Experientially grounded praxis of social justice language education: pre-service teachers of English engage in field work in an Argentine NGO

ABSTRACT

Framed within the theory and practice of social justice in English language teacher education (ELTE), the aim of this study was to foster pre-service teachers’ awareness of social justice principles, issues and practices by taking part in a service learning experience during their higher education studies in a non-governmental organisation located on the outskirts of La Plata city in Argentina. In collaboration with their university tutors, three pre-service teachers taught workshops using intercultural literature in English during 2017–2018 for underserved children in the NGO. Data comprise four reflection logs written by each teacher candidate during 2017–2020, analysed using content analysis. Findings show the significance of providing an experientially grounded sense of social justice education. The study illustrates pre-service teachers’ journeys toward social justice grounded in field work beyond the level of rhetoric. It also tests current perspectives on social justice in a South American setting, as work done on this basis has focused almost exclusively on Africa. Implications for ELTE and education in general are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Experientially grounded social justice
• service learning
• language education

Acknowledgement

I am extremely grateful to Darío Luis Banegas and Hugo Santiago Sanchez for their detailed and valuable feedback on earlier versions of this article. The errors that remain are mine. I am also indebted to two anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions. Last but not least, a sincere word of appreciation goes to the pre-service teachers who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministerio de Educación de la Nación [V10- UNLP4611 “Lenguas y culturas cerca tuyo”].

Notes on contributors

Melina Porto

Melina Porto is a researcher at the National Research Council (CONICET) and Professor at Universidad Nacional de La Plata in Argentina. She is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of East Anglia. Her research interests include intercultural language education, intercultural citizenship, pedagogies of discomfort, the arts in language education, service learning, and ethics.