Listening to Diverse Voices: A Liberatory Writing Pedagogy for Empowerment and Emancipation (2023)

Implications

Learners’ strengths need to be affirmed and appreciated. They bring various capital to the academic community with their access to knowledge through their languages, lived experiences in their cultures, as well as their previous academic success in their former education systems. Racially minoritized learners need a low-stake, risk-free, safe, equitable, and supportive space to express their ideas. Their empowerment and emancipation with the application of this liberatory anti-racist writing pedagogy have shown the necessity of creating such a space to ensure equity, justice, diversity, inclusion, and voice.

As the successful implementation of the anti-racist, anti-oppressive pedagogy largely rests on the shoulders of the instructors, teachers’ international and pluralistic lenses, passion, compassion, commitment, and dedication are indispensable to the teaching process. Teachers should make critical reflections on their own positions and teaching practices and become culturally responsive and interculturally competent by instilling the principles of inclusivity, diversity, and equity to combat hegemony (Huo, 2020) and teach for justice.

Author Biographies

Elaine Khoo, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor (Teaching Stream) at the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC). As the coordinator of the English Language Development (ELD) Support program, she has incorporated her research interests that include positive pedagogy in higher education, internationalization, technology-supported language learning, inclusive practices in academic integrity, language learning motivation, second language writing, and vocabulary studies into ELD programs to empower students to gain accelerated progress in academic reading, writing, and oral communication.

Xiangying Huo, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and writing specialist at the University of Toronto. She has taught writing across the curriculum at the University of Toronto, York University, and OCAD Art and Design University. Her research interests include writing studies, anti-racist education, applied linguistics, ESL/EFL policy and pedagogy, internationalization in higher education, language ideology, and World Englishes. She is the author ofHigher Education Internationalization and English Language Instruction: Intersectionality of Race and Language in Canadian Universities(2020, Springer).

References

Ahmed, K. S. (2019). Being a “bridge builder”: A literacy teacher educator negotiates the divide between university-promoted culturally responsive pedagogy and district-mandated curriculum. Literacy Research and Instruction, 58(4), 211–231. https://doi.org/10.1080/19388071.2019.1655683

Alim, H. S., Paris, D., & Wong, C. P. (2020). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A critical framework for centering communities. In N. S. Nasir, C. D. Lee, R. D. Pea & M. McKinney de Royston (Eds.), Handbook of the cultural foundations of learning (pp. 261–276). Routledge.

Anya, U. (2021). Critical race pedagogy for more effective and inclusive world language teaching. Applied Linguistics, 42(6), 1055–1069. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amab068

Dalmage, H. M., & Martinez, S. A. (2020). Location, location, location: Liberatory pedagogy in a university classroom. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 6(1), 123–129. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649219883290

Elder, C., & von Randow, J. (2008). Exploring the utility of a web-based English language screening tool. Language Assessment Quarterly, 5(3), 173–194. https://doi.org/10.1080/15434300802229334

Freire, P., Macedo, D. P., & Shor, I. (2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.; 50th anniversary edition). Bloomsbury Academic.

Gay, G. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice (2nd ed). Teachers College.

Golden, N. A. (2017). “In a position I see myself in:” (Re)positioning identities and culturally-responsive pedagogies. Equity & Excellence in Education, 50, 355–367.

Grimm, N. (1996). The regulatory role of the writing center: Coming to terms with a loss of innocence. Writing Center Journal, 17(1), 5–29.

Gutiérrez, K. D. (2008). Developing a sociocritical literacy in the third space. Reading Research Quarterly, 43(2), 148–164. https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.43.2.3

Gutiérrez, K. D., Baquedano‐López, P., & Tejeda, C. (1999). Rethinking diversity: Hybridity and hybrid language practices in the third space. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 6(4), 286–303. https://doi.org/10.1080/10749039909524733

Gutiérrez, K. D., & Rogoff, B. (2003). Cultural ways of learning: Individual traits or repertoires of practice. Educational Researcher, 32(5), 19–25. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X032005019

Holliday, A. (2005). The struggle to teach English as an international language. Oxford University Press.

Huo, X. Y. (2020). Higher education internationalization and English language instruction: Intersectionality of race and language in Canadian universities. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-60599-5

Huo, X. Y., & Khoo, E. (2022). Effective teaching strategies for Chinese international students at a Canadian university: An online reading-writing support program. In C. Smith & G. Zhou (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching strategies for culturally and linguistically diverse international students (pp. 241–264). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-8921-2.ch013

Inoue, A. (2015). Antiracist writing assessment ecologies: Teaching and assessing writing for a socially just future. The WAC Clearinghouse; Parlor Press.

Inoue, A. (2016). Afterword: Narratives that determine writers and social justice writing center work. Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, 14(1). http://www.praxisuwc.com/inoue-141

Jabbar, A., & Hardaker, G. (2013). The role of culturally responsive teaching for supporting ethnic diversity in British university business schools. Teaching in Higher Education, 18(3), 272–284. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2012.725221

Khoo, E., & Huo, X. Y. (2022a). The efficacy of culturally responsive pedagogy for low-proficiency international students in online teaching and learning: A Canadian experience with an online reading-writing program. Journal of Teaching and Learning, 16(2), 67–85. https://doi.org/10.22329/jtl.v16i2.7022

Khoo, E., & Huo, X. Y. (2022b). Toward transformative inclusivity through learner-driven and instructor-facilitated writing support: An innovative approach to empowering English language learners. Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie, 32, 394–404. https://doi.org/10.31468/dwr.963

Khoo, E., & Kang, S. (2022). Proactive learner empowerment: Towards a transformative academic integrity approach for English language learners. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 18(1), 24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-022-00111-2

Kilburn, M., Radu, B. M., & Henckell, M. (2019). Conceptual and theoretical frameworks for CRT pedagogy. In L. Kyei-Blankson, J. Blankson & E. Ntuli (Eds.), Care and culturally responsive pedagogy in online settings (pp. 1–21). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-7802-4

Krasnof, B. (2016). Culturally responsive teaching: A guide to evidence-based practices for teaching all students equitably. Region X Equity Assistance Center at Education Northwest.

Kumashiro, K. (2000). Toward a theory of anti-oppressive education. Review of Educational Research, 70(1).

Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful teachers of African American children (1st ed.). Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465–491. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312032003465

Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). It’s not the culture of poverty, It’s the poverty of culture: The problem with teacher education. Anthropology Education Quarterly, 37(2), 104–109. https://doi.org/10.1525/aeq.2006.37.2.104

Ladson-Billings, G. (2014). Culturally relevant pedagogy 2.0: A.k.a. the remix. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 74–84. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.84.1.p2rj131485484751

Ladson-Billings, G. (2021). I’m here for the hard re-set: Post pandemic pedagogy to preserve our culture. Equity & Excellence in Education, 54(1), 68–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2020.1863883

Leask, B. (2006). Plagiarism, cultural diversity and metaphor—Implications for academic staff development. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 31(2), 183–199. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930500262486

MacKenzie, I. (2014). English as a lingua franca: Theorizing and teaching English. Routledge.

Moll, L. C., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice, 31(2), 132–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405849209543534

Murphy, G. A. (2022). Bringing language diversity into integrity research—What, why, and how. Journal of College and Character, 23(1), 76–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/2194587X.2021.2017974

Nation, P. (2020). The different aspects of vocabulary knowledge. In S. A. Webb (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of vocabulary studies (pp. 15–29). Routledge.

Paris, D. (2011). Language across difference: Ethnicity, communication, and youth identities in changing urban schools. Cambridge University Press.

Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X12441244

Pelletier, K., Brown, M., Brooks, D. C., McCormack, M., Reeves, J., Arbino, N., Bozkurt, A., Crawford, S., Czerniewicz, L., Gibson, R., Linder, K., Mason, J., & Mondelli, V. (2021). 2021 EDUCAUSE horizon report teaching and learning edition [Report]. EDUCAUSE.

Robertson, M., Line, M., Jones, S., & Thomas, S. (2000). International students, learning environments and perceptions: A case study using the Delphi technique. Higher Education Research and Development, 19(1), 89–102. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07294360050020499

Ruble, R. A., & Zhang, Y. B. (2013). Stereotypes of Chinese international students held by Americans. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 37(2), 202–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2012.12.004

Sinclair, M. (2018). Decolonizing ELA. The English Journal, 107(6), 89–94.

Zhao, T., & Bourne, J. (2011). Intercultural adaptation—It is a two-way process: Examples from a British MBA program. In L. Jin & M. Cortazzi (Eds.), Researching Chinese learners (pp. 250–273). Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230299481