{Call for Chapters} “Ethical deliberations in multilingual education: Power relations in learning communities.

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Call for chapter proposals for the edited volume, “Ethical deliberations in multilingual education: Power relations in learning communities.”


CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS

 Proposal Abstract Submission Deadline: January  30, 2021

Ethical deliberations in multilingual education: 

Power relations in learning communities 

Editors

  • Theresa Austin,University of Massachusetts, Amherst
  • Hatice Çelebi,University of Massachusetts, Amherst 

Introduction

The teaching of world languages across national boundaries is a given in the fast paced interconnective political and economic times we live. However, as we engage in the teaching, learning and researching this phenomena, how do ethics play a role in  our decision making and actions? As critical language  educators and researchers, we have long avoided the technicist perspective that focuses on the formal  structures of language in our engagement with our profession. As we summon our criticality to  grapple with the ethical concerns that present in our work situations and contexts, we see increasingly a  compelling need to question who benefits and who is left out by decisions that are contemplated and,  indeed, made. This edited volume explores critical ethical issues in multilingual education in an ever increasingly global, connected, multicultural society. 


Objective of the Book

This volume will focus on concerns about ethical decision making in multilingual education & research.  It aims to uncover crucial  ethical considerations in the field of multilingual education and research while challenging how ethical decisions are conceptualized. We hope to provide readers space to develop  critical stances about daily occurring scenarios in various locations. 

The frameworks that we aim to problematize with chapters will consist of codes of ethics as we grapple with questions such as what a critical ethical issue vs. an ethical issue is;  what is particular about ethics in multilingual education contexts (vs. ethics more broadly); how similarly or differently critical ethical issues in multilingual education and research are dealt with compared to ethical issues in other contexts. 

We call for creating an open dialogic and  reflexive space to 1.) identify and locate ourselves in the context,  2.) events that produced the need for ethical decisions, and 3.) the consequences that were experienced at that time. We see this as possible through invitational openings to readers to dialog with each other in responding to  evocative scenarios, artifacts,  counternarratives, and testimonios.

As the readers engage with the ethical issues evoked in these re-presentations, they have the potential to re-construct knowledge about who are involved in decision making and how; what relevant facts, laws and principles drive decision making processes and possible courses of actions  that can be taken for problem definition, analysis and alternative solutions. 

Various frameworks may be employed to examine manifestations of theoretical and conceptual perspectives or of policies and actions in practice. A few examples are E. Goffman’s dramaturgy; V. Turner’s performance anthropology; performance ethnographies by A. D. Smith, D. Conquergood, and S. Madison; J. Saldaña’s ethnodramas; J. Schechter’s social theatre; Norris’ playacting; A. Boal’s theatre of the oppressed; and P. Freire’s pedagogies of the oppressed.

In our call for abstracts for this volume, we seek presentation and analysis that capture multimodal critical literacies, dynamic and embodied processes of interactive works, which disrupts existing knowledge formed around multilingual education and research and ethics in ways arts touch our minds and senses for nuanced expressions of multiple meanings. For  our aim with this volume, A. Boal, the Brazilian playwright, has been inspirational with his revolutionary techniques that engaged the audience (spect-actors) through connecting performative arts and life. 

For example, by including a figure in plays, the Joker, Boal played with fixed roles of character and context. The Joker might appear in a Greek play to explain the historical background to the audience, and why the background is relevant today. In doing so, the Joker takes the Greek play out of its context as the genre is disrupted. The play’s “otherness” becomes an opportunity for exploration, which encourages reflexivity for social causality. This symbolic approach is in line with how we envision the work edited in this volume. For chapters for the volume, we welcome a wide range of modalities taking familiar genres and knowledge constructions out of context to engage readers with ethical issues around multilingual language education and research and ethics. 


Areas of particular interest within language and literacies research: 

  • Theoretical Orientations: Decolonizing research, critical multimodal literacies, feminist studies, ethnic studies, cultural studies, post humanism
  • Populations: Minoritized populations (that are underrepresented in research), Deaf studies, Special needs. Refugee & Diasporic Peoples

Target Audience

We call for abstracts for contributors to present their ethical concerns. The volume is intended as a primary and support text for undergraduate and graduate students, policymakers, teachers and teacher-researchers, researchers who find themselves in teaching-learning  situations or contexts characterized by complex social formations and power inequities where they are  called on to exert agency in decision making that affects learners’ lives. 

The edited volume is conceived of as a primary text or core resource for teacher and researcher education. We see the use of this text as for teacher action researchers preparation  in education, and critical interdisciplinary courses that address intersections of  language, literacy & culture. It can also be used as supplementary text for undergraduate courses that focus on equity and education; transnationalism and  transnational migration, language, culture, and identity; and school reform/educational restructuring.  

Specific courses for which this text will be used include: urban education (undergraduate and graduate),  applied linguistics, sociology of education, education and social context, educational language policy  and planning, bilingual education, foundations of multicultural education, second language principles  and practices, philosophy of education.


Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following ethical considerations in language and literacy education and research:

  • Access & admission, placement & progress
    • Exclusionary / Privileged 
  • Collection & use  of identity-based data in program admissions [assumptions about the connections between language and (mixed) race, ethnicity, citizenship]
  • Curriculum / program organization and design for student/community engagement/transformation
  • Assessment & program evaluation- design of measures & use of resulting data
  • Classroom-based practices- assumptions about language & literacy development in cultural contexts
    • language choice, medium and object of instruction
    • practices of providing feedback 
  • Affordability revitalization/ sustainability of dual/multilingual education
  • Ideologies embodied and contextualized 
    • Native speakerism
    • “Standard” language & purism
    • Language use/development/ 
    • Criteria for Qualifications & economic mobility of teachers and students
  • Commodification of  language education: study abroad, TESOL Certificates, online programs 
  • Pre-service and In- Service Teacher Education: recruitment practices/criteria, preparing teachers for urban /rural, student teaching abroad; placements development; supportive measures, ex/inclusion
  • Education of vulnerable underserved populations: minoritized, Generation 1.5, special needs, unaccompanied international minors, refugees, homeless 
  • Ethical Dilemmas in Language Choice within Historical Perspectives: What language speaks for the subaltern? Language decisions in decolonization
  • Medium of education & ideology for  minoritized populations across the world from Global South, Middle East, South Pacific, Europe Northern Hemisphere

Proposal Submission Procedure

Word limit  (Abstract 500-1000 words; final Submission text length: 6000-7000 including references)

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before January 30, 2021, a chapter proposal of 500 to 1,000 words clearly explaining the ethical issue and the genre (eg: dramatic scenarios, artifacts,  counternarratives,photovoice, and testimonios ) that will evoke reader discussion of the proposed chapter. References that include a theoretical orientation for your ethical concerns should be written in APA 7th Edition.

Authors will be notified by March 30, 2021 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by June 15, 2021, and all interested authors will be provided guidelines for manuscript submissions. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project. All proposals should be submitted through google form located: https://forms.gle/s588omjMRuqyVRucA  If you have any questions about any aspect regarding this book, please do not hesitate to email:

L2ed2021ethical@gmail.com

Theresa Austin, taustin@umass.edu

 Hatice Celebi hcelebi@umass.edu  


Important Dates

January 30, 2021: Proposal Submission Deadline

March 30, 2021: Notification of Acceptance

June 15, 2021: Full Chapter Submission

August 15, 2021: Review Results To the Authors 

September 15, 2021: Revised Chapters from Authors

December 30, 2021: Final Edits

March 15, 2022: Publish/ Release