How do teachers use their agency to pursue social justice, particularly in their use of the English language in their classrooms? This was the focus of a new autoethnographic study published by Prof. Veronico N. Tarrayo, PhD of the Department of English and the Research Center for Social Sciences and Education.
The study entitled “Queering the English language classroom: An autoethnographic exploration of teacher agency for social justice” was published in Teachers and Teaching by Taylor & Francis. Drawing on reflections written over the course of five years, Tarrayo’s paper found that intentional pedagogical choices, continuous self-reflection, and navigating sociocultural constraints were necessary to pursue social justice through queering the English language classroom, which, Tarrayo argued, can help promote inclusive and compassionate educational systems.
The paper, published on October 30, was the subject of Tarrayo’s plenary lecture in Santa Marta, Colombia, where 60th Asociación Colombia de Profesores de Inglés (ASOCOPI) Annual and 6th International Conference.