In the intro to the issue that focuses on "Decolonizing ELT," the relevance of
teaching as a praxis that encompasses emotive, social, and cultural learning is
emphasized, challenging the idea that practice is secondary to research and policy.
It promotes a decolonial ELT which fosters the dispositions of ethics, relationships,
and critical thinking to aid students in negotiating many and unpredictably
occurring communication environments. The article emphasizes the value of
concentrating on Southern wisdom, which encompasses all indigenous peoples and
other native populations conquered by Europe, and decolonizing education. It
highlights the connection between decolonization as well as social and political
change and the centrality of teaching and learning methods in decolonial activity.
The speaker at a conference talked about the inventiveness of university students
with multiple languages during their academic writing class, that promoted
dialogical pedagogy and exercised an ecological approach. They received
criticism, nevertheless, for their arbitrary experiences and the challenge of
translating knowledge into formal writing. They argued that greater social and
political revolution cannot be facilitated by critical communication lessons learned
in the classroom. They argued that in order to influence institutional practices,
instructors must interact with policies and students must be openly educated about
political power.
Teachers are frequently sidelined in the Global North, where some choose
experienced-intricated pedagogies as well as the rest depend upon textbooks and
published resources. Practice is seen as inferior and totally reliant on intellect in
this modernist philosophy. Given that it touches on both the micro and macro
components of education, Newton's issue is more pertinent to decolonization.
Some contend that prevailing beliefs and regulations rule the micro, rendering
instructors helpless to confront them. Even radical academics from the Global
North are unable to acknowledge teachers' labor because they believe that
institutional and classroom problems are distinct. Marxism and other social
theories usually view the base as dictating the underlying framework, which
includes the information, attitudes, and values formed in school.
The article highlights the value of paying attention to Southern knowledge, which
encompasses either indigenous peoples and other native populations conquered by
Europe, and decolonizing education. Whether within or outside of schools,
education is a battlefield for opposing decolonization epistemologies. Learning
about the circumstances of dominance, alternative perspectives, and tactics for
organizing and resisting is necessary for the decolonization endeavor. A decolonial
pedagogy is woven together with intellectual militancy, activism, and engagement
to create a seamless totality that is both created in praxis and constitutive of it.
The author took part in a traditional Tamil education class given by a Panditai, who
also taught pupils Tamil proverbs about cohabitation and the purposes of palmyrah
trees. The author thought the teaching strategy was underwhelming since it put
more of an emphasis on moral than language structures.
Diane and Phil favor a regimented teaching that emphasizes predetermined
resources and lesson plans. Southern orientations, on the other hand, contest this
division since Indigenous people emphasize pedagogy that is rooted in the natural
world. With the use of many semiotic tools, Panditai's activities inspire pupils to
interact with the environment and all of its inhabitants while learning about
cohabitation. To adjust their methods of instruction for national and environmental
relevance, teachers must work in partnership with students and local communities.
By utilizing all semiotic resources for the development of translingual competency,
Panditai's teaching methodology challenges prevailing beliefs in English Language
Teaching (ELT). It promotes an ethic of interdependence and ecological
sustainability by treating impact, emotions, creativity, and instinct equally. It can
be used in highly structured learning environments within the Global North or
South, since predetermined pedagogies might not suit a range of resources and
interests. Teachers are skilled at seeing and using these tensions for resistive
learning, so it is important to acknowledge their efforts.