Tag Archives: inclusion

Diversity, equity, and inclusion: Dialoguing with TESL Ontario members

Download PDF for images

Abstract

This article reports and comments on findings from a TESL Ontario membership survey and synchronous dialogue session inquiring about challenges and opportunities related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in English Language Teaching classrooms and workplaces. The findings reveal that TESL Ontario members have most frequently experienced ageism and ethnic and cultural discrimination in their interactions with colleagues and students. Member suggestions for enacting DEI principles and practices at work and in class included engaging in self-directed learning activities, linguistically inclusive teaching practices, and formal professional development opportunities.

Introduction

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have become buzzwords within and beyond the field of language education, reflecting the ongoing need for social change,  Continue Reading →

POST COMMENT 0

Our Silent Journey: Supporting English language learners to adapt to the classroom 

Download PDF

Introduction  

It is evident that the number of English language learners (ELLs) has increased in the last few years. In Ontario, more than 25% of the student population are learning English as a second language (L2) (Statistics Canada, 2020). Given that numbers are increasing, it is important to know how to support ELLs in the classroom, school community, and in their own communities with the purpose of helping each student become successful. Hence, the core of this message is to provide strategies that may support newcomers to feel positive about their learning, as teachers become more aware about their practices in and outside of the classroom. For this reason, we will focus on the settlement curve and explain it,  Continue Reading →

POST COMMENT 1

An anthropological approach to diversity in ELT

Download PDF

Abstract
This paper presents a discussion of the racial barrier to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the context of English Language Teaching. Although diversity is welcomed in ESL classrooms, giving all the students and teachers equal opportunities to participate and keeping all of them equally engaged is not necessarily an easy task when it comes to a formidable barrier called race. To achieve this aim, one perspective ESL employers, teachers, and students can adopt to reduce racial bias is an anthropological approach, which this paper is attempting to promote.

 

Survival of the fittest
When the sociologist Herbert Spencer coined the phrase survival of the fittest in 1864, he had no idea how his misconception of Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution would arouse such a bitter controversy in the 20th century with dire repercussions in our present day.  Continue Reading →

Categories:
culture, ESL, Uncategorised
POST COMMENT 0