ABSTRACT
Perhaps nowhere has there been more significant change in the teaching of world languages in the past twenty years than in the tools available for bringing the insights of critical pedagogy into the classroom. Professional conferences now regularly include panels and presentations on issues related to the development of a critical pedagogy for world language education, whether specific to issues of social justice or seeking to address broader emphases such as intercultural competence or content-based teaching. More and more teacher education programs – both in the U.S. and around the world – are working to incorporate critical perspectives to ensure that new teachers are not only familiar with critical pedagogy but also well-grounded in understandings of how critical pedagogy can be implemented in the classroom. In this chapter, the related concepts of critical pedagogy and social justice education are explored, both as theoretical constructs and with respect to how each can be implemented in terms of classroom practice. We also discuss the emancipatory and transformative potential of critical pedagogy, as well as aspects of social justice pedagogy, with particular focus on world language teaching and learning. An important element of these discussions is an extensive review of what we have called “voices from the field”: that is, ideas and practices suggested by classroom world language educators intended for their peers. Finally, the chapter ends with a detailed examination of the concept of linguistic human rights, and of the implications of linguistic human rights are for the world language classroom.
