Speaker
ABSTRACT
The field of social justice language education often emphasizes theories that address resistance to oppressive systems, including anti-oppression, anti-racism, and anti-colonialism. While these approaches are necessary to understand the challenges facing marginalized groups, they often focus on the damage and distress caused by oppression from a deficit perspective (Tuck, 2011). In this presentation, I introduce a leading-edge approach to enacting meaningful change in English language education (ELT): emergent strategy (brown, 2017). I begin by providing an overview of emergent strategy, a transformative framework developed by and for social justice activists to support the creation of equitable futures (brown, 2017). I then explore how this framework can be applied in ELT in Japan and beyond through its main elements: fractal awareness, adaptability, decentralized interdependence, iterative non-linearity, resiliency and transformative justice, and creating more possibilities. Through real-world examples—such as fostering radically honest and trusting relationships and augmenting student choice—I illustrate how these six elements of emergent strategy can enhance ELT. By the end of this session, participants will better understand emergent strategy and their potential to promote transformative learning in ELT. This presentation aims to inspire educators to implement emergent strategy to advance more just and inclusive learning environments.
KEYWORDS
Emergent Strategy, Social Justice, Teacher Development, Transformative Education
| TITLE | Reframing ELT: Emergent strategy for inclusion and justice |
|---|---|
| RELEVANT SIG | Teacher Development |
| FORMAT | Practice-oriented Oral Face-to-face presentation (25 minutes, including Q&A) |
