLEAPS). In these circumstances, it is also hard to form trusting, collegial relationships with other EPPs, trapped as we are in fierce competition for the same jobs, vying to comply with and please management, struggling to sustain unmanageable workloads, all in the empty hope of being re-hired. Knowing that we are all dispensable and replaceable is not conducive to fostering respect for ourselves or for each other.

Our spiritual queasiness may intensify if we are fed a diet of departmental "Values and Behaviours" - if we are exhorted to be good team players, to go the extra mile, to whistle-blow on shirkers, to have a "can do" attitude, to develop and improve ourselves and our performance, to "enhance" everything and anything - in short, to conform to what Standing calls the "alienating twaddle" (p. 24) which is a calculated denial of the realities of our predicament.

It is painful to spend our working lives within institutions which show no loyalty to us, and towards which we can therefore feel no loyalty. The EPPrecariat, being as yet part of what Standing calls a "class in the making", has no traditions in which to take pride, no narrative or social memory of fraternity, or solidarity or loyalty to itself.

For me, the aspect of precarity that is most corrosive to the spirit is alienation from my work - from my vocation as a practitioner. EPPs lack a secure work-based identity and are forced to take a series of career-less jobs. Our work is often instrumental (done in order to live) and opportunistic (we take what we can get). The jobs we get do not allow us to fulfil our potential, or to use our skills creatively. Summer pre-sessional curricula are increasingly designed to be prescriptive and "fool-proof" (do our employers think we are fools?). EPPs are being de-skilled and demoted from teaching professionals to something akin to postal workers, whose sole function is to "deliver the syllabus".

The neo-liberal marketization of higher education prioritizes that which can be quantified over quality. I don't just mean quality in the sense of excellence. The teaching of each skilled practitioner has its own quality - its texture, its rhythm, its flavour, its mood, its individuality. Growing into ourselves, exploring who we are as teachers, experimenting, taking risks, failing, creating, becoming... these are the things that I have found most fulfilling about being a practitioner. For the EPP such self-actualization is almost impossible.

This same alienation from his own craft is felt by Frank Owen, the central character of Robert Tressell's The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, first published in 1914.George Orwell described this novel as "a book which everyone should read" and it has often been cited by Labour politicians as the book which has had the most profound influence on them. Re-reading it recently, I was struck by the prescience, the accuracy and the insight with which it portrays the inner landscape - the mental and spiritual wasteland - of practitioners in precarity. I wonder if Tressell's book will inspire a new generation of politicians, leaders and activists in the transforming of the Precariat into a "class-for-itself", able to articulate its own needs and its own vision for how these may be met?

*I draw here on a list adapted from Rosenberg's original needs list (p. 54-55 in Rosenberg), together with categories formulated by Manfred Max-Neef, with thanks to Vérène Nicolas.
References
Hadley, G. (2015). English for Academic Purposes in neo-liberal universities: A critical grounded theory, Springer

Moss, R. (2020) Precarity has a long hangover, THES, February 12, 2020 https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/precarity-has-long-hangover?utm_source=THE+Website+Users&utm_campaign=8e74a38aa5-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_02_11_02_57&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_daa7e51487-8e74a38aa5-74879469

Rosenberg, M. B. (2015) Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life 3 edition, PuddleDancer Press, CA, USA

Standing, G. (2011) The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, BloomsburyTressell, R. (2004) The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists, Penguin Classics (original publication, 1914)
About the author

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Michèle le Roux - In her recent piece in the THES, Rachel Moss suggests that "precarity...[is] as much a state of mind as a state of employment." She shares her own and others' experience of the lasting toll that precarity takes on the mind, even for those who do eventually find more secure employment...

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Webinar Summary: Practitioner Precarity and the Coronavirus (University of Leeds, May 2020)

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Webinar Summary: Practitioner Precarity and the Coronavirus (University of Leeds, May 2020)

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11th to 15th of May.

Precarity refers to two things: it refers to employment relations which are contingent, insecure, informal, and lacking in protection and career/pay progression. Precarity also refers to the psychological and subjective impact of precarious employment which may include; a negative impact on well-being, an increased sense of vulnerability, anxiety and isolation, and an inability to make plans or commit to longer-term projects. It can also induce a permanent fear of failure, of not being quite good enough, and can also reduce solidarity and collective action as precarity encourages entrepreneurial and competitive behaviour which pits precarious individuals against each other as well as prompting exclusionary acts by those less precarious wishing to protect their status. Precarity is not evenly distributed, some are (much) more precarious than others, and, for some, the consequences of precarity are dire.

There has been little to no public discussion of precarity and EAP practitioners. The purpose of this event is to redress this and to give a platform to precarious EAP practitioners, to listen to their experiences, their views, and their ideas. This simple idea has been made more difficult by the advent of the pandemic CoronaVirus. We (Bee and I) had wanted to organise a symposium exploring the structural, material, and economic forces that shape EAP and impact early-career and precarious practitioners (we will still do this, but later in the year, once the impact of changes wrought by the virus are beginning to become clearer) but the pandemic took over. We were reticent to host this event as we felt that, one, the pandemic would obscure discussions of the deeper structural forces at play in EAP and, two, an event like this would only add to confusion and uncertainty for the practitioners. We are keenly aware that the current situation is volatile, much has yet to be decided, and the future hard to predict. What we do hope though is that rather than being a distraction, the virus focuses attention on those practitioners who are most precarious.
Organisation of the week:
We decided to opt for a largely asynchronous week-long event to give everyone time to read, listen, and watch the many contributions to the week and time to comment and discuss in a less frenetic, more measured and reflective manner. Online synchronous events certainly have their place (and there have been many over the past few weeks) but we wanted to be inclusive of as many practitioners as possible across the globe with minimal technological and time constraints.

From Monday to Thursday a blog post will be published here daily on the themes below. You can comment (and please do!) but you'll need to sign up to disqus (see bottom of this post for the link). This takes only a minute to do. It means that we can moderate comments if necessary. On Friday, we have a panel session (from 1-2 pm UK time) hosted on Zoom. Details of how to register will be posted shortly.
Monday 11th of May: Precarious practitioners' perspectives from:

Zenna Marshall in discussion with Victoria Newton,

Mirena Nalbantova

Nadia Hards

Michèle le Roux

Tanya Fernbank

Tuesday 12th of May: UCU perspectives from:

Neil Allison (UCU rep & EAP practitioner)

Laurietta Essien (EAP practitioner)

Wednesday 13th of May: Centre Directors Perspectives from: Thursday 14th May: International Perspectives from:

Sarah von Delius (Germany)

Jennifer MacDonald (Canada)

Jessica Garska (Republic of Ireland)

Conor O'Reilly (Republic of Ireland)

Marc Jones (Japan)

Tamara Budlova (Russia)

Andrew Chung and Tess Hogue (HK)

1-2 pm Friday 15th of May: panel discussion
Invited panel members (so far, more may be added):

Sarah Brewer

Mirena Nalbantova

Nadia Hards

Michèle le Roux

Yolanda Cerdá

Everyone is very welcome to attend - see below for details and link to register:

You are invited to a Zoom meeting.

When: May 15, 2020 01:00 PM London

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://universityofleeds.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwkdO-grDkuGtTE-swbjC8gyn6oMPtCJ33l
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Finally, thank you to everyone who has agreed to participate and has given so generously despite the pandemic and despite having many other things to do.
Best wishes

Alex and Bee

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Practitioner Precarity and the Coronavirus: Introduction

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11th to 15th of May. Precarity refers to two things: it refers to employment relations which are contingent, insecure, informal, and lacking in protection and career/pay progression. Precarity also refers to the psychological and subjective impact of precarious employment which may include; a negative impact on well-being, an increased sense of vulnerability, anxiety and isolation, and an inability to make plans or commit to longer-term projects.

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Book: Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

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Book: Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

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A seminal text for anyone interested in Critical Pedagogy and its origins.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.). New York: Continuum.

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Event Write-Up: Teasing Out the SJ Strands from the BALEAP 2021 Conference

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Event Write-Up: Teasing Out the SJ Strands from the BALEAP 2021 Conference

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This conference write up picks out and weaves together the social justice-related elements present in papers presented at BALEAP 2021, with the aim of spotlighting the work going on in the field at the moment. It is framed around plenary speaker Dr Maha Bali's pedagogy of equity and care

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Teasing out the social justice strands from the BALEAP 2021 Conference

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Like for many in our EAP community, our minds are still buzzing from the wealth of insights gained from the rich range of sessions offered at the recent online BALEAP 2021 conference hosted by the …

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Like for many in our EAP community, our minds are still buzzing from the wealth of insights gained from the rich range of sessions offered at the recent online BALEAP 2021 conference hosted by the University of Glasgow. Ever keen to identify social justice (SJ) related aspects of EAP practices and pedagogies, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on what SJ insights can be teased out from the conference. Some of these insights are more overt than others, such as in the visionary, inspirational talk given by Dr. Maha Bali, the first plenary speaker, who advocated for the widespread adoption of a pedagogy of equity and care in her talk entitled Creating Equitable, Caring Communities Online. But, as social justice goes by many names, we were also interested in identifying other, less overt references to practices and pedagogies which may be regarded as being aligned with social justice principles. This feeds into one of the key aims of our SIG – to widen the visible parameters of the field of social justice by demonstrating the range of initiatives which can be shown to fall under the SJ umbrella.

As Maha’s keynote symbolically seemed to set the tone for many of the other sessions at the conference, it seems useful to reflect this in this blog post by using some of her observations as a framework to talk about other SJ resonances from a sample of the sessions that we attended and, in the process, to show how a pedagogy of equity and care can be seen to underpin much good practice currently being developed in the EAP classroom.

Overview of Maha’s key points

The keynote was introduced by Iwona Winiarska-Pringle, who quoted an extract from one of Maha’s blog posts from 2015, which usefully summed up the importance of care in the classroom:

“Sometimes the most valuable thing we can offer our students is genuine care for them, their well-being, their happiness. Not just their grades. Not just their learning. But their whole selves” (Bali, 2015).

This unapologetic focus on an aspect of teaching which has traditionally been undervalued in terms of institutional recognition and recompense, but which many teachers and students instinctively do and appreciate anyway, was very refreshing, as was the fact that the Glasgow BALEAP Conference team gave Maha the space to spotlight these important issues in the first keynote of the 2021 biennial conference.

However, Maha was quick to emphasise that care without equity is not enough, as, for example, equity without genuine care may lead to empty tokenism, while care without equity may lead to care being given selectively. She demonstrated the interplay of these two elements through the following Equity/Care Matrix (Bali & Zamora, 2020):

She then proceeded to show that care and equity can work on a number of levels in the classroom, and that it is important to intentionally attend to how we might enact these principles at each level:

Of particular note is the fact that Maha enacted the very principles of which she spoke in the way in which she chose to deliver the plenary itself; to put it in her own words, she “walked the talk”, which is a vital principle of all social justice work. For example, she started the session with a “chatterfall”, in which she asked the audience a number of questions related to their well-being – such as “What gives you energy these days?” – and invited them to respond in the chat box. She encouraged the sharing of reflections at various points throughout the plenary, and responded to many of these, thus enacting her principle of facilitating equitable participation and responding accordingly. She also enacted her recommendation of keeping online activities short in order to keep people’s energy levels up. Another principle that was reflected in her plenary was to give participants the option of commenting on her PowerPoint slides during or after the session. This is reminiscent of an approach which she uses with her students in which she invites them to annotate the syllabus – to literally add notes to the syllabus document regarding things which they find interesting, confusing, etc. This enactment of the key principles outlined in her talk was a powerful testament to the value of adopting such an approach, and she encouraged the audience to explore a wealth of further activities adopting these principles through the Equity Unbound website she co-curated, and, indeed, invited us to add to these if we wished to: https://onehe.org/equity-unbound .

Having outlined Maha’s approach, we will now go on to weave these together with points made in other sessions throughout the conference.

Removing the doors: Tackling systemic inequality in our sector

Maha shared a powerful analogy of what we need to do to tackle systemic inequality in our sector. She suggested that simply opening doors is not enough; we need to remove these doors completely, as an opened door can still be closed by someone else at a later point:

This reflects the fact that it is important that measures taken to tackle inequality are not simply dependent on the goodwill of individuals; the systems and processes adopted by the institution and organisations as a whole need to undergo a paradigm shift in order for such measures to be truly sustainable.

That said, it is often through the work of pioneering individuals that such doors are even opened in the first place. This was reflected in the EAP for Social Justice SIG’s EAP for Refugees session, which was inspired by the visionary widening participation work of the late Carol Irvine, along with colleague Dr. Bill Guariento, at the University of Glasgow. In his testimonial to Carol and her work, Bill outlined how Carol decided to use her own position within the English for Academic Study unit at the University of Glasgow to lobby for the provision of free places for refugee students on their summer pre-sessional programme, and she was successful in this venture.

Not only this, but she and Bill were also very generous in terms of sharing their good practice with others in the field of EAP, which influenced the resultant practice of at least one other university – the University of Leicester. To expand on this, we then heard from Phil Horspool, who outlined how the University of Sanctuary work at the University of Leicester started with the work of a few individuals in its English Language Teaching Unit, and has now been extended into a university-wide sanctuary initiative, through which change has been written into systems and process in many areas of operation, though it remains the case that the model of practice employed still places language provision and EAP at the core of the university-wide sanctuary work. Examples of how this work has been embedded throughout the institution include the provision of up to 12 places for new refugee-background students on pre-sessional courses each term, and the creation of a number of sanctuary scholarships for both face-to-face and distance learning degree programmes. A pictorial representation of the network of internal and external departments / services / organisations involved in this provision can be seen here:

Has the door therefore been removed from its hinges in this instance? Phil was clear that there is still work to be done in this regard, both within the university and in terms of working together with other universities. Whilst the degree of communication between universities about sanctuary work is certainly improving, partly through simply having conversations about their respective sanctuary work, and partly through the existence of the Universities of Sanctuary JISCmail list, which provides a useful forum for the sharing of information and good practice … more can be done in terms of putting in place inter-university systems to remove unnecessary doors. For example, Phil is keen to set up a process by which universities can recognise the exit grades that sanctuary students may have gained through other institutions’ pre-sessional programmes, thereby expanding the degree of choice that refugee-background students have as to the institution they might join and the course they might take. This flexibility may be particularly helpful for people seeking asylum, who may be moved to a different city by the Home Office at short notice. It is clear, then, that more can be done at sector-level to remove more doors.

One successful initiative which is already operating at sector level (and has been since 2016) is the CARA Syria Programme, led by Michael Jenkins. The main purpose of this scheme is to enable Syrian academics in exile in Turkey to continue their academic activities to enable them to retain and continue to develop academic skills and capital, which will allow them to play a vital role in the rebuilding of Syria (when it is safe for them to return there) and the education of a new generation of professionals and academics.

Michael outlined how the EAP component of the CARA Syria scheme operates, with volunteer EAP practitioners providing weekly 1:1 online lessons to Syrian academics in exile in Turkey. Another component of the CARA scheme, outlined by Baraa Khuder and Dr Bojana Petric in their presentation entitled Established Academics’ EAL Academic Literacies Development in Exile: Research-Based Materials for ERPP Teaching, involves CARA participants working alongside UK academics to help them publish in international journals. In their study of a number of these co-authorships episodes, however, Baraa and Bojana found that collaborative writing involving asymmetrical power relations is not always unproblematic, and that “the mentoring aspect of collaboration is crucial and its neglect (as a result of prioritising the publishing goals or lack of understanding of the nature of academic literacies development) could lead to negative feelings and misunderstandings, negatively impacting development” (Khuder & Petric, 2021). An example was cited of a CARA mentor asking a Syrian academic with whom she was co-authoring a paper “why anyone would be interested in reading about a plant in Syria”. Quite unsurprisingly, this comment was received negatively by the CARA participant, who felt that the implication was that people would not know about or be interested in Syria in its own right, an implication which he found very upsetting, and he therefore deleted the comment in question. However, once the mentor and mentee sat down to discuss their feelings and perspectives about this feedback, the mentor elaborated on the rationale behind her comment, explaining that the feedback was related to audience considerations and was an attempt to limit the potential “parochialism” implicit in his linking of a plant to one specific country in a paper intended for publication in an international journal. The CARA participant felt able to accept this explanation and the pair were subsequently able to move forward from this episode. To attempt to reduce the likelihood of negative encounters such as this occurring again, Baraa and Bojana developed workshop materials and activities based on real-life co-authorship episodes in which negative feelings emerged, in order to encourage participants to reflect on their own practice, to draw their attention to such issues arising from potential misunderstandings and hidden emotions and how they might use an intervention model to address these effectively. This session highlighted the importance of not only removing doors from their hinges but of doing so with care and sensitivity. Furthermore, incidents such as the one outlined above clearly also raise the issue of asymmetrical power relations in teaching and learning contexts. Exploring these dynamics was not the focus of this research project, but please see the Teacher as Host sections below for examples of how asymmetrical power relations have been successfully challenged in other contexts.

Fostering psycho-social well-being (both students’ AND teachers’!)

The need for care, sensitivity and trust in the EAP classroom was another theme which was emphasised by Maha and echoed by others throughout the conference. Maha emphasised the idea that “building community online is more important than ever due to the trauma of the pandemic”, and she proceeded to outline a number of trauma-informed pedagogical strategies that she employs to this end, including talking to students about how trauma affects the brain and the learning process to demystify this phenomenon, and giving student strategies for tackling it. One such strategy is to build in class activities which are less anxiety-inducing, such as giving students the opportunity to introduce themselves asynchronously rather than synchronously, which gives them more time to reflect on how they wish to present themselves to others (which puts this process more in the students’ control). Another strategy is to ask students to keep a “gratitude journal”, which is often used in the field of positive psychology, and has been found to lead to greater levels of psychological well being (Seligman et al, 2005, in Falout, 2016:115). Students are then invited to share only the parts that they feel comfortable sharing with others in the class. There are many other suggestions for community-building strategies included in the website which Maha co-curated: https://onehe.org/equity-unbound/

This emphasis on the importance of community building to students’ sense of psycho-social well being was echoed in Dr Ide Haghi’s session, focusing on Students’ Affective Engagement with, and Well-being during, an Online EAP Course. She found that the students surveyed found the experience of attending an online pre-sessional course relatively stressful, and felt a reduced sense of belonging as compared with face-to-face classes. She therefore recommended that, in order for students to establish a good sense of belonging to their class and to smaller study groups, teachers should build guided relationship-building activities into a course early on. She also found that students miss opportunities for out-of-class interaction with classmates and teachers, so suggested that occasional out-of-class live sessions might be provided to help meet this need. Another recommendation was that, where pre-sessional courses are divided into smaller blocks, students should be kept in the same class when they move to the next course, in order that they may continue to develop their bonds with their classmates, bearing in mind this is more difficult and time-consuming to achieve in an online class, partly due to the lack of informal spaces to chat and build relationships.

This relates to findings reported by Andrew Northern and Rebecca White in their session entitled Surviving and Thriving in Challenging Times: Investigating Pre-Sessional Teacher Emotions on an Online Summer Pre-Sessional Course. In a survey of online summer pre-sessional tutors at Imperial College London, they found that the tutors missed personal contact with their students and also other tutors; in terms of the latter, though there were attempts by the managers to encourage the building of an informal online support network among the tutors, in an attempt to reduce the occurrences of tutor stress and burnout, this met with limited success. It is unclear as to why this was the case, but one participant speculated that “to build a staff community, there would be a benefit in having a space that can work by different rules – the only channels to post to everyone are ‘official’ and it can restrict what you feel you can say”. The implication here is that a less formal medium of communication such as WhatsApp might be preferable as a means of social and emotional connection between tutors, but the tutors in this study did not naturally use this method either, potentially because of screen fatigue, or a reluctance to intrude on people’s personal time. The question as to how to build a sense of social connection between tutors on an online course was left open, but the implication was that it is something which tutors missed and felt that would have benefited from. It would be interesting to see whether implementing some of the recommendations for community building amongst students (as outlined by Maha and Ide above) might be effective amongst tutors too.

Teacher as host: Equitable hospitality

With regard to equitable community building and ensuring that all students feel valued in the classroom, Maha furnished us with a powerful metaphor; teachers need to recognise that they are the host in the space of the classroom, that they own that space, that they have power in it, and that they are actively responsible for making students feel at home, as welcome guests. The perception that all members of a class are always naturally able to participate as equals in that space is an illusion; marginality can be both visible and invisible, and equitable conditions need to be actively and consciously created by the person who wields the most power in that space, and who therefore has the responsibility to wield it with intentional equity – the teacher.

What might intentional hospitality look like in EAP? Might it involve inviting students to employ “translanguaging” in this space? Translanguaging was the focus of the paper given by Dr. Yan Zhao, Xi’an Jiaotong and Qiwei Zhang, entitled Translanguaging and Identity Construction as a Resource for Learning in the EAP Classrooms in China. They argued that, by allowing students to “evoke and integrate different types of knowledge, discourses, norms and perspectives which they have previously gained through their bilingual experience” (Creese & Blackledge, 2015) and use their mother tongue for certain activities in the EAP classroom, the Chinese EAP students in their study were able to bring useful aspects of their out-of-class identity into the EAP classroom, leading to improved learning outcomes. For example, students’ demonstration of critical and analytical thinking skills increased when they were permitted to write initial written reflections in their mother tongue.

Another way in which the intentional hospitality analogy might be extended through a focus on language practices can be seen in Sue Teale and Rina Vokel de Vries’ session entitled EAP as a Lingua Franca: moving towards a more inclusive, internationalised standard. They reported that many English-speaking HE institutions take the deficit approach of expecting conformity to native English norms and Western academic culture (Jenkins & Wingate, 2015) and, as a result, international students’ communicative confidence can actually drop after joining the English-speaking academic community. To achieve true internationalisation, Sue and Rina advocated approaching academic English as a Lingua Franca by applying the more inclusive definition of mutual intelligibility – because, as they claimed, “after all, most HE institutions specify the intended graduate attributes of being able to operate in a globalised world, with different culturally determined communication styles and Englishes”. They held that the above has consequences for the pedagogical approach in EAP, as they defined proficiency as being able to communicate in an intercultural, international setting rather than attaining (near-)native ‘perfection’ when redesigning their Pre-sessional EAP course by integrating stimulating topics of culture, internationalisation of HE, and students’ mental health, which allowed students to explore content of their new reality in a more reflective way. By emphasising writing and speaking fluency, and offering native and non-native language exemplars, the EAP practitioners provided a more inclusive, international outlook, hoping to increase students’ confidence. It was great to see that this innovative, confidence-building approach worked and supported the authors’ original focus on lessening the dominance of native-English speakerism in academia, as the scholars shared results of the post-course survey and focus groups in which students stated that the approach taken was engaging and challenging as the vast majority indicated their academic language and general social English skills had improved.

By the same token, the intentional hospitality analogy might also be applied to teachers’ responsibility to develop equitable conditions when planning for interaction in the international classroom, as outlined in a paper presentation from the same EAP practitioner, Rina Vokel de Vries and her co-presenter, Kevin Haines, in a session entitled EAP for content lecturers in times of internationalisation: integrating intercultural and linguistic dimensions into CPD. The scholars emphasised that this interaction requires adjustment from lecturers and students alike as “lecturers need to forge pathways towards a more inclusive, internationalised approach by promoting intercultural exchange, providing equitable access to language, letting go of native speaker norms, and allowing for diverse communication styles” (Jenkins & Wingate, 2015). Rina and Kevin reflected on their involvement in integrating these skills into lecturers’ repertoire and its implications for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) which targets training in intercultural awareness and competence among staff. It was fascinating to hear that Birmingham managed to identify space for EAP tutors to play an active role in assisting educationally mobile students in adjusting to a different cultural and academic context and developing the ability to interact successfully in an English-speaking HE setting.

The presentation demonstrated the use of CPD materials and illustrated how EAP tutors can help with facilitating lecturers’ CPD. The scholars revealed their CPD utilises The EAP Toolkit including pedagogies such as grading language, scaffolding knowledge acquisition, and evaluating different communication styles. The scholars also commented on using materials found in EQUiiP, a recently completed Erasmus+ project, which offered a support platform for educational developers and content lecturers aiming to ensure quality in international and intercultural classrooms in HE. This open-access CPD resource consisting of specially designed modules on ‘Intercultural Group Dynamics’ and ‘The Role of Language in the International Classroom’ looked very appealing.

Teacher as host: Fostering student agency and awareness

In the manner of a good host, Maha invites us to always consider who may be excluded or disempowered by any choices which we make in the classroom. In the EAP classroom, this exercise can be taken further, with students themselves being encouraged to reflect on how ways in which academic arguments and texts are constructed are inclusive or exclusive to different readers. This theme was developed in Sanchia Rodrigues’ session entitled Challenging Colonial Legacies in EAP: Lessons and Limitations from a Pre-Undergraduate Programme. Sanchia described how she used the Academic Reading Circle model (Seburn, 2016) with her pre-undergraduate programme students to encourage them to challenge Anglocentrism in academic writing by identifying contextual references in the text and unpicking what assumptions are made through these about the expected reader, and deducing which readers may be excluded or marginalised as a result. This gave a useful insight into how the ARC model can be implemented to direct students’ attention to Anglo- or Euro-centric writing practices and to critically examine their implications for different readers.

This theme of fostering student agency by encouraging them to uncover and question underlying systems and power structures was also picked up in Symposium 2, entitled Facing the Internationalisation Challenge with Agency: The Pedagogical Work of the Laboratory of Academic Literacy (LLAC), by Dr Marilia Ferreira, Gabriella Pavesi and Daniela Cleusa Carvalho from the Universidade de Sao Paulo. They outlined how staff at the LLAC work to facilitate the development of students’ agency both through helping students become more aware of rhetorical structures at the levels of sentence and genre (Hyland, 2009; Swales & Feak, 2012) but also by questioning the activity of academic knowledge production and dissemination of which these academic conventions are a part (Engstrom, 2015). Marilia showed that, by implementing principles of Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy and encouraging students not only to notice but also to question academic rules and conventions, students are able to implement both theoretical and critical thinking with agency to make more informed choices in their academic writing.

The concept of student agency and also that of equitable community building were further scrutinised by Dr Steve Brown and Dr Tomasz John in their paper entitled Navigating No-Man’s Land: Facilitating the Transition of International Scholars towards a PhD Study (also, lockdown!). Reporting on the insights from a case study investigating the transition international doctoral students navigate through when first starting their PhD journeys, the speakers gave us some thought-provoking insights into the concepts of Trans-National Education, the myth of the “international student” and the role of EAP in doctoral education. They proposed that, when designing a fit-for-purpose doctoral induction programme with an EAP component, there are different interpretations of the role and purpose of EAP that can lead to very different outcomes. Programmes concerned primarily with repairing the linguistic “deficits” of students follow an indoctrinatory model that seeks to assimilate international students into the current, hegemonic structures of the international academy. It is difficult to see how this model can allow international students to make any meaningful contribution to knowledge, as they are only valued for their ability to reproduce what is already deemed “acceptable”. Alternatively, a focus on individual empowerment may allow students on EAP programmes to achieve greater success within the current structures, but this model still fails to engage with systemic injustices and power imbalances. A third approach, however, seeks to emancipate international students from their deficit positions by addressing structural inequities through a model of inclusion, rather than one of integration. These different educational approaches – indoctrination, empowerment and emancipation – and their corresponding outcomes of assimilation, integration and inclusion, are presented in an ‘Emancipation Continuum’ (Brown 2021, forthcoming), which is offered as an analytical framework for exploring the emancipatory impact of ESOL on migrant communities. Steve and Tomasz proposed that a similar framework can be applied to EAP programmes to explore the extent to which they promote or restrict the freedoms of international students to contribute meaningfully to the international academy.

The above reasoning and theoretical frameworks were taken into account when designing the content of the 12-week long intensive doctoral induction programme. What emerged from Steve and Tomasz’s study was that the doctoral students became ‘border crossers’ as they engaged in an exploration of their own history and to reach an understanding of self and their own culture in relation to others in the new Western context. By the same token, the students actively challenged the stereotypical label of international students by adapting to the new role of ‘transformative intellectuals’ who challenged themselves to cross the imposed barriers on the borders of disciplines and cultures (Giroux, 1992, 15).

Steve and Tomasz reported that the students benefited from the DIP, as the programme allowed for experimentation within a new, fit-for-purpose curriculum, effectively fuelling creative explorations across these ideological borders. Students appreciated that the programme embraced the knowledge they brought with them, effectively accommodating their particular cultural trajectories by de-centring ownership of knowledge through criticality and reflection on their PhD proposals. Students also started to regard uncritical acceptance of existing hegemony as a symptom of deference; as their own critical thinking skills developed, they became increasingly interested in using their own praxis as researchers to disrupt the status quo rather than to comply with it as “this attitudinal shift implied that the programme had some kind of emancipatory impact, allowing students’ perspectives to become included in wider academic discourse” (Brown and John, 2022).

The papers outlined above indicate that approaches which foster student agency, critical awareness and questioning and disruption of existing hegemonies can and have been used successfully in different EAP contexts … but, coming back to the teacher-as-host analogy, it is the role of the teacher to first lay the groundwork and then invite students to bring different perspectives and ways of relating into their academic engagement.

Conclusion

It has been the intention of this blog post to identify social justice related strands running through the BALEAP 2021 conference, and to weave these together in a way in which resonances between different sessions can be highlighted. As can be seen just from insights gained from the sample of sessions explored in this piece, there is much exciting SJ-informed work being conducted and developed in our field at the moment, much of which reinforces the benefits of employing a pedagogy of equity and care.

Of course, we are also mindful that there were some talks that took a cautionary approach to the concept of pedagogies of care. For example in Dr. Alex Ding and Bee Bond’s session entitled What Do Considerations of Pedagogy Tell Us About the Profession and the Practitioner?, a suggestion was made that “we need to move away from a pedagogy of care that is only a pedagogy of care … if it’s caring for students but without a focus on learning, without a focus on knowledge”. This assertion appears to overlook the theoretical underpinnings of pedagogies of care promoted by scholars such as Paulo Freire, bell hooks and Henry A Giroux. Central to their work is that care is an essential element of creating the conditions for holistic and transformative learning and teaching. Indeed, these pedagogical principles can assist both students and teachers to:

determine what and whose knowledge is deemed worthy of study the first place

demystify and critique the existing hegemonies of their disciplines and beyond

determine what languages and language variants are permitted in the classroom and deemed worthy to be studied

dictate who has the right to speak and be heard

determine who is able to access and benefit from learning in the first place.

Teachers care deeply about students’ learning, and it is this deep care that drives socially oriented educators to search for ways to recognise and meet a wide range of students’ needs, and by doing so they do not need to reduce academic rigour or focus; on the contrary, they create a equitable space where students can develop their knowledge and skills in order to challenge rather than maintain the status quo of social and environmental inequalities. We see this as fundamental to critically engaged EAP learning, teaching, curriculum and assessment – not an optional add-on.

It is clear that there are more discussions to be had about conceptualisations of social justice praxis (including a pedagogy of equitable care) in our field, and what might and might not be regarded as falling under the SJ umbrella. A move is currently being made to investigate the range of conceptualisations of SJ in our field by SJ SIG committee members Dr Weronika Fernando, Iwona Winiarska-Pringle and Jo Kukuczka. They reported on their initial findings in their session entitled Social Justice and classroom practices: towards an EAP pedagogy of transformation and empowerment, revealing a richness and complexity in tutors’ understanding of, and employment of, SJ-informed pedagogical principles in the EAP classroom. Further expansion on the results of this study will be shared in their forthcoming paper, but, in the meantime …

… we’d love to hear from you!

If you’d like to join the conversation about the SJ strands running through the BALEAP conference and their implications for EAP pedagogies, please share your thoughts on our Google JamBoard. We’re very aware that we haven’t been able to capture all possible SJ-related insights from the conference, so we invite you to share any that we’ve missed on the JamBoard (click here) or simply add your thoughts in the comments section under this blog entry. We’re also aware that, while this piece has woven together different SJ insights, it hasn’t critiqued them fully – please feel free to add critical perspectives too.

References

Bali, M. (2015) Pedagogy of Care – Gone Massive, Hybrid Pedagogy, 20 April. Available at: https://hybridpedagogy.org/pedagogy-of-care-gone-massive/

Bali, M. & Zamora, M. (2020) Equitable Emergence: Telling the Story of Equity Unbound in the Open. Open Education Conference, 10 Nov, online. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEeZvM6_8UE

Brown, S. (forthcoming), The Emancipation Continuum: Exploring the Role of ESOL (English for Speaker of Other Languages) in the Settlement of Immigrants. British Journal of Sociology of Education (Volume tbc).

Brown, S. and John, T. (2022), Navigating No-Man’s Land: Facilitating the Transition of International Scholars towards a PhD Study at a Scottish University (also lockdown!). In Lock, D. (Ed.), BORDERLANDS: THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION TEACHING PRACTICES, Springer

Creese, A. and Blackledge, A. 2015. Translanguaging and identity in educational settings. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35: pp. 20-35.

Engstrom, Y. (2015). Learning by expanding (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Fallout, J. (2016). The Dynamics of Past Selves in Language Learning and Well-Being. In: P.D. MacIntyre, T. Gregersen and S. Mercer (eds). Positive Psychology in SLA. Bristol, UK. Multilingual Matters, 112-129.

Giroux, H. (1992). Border crossings: Cultural workers and the politics of education. New York, NY: Routledge.

Hyland, K (2009). Academic discourse: English in a global context. Continuum.

Jenkins, J. and Wingate, U. (2015). ‘Staff and Students’ Perceptions of English Language Policies in ‘International’ Universities: A Case Study from the UK.’

Khuder, B., & Petrić, B. (2020). Academic socialisation through collaboration: Textual interventions in supporting exiled scholars’ academic literacies development. Education and Conflict Review , 3, 24-28.

Seburn, T. (2016) Academic reading circles. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.

Swales, J.M. & Feak, C.B. (2012). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks as skills (3rd ed.). University of Michigan Press.

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Website: Compassion in Education: Embedding and Assessing Compassion in the University Curriculum by Dr. Theo Gilbert

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Website: Compassion in Education: Embedding and Assessing Compassion in the University Curriculum by Dr. Theo Gilbert

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Website containing a wealth of resources and information on this fascinating topic

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Circles of Trust for EAP Practitioners: Workshops and Info by Michele le Roux

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Circles of Trust for EAP Practitioners: Workshops and Info by Michele le Roux

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Circles of Trust Summary October 2021.pdf

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Book: Positive Psychology in SLA (ed. P.D. MacIntyre, T. Gregersen & S. Mercer)

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Book: Positive Psychology in SLA (ed. P.D. MacIntyre, T. Gregersen & S. Mercer)

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MacIntyre, Peter D., Gregersen, Tammy and Mercer, Sarah. Positive Psychology in SLA, Bristol, Blue Ridge Summit: Multilingual Matters, 2016. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783095360

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This book explores theories in positive psychology and their implications for language teaching, learning and communication. Chapters examine the characteristics of individuals, contexts and relationships that facilitate learning and present several new teaching ideas to develop and support them.

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Article: Renaissance of the Gatekeepers: Establishing a culture of welcome for refugees and asylum seekers at the University of Leicester’s English Language Teaching by Aleks Palanac

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Article: Renaissance of the Gatekeepers: Establishing a culture of welcome for refugees and asylum seekers at the University of Leicester’s English Language Teaching by Aleks Palanac

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ResearchGate is a network dedicated to science and research. Connect, collaborate and discover scientific publications, jobs and conferences. All for free.

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Article: Positive Psychology and Mastery of the L2 Academic Self by Aleks Palanac

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Article: Positive Psychology and Mastery of the L2 Academic Self by Aleks Palanac

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Webinar Recording from BALEAP 2021: EAP for Refugees Session (SJ SIG Event Inspired by the Work of Carol Irvine, University of Glasgow)

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Webinar Recording from BALEAP 2021: EAP for Refugees Session (SJ SIG Event Inspired by the Work of Carol Irvine, University of Glasgow)

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We hear about the inspiring work that the late Carol Irvine did, alongside Dr Bill Guariento, to widen participation for refugee-background students to access pre-sessional programmes at the University of Glasgow. We then hear about how her work inspired similar initiatives at the University of Leicester, followed by an outline of the CARA Syria Programme

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Click and scroll down for information about the CARA Syria Programme, in which Syrian academics in exile are matched with EAP tutors for online 1:1 lessons

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Here we share EAP and Social Justice related initiatives from around the world.
Call for EAP practitioners to participate in research on
'Social Justice in an English for Academic Purposes Classroom '

Dear  Colleagues,

We are warmly inviting you to participate in  a research project  investigating  Social Justice in an English for Academic Purposes Classroom  conducted by the committee members of Social Justice in EAP, a recently formed Special Interest Group within the British Association of Lecturers for English for Academic Purposes (BALEAP).

While social justice traditionally engages with issues of class, gender, age, race, language or culture, it can also be seen in terms of compassion in face to face and/or online teaching, equity, democratic values and many more. Having in mind this inherent complexity of what counts as social justice, in this research we invite colleagues to share how they understand social justice, how this understanding shapes their EAP classroom practices as well as what (if any) institutional support is offered in embracing social justice in an EAP classroom. We hope to uncover a variety of perspectives and experiences, and we are keen to hear from EAP practitioners at various stages of their career in the EAP field.

The research consists of two parts: a questionnaire and a follow-up interview. Please note that you can choose to respond to our questionnaire without offering to take part in the interview. Both the questionnaire and the interview will take approximately 30 minutes each.

This research was approved by Queen Mary University of London Research Ethics Committee, reference number: QMERC20.215.   A detailed participant information sheet can be found here and the consent form can be viewed here. Both forms are also attached for the ease of reference.

We are pleased to confirm that all participants in this research can enter a draw to win one of two copies of a book by Leonie Rowan (2019) on  Higher Education and Social Justice: The Transformative Potential of University Teaching and the Power of Educational Paradox, published by Palgrave MacMillan.

If you would like to participate in our study, we would be grateful if you could complete the questionnaire - please click here to access the questionnaire. Towards the end of the questionnaire, you will be asked to indicate if you would like to take part in a follow-up conversational interview and if you wish to enter our book draw.

Thank you in advance for participating in our research and collectively helping us bring the socio-political aspects of our practice into the limelight.

With best wishes,

Weronika Fernando (on behalf of the EAP for Social Justice SIG committee https://eap4socialjustice.net/)
CARA SYRIA PROGRAMME
The Cara Syria Programme provides weekly online lessons for over 80 Syrian academics in exile in Turkey delivered by voluntary EAP teachers from around 16 universities. In addition, the programme runs online and face to face workshops in EAP and academic skills, arranges research visits to the UK, funds research grants and facilitates connections between Syrian academics and academics in the UK.

The programme was launched in 2016 to provide support to Syrian academics affected by the crisis, working primarily with those in Turkey where the largest number has sought refuge. Nearly all are committed to return when security allows, but in the immediate future they urgently need support to facilitate their continued academic development, engagement and contribution whilst in exile. As a major part of Syria's intellectual capital, this group will be vital to the rebuilding of Syria, its Higher Education sector and the training of a new generation of professionals, including teachers, engineers, medics, architects and, of course, academics.

The EAP strand of the programme blends weekly one-to-one online lessons, with week-long face-to-face workshops in Istanbul every 2 or 3 months. EAP teachers generally commit to a 1 hour weekly online lesson with an estimated additional hour for preparation and communication. The participants' levels range roughly from CEFR A1 to C1. Organisation background: Cara (the Council for At-Risk Academics: https://www.cara.ngo/ ) was established in 1933 by Sir William Beveridge and other key figures of the day to rescue academics being persecuted under the rise of Nazism and Fascism across Europe. Our founders defined their goal as 'the relief of suffering and the defence of learning and science'. Those helped included Nikolaus Pevsner, Karl Popper, Ernst Chain, Ernst Gombrich, Karl Mannheim and Sigmund Freud. Cara's work has continued over the decades, responding when world events place academics in danger. More recently, Cara's focus has shifted to the Middle East, and Syria in particular.

"This programme is very beneficial for us, after the circumstances we have been living, after all routes were cut off around us, the roads towards research were closed in our faces. This programme is like a candle that is a light in a very dark tunnel." - Syria Programme Participant

For further information, or to volunteer, please email Michael Jenkins at Michael.jenkins@ed.ac.uk attaching a copy of your CV.

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Here we share EAP and Social Justice related initiatives from around the world. Initiatives Call for EAP practitioners to participate in research on 'Social Justice in an English for Academic Purposes Classroom' Dear  Colleagues,  We are warmly inviting you to participate in  a research project  investigating  Social Justice in an English for Academic Purposes Classroom  conducted by the committee members of...

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Click here to read about the EAP4SJ SIG's aims

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To put social justice on the agenda in EAP discussions concerning learning, teaching, scholarship of teaching and learning, research and operational matters, in part through widening the parameters…

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To put social justice on the agenda in EAP discussions concerning learning, teaching, scholarship of teaching and learning, research and operational matters, in part through widening the parameters of the field

To demonstrate the value of adopting a social justice lens in EAP, by broadening and strengthening the evidence base of the impact that this can make in our field

To work together with relevant organisations, movements and initiatives in recognition of the complexity and intersectionality of social justice work

To facilitate the creation of a welcoming and active EAP for SJ community of practice, through which participants can support each other, share good practice and be inspired to take action within their sphere of influence

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Webinar Recording: EAP Assessment for Social Justice with Dr Jan McArthur

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Webinar Recording: EAP Assessment for Social Justice with Dr Jan McArthur

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EAP assessment for Social Justice: Q&A with Dr Jan McArthur. Further info about this event, including a link to the event Padlet, can be accessed here: https://baleaptafsig.weebly.com/archived-events/eap-assessment-for-social-justice-world-cafe

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EAP assessment for Social Justice: Q&A with Dr Jan McArthur

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Interview Podcast: Assessment for Social Justice with Dr Jan McArthur

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Interview Podcast: Assessment for Social Justice with Dr Jan McArthur

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In this joint SIG interview between EAP4SJ and TAF SIG, Jan McArthur, the author of 'Assessment for Social Justice:  Perspectives and practices within higher education' shares her thoughts on:

1. Why assessment for social justice?
2. What is the key to the justice of assessment?
3. What is assessment that promotes greater social justice?
4. What is the way forward, especially in the EAP context? And what are the key take-aways for EAP practitioners?

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Assessment for Social Justice: Joint TAFSIG and EAP4SJ SIG interview with Dr Jan McArthur.

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Event Write-Up: Teasing Out the SJ Strands from the BALEAP 2021 Conference

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Event Write-Up: Teasing Out the SJ Strands from the BALEAP 2021 Conference

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This conference write up picks out and weaves together the social justice-related elements present in papers presented at BALEAP 2021, with the aim of spotlighting the work going on in the field at the moment. It is framed around plenary speaker Dr Maha Bali's pedagogy of equity and care

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Teasing out the social justice strands from the BALEAP 2021 Conference

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Like for many in our EAP community, our minds are still buzzing from the wealth of insights gained from the rich range of sessions offered at the recent online BALEAP 2021 conference hosted by the …

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Like for many in our EAP community, our minds are still buzzing from the wealth of insights gained from the rich range of sessions offered at the recent online BALEAP 2021 conference hosted by the University of Glasgow. Ever keen to identify social justice (SJ) related aspects of EAP practices and pedagogies, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on what SJ insights can be teased out from the conference. Some of these insights are more overt than others, such as in the visionary, inspirational talk given by Dr. Maha Bali, the first plenary speaker, who advocated for the widespread adoption of a pedagogy of equity and care in her talk entitled Creating Equitable, Caring Communities Online. But, as social justice goes by many names, we were also interested in identifying other, less overt references to practices and pedagogies which may be regarded as being aligned with social justice principles. This feeds into one of the key aims of our SIG – to widen the visible parameters of the field of social justice by demonstrating the range of initiatives which can be shown to fall under the SJ umbrella.

As Maha’s keynote symbolically seemed to set the tone for many of the other sessions at the conference, it seems useful to reflect this in this blog post by using some of her observations as a framework to talk about other SJ resonances from a sample of the sessions that we attended and, in the process, to show how a pedagogy of equity and care can be seen to underpin much good practice currently being developed in the EAP classroom.

Overview of Maha’s key points

The keynote was introduced by Iwona Winiarska-Pringle, who quoted an extract from one of Maha’s blog posts from 2015, which usefully summed up the importance of care in the classroom:

“Sometimes the most valuable thing we can offer our students is genuine care for them, their well-being, their happiness. Not just their grades. Not just their learning. But their whole selves” (Bali, 2015).

This unapologetic focus on an aspect of teaching which has traditionally been undervalued in terms of institutional recognition and recompense, but which many teachers and students instinctively do and appreciate anyway, was very refreshing, as was the fact that the Glasgow BALEAP Conference team gave Maha the space to spotlight these important issues in the first keynote of the 2021 biennial conference.

However, Maha was quick to emphasise that care without equity is not enough, as, for example, equity without genuine care may lead to empty tokenism, while care without equity may lead to care being given selectively. She demonstrated the interplay of these two elements through the following Equity/Care Matrix (Bali & Zamora, 2020):

She then proceeded to show that care and equity can work on a number of levels in the classroom, and that it is important to intentionally attend to how we might enact these principles at each level:

Of particular note is the fact that Maha enacted the very principles of which she spoke in the way in which she chose to deliver the plenary itself; to put it in her own words, she “walked the talk”, which is a vital principle of all social justice work. For example, she started the session with a “chatterfall”, in which she asked the audience a number of questions related to their well-being – such as “What gives you energy these days?” – and invited them to respond in the chat box. She encouraged the sharing of reflections at various points throughout the plenary, and responded to many of these, thus enacting her principle of facilitating equitable participation and responding accordingly. She also enacted her recommendation of keeping online activities short in order to keep people’s energy levels up. Another principle that was reflected in her plenary was to give participants the option of commenting on her PowerPoint slides during or after the session. This is reminiscent of an approach which she uses with her students in which she invites them to annotate the syllabus – to literally add notes to the syllabus document regarding things which they find interesting, confusing, etc. This enactment of the key principles outlined in her talk was a powerful testament to the value of adopting such an approach, and she encouraged the audience to explore a wealth of further activities adopting these principles through the Equity Unbound website she co-curated, and, indeed, invited us to add to these if we wished to: https://onehe.org/equity-unbound .

Having outlined Maha’s approach, we will now go on to weave these together with points made in other sessions throughout the conference.

Removing the doors: Tackling systemic inequality in our sector

Maha shared a powerful analogy of what we need to do to tackle systemic inequality in our sector. She suggested that simply opening doors is not enough; we need to remove these doors completely, as an opened door can still be closed by someone else at a later point:

This reflects the fact that it is important that measures taken to tackle inequality are not simply dependent on the goodwill of individuals; the systems and processes adopted by the institution and organisations as a whole need to undergo a paradigm shift in order for such measures to be truly sustainable.

That said, it is often through the work of pioneering individuals that such doors are even opened in the first place. This was reflected in the EAP for Social Justice SIG’s EAP for Refugees session, which was inspired by the visionary widening participation work of the late Carol Irvine, along with colleague Dr. Bill Guariento, at the University of Glasgow. In his testimonial to Carol and her work, Bill outlined how Carol decided to use her own position within the English for Academic Study unit at the University of Glasgow to lobby for the provision of free places for refugee students on their summer pre-sessional programme, and she was successful in this venture.

Not only this, but she and Bill were also very generous in terms of sharing their good practice with others in the field of EAP, which influenced the resultant practice of at least one other university – the University of Leicester. To expand on this, we then heard from Phil Horspool, who outlined how the University of Sanctuary work at the University of Leicester started with the work of a few individuals in its English Language Teaching Unit, and has now been extended into a university-wide sanctuary initiative, through which change has been written into systems and process in many areas of operation, though it remains the case that the model of practice employed still places language provision and EAP at the core of the university-wide sanctuary work. Examples of how this work has been embedded throughout the institution include the provision of up to 12 places for new refugee-background students on pre-sessional courses each term, and the creation of a number of sanctuary scholarships for both face-to-face and distance learning degree programmes. A pictorial representation of the network of internal and external departments / services / organisations involved in this provision can be seen here:

Has the door therefore been removed from its hinges in this instance? Phil was clear that there is still work to be done in this regard, both within the university and in terms of working together with other universities. Whilst the degree of communication between universities about sanctuary work is certainly improving, partly through simply having conversations about their respective sanctuary work, and partly through the existence of the Universities of Sanctuary JISCmail list, which provides a useful forum for the sharing of information and good practice … more can be done in terms of putting in place inter-university systems to remove unnecessary doors. For example, Phil is keen to set up a process by which universities can recognise the exit grades that sanctuary students may have gained through other institutions’ pre-sessional programmes, thereby expanding the degree of choice that refugee-background students have as to the institution they might join and the course they might take. This flexibility may be particularly helpful for people seeking asylum, who may be moved to a different city by the Home Office at short notice. It is clear, then, that more can be done at sector-level to remove more doors.

One successful initiative which is already operating at sector level (and has been since 2016) is the CARA Syria Programme, led by Michael Jenkins. The main purpose of this scheme is to enable Syrian academics in exile in Turkey to continue their academic activities to enable them to retain and continue to develop academic skills and capital, which will allow them to play a vital role in the rebuilding of Syria (when it is safe for them to return there) and the education of a new generation of professionals and academics.

Michael outlined how the EAP component of the CARA Syria scheme operates, with volunteer EAP practitioners providing weekly 1:1 online lessons to Syrian academics in exile in Turkey. Another component of the CARA scheme, outlined by Baraa Khuder and Dr Bojana Petric in their presentation entitled Established Academics’ EAL Academic Literacies Development in Exile: Research-Based Materials for ERPP Teaching, involves CARA participants working alongside UK academics to help them publish in international journals. In their study of a number of these co-authorships episodes, however, Baraa and Bojana found that collaborative writing involving asymmetrical power relations is not always unproblematic, and that “the mentoring aspect of collaboration is crucial and its neglect (as a result of prioritising the publishing goals or lack of understanding of the nature of academic literacies development) could lead to negative feelings and misunderstandings, negatively impacting development” (Khuder & Petric, 2021). An example was cited of a CARA mentor asking a Syrian academic with whom she was co-authoring a paper “why anyone would be interested in reading about a plant in Syria”. Quite unsurprisingly, this comment was received negatively by the CARA participant, who felt that the implication was that people would not know about or be interested in Syria in its own right, an implication which he found very upsetting, and he therefore deleted the comment in question. However, once the mentor and mentee sat down to discuss their feelings and perspectives about this feedback, the mentor elaborated on the rationale behind her comment, explaining that the feedback was related to audience considerations and was an attempt to limit the potential “parochialism” implicit in his linking of a plant to one specific country in a paper intended for publication in an international journal. The CARA participant felt able to accept this explanation and the pair were subsequently able to move forward from this episode. To attempt to reduce the likelihood of negative encounters such as this occurring again, Baraa and Bojana developed workshop materials and activities based on real-life co-authorship episodes in which negative feelings emerged, in order to encourage participants to reflect on their own practice, to draw their attention to such issues arising from potential misunderstandings and hidden emotions and how they might use an intervention model to address these effectively. This session highlighted the importance of not only removing doors from their hinges but of doing so with care and sensitivity. Furthermore, incidents such as the one outlined above clearly also raise the issue of asymmetrical power relations in teaching and learning contexts. Exploring these dynamics was not the focus of this research project, but please see the Teacher as Host sections below for examples of how asymmetrical power relations have been successfully challenged in other contexts.

Fostering psycho-social well-being (both students’ AND teachers’!)

The need for care, sensitivity and trust in the EAP classroom was another theme which was emphasised by Maha and echoed by others throughout the conference. Maha emphasised the idea that “building community online is more important than ever due to the trauma of the pandemic”, and she proceeded to outline a number of trauma-informed pedagogical strategies that she employs to this end, including talking to students about how trauma affects the brain and the learning process to demystify this phenomenon, and giving student strategies for tackling it. One such strategy is to build in class activities which are less anxiety-inducing, such as giving students the opportunity to introduce themselves asynchronously rather than synchronously, which gives them more time to reflect on how they wish to present themselves to others (which puts this process more in the students’ control). Another strategy is to ask students to keep a “gratitude journal”, which is often used in the field of positive psychology, and has been found to lead to greater levels of psychological well being (Seligman et al, 2005, in Falout, 2016:115). Students are then invited to share only the parts that they feel comfortable sharing with others in the class. There are many other suggestions for community-building strategies included in the website which Maha co-curated: https://onehe.org/equity-unbound/

This emphasis on the importance of community building to students’ sense of psycho-social well being was echoed in Dr Ide Haghi’s session, focusing on Students’ Affective Engagement with, and Well-being during, an Online EAP Course. She found that the students surveyed found the experience of attending an online pre-sessional course relatively stressful, and felt a reduced sense of belonging as compared with face-to-face classes. She therefore recommended that, in order for students to establish a good sense of belonging to their class and to smaller study groups, teachers should build guided relationship-building activities into a course early on. She also found that students miss opportunities for out-of-class interaction with classmates and teachers, so suggested that occasional out-of-class live sessions might be provided to help meet this need. Another recommendation was that, where pre-sessional courses are divided into smaller blocks, students should be kept in the same class when they move to the next course, in order that they may continue to develop their bonds with their classmates, bearing in mind this is more difficult and time-consuming to achieve in an online class, partly due to the lack of informal spaces to chat and build relationships.

This relates to findings reported by Andrew Northern and Rebecca White in their session entitled Surviving and Thriving in Challenging Times: Investigating Pre-Sessional Teacher Emotions on an Online Summer Pre-Sessional Course. In a survey of online summer pre-sessional tutors at Imperial College London, they found that the tutors missed personal contact with their students and also other tutors; in terms of the latter, though there were attempts by the managers to encourage the building of an informal online support network among the tutors, in an attempt to reduce the occurrences of tutor stress and burnout, this met with limited success. It is unclear as to why this was the case, but one participant speculated that “to build a staff community, there would be a benefit in having a space that can work by different rules – the only channels to post to everyone are ‘official’ and it can restrict what you feel you can say”. The implication here is that a less formal medium of communication such as WhatsApp might be preferable as a means of social and emotional connection between tutors, but the tutors in this study did not naturally use this method either, potentially because of screen fatigue, or a reluctance to intrude on people’s personal time. The question as to how to build a sense of social connection between tutors on an online course was left open, but the implication was that it is something which tutors missed and felt that would have benefited from. It would be interesting to see whether implementing some of the recommendations for community building amongst students (as outlined by Maha and Ide above) might be effective amongst tutors too.

Teacher as host: Equitable hospitality

With regard to equitable community building and ensuring that all students feel valued in the classroom, Maha furnished us with a powerful metaphor; teachers need to recognise that they are the host in the space of the classroom, that they own that space, that they have power in it, and that they are actively responsible for making students feel at home, as welcome guests. The perception that all members of a class are always naturally able to participate as equals in that space is an illusion; marginality can be both visible and invisible, and equitable conditions need to be actively and consciously created by the person who wields the most power in that space, and who therefore has the responsibility to wield it with intentional equity – the teacher.

What might intentional hospitality look like in EAP? Might it involve inviting students to employ “translanguaging” in this space? Translanguaging was the focus of the paper given by Dr. Yan Zhao, Xi’an Jiaotong and Qiwei Zhang, entitled Translanguaging and Identity Construction as a Resource for Learning in the EAP Classrooms in China. They argued that, by allowing students to “evoke and integrate different types of knowledge, discourses, norms and perspectives which they have previously gained through their bilingual experience” (Creese & Blackledge, 2015) and use their mother tongue for certain activities in the EAP classroom, the Chinese EAP students in their study were able to bring useful aspects of their out-of-class identity into the EAP classroom, leading to improved learning outcomes. For example, students’ demonstration of critical and analytical thinking skills increased when they were permitted to write initial written reflections in their mother tongue.

Another way in which the intentional hospitality analogy might be extended through a focus on language practices can be seen in Sue Teale and Rina Vokel de Vries’ session entitled EAP as a Lingua Franca: moving towards a more inclusive, internationalised standard. They reported that many English-speaking HE institutions take the deficit approach of expecting conformity to native English norms and Western academic culture (Jenkins & Wingate, 2015) and, as a result, international students’ communicative confidence can actually drop after joining the English-speaking academic community. To achieve true internationalisation, Sue and Rina advocated approaching academic English as a Lingua Franca by applying the more inclusive definition of mutual intelligibility – because, as they claimed, “after all, most HE institutions specify the intended graduate attributes of being able to operate in a globalised world, with different culturally determined communication styles and Englishes”. They held that the above has consequences for the pedagogical approach in EAP, as they defined proficiency as being able to communicate in an intercultural, international setting rather than attaining (near-)native ‘perfection’ when redesigning their Pre-sessional EAP course by integrating stimulating topics of culture, internationalisation of HE, and students’ mental health, which allowed students to explore content of their new reality in a more reflective way. By emphasising writing and speaking fluency, and offering native and non-native language exemplars, the EAP practitioners provided a more inclusive, international outlook, hoping to increase students’ confidence. It was great to see that this innovative, confidence-building approach worked and supported the authors’ original focus on lessening the dominance of native-English speakerism in academia, as the scholars shared results of the post-course survey and focus groups in which students stated that the approach taken was engaging and challenging as the vast majority indicated their academic language and general social English skills had improved.

By the same token, the intentional hospitality analogy might also be applied to teachers’ responsibility to develop equitable conditions when planning for interaction in the international classroom, as outlined in a paper presentation from the same EAP practitioner, Rina Vokel de Vries and her co-presenter, Kevin Haines, in a session entitled EAP for content lecturers in times of internationalisation: integrating intercultural and linguistic dimensions into CPD. The scholars emphasised that this interaction requires adjustment from lecturers and students alike as “lecturers need to forge pathways towards a more inclusive, internationalised approach by promoting intercultural exchange, providing equitable access to language, letting go of native speaker norms, and allowing for diverse communication styles” (Jenkins & Wingate, 2015). Rina and Kevin reflected on their involvement in integrating these skills into lecturers’ repertoire and its implications for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) which targets training in intercultural awareness and competence among staff. It was fascinating to hear that Birmingham managed to identify space for EAP tutors to play an active role in assisting educationally mobile students in adjusting to a different cultural and academic context and developing the ability to interact successfully in an English-speaking HE setting.

The presentation demonstrated the use of CPD materials and illustrated how EAP tutors can help with facilitating lecturers’ CPD. The scholars revealed their CPD utilises The EAP Toolkit including pedagogies such as grading language, scaffolding knowledge acquisition, and evaluating different communication styles. The scholars also commented on using materials found in EQUiiP, a recently completed Erasmus+ project, which offered a support platform for educational developers and content lecturers aiming to ensure quality in international and intercultural classrooms in HE. This open-access CPD resource consisting of specially designed modules on ‘Intercultural Group Dynamics’ and ‘The Role of Language in the International Classroom’ looked very appealing.

Teacher as host: Fostering student agency and awareness

In the manner of a good host, Maha invites us to always consider who may be excluded or disempowered by any choices which we make in the classroom. In the EAP classroom, this exercise can be taken further, with students themselves being encouraged to reflect on how ways in which academic arguments and texts are constructed are inclusive or exclusive to different readers. This theme was developed in Sanchia Rodrigues’ session entitled Challenging Colonial Legacies in EAP: Lessons and Limitations from a Pre-Undergraduate Programme. Sanchia described how she used the Academic Reading Circle model (Seburn, 2016) with her pre-undergraduate programme students to encourage them to challenge Anglocentrism in academic writing by identifying contextual references in the text and unpicking what assumptions are made through these about the expected reader, and deducing which readers may be excluded or marginalised as a result. This gave a useful insight into how the ARC model can be implemented to direct students’ attention to Anglo- or Euro-centric writing practices and to critically examine their implications for different readers.

This theme of fostering student agency by encouraging them to uncover and question underlying systems and power structures was also picked up in Symposium 2, entitled Facing the Internationalisation Challenge with Agency: The Pedagogical Work of the Laboratory of Academic Literacy (LLAC), by Dr Marilia Ferreira, Gabriella Pavesi and Daniela Cleusa Carvalho from the Universidade de Sao Paulo. They outlined how staff at the LLAC work to facilitate the development of students’ agency both through helping students become more aware of rhetorical structures at the levels of sentence and genre (Hyland, 2009; Swales & Feak, 2012) but also by questioning the activity of academic knowledge production and dissemination of which these academic conventions are a part (Engstrom, 2015). Marilia showed that, by implementing principles of Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy and encouraging students not only to notice but also to question academic rules and conventions, students are able to implement both theoretical and critical thinking with agency to make more informed choices in their academic writing.

The concept of student agency and also that of equitable community building were further scrutinised by Dr Steve Brown and Dr Tomasz John in their paper entitled Navigating No-Man’s Land: Facilitating the Transition of International Scholars towards a PhD Study (also, lockdown!). Reporting on the insights from a case study investigating the transition international doctoral students navigate through when first starting their PhD journeys, the speakers gave us some thought-provoking insights into the concepts of Trans-National Education, the myth of the “international student” and the role of EAP in doctoral education. They proposed that, when designing a fit-for-purpose doctoral induction programme with an EAP component, there are different interpretations of the role and purpose of EAP that can lead to very different outcomes. Programmes concerned primarily with repairing the linguistic “deficits” of students follow an indoctrinatory model that seeks to assimilate international students into the current, hegemonic structures of the international academy. It is difficult to see how this model can allow international students to make any meaningful contribution to knowledge, as they are only valued for their ability to reproduce what is already deemed “acceptable”. Alternatively, a focus on individual empowerment may allow students on EAP programmes to achieve greater success within the current structures, but this model still fails to engage with systemic injustices and power imbalances. A third approach, however, seeks to emancipate international students from their deficit positions by addressing structural inequities through a model of inclusion, rather than one of integration. These different educational approaches – indoctrination, empowerment and emancipation – and their corresponding outcomes of assimilation, integration and inclusion, are presented in an ‘Emancipation Continuum’ (Brown 2021, forthcoming), which is offered as an analytical framework for exploring the emancipatory impact of ESOL on migrant communities. Steve and Tomasz proposed that a similar framework can be applied to EAP programmes to explore the extent to which they promote or restrict the freedoms of international students to contribute meaningfully to the international academy.

The above reasoning and theoretical frameworks were taken into account when designing the content of the 12-week long intensive doctoral induction programme. What emerged from Steve and Tomasz’s study was that the doctoral students became ‘border crossers’ as they engaged in an exploration of their own history and to reach an understanding of self and their own culture in relation to others in the new Western context. By the same token, the students actively challenged the stereotypical label of international students by adapting to the new role of ‘transformative intellectuals’ who challenged themselves to cross the imposed barriers on the borders of disciplines and cultures (Giroux, 1992, 15).

Steve and Tomasz reported that the students benefited from the DIP, as the programme allowed for experimentation within a new, fit-for-purpose curriculum, effectively fuelling creative explorations across these ideological borders. Students appreciated that the programme embraced the knowledge they brought with them, effectively accommodating their particular cultural trajectories by de-centring ownership of knowledge through criticality and reflection on their PhD proposals. Students also started to regard uncritical acceptance of existing hegemony as a symptom of deference; as their own critical thinking skills developed, they became increasingly interested in using their own praxis as researchers to disrupt the status quo rather than to comply with it as “this attitudinal shift implied that the programme had some kind of emancipatory impact, allowing students’ perspectives to become included in wider academic discourse” (Brown and John, 2022).

The papers outlined above indicate that approaches which foster student agency, critical awareness and questioning and disruption of existing hegemonies can and have been used successfully in different EAP contexts … but, coming back to the teacher-as-host analogy, it is the role of the teacher to first lay the groundwork and then invite students to bring different perspectives and ways of relating into their academic engagement.

Conclusion

It has been the intention of this blog post to identify social justice related strands running through the BALEAP 2021 conference, and to weave these together in a way in which resonances between different sessions can be highlighted. As can be seen just from insights gained from the sample of sessions explored in this piece, there is much exciting SJ-informed work being conducted and developed in our field at the moment, much of which reinforces the benefits of employing a pedagogy of equity and care.

Of course, we are also mindful that there were some talks that took a cautionary approach to the concept of pedagogies of care. For example in Dr. Alex Ding and Bee Bond’s session entitled What Do Considerations of Pedagogy Tell Us About the Profession and the Practitioner?, a suggestion was made that “we need to move away from a pedagogy of care that is only a pedagogy of care … if it’s caring for students but without a focus on learning, without a focus on knowledge”. This assertion appears to overlook the theoretical underpinnings of pedagogies of care promoted by scholars such as Paulo Freire, bell hooks and Henry A Giroux. Central to their work is that care is an essential element of creating the conditions for holistic and transformative learning and teaching. Indeed, these pedagogical principles can assist both students and teachers to:

determine what and whose knowledge is deemed worthy of study the first place

demystify and critique the existing hegemonies of their disciplines and beyond

determine what languages and language variants are permitted in the classroom and deemed worthy to be studied

dictate who has the right to speak and be heard

determine who is able to access and benefit from learning in the first place.

Teachers care deeply about students’ learning, and it is this deep care that drives socially oriented educators to search for ways to recognise and meet a wide range of students’ needs, and by doing so they do not need to reduce academic rigour or focus; on the contrary, they create a equitable space where students can develop their knowledge and skills in order to challenge rather than maintain the status quo of social and environmental inequalities. We see this as fundamental to critically engaged EAP learning, teaching, curriculum and assessment – not an optional add-on.

It is clear that there are more discussions to be had about conceptualisations of social justice praxis (including a pedagogy of equitable care) in our field, and what might and might not be regarded as falling under the SJ umbrella. A move is currently being made to investigate the range of conceptualisations of SJ in our field by SJ SIG committee members Dr Weronika Fernando, Iwona Winiarska-Pringle and Jo Kukuczka. They reported on their initial findings in their session entitled Social Justice and classroom practices: towards an EAP pedagogy of transformation and empowerment, revealing a richness and complexity in tutors’ understanding of, and employment of, SJ-informed pedagogical principles in the EAP classroom. Further expansion on the results of this study will be shared in their forthcoming paper, but, in the meantime …

… we’d love to hear from you!

If you’d like to join the conversation about the SJ strands running through the BALEAP conference and their implications for EAP pedagogies, please share your thoughts on our Google JamBoard. We’re very aware that we haven’t been able to capture all possible SJ-related insights from the conference, so we invite you to share any that we’ve missed on the JamBoard (click here) or simply add your thoughts in the comments section under this blog entry. We’re also aware that, while this piece has woven together different SJ insights, it hasn’t critiqued them fully – please feel free to add critical perspectives too.

References

Bali, M. (2015) Pedagogy of Care – Gone Massive, Hybrid Pedagogy, 20 April. Available at: https://hybridpedagogy.org/pedagogy-of-care-gone-massive/

Bali, M. & Zamora, M. (2020) Equitable Emergence: Telling the Story of Equity Unbound in the Open. Open Education Conference, 10 Nov, online. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEeZvM6_8UE

Brown, S. (forthcoming), The Emancipation Continuum: Exploring the Role of ESOL (English for Speaker of Other Languages) in the Settlement of Immigrants. British Journal of Sociology of Education (Volume tbc).

Brown, S. and John, T. (2022), Navigating No-Man’s Land: Facilitating the Transition of International Scholars towards a PhD Study at a Scottish University (also lockdown!). In Lock, D. (Ed.), BORDERLANDS: THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION TEACHING PRACTICES, Springer

Creese, A. and Blackledge, A. 2015. Translanguaging and identity in educational settings. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35: pp. 20-35.

Engstrom, Y. (2015). Learning by expanding (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Fallout, J. (2016). The Dynamics of Past Selves in Language Learning and Well-Being. In: P.D. MacIntyre, T. Gregersen and S. Mercer (eds). Positive Psychology in SLA. Bristol, UK. Multilingual Matters, 112-129.

Giroux, H. (1992). Border crossings: Cultural workers and the politics of education. New York, NY: Routledge.

Hyland, K (2009). Academic discourse: English in a global context. Continuum.

Jenkins, J. and Wingate, U. (2015). ‘Staff and Students’ Perceptions of English Language Policies in ‘International’ Universities: A Case Study from the UK.’

Khuder, B., & Petrić, B. (2020). Academic socialisation through collaboration: Textual interventions in supporting exiled scholars’ academic literacies development. Education and Conflict Review , 3, 24-28.

Seburn, T. (2016) Academic reading circles. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.

Swales, J.M. & Feak, C.B. (2012). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential tasks as skills (3rd ed.). University of Michigan Press.

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Webinar Recording from BALEAP 2021: Social Justice and Classroom Practices: Towards a Pedagogy of Transformation and Empowerment by Dr. W. Fernando, I. Winiarska-Pringle and J. Kukuczka

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Webinar Recording from BALEAP 2021: Social Justice and Classroom Practices: Towards a Pedagogy of Transformation and Empowerment by Dr. W. Fernando, I. Winiarska-Pringle and J. Kukuczka

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The authors reported on the initial findings of a research project designed to investigate the range of conceptualisations of SJ in the EAP field. They found a richness and complexity in tutors’ understanding of, and employment of, SJ-informed pedagogical principles in the EAP classroom.

of a research project

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Event Write Up: Visions of Social Responsibility in EAP: Reflections from World Cafe at Kent PIM

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Event Write Up: Visions of Social Responsibility in EAP: Reflections from World Cafe at Kent PIM

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At this event, we posed the following questions to participants: “What would EAP look like if social responsibility were to be placed at its core, and how might we get there?”. Read on to see what ideas were put forward

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As part of the Visions: Looking Back and Looking Ahead PIM hosted by the University of Kent last month, we ran a World Cafe session focusing on Visions of Social Responsibility in EAP. We felt that, after a year which has posed many challenges to us all, and has thrown light on a number of social justice-related concerns in and around our EAP contexts, the time was right to hear from the EAP community about their visions for a better future, and their practical ideas for how this might be achieved. To this end, we posed the question, "What would EAP look like if social responsibility were to be placed at its core, and how might we get there?"

Participants came to the discussion with a wide variety of social-justice related interests and varying degrees of experience of putting these into practice. These areas included: critical digital pedagogies; teaching EAP/ESOL to refugees (e.g. trauma-informed pedagogies and teaching on the CARA Syria Programme); developing course materials related to global studies and cultural communication; creating in-house EAP materials and authentic materials, co-produced with students; designing student-driven syllabi; promoting teacher autonomy within EAP centres and within their wider institutions; decolonisation of the EAP curriculum; factors such as race and financial privilege of EAP students; social justice in pedagogy and teaching practice.
Participants' visions
There were a number of main themes which emerged from our group discussions, which we have summarised below:
Theme 1: Enhanced student-student engagement and communication
We discussed how we might encourage students to genuinely listen to and engage with each other. This discussion branched out in different directions:

we could explore intercultural communication and competencies with our students, both through the pedagogies which we use (e.g. pedagogies of compassion and care) and also some of the content of our courses (one group member had developed modules in this area). It was noted that, in order to be able to do this, teachers would benefit from accessing CPD in effective intercultural communication strategies, particularly if this were tailored to the needs / backgrounds of students in their particular contexts.

another suggestion was to encourage more engagement between and among international and home students on campuses through adopting Internationalisation at Home (IaH), which offers an international experience to all students, and removes the onus on international students to make disproportionate effort to 'fit in' or 'acculturate'. An example was given of home students being invited to EAP classes at one university, as all students need to learn how to engage effectively with academic culture and discourse.

Theme 2: Transforming/transformative EAP curriculum
It was noted that the EAP curriculum has strong potential to transform students' learning. This discussion branched out in two directions:

we shared examples of moving away from published materials to introduce curricula with global issues, global citizenship and critical skills at their core; these were both in-sessional and pre-sessional courses across various institutions; we also discussed student-driven EAP courses, and materials co-produced with students incorporating authentic texts from previous cohorts; finally we talked about what our students' real needs are as opposed to the perceived needs.

however, producing in-house materials requires knowledge, continuous professional development, time, autonomy and leadership; curriculum can also be a constraint if any of these aspects are lacking as we may end up teaching students what we know rather than what they need; in addition, EAP centres have different cultures and different positions within institutions which result in various degrees of teachers' agency and autonomy

Theme 3: inclusivity
This main theme addressed the need to increase student access to university and participation in EAP provision. This discussion focused on the following:

widening participation - it was noted that finances constituted the biggest barrier to student participation in HE. The widening participation policy was not seen as being as effective in attracting students from underprivileged backgrounds as the Government and universities may have initially hoped for. It was noted that EAP provision is generally only accessible to those who have succeeded in securing a university place: predominantly international students coming from backgrounds of some privilege regardless of their race or ethnic origin.

age and work commitments - both age and work commitments were identified and key obstacles in students from underprivileged background enrolling for university study. It was pointed out that applying for student loans may be impossible for those who are in employment, which further closes the access routes for some individuals.

disability and protected characteristics - disability and protected characteristics were also identified as clear obstacles to accessing EAP support at universities. It was pointed out that, to the best of our knowledge, EAP classes are designed for mainstream students without any explicit pedagogical considerations given to different forms of disability.

lack of inclusivity in online teaching - it was pointed out that the current online teaching lacks inclusivity and the quality of support, in the view of some of our participants. The students have less contact with the tutors, and they are not receiving the same support as when studying face-to-face. The current online teaching constitutes a crisis response and is not driven by learner-centred pedagogies.

How might we get there?
There were a number of practical suggestions regarding how we may develop a more socially responsible EAP, which, when analysed more closely, can be grouped around the two emerging themes: reimagining the spaces we hold and gaining strength through collaborations.
Spaces for opportunities

CPD/SoTL sessions - in-house CPD/SoTL sessions were identified as one of the spaces where the inclusion of social justice-related topics would increase their visibility and relevance. This approach has been adopted at one University's EAP centre, where colleagues discuss SJ topics at their weekly CPD forums.

curriculum- this was felt to be a particularly promising space for impact and empowerment, which would reflect and contribute to a wider HE sector interest in decolonisation, community engagement, global citizenship, inclusivity, and innovation. Participants felt that co-creation with students and student-driven curriculum have the potential for creative and innovative T&L, in turn offering increased engagement from students and teachers who become co-investigators in the process of curriculum development. It was also noted that many EAP centres are now creating their own materials, which, as mentioned earlier, needs to be acknowledged and rewarded with the allocation of time, resources and opportunities for development available to those responsible for creating in-house materials. Once again, it was felt that a community wide-forum for sharing those ideas, co-creating and critiquing each other's work would be a welcome addition to the already existing internal possibilities.

online teaching - participants felt that the sudden move to online teaching, various social movements and protests brought to light issues around social justice, including who is able to access and benefit from online spaces.

'third spaces' - operating in a 'third space' also offers us a degree of freedom to co-create with colleagues in a range of different academic departments. The de-centering of EAP was felt to offer more opportunities than current 'central' positions. Joint teaching and research projects were felt to be a good way to visibility and creative practice; such collaborations would also strengthen EAP Practitioners' knowledge base (pedagogical content knowledge, disciplinary linguistic knowledge and discourse conventions) which in turn could be shared within our community. Additionally, some EAP activities naturally fall within the wider interest of HE institutions. For example, EAP SoTL projects around international student experience can be of relevance to colleagues working in Internationalisation and Internationalisation at Home, Widening Participation, library services, support for refugee students, student councils, and mental health and disability services, to mention some.

current socio-political context - the current socio-political crisis and discomfort also serve as an opportunity for change, which can help SJ issues in EAP come to the fore. This is a good time to work towards the inclusion of a range of important issues as they are also becoming more prominent in academic disciplines as well.
Strength through collaboration
It was emphasised that many EAP practitioners would benefit from peer support in order to embark on social justice work, both in their own institutions and across the wider EAP community.

SJ buddies / peer mentors / critical friends - even within the centres where SJ topics are embedded and/or discussed, there was a keen interest among the participants in strengthening networks with colleagues in other institutions. It was felt that, unlike some EAP activities (e.g. assessment), social justice-related initiatives are often undertaken in isolation and would benefit from more structured and regular support, for example in a form of peer mentors or critical friends, perhaps facilitated by the SJ SIG.

community-wide networks - social justice initiatives can suffer from being seen as an optional add-on within a teacher's individual practice; a choice rather than a necessity. Some colleagues also expressed their concern over imposing SJ related topics on international students. These are valid concerns and worth robust analyses and discussions as they may be holding some of us back from engaging with SJ matters in our practice. It was also suggested that it would be useful to continue sharing ideas with each other in a more dedicated online space (something more static than the SJ SIG discussion list, and something more private than the SJ SIG website). Such online space would require registration to ensure privacy and allow the community to build a collective effort of mapping areas of SJ related practice as well to share their concerns and seek practical suggestions of how to approach them.

inclusion of all EAP practitioners - across the wider EAP community, we felt that getting fixed on 'success' may not be the best way forward; instead we are stronger collectively, in particular as many of us are sessional, some are part-time and some do not have SoTL time built into their contracts; collective effort, possibly across institutions could be an effective solution for EAP Practitioners to gain more agency, visibility and voice.
And finally ...
We would like to thank all participants for sharing their visions of social responsibility in EAP and discussing some of the challenges and potential ways forward in this area. We are intending to revisit these ideas and use them to inform our direction over the course of the next few months ... so please watch this space for further developments! Please feel free to add any further thoughts / comments in the comments section below.

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Visions of Social Responsibility in EAP: Reflections from World Cafe at Kent PIM

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EAP for Social Justice SIG - As part of the Visions: Looking Back and Looking Ahead PIM hosted by the University of Kent last month, we ran a World Cafe session focusing on Visions of Social Responsibility in EAP. We felt that, after a year which has posed many challenges to us all, and...

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Webinar Recording@ Turning Words into Actions: Eliminating Racism and Racial Inequality in HE

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Webinar Recording@ Turning Words into Actions: Eliminating Racism and Racial Inequality in HE

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Turning words into actions: Eliminating racism and racial inequality in higher education (with captions)

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Article: A Pedagogy of Trust in Higher Learning by A. Curzon-Hobson

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Article: A Pedagogy of Trust in Higher Learning by A. Curzon-Hobson

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Curzon-Hobson, A. (2002) “A Pedagogy of Trust in Higher Learning” Teaching in Higher Education, vol. 7.3

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This paper develops and defends a notion of trust in higher learning, and examines the pedagogical challenges of its pursuit within the sphere of higher education. It argues that the experience of trust between teachers and students is a necessary foundation for a critical, dialogical learning environment, yet it is a pursuit and sensation that can be imperiled by many of the demands and restrictions placed upon teachers in higher education. This discussion is of a philosophical nature with the aim of providing a perspective on a concept that has often been neglected in recent educational debate.

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This paper develops and defends a notion of trust in higher learning, and examines the pedagogical challenges of its pursuit within the sphere of higher education. It argues that the experience of trust between teachers and students is a necessary foundation for a critical, dialogical learning environment, yet it is a pursuit and sensation that can be imperiled by many of the demands and restrictions placed upon teachers in higher education.

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Book: The English for Academic Purposes practitioner: Operating on the edge of academia by A. Ding and I. Bruce

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Book: The English for Academic Purposes practitioner: Operating on the edge of academia by A. Ding and I. Bruce

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A good critical overview of the state of the field in 2017, alluding to a good range of social justice issues.

Ding, A., & Bruce, I. (2017). The English for Academic Purposes practitioner: Operating on the edge of academia. Palgrave Macmillan.

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Article: The analytical lens: Developing undergraduate students' critical dispositions in undergraduate EAP writing courses by M. Brooke, L. Monbec and N. Tilakaratna

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Article: The analytical lens: Developing undergraduate students' critical dispositions in undergraduate EAP writing courses by M. Brooke, L. Monbec and N. Tilakaratna

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Brooke, M., Monbec, L. & Tilakaratna, N. (2019). The analytical lens: Developing undergraduate students' critical dispositions in undergraduate EAP writing courses. Teaching in Higher Education. 24(3), pp. 428-443

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ResearchGate is a network dedicated to science and research. Connect, collaborate and discover scientific publications, jobs and conferences. All for free.

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Webinar Recording: Exploring EAP Practitioner Identity in Circles of Trust by Michele le Roux

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Webinar Recording: Exploring EAP Practitioner Identity in Circles of Trust by Michele le Roux

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Book: English for Academic Purposes in neo-liberal universities: A critical grounded theory by G. Hadley

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Book: English for Academic Purposes in neo-liberal universities: A critical grounded theory by G. Hadley

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Hadley, G. (2015). English for Academic Purposes in neo-liberal universities: A critical grounded theory. Springer.

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Monograph: Universities as Critic and Conscience of Society: The Role of Academic Freedom by D.G. Jones, K. Galvin and D. Woodhouse

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Monograph: Universities as Critic and Conscience of Society: The Role of Academic Freedom by D.G. Jones, K. Galvin and D. Woodhouse

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Jones, G. D., Galvin, K. & Woodhouse, D. (2000) Universities as Critic and Conscience of Society: The Role of Academic Freedom (NZ Universities Academic Audit Unit)of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.). New York: Continuum. Available: https://www.aqa.ac.nz/sites/all/files/ASQ6%20Critic%20and%20Conscience.pdf

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Article: Shifting identities and blurring boundaries: The emergence of Third Space professionals in UK Higher Education by Celia Whitchurch

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Article: Shifting identities and blurring boundaries: The emergence of Third Space professionals in UK Higher Education by Celia Whitchurch

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Whitchurch, C. (2008). Shifting identities and blurring boundaries: The emergence of Third Space professionals in UK Higher Education. Higher Education Quarterly, 62(4) 77-396. Available: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10002035/1/Whitchurch2008ShiftingIdentities377.pdf

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Article: Can students within higher education learn to be resilient and, educationally speaking, does it matter? by C. Walker

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Article: Can students within higher education learn to be resilient and, educationally speaking, does it matter? by C. Walker

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Walker, C. et al (2006) “Can students within higher education learn to be resilient and, educationally speaking, does it matter?” Educational Studies 32.3 pp. 251-264. Available: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03055690600631184

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This paper presents a critical appraisal of resilience and its associated concepts within the context of higher education. It addresses wide‐ranging definitions of resilience, encompassing endurance and adaptability, and seeks to understand how these definitions impact on the learning experiences of students. As theoretical and empirical work on resilience has burgeoned in terms of adolescent experiences of education, the rise of interest has not been matched by that in studies of adult learning, particularly within university settings. This is despite the growing importance of retention studies, which have clear and important links to how well students manage their learning ability in adversity. Realization of the potential embodied in this concept to alter for the better, together with ways of conceptualizing learning and teaching, however, will remain constrained unless teachers within higher education pay attention to the resilience narratives that individual students present, and how teaching strategies can affect their learning trajectories. The paper examines some factors that impact on students' learning within higher education, and theorizes how teaching and assessment may be adapted to promote resilience in all its forms.

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Can students within higher education learn to be resilient and, educationally speaking, does it matter?

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This paper presents a critical appraisal of resilience and its associated concepts within the context of higher education. It addresses wide‐ranging definitions of resilience, encompassing endurance and adaptability, and seeks to understand how these definitions impact on the learning experiences of students.

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Blog Post: Social Justice in the Language Classroom by R. Robin

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Blog Post: Social Justice in the Language Classroom by R. Robin

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A blog post about teaching social justice in the language classroom.

Robin, R. (2019) ‘Social Justice in the Language Classroom’, Creative ASL Teaching, 6 August, [Blog]. Available at: https:// creativeaslteaching.com/social-justice-in-thelanguage-classroom/

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Social Justice in the Language Classroom - Creative ASL Teaching

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Social justice can be defined as a philosophy of treating all people with fairness, respect, dignity, and equality. The world language classroom is uniquely suited to teach about this topic because it can encompass a wide variety of topics concerning local and global issues. Language teachers have an opportunity to challenge bias and stereotypes, build [...]

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Debate Recording: What if … education policy was shaped by a commitment to social justice? (UCL, 5/12/19)

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Debate Recording: What if … education policy was shaped by a commitment to social justice? (UCL, 5/12/19)

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IOE Debate:

What if … education policy was shaped by a commitment to social justice? UCL Institute of Education, 6:00-7:15pm on 5th Dec 2019: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/events/2019/dec/what-if-education-policy-was-shaped-commitmentsocial-justice

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Leading experts and commentators set out their understanding of what 'social justice' means, what the essential facets of education and related areas of public policy would be with the pursuit of social justice in mind, and whether or not it is an idea whose time has come.
This event is free.
Event Information

Watch the debate

YouTube Widget Placeholder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08kLzSOnfis

But there's been a certain 'fuzziness' around what exactly is meant by each of the two projects - with little attention paid to downward mobility as an inherent part of social mobility, or to where precisely the line is to be drawn between equality of opportunity and equality of outcome.

Speakers

Louise Archer, Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education, UCL Institute of Education

Dan Morrow, CEO, Woodland Academy Trust

Dr Jason Arday, academic, Trustee of the Runnymede Trust, and School Governor at Shaftesbury Park Primary School

Iesha Small, Head of Strategy, Youth Hostels Association (England and Wales)

Chair: Professor Becky Francis, Director of UCL Institute of Education

Find out more about the speakers for our 2019-20 IOE Debates series. Join the conversation on Twitter at #IOEDebates

Listen again

SoundCloud Widget Placeholder https://soundcloud.com/ioelondon/what-if-education-policy-was-shaped-by-...

Links

Image: Mbiama via Wikicommons CC BY 3.0

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What if... education policy was shaped by a commitment to social justice?

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Leading experts and commentators set out their understanding of what 'social justice' means, what the essential facets of education and related areas of public policy would be with the pursuit of social justice in mind, and whether or not it is an idea whose time has come.

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Webinar Recording: So You Want to do Research about International Students? Suggested Topics that can Move the Field Forward by Dr Jenna Mittelmeier

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Webinar Recording: So You Want to do Research about International Students? Suggested Topics that can Move the Field Forward by Dr Jenna Mittelmeier

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This is a really useful video lecture about doing research on international students, including intersectional identities of international students, innovative methodologies and ethical internationalisation. A great resource for those looking to find a research gap in this area

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Topics to drive forward research about international students

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Report: Precarious Work in HE: Insecure Contracts and How they have Changed Over Time (UCU)

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Report: Precarious Work in HE: Insecure Contracts and How they have Changed Over Time (UCU)

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Report: Precarious Work in HE: Insecure Contracts and How they have Changed Over Time (UCU)

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Report: Precarious Work in HE: Insecure Contracts and How they have Changed Over Time (UCU)

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JEAP Special Issue: Critical English for Academic Purposes

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JEAP Special Issue: Critical English for Academic Purposes

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Journal of English for Academic Purposes

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Read the latest articles of Journal of English for Academic Purposes at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevier's leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature

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JEAP Special Issue: Gender and Academic Writing

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JEAP Special Issue: Gender and Academic Writing

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Journal of English for Academic Purposes

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Read the latest articles of Journal of English for Academic Purposes at ScienceDirect.com, Elsevier's leading platform of peer-reviewed scholarly literature

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Magazine Issue: Making Jobs Work (Prospect Magazine & The Joseph Rowntree Foundation)

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Magazine Issue: Making Jobs Work (Prospect Magazine & The Joseph Rowntree Foundation)

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This magazine issue focuses on the issue of precarity in general (i.e. it is not specific to EAP or HE) but there are ideas here of relevance to EAP/HE