Social Justice Research
The Social Justice in Language Education initiative supports two research studies, one on teacher understanding and enactment of social justice approaches, and one on students’ language development and social justice takeaways.
Teacher Study
This longitudinal case study investigates teachers’ understanding and implementation of critical pedagogies as they create social justice curricular units and addresses the following questions:
- How do teachers understand and enact social justice in language education?
- How does teachers’ identity construction impact their understanding and enactment of social justice in language education?
The study began in January 2020 and will continue until September 2023. It includes two instructor cohorts, one representing more commonly taught languages (French, German, Spanish) and one representing less commonly taught languages (Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish). The research team began sharing findings at national and international conferences in Fall 2022, and will soon publish these findings in academic journals.
Student Study
In Fall 2023, the Social Justice in Language Education initiative leaders will initiate a second research study on students’ experiences in social justice-oriented language classrooms. This study will explore the following questions:
- How do students use language during social justice curricular units? How does their language use vary in different types of social justice learning activities?
- What are students’ social justice takeaways as a result of experiencing these social justice curricular units?
Findings from both studies will inform the creation and use of social justice-oriented language teaching materials as well as future professional development activities for language educators.
