Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in ELT
At a recent Macmillan Day in Vietnam I gave a presentation on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in English Language Teaching (ELT). It’s an area I care greatly about having had experience of working in groups previously with the British Council and now with Macmillan Education to look at ways we can highlight the importance in our work. However, I have not had direct, explicit experience of how we can incorporate DEI directly into our teaching so by delivering a workshop, I had to do the research and try to find some solutions and ideas for some common DEI areas in teaching. In this blog I will discuss the five areas I chose and explain my thoughts around them and how I conveyed the ideas to the participants.
Recognising and valuing linguistic diversity In the first part of the session I wanted to discuss the use of the students’ mother tongue (L1) in learning English. To introduce this, I did a quick check of the language diversity in the room I was in by asking participants to stand up if they spoke English. I then asked them to stand up if they spoke Vietnamese and then if they spoke any other languages rather than English or Vietnamese. On each occasion there was a number of different languages from Russian to Afrikaans to Tagalog and many in-between. We then went on to discuss our classroom and the use of English in the classroom. I asked questions such as ‘Do you think it’s best to only use English when you are teaching English? Why? or Why not?’. Most of the teachers suggested that it’s not best to only use English as there are many benefits to using the L1 of the learners and they also commented that when the teacher and students share the same L1, it’s not practical. I then followed this up with ‘Do you have to only use English when you are teaching English?’ This then brought into the discussion the fact that schools will promote their classrooms as English only and that parents are happy to see this. They are often ‘forced’ to only use English when this is not often the best way to teach. So there is a struggle there between what we know is best and what is often promoted. This then led me on to some of the reasons why we should embrace the learners L1 in the classroom and see it as a tool for learning. These ideas sought to alleviate some of the concerns teachers have with using L1 and empowers them to be able to discuss ways in which the mother tongue usage can support the learners’ development and promote inclusivity.
We then had a brainstorm on ways and reasons for using the learners L1 and I presented 4 of my ideas.
Using one's native language as a frame of reference – this looked at the areas of translation which featured highly as a tool for teachers to support learners but it also refers to learners discussing language points and vocabulary in their L1 to consolidate understanding. The language of ELT is changing – while there is still a large number of white, western ELT authors, trainers (me among them) and administrators in ELT the field is changing albeit a bit slowly. New technology – The abundance of very decent translation tools available on smart phones is making this area easier to navigate and faster as a result. there are some negative aspects to this as well but for brevity I won’t discuss them here. Personalisation – And as always we have to make sure we ask the learners what they want when it comes to using the L1. Find out how much they would like to use the L1 and how they can go about doing it.
Inclusive curriculum and materials Here at Macmillan we publish ELT materials and resources that enable students and teachers to learn English effectively throughout the world. We have recognised for a while now that It’s not enough to just teach English but to teach other aspects of the whole child through for example; culture, Global Citizenship and content language integrated learning. In all content thought goes into the materials to ensure that we consider DEI. In my session, we looked at some excellent materials that illustrate this. See below some materials from Gateway to the World.
Gateway to the World, Macmillan Education
This is a very good example of addressing inclusivity and ageism. Students are introduced to examples and opportunities at different stages in life.The next example addressed gender roles in specific jobs and challenges learners thinking around stereotypes when it comes to careers.
Gateway to the World, Macmillan Education
In other examples, I showed participants of examples of reading texts dealing with female inventors. There were texts highlight inclusivity in bank notes and the people depicted on them and stories related to civil rights issues in particular Rosa Parks.
In addition to help those teachers who don’t use our materials I provided a simple but effective Venn types diagram activity to help challenge differences in gender roles. I had a list of clothes and asked the participants to put them into categories of male, female or both. Lots of stereotypes were challenged and it was great to see the teachers get onto the activity and discuss the issue. I then showed a picture of Harry Styles wearing a dress with his face removed. I asked participants to identify the gender and as you would imagine they said ‘male’. I did the same with a woman in a suit and they got the idea.
Creating an inclusive and safe classroom environment
For this part of the presentation I showed teachers the rather famous picture created by Craig Froehle below
I covered up the words and the picture on the right depicting equity and we then completed a visible thinking routine to explore the image deeper. I then focused attention on the boy purple and we completed another thinking routine to empathise with the boy and how he may be feeling. I then asked for solutions to make the image fairer without adding any items to the picture. There were some creative solutions such as smash down the fence, sit on the man’s shoulders and the correct answer to redistribute the boxes. This analogy was then used to draw people to thinking the same about the classroom and the need to Adapt, recognise and accommodate. By adapting our teaching methods and choosing other ways to teach we may reach other learners with different preferences of instruction. By adapting materials, we can ensure that everyone has a chance to participate. Reading texts for example could have a different number of questions for different learners. In addition, assessment tasks could reflect the different stages that learners are at n their progress. We can use the same content but change the tasks to reflect this. By Recognizing and accommodating Individual differences in learning styles we can provide variety and challenge to activities. By recognising and then finding out through needs analysis that all learners are different in ability and background, we can start to develop materials and lessons that meet these needs.
Professional development and training
The fourth area of discussion was highlighting where teachers can find resources to develop themselves in the area of DEI in ELT. We looked at conferences, free online resources such as Future Learn https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/why-edi-foundations-of-equality-diversity-and-inclusion and https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/multiculturalism-in-asean and online resources from sites such as One Stop English https://www.onestopenglish.com/teenagers/sustainable-development-and-global-citizenship and the British Council https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teachers/inclusive-practices.
Collaboration and community engagement
For the final part of the session we discussed areas where we can promote DEI outside of the classroom. Awareness raining activities such as making posters to be posted in classroom and in teaching centres were presented along with creating DEI champions and finally promoting DEI through training such as the session delivered today. It was pointed out that training both teachers and parents would be useful and would have a positive impact on all stakeholders involved.
I personally really enjoyed delivering the sessions and as it was a new session for me I learned lots form research and discussion. I look forward to presenting more session on the theme and championing our commitment to DEI.
