scholarly journals Local Identity Studies of Gender Diversity and Sexual Orientation in ELT

HOW ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 154-172
Author(s):  
Harold Castañeda-Peña

While it is true that identity studies on the intersection between gender and sexual orientations with language teaching and learning are not new in the local context, the systematization of these studies as a body of knowledge is scarce. This article presents, first of all, a systematization of reference frameworks for this type of studies in historical perspective. Secondly, it presents a reflection on the collective achievements in this field of study. Finally, the article concludes with a brief reflection on potential actions at the research and pedagogical levels.

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-129
Author(s):  
Damaris Seleina Parsitau

AbstractIn Kenya, debates about sexual orientation have assumed center stage at several points in recent years, but particularly before and after the promulgation of the Constitution of Kenya in 2010. These debates have been fueled by religious clergy and by politicians who want to align themselves with religious organizations for respectability and legitimation, particularly by seeking to influence the nation's legal norms around sexuality. I argue that through their responses and attempts to influence legal norms, the religious and political leaders are not only responsible for the nonacceptance of same-sex relationships in Africa, but have also ensured that sexuality and embodiment have become a cultural and religious battleground. These same clergy and politicians seek to frame homosexuality as un-African, unacceptable, a threat to African moral and cultural sensibilities and sensitivities, and an affront to African moral and family values. Consequently, the perception is that homosexuals do not belong in Africa—that they cannot be entertained, accommodated, tolerated, or even understood. Ultimately, I argue that the politicization and religionization of same-sex relationships in Kenya, as elsewhere in Africa, has masked human rights debates and stifled serious academic and pragmatic engagements with important issues around sexual difference and sexual orientation while fueling negative attitudes toward people with different sexual orientations.


2020 ◽  
pp. 136216882094845
Author(s):  
Huahui Zhao ◽  
Beibei Zhao

The current assessment in language classrooms prevailingly utilizes the criteria provided by instructors, regarding learners as passive recipients of assessment. The current study drew upon sustainable assessment and the community of practice to highlight the importance of involving learners in co-constructing the assessment criteria and argued that using the criteria provided by instructors could lead to discrepancy between assessment, teaching, and learning. It adopted a participatory approach and investigated how to involve learners in co-constructing the assessment criteria with instructors in tertiary English writing instruction in China, based on the European Language Profile (ELP), an evolved version of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Two writing instructors and 146 tertiary students played different, yet interactive roles in adapting the assessment criteria in the local context. Instructors drafted the criteria in line with curricula, teaching, learning and learners. Learners utilized the draft criteria in a training session and suggested possible modifications to the criteria in a survey. Suggestions were used to revise the descriptors alongside teachers’ reflections via reflective logs. A follow-up survey explored students’ perceptions of the feasibility and usefulness of the modified descriptors to investigate the effectiveness of co-constructing the assessment criteria for learning and reveal further improvement if necessary. Vigilant decision-making processes were thickly described regarding how assessment descriptors were selected, arranged, and modified to constructively align them with curricula, teaching, and learning. Statistical and thematic analyses were conducted to examine the accessibility, feasibility, and usefulness of the assessment descriptors prior to and after the modifications. Results substantiated the effectiveness and thus the importance of co-constructing assessment criteria for enhancing the quality of assessment criteria and developing learners’ cognitive and metacognitive knowledge of writing and assessment. Implications for language tutors regarding co-constructing assessment criteria in local contexts were deliberated on at the end of the article.


Author(s):  
Finn Reygan

While queer theology has foregrounded sexual and gender diversity in faith communities internationally, in South Africa, the emergence of a queer, African theology is necessary given that religion is often not a ‘safe space’ for sexual and gender minorities owing to theological violence. Advocacy for inclusion requires the development of theological capacity in queer communities so as to foster biblical, theological and interpretative resistance. There are a number of approaches available, including demythologising and reclaiming the Bible for queer communities, developing more redemptive interpretative options for queer inclusion and developing alternative discourses that challenge the heteropatriarchy of the Bible. Entry points for this work include Bible study; workshops and seminars for faith communities on sexual and gender diversity; the acceptance of a minimum pastoral threshold (or minimum levels of preparedness) for engaging with issues of sexual and gender diversity; and creating ecumenical spaces, cognizant of the local context, where such engagements can take place. This involves moving beyond a theology of compassion and essentialised notions of sexuality and gender so as to develop a queer, African, people’s theology that recognises the trauma experienced by sexual and gender minorities in faith communities.


Author(s):  
Christian Groes-Green

Current studies of human poverty and suffering seem to lack reflexivity on the kinds of alternatives or solutions that might be found in the local context of study. By reference to experiences from fieldwork among indigenous Sateré-Mawé immigrants in Manaus, Brazil it is illustrated how “participation” as an anthropological method is more than a tool for collecting ethno-graphic data. It is a practice like any other, involving social obligations towards our informants and a necessary engagement in the field of study. As an inseparable part of the production of anthropological know-ledge this engagement should be more explicitly addressed and reflected in anthropological writing and in the very idea of the anthropological project. If this engagement is properly reflected and addressed, a constructive anthropological critique might evolve that points to viable solutions to the social problems and sufferings encountered. Re-inscribing “participation” in the anthropological project as fundamental to any knowledge might also remind us that fieldwork, like any other social engagement, is fraught with social obligations that do not vanish with theoretical distance and abstraction.  


2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 389-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxine E. Sprague ◽  
Jim Parsons

In this paper, the authors discuss creativity and the impact it might have on teaching and learning. The authors believe that imaginative play, at all ages, helps all people (children especially) create healthy environments and spaces that expand their learning. The authors contend that teaching for imagination—which asks little more than creating and trusting an ecological space that engenders it—seldom is considered a priority. Given the emphasis on creativity in the real world and the virtual digital world, the authors believe it is important to add to the body of knowledge through continued research in this field.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Gábor Gercsák ◽  
Károly Kocsis ◽  
Zsombor Nemerkényi ◽  
László Zentai

Abstract. The current volume, National Atlas of Hungary – Society, is Part 3 of the series. It presents the special world of Hungarian society and, according to the availability of data, also that of the Carpatho–Pannonian Area. By combining the tools of statistics, geography and cartography, the maps present the spatial structure accompanied by numerous graphs, photos, texts and infographics.The present volume of the National Atlas, Society, contributes to a much deeper understanding of processes and a better understanding of the relationships between phenomena through the presentation of the spatial diversity of demographic and social processes in historical perspective. This is a significant record of the period also showing the challenges that Hungarian society faces at the end of the second decade of the 21st century. This addition to the National Atlas of Hungary – with its extensive body of knowledge presented in this work – is an important document of great benefit not only togeographers but also to historians, economists, politicians, and all other interested parties.


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