Social Justice and the Language Classroom

Social Justice and the Language Classroom makes a compelling and grounded argument for connecting social justice, language education and decolonial perspectives. As language educators we cannot sit silently by in the face of local and wider injustices. It shows both why critical language education projects are essential and how they can be developed. -- Alastair Pennycook, University of Technology Sydney
Theoretically robust and eminently practical in terms of classroom applicability, this timely and much-needed book aims to put social justice at the heart of second language education. It succeeds admirably in that endeavour, comprehensively and eloquently addressing issues of race, class, gender and sexuality while effectively raising teachers’ critical consciousness. -- John Gray, University College London
Ortaçtepe Hart deliberately avoids trying to replace one educational ideology with an alternative “off-the-shelf” commodity. Instead, she focuses on developing her readers' capacities for critical consciousness and reflection—skills that should help them to identify the social justice issues that matter most in their own contexts, and how to incorporate them into their teaching. This is what makes the book's contribution to language education—and to TESOL in particular—so valuable. -- Steve Brown, University of Glasgow * TESOL Journal *
Overall, Social Justice and the Language Classroom is an excellent resource for informing readers about the need for and advantages of implementing social justice pedagogies in language classrooms. Each chapter is well written and researched, provides global examples, includes meaningful reflective tasks, chapter notes, multimedia resources, and a list of children’s books. Thus, this book would make an excellent textbook or supplemental text for undergraduate or graduate classes that include language education of any kind. -- Diane Martinez, Western Carolina University * Technical Communication *
Another key strength of the book is the use of intersectionality to explore the complexities of social (in)justice. It is the way in which different features of people’s individual identities combine to locate them in certain social positions and to affect their capacities for social mobility that creates social injustice in the first place. [...] an intersectional lens allows Ortaçtepe Hart to incorporate not only race and ethnicity but also class, gender and sexual identity, sexuality, and a range of other issues into the discussion. -- Steve Brown * ELT Journal *