Transforming World Language Teaching and Teacher Education for Equity and Justice

This edited book expands the current scholarship on teaching world languages for social justice and equity in K-12 and postsecondary contexts in the US. Over the past decade, demand has been growing for a more critical approach to teaching languages and cultures: in response, this volume brings together a group of scholars whose work bridges the fields of world language education and critical approaches to education. Within the current US context, the chapters address the following key questions: (1) How are pre-service or in-service world language teachers/professors embedding issues, understandings, or content related to social justice, human rights, access, critical pedagogy and equity into their teaching and curriculum? (2) How are teacher educators preparing language teachers to teach for social justice, human rights, access and equity?

Beth Wassell is a Professor in the Department of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Education, Rowan University, USA. Her research interests include language teaching and learning, teacher education, critical and social justice approaches, and qualitative research.

Cassandra Glynn is an Associate Professor of Education and Director of Graduate Education at Concordia College, Moorhead, MN.  She received her MA and PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota with a focus in Second Languages and Cultures Education.  Dr Glynn’s research interests center around the experiences of marginalized and underrepresented students in world language classes and on world language teachers’ experiences as they take critical approaches to teaching languages and cultures.  Her work has been published in journals such as the L2 Journal, Modern Language Journal, Language Teaching Research, and the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy.  She is co-author of Words and Actions:  Teaching Languages through the Lens of Social Justice (ACTFL, 2014, 2018).  Prior to starting at Concordia College, Dr. Glynn taught middle school language classes and high school German, including dual credit, and worked in the German and French Villages at Concordia Language Villages.