Addressing race in English language teaching

Erika de Freitas Coachman & Izabelle da Silva Fernandes
Rio de Janeiro
Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze a set of didactic materials developed to teach English as an Additional Language at a Brazilian public school in Rio de Janeiro. Such materials were designed to invite 7th grade students with diverse social, racial, and economic backgrounds to learn about the world and the English language from viewpoints that delineate a decolonial stance (Mignolo, 2010; Kumaravadivelu, 2016; Jansen, 2017). Grounded on the notions of Critical Race Literacy (Ferreira, 2014) and Critical Language Awareness (Alim, 2005), this paper looks into didactic activities built upon emancipatory (Freire, 1996) and transgressive (Pennycook, 2006; hooks, 2013) approaches to Applied Linguistics and Language Education, understanding English Language classrooms as privileged arenas for the construction of ideas on race. The methodological approach is based on the premises of a Dialogical Discourse Analysis (Brait, 2006/2018) to identify centripetal and centrifugal forces (Bakhtin, 1981) in the didactic materials produced. Results have indicated that the discourse genres selected (Bakhtin, 2003/1979 apud Tilio, 2017) and the set of activities developed are permeated by social voices (Bakhtin, 1981) that promote decolonial dialogues in the English language classroom.

Keywords:
Publication history

Date received: 30 July 2022

Date accepted: 8 December 2022

Published online: 24 July 2023

Table of contents

In 2016, students from the University of Pennsylvania removed a portrait of William Shakespeare from its prestigious spot at the English Department to replace it with a picture of the African American poet Audre Lorde (Demeter, 2019). The symbolic meaning of such substitution draws our attention to a heated debate on the social and racial implications of language and literature teaching. On social media posts, movements such as DisrupTTexts have gained momentum, for they advocate a thorough modification of university and school syllabi, pointing the finger at racist and hegemonic forces at work in the craft of these choices over the centuries. Controversies triggered by such events and social movements have become increasingly recurrent as they denounce to what extent universities, schools, and society at large have failed to address key issues on race, identity, diversity, and education.

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