Antisocial Language Teaching

JPB Gerald

Description

Provides a much-needed challenge to the ELT industry and demands a full decentering of whiteness

The centering of whiteness in English Language Teaching (ELT) renders the industry callous, corrupt and cruel; or, antisocial. Using the diagnostic criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder as a rhetorical device, this book examines major issues with the ideologies and institutions behind the discipline of ELT and diagnoses the industry as in dire need of treatment, with the solution being a full decentering of whiteness. A vision for a more just version of ELT is offered as an alternative to the harm caused by its present-day incarnation. With a unique linkage of discourse on whiteness, language and ability, this book will be necessary reading for students, academics and administrators involved in ELT around the world.

Prologue

Introduction

Part One: Disorder

The Great Pyramid Scheme

Justified

A Dark Projection

Dis/abling Blackness

Ability, Intelligence and Language

Bad at English

Language Teaching as an Instrument of Pathologization

Part Two: Symptoms

Criterion 1

Criterion 2

Criterion 3

Criterion 4

Criterion 5

Criterion 6

Criterion 7

Part Three: Treatment...?

The Ezel Project

Prosocial Language Teaching

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

References

Sujets

• Minority Studies
• Ethnic Studies
• Disciplines
• Language Arts
• Teaching
• Lettres et linguistique
• Idioma inglés
• Medicalization
• Ability
• Study
• Whiteness
• English as a foreign or second language
• Anti-racism
• Professional
• Postgraduate education
• General officer
• English
• Blanchitude
• General
• Research
• Postgraduate
• ELT
• Discrimination
• Anglais

Informations

• Publié par: Channel View Publications
• Date de parution: 21 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781800413290
• Langue: English

Extrait

Antisocial Language Teaching
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION
Founding Editor : Viv Edwards, University of Reading, UK
Series Editors : Phan Le Ha, University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA and Joel Windle, Monash University, Australia .
Two decades of research and development in language and literacy education have yielded a broad, multidisciplinary focus. Yet education systems face constant economic and technological change, with attendant issues of identity and power, community and culture. What are the implications for language education of new ‘semiotic economies’ and communications technologies? Of complex blendings of cultural and linguistic diversity in communities and institutions? Of new cultural, regional and national identities and practices? The New Perspectives on Language and Education series will feature critical and interpretive, disciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives on teaching and learning, language and literacy in new times. New proposals, particularly for edited volumes, are expected to acknowledge and include perspectives from the Global South. Contributions from scholars from the Global South will be particularly sought out and welcomed, as well as those from marginalized communities within the Global North.
All books in this series are externally peer-reviewed.
Full details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com , or by writing to Multilingual Matters, St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol, BS1 2AW, UK.
NEW PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE AND EDUCATION: 110
Antisocial Language Teaching
English and the Pervasive Pathology of Whiteness
JPB Gerald
MULTILINGUAL MATTERS
Bristol • Jackson
DOI https://doi.org/10.21832/GERALD3276
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Names: Gerald, J.P.B., author.
Title: Antisocial Language Teaching: English and the Pervasive Pathology of Whiteness/JPB Gerald.
Description: Jackson: Multilingual Matters, [2022] | Series: New Perspectives on Language and Education: 110 | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Summary: “This book examines major issues with the ideologies and institutions behind the discipline of ELT and diagnoses the industry as in dire need of treatment, with the solution being a full decentering of whiteness. A vision for a more just version of ELT is offered as an alternative to the harm caused by its present-day incarnation”—Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022018071 (print) | LCCN 2022018072 (ebook) | ISBN 9781800413276 (hardback) | ISBN 9781800413269 (paperback) | ISBN 9781800413290 (epub) | ISBN 9781800413283 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: English language—Study and teaching. | Antisocial personality disorders. | Racism in education. | Multicultural education. | White people—Race identity.
Classification: LCC LB1576 .G437 2022 (print) | LCC LB1576 (ebook) | DDC 428.0071—dc23/eng/20220629
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022018071
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022018072
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-13: 978-1-80041-327-6 (hbk)
ISBN-13: 978-1-80041-326-9 (pbk)
Multilingual Matters
UK: St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol, BS1 2AW, UK.
USA: Ingram, Jackson, TN, USA.
Website: www.multilingual-matters.com
Twitter: Multi_Ling_Mat
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/multilingualmatters
Blog: www.channelviewpublications.wordpress.com
Copyright © 2022 JPB Gerald.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.
The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned.
Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India.
Printed and bound in the UK by the CPI Books Group Ltd.
Contents
Prologue
Introduction
‘Antisocial Thugs’
Where This Fits
Key Concepts
Part 1: Disorder
The Great Pyramid Scheme
Justified
A Dark Projection
Dis/abling Blackness
Ability, Intelligence and Language
Bad at English
Language Teaching as an Instrument of Pathologization
Part 2: Symptoms
Criterion 1
Criterion 2
Criterion 3
Criterion 4
Criterion 5
Criterion 6
Criterion 7
Part 3: Treatment…?
The Ezel Project
Prosocial Language Teaching
Conclusion
Pathologization Dependency
Heretical Whiteness
Acknowledgments
References
Index
Prologue
Who?
As of this writing, I am an education doctoral candidate, and by the time you read this book, I will have a doctorate of education (EdD) in instructional leadership, a phrase that could mean just about anything but this book is part of what I’ve chosen to do with my degree. More importantly, though, I am a Black and neurodivergent man who has spent his entire life immersed in white spaces, and I only recently came to understand the impact this has had on me, which is a story that will be threaded throughout the narrative of this book.
For much of my life, I refused to accept the impact of racism upon my life, chalking up my social discomfort to what I perceived as my own deficits, but once I began the inquiry required by my doctoral studies, I couldn’t ignore the discomfort of my white peers whenever racism was the topic of discussion. Even my very nice, polite, liberal friends were eager to unpack any social issue other than one in which they might be complicit, and, a bit of an instigator at heart, I decided to keep pulling on this thread until it eventually unraveled. What I revealed to myself was the fact that, despite my childhood hopes of being accepted as part of the majoritized group, my life was always going to be different, even if it appeared superficially similar. This might seem an obvious point, but I had told myself, and been told by my schools, that I could achieve my way out of the box of racism, and, furthermore, that I should be grateful for the chance to be the Black face in these white 1 spaces. The endless papercuts I endured were more subtle than the horror stories most have heard of, and as such, it was easy for me to believe that what I experienced was something different and more innocuous. But ultimately, though I went to exclusive schools and had privileges that many Black students still don’t, my education was, one might say, extra ordinary : extra in the particular clubs I was invited to join; but ordinary in that I was only invited inside to be subsequently isolated.
I spent the first part of my career as an English language teacher, in both South Korea and New York City, and as I came to the above realization, my own experiences in this field were thrown into sharp relief. My previously mundane research into community program attendance evolved into a deep, fundamental inquiry into the very foundation of the field itself, and I began to develop a body of work that problematized the whole of the English language teaching (ELT) industry. Accordingly, based on my identity, my experience and my research, I believe I am the person best positioned to write this book, and I hope you will agree.
What?
This is, technically, an academic book, from an academic publisher, complete with APA citations. And indeed, this book includes some of the findings from my research in Part 3. As you will see in Parts 1 and 2 of the book, however, I have specific reasons why I am not writing this book as traditional research reportage. You can choose to consider this semi-academic or non-traditionally academic, but, though I do hope educators find my work resonant enough to employ as a part of their pedagogy, I want this to be a book that can be consumed by the public, by anyone who has an interest, or a stake, in language, education, dis/ability or whiteness, which, truth be told, should be everyone, if you think about how broad those topics are.
More specifically, though, this book is a mix of conceptual arguments based on academic literature and theoretical frameworks, and a vision for the future of the ELT field based on my research findings and my own experience, with plenty of stories from my life peppered throughout the text where appropriate. If you are a doctoral student like I was when I got this book idea, you might be interested to know that, methodologically, this is a combination of autoethnography, with my reflections on my own identity and power woven throughout the text, and a bit of narrative inquiry in the interviews I conducted for Part 3.
Where and When?
I write this from unceded Munsee Lenape and Canarsie Territory, which you would know as Queens, New York. I was born and raised in this city, and for most of my life had little to no idea of its rich history prior to the arrival of settler colonialism, despite being taught to sew moccasins in second grade with the rest of my class. 2 I mention this not because I am some sort of expert in indigenous history now but because this book is ultimately about both education and language, and as I will detail in Part 2, the fact that using these names for the places we live is, itself, erasing the past many of us have profited from is relevant to the arguments I make.
I write this from the vantage point of a Black person in what we call the United States, which means that many of my sources do derive from this nation-state, but if you are a reader in a different country, please do understand that this work will be relevant to you as well. As the initial a