Why does this matter to us as language teachers?

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

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

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

By Dr. Shree Deepa and Dr. Geetha Durairajan

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

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

 How did we go about Indianising and decolonising?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our mail ids:

 shreedeepa@uohyd.ac.in