A critical intercultural stance from the margins: EFL education in a conflict-ridden context

ABSTRACT

This article offers a critical intercultural perspective to English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education inspired by Freire's conceptualisation of dialogue required in contexts where teachers must comply with hegemonic language policies. Drawing on an ethnographic study with Yusef, a Palestinian-Arab EFL teacher in Israel, I examine how intercultural critical dialogue within EFL education is seen from the margins. Analysis of interviews, classroom interactions, and policy documents underscores the political agency of Yusef and his students and their response to imposed linguistic/educational subjectivities. Undertaking a critical intercultural stance enables marginalised communities to deconstruct their invisibility and contest asymmetrical power divisions.

يعتمد هذا المقال على نظرية الحوار لدى فريري لطرح مفهوم للتّواصل بين الثّقافات من خلال تدريس اللّغة الإنجليزيّة حيث يخضع المعلّمون لسياسات لغويّة مهيمنة. بالاستناد إلى بحث إثنوغرافي أُجري مع يوسف، وهو معلّم عربي-فلسطيني للّغة الإنجليزيّة في إسرائيل، تحلل الباحثة مقابلات معه، تّفاعلات صّفّيّة، ووثائق رّسميّة للسّياسات اللّغويّة، وذلك من أجل فحص مفهوم للتّواصل بين الثّقافات مناهض للنّموذج المهيمن في تعليم اللّغة الإنجليزيّة. يفحص البحث أسلوب التّفاعل بين يوسف وتلاميذه وبين الذّاتيّات المفروضة عليهم كأقليّة قوميّة كما يرد عند تطبيق السّياسة اللّغويّة في المنهاج. يشير البحث الى أنّ مفهوم التّواصل بين الثّقافات كما يراه المهمَّشون يعزز قدرتهم على تفكيك الممارسات المهيمنة لتغييب وجودهم وتهميشهم .

KEYWORDS:

• EFL
• intercultural dialogue
• conflict-ridden contexts
• marginalised
• communities
• critical pedagogy

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for its support of her current postdoctoral studies. The author also expresses her thanks to Iyas Nasser for offering his insights on writing the Arabic abstract; Roey Gafter and Carlos Alberto Torres for their valuable input and encouragement; and the anonymous reviewers for their thought-provoking suggestions. She finally expresses her thanks to Yusef and his amazing students for allowing her to become a participant member of their classroom community and for granting her their trust to amplify their voices.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The Green Line is the demarcation line that indicated the borders of Israel between the 1949 Armistice Agreements and the 1967 war.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Muzna Awayed-Bishara

Muzna Awayed-Bishara has a PhD from the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Haifa. Her main research interests are critical discourse studies, applied linguistics, and language (specifically English) and intercultural communication in conflict-ridden contexts. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is the author of EFL Pedagogy as Cultural Discourse: Textbooks, Practice, and Policy for Arabs and Jews in Israel (Routledge, 2020).