Dr. Muzna Awayed-Bishara

 

Dr. Muzna Awayed-Bishara

Postdoc fellow at the Centre for the Studies of Multiculturalism and Diversity

A Critical EFL Pedagogy: From Passive Receptivity to Creative Agency

In this project, I explore the ways in which English educational discourses might become transformative, constructing students not as passive receptacles of learning but as creative agents of social change. Many scholars in the field of Foreign Language Education maintain that language pedagogy must play a transformative role resulting in global cultural consciousness and intercultural citizenship (Risager, 2007; Kumaravdivelu, 2008; Byram, 2008, 2011). However, students in classroom settings are often not treated as having full agency in the learning process. To remedy this, I suggest methods that teachers might utilize for foregrounding students’ own understanding, and the specific interpretive frames for various cultural issues discussed in the English classroom. My preliminary findings show that centering students’ perspectives on multicultural issues and encouraging teachers to become action researchers in their classrooms might bring about a transformative English pedagogy, whereby students use English – the global language – to become .critically reflective, politically conscious, engaged, and global citizens