TESOL and Sustainability: English Language Teaching in the Anthropocene Era

Description

In the burgeoning field of ecolinguistics, little attention has been given to the ways in which English language teaching is and has become implicated in global ecological crises. This book begins a dialogue about the opportunities and responsibilities presented to the TESOL field to re-orient professional practice in ways that drive cultural change and engender alternate language practices and metaphors. Covering a diverse range of topics, including anthropogenic climate change, habitat loss, food insecurity and mass migration, chapters argue that such crises require not only technological innovation, but also cultural changes in how human beings relate to each other and their environment. Arguing that it is incumbent upon the field of English language teaching to reckon with such cultural changes in how and what we teach, TESOL and Sustainability addresses the ways in which discourses such as eco-pedagogy, the critique of neo-liberalism, non-Western philosophy and post-humanist thought can and must inform how and what is taught in ESL and EFL classrooms.

Jason Goulah is Associate Professor of Bilingual-Bicultural Education and Director of the Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education at DePaul University, USA. John Katunich is Associate Director of the Writing Program at Dickinson College, USA.

The climate crisis is far too important to be ignored by any profession or occupation. This book challenges TESOLers to understand our profession's role in the climate crisis and to act forcefully and effectively to make that role a positive one. -- George Jacobs, President of the Centre for a Responsible Future, Singapore TESOL and Sustainability is poetically articulated, politically conceived, and darefully envisioned. For those who are interested in how Mother Earth is 'talking' to us, this is a must read. The urgency of the moment, made extremely clearly in this book, makes an earth-centred pedagogical approach to English language teaching and learning more pressing than ever. If we cannot imagine what we do not know, this is a compass pointing to a new and hopeful direction. * Awad Ibrahim, Professor of Education and Applied Linguistics, University of Ottawa, Canada * The question of sustainability is much more than a conversation topic for ESL classes. Rather it is an issue for discussion among all of us involved in English language education. Is English language teaching itself a sustainable enterprise within the Anthropocene? How do we understand our complicity as English language educators with the human and non-human changes now convulsing the planet? This book urges us to consider the interconnectedness of language, commons, place and eco-ethical consciousness. * Alastair Pennycook, Distinguished Professor of Language, Society and Education, University of Technology Sydney, Australia *