Discussions

Your Name and Title: Lic. Mariana Ferrarelli

School or Organization Name: Lomas High School – Saint Alban’s College

Co-Presenter Name(s): -------

Area of the World from Which You Will Present: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Language in Which You Will Present: English

Target Audience(s): Language, Humanities and Arts Teachers

Short Session Description (one line):

I will explore the importance of dealing with global issues in secondary education as one possible way to politicize the language classroom

Full Session Description (as long as you would like):

In a context in which racism, gender violence and religious intolerance still prevail, teachers should assume the role of cultural workers striving to raise awareness among students and advancing critical thinking so that classrooms become sites of social, political and intercultural debate:

‘What!’ continued Phileas Fogg, in a perfectly calm tone of voice. ‘Do these barbarous customs still prevail in India? Have not the English been able to put an end to them?’(Verne; ….)

The presentation will explore the multiple layers and probable answers to a single question: Is it possible to continue thinking that language teaching is neutral when its raw material is, precisely, language, the only tool created by humans with enough power to build some discourses and destroy others, dominate, stigmatize, empower or disempower? If language is the ‘voice’ of people, can we still believe that teaching learners how to use it is merely simple and harmless ‘training’? There is a series of authors who have already discussed the political implications of language teaching (Freire; Garrison Hanuka & Hawes; Dewey, Brown). However, what needs to be explored at a further level is the practical effect this has in classroom practice.

Although his tone is ‘perfectly calm’ and his temper typically self-controlled and determined, Phileas Fogg, protagonist of Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne, fails to escape the horror felt before the difference, the unknown. This ethnocentric stance from the quote above prescribes a world in which there is a centre that rules over a dispersed and stigmatized periphery. The reference to the local customs as ‘barbarous’ hides the intolerance and fear towards what cannot be apprehended or processed according to one’s own patterns, that is, culture.