Presentation Title
Centering Marginalized Voices: Teaching Research through a Social Justice Lens in the Advanced Language Classroom
Proposal Format
75-minute Workshop
Track Choices
Best Practices in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Abstract
Advanced level language courses typically employ community-based learning or off-campus study as practices that allow students to engage in discussion and reflection related to issues of social justice (Randolph and Johnson, 2017). In this workshop we present another option: teaching a research-intensive course that culminates in a student-led panel discussion. Our presentation offers a concrete example of how we reshaped student understanding of how to research a topic as well as their role in the classroom. This reshaping fostered their ability to collaborate with peers. Our approach to content created a renewal in purposeful use of the target language and culminated with a public presentation in which they were the authorities on specialized aspects of social justice issues in marginalized communities. In this workshop, we will share the insights we learned after having taught two such courses. Moreover, we will give participants a packet of resources to create similar courses to meet their students' particular needs and interests and facilitate small group discussions during which they will 1) brainstorm topic ideas, 2) develop course timelines, and 3) engage in a fruitful exchange with like-minded colleagues. Workshop participants will leave the session with topic ideas, a projected timeline, handouts and slides.
Keywords
research, advanced language course, marginalized voices
Speaker Bio
Alanna M. Breen earned her PhD from UT Austin and has been at USC since 2011, teaching lower and upper division Spanish and Portuguese, as well as Comparative Literature courses. Belén M. Villarreal is an associate professor of Spanish and Hispanic Studies at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where she teaches undergraduate courses in all levels of Spanish language and linguistics.
Centering Marginalized Voices: Teaching Research through a Social Justice Lens in the Advanced Language Classroom
Penny Hall, 201
Advanced level language courses typically employ community-based learning or off-campus study as practices that allow students to engage in discussion and reflection related to issues of social justice (Randolph and Johnson, 2017). In this workshop we present another option: teaching a research-intensive course that culminates in a student-led panel discussion. Our presentation offers a concrete example of how we reshaped student understanding of how to research a topic as well as their role in the classroom. This reshaping fostered their ability to collaborate with peers. Our approach to content created a renewal in purposeful use of the target language and culminated with a public presentation in which they were the authorities on specialized aspects of social justice issues in marginalized communities. In this workshop, we will share the insights we learned after having taught two such courses. Moreover, we will give participants a packet of resources to create similar courses to meet their students' particular needs and interests and facilitate small group discussions during which they will 1) brainstorm topic ideas, 2) develop course timelines, and 3) engage in a fruitful exchange with like-minded colleagues. Workshop participants will leave the session with topic ideas, a projected timeline, handouts and slides.