“Evaluating the Impact of a Semester-long Social Justice Pedagogy Professional Development Program for Language Instructors”
Anna Piotti, Graduate Student of German Linguistics at Penn State
Friday, February 3, 2023, 9:00–10:30 a.m. EST, 127 Moore Building and virtually via Zoom
The field of instructed second language acquisition seeks to understand how language instruction can be improved for optimal second and foreign language learning. As many language programs move beyond teaching just the language and towards developing inquiry into language and culture through the language—and endeavor to do so in socially just ways—professional development opportunities help equip instructors with the knowledge and skills to integrate inclusivity and criticality into their practices and nurture such behaviors in their students.
In this talk, Anna Piotti explores the outcomes of a semester-long professional development program on social justice pedagogy for language instructors. Through tracing instructor participants’ engagement with social justice pedagogy, as well as their developing understanding of the pedagogy, Anna both evaluates the professional development program and considers what influences instructors to learn about and implement social justice in their language classrooms. This project unites research and theory of language teacher engagement, social justice pedagogy, and professional development and situates them within the emerging field of Teaching Language Teachers.