ABSTRACT
As COVID-19 spread around the world in 2020, and schools and universities moved online, many educators struggled to adjust to the ‘new normal’. This often left teachers scrambling to get through the class as best they could, leaving pedagogical ideals and the needs of a diverse student body to be pushed into the background. Inclusive pedagogy is an approach to teaching that recognizes the diverse identities that students bring to the classroom and operates proactively to help students to perform these identities without fear of discrimination or marginalization. In this chapter, the authors engage in critical narrative reflection, interlaced with data from their classrooms, to reflect on their efforts to foster and maintain an inclusive pedagogical approach that allowed their students to perform their preferred identities even in the new and unfamiliar teaching environment of online English Language Teaching communication classes. The authors share their successes and failures in this regard and finish the chapter by offering suggestions as to how the new media of online teaching and learning tools can be enhanced to create safe, inclusive classrooms in a still-uncertain postpandemic world.
