Page 28 - ELG1709 Agu-Sep Issue 450

REVIEWS & RESOURCES

Why do people go on hunger strike? Why To what extent have the poor played a role different types of tree. Why? So that the
do Jews, Catholics, Muslims and Hindus in structuring the place? Are the places blind know where they are by the different
fast? And what happens when a man (David idealised? How is inequality manifested in smells of the different types of leaf. What can
Blaine) lives without food for 44 days in a the social conditions presented? we learn from La Plata’s urban planners?
three-by-seven-foot glass box suspended Rio de Janeiro is an example of a city often I offer these ideas non-prescriptively.
near London’s Tower Bridge? (The answer: Caveats abound. A social justice approach
a quarter of a million people go to gawp; We might question may be off-putting to some students. Many
some women hold banners with messages attend English classes as a refuge from the
of love; others run around naked under the very nature of real world of trouble and strife.
the box; others pelt it with rotten eggs; Many believe in the middle-class
another dangles a hamburger from a remote- work and ask why aspirational values so common in textbooks.
controlled helicopter.) an employee in a Many do see the world as a white,
Another common topic is work. Again, homogenised, consumerist candy store for
we problematise. We might ask about supermarket grown-ups. If so, we should not proselytise,
exploitation, environmental damage or but tell stories instead – stories that highlight
corruption. Or we might question the very is setting out genetically the full diversity and range of the human
nature of work – and ask why an employee engineered experience.
in a supermarket is setting out genetically J.J. Wilson’s Blog: https://jjawilson.wordpress.com/
engineered fruit rather than tending her fruit rather than tending about-me/
garden, why a line cook is taking orders from her garden?
strangers instead of cooking for his family, n Dr JJ Wilson is
why a woman is watching the children of writer-in residence at
the wealthy at a daycare centre rather than Western New Mexico
spending time with her own, why a musician given superficial treatment in textbooks. Its University, where he
is composing jingles for fizzy drinks rather history of violence and struggle is usually teaches ESL methods,
than jamming with his friends. whitewashed. Why? Who do the omissions linguistics, publication,
Or take the topic of places – how are they serve? And what might a place designed for and creative writing. He is
presented? social justice look like? La Plata in Argentina also a novelist and author
Are they merely ‘destinations’ for the is built on a grid system. Every sixth avenue of English language
wealthy or are working-class people present? has a park, and in each park there are textbooks.

Tips for introducing a ‘social justice

approach’ to your classroom

Overall, the process of adapting topics might look something like this:

1 Peer beneath the 4 Gather authentic
surface of the topic
materials on the
subject and create
to see if it reflects
injustice. activities that
allow students to
investigate it.

2 Decide if there are 5 Make space
assumptions to
for students to
be questioned, or
misconceptions to act out their
solutions.
be challenged.

3 Adapt content to local contexts, i.e. the people in the class. Course books are a tool, and

tools are what you make of them. If you want to subvert the topic in order to introduce a
social justice perspective, get creative and think your way to new approaches.

editorial@elgazette.com 27

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