Student-student cooperation promotes diversity, inclusion, and the
SDGs in language education
George M.Jacobs & MarlaLise
Kampung Senang Charity and Education Foundation | The Eco Chapter
Language learners are diverse in many ways. These differences
include country of origin, ethnicity, gender, religion, social class, past
achievement, sexual identity, neurotype, mother tongue, age, physical and mental
disabilities, and previous education. Everyone deserves respect and the right to
a learning environment in which their needs, both physiological and
psychological, are met. This article explores how inclusion, diversity, and the
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can meet these needs.
Inclusion brings together diverse language users to benefit from what each can
contribute based on their uniqueness, to empower others to do the same, and to
use their language proficiency and other skills to make the world a better
place. Various approaches in language education seek to support “unity in
diversity” among students by facilitating student-student cooperation.
Cooperative learning is one such approach. Since the 1970s, cooperative learning
has established itself as a well-researched approach with a strong and wide
theoretical grounding. Furthermore, scholars have linked cooperative learning to
many other elements of the student-centered paradigm, including work that urges
education to play a role in making society a better place rather than focusing
solely on enhancing individuals’ own careers and lifestyles. The SDGs present a
well-known example of how education can serve the greater good and build a world
in which everyone, regardless of background, can be included in a grand effort
to make the planet a place where everyone feels at home and can contribute to
making that home a place where everyone can thrive.
Physically, compared to other animals, humans are not very impressive, being far
from the largest, strongest, fastest, or equipped with the keenest senses or the
sharpest teeth or claws. Thus, ancient homo sapiens needed to cooperate, to combine
their meager powers, to survive. This cooperation continues, even though human
technology has empowered the species to dominate the planet. In the present, human-human
cooperation has greatly increased and expanded. Food offers just one example. Few people
grow, find, or hunt their own food. Instead, the food most people eat comes to them,
thanks to the joint efforts of many, many others, each performing diverse yet crucial
roles. Thus, on the one hand, humans have become much more powerful, but on the other
hand, much more interdependent. As can be seen in pandemics, what harms one person can
soon harm others, even if those others reside on the other side of the planet.
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