Introduction
Like you, we were curious about the process of critically rethinking and diversifying both our daily teaching and the curriculum underlying it, and like you, we weren’t sure of where or how to start. We were dissatisfied with the representations of culture provided in our textbooks and traditional teaching materials and wondered how they could be made better. How to challenge monolithic portrayals of culture and shift the focus to the diversity of identities within the target culture as well as our own classrooms? In effect, how to de-center course materials and teach more inclusively? How to develop a critical mindset in ourselves and our students? And how to go about this systematically? The generous support of Washington University’s Teaching Innovation Award made it possible for us to better familiarize ourselves with the latest pedagogy in the field, and while we are by no means experts, we feel that the insight gained from our research is worth sharing with interested colleagues, as it demonstrates both the feasibility and the importance of undertaking this project.
In addition to time constraints and a dearth of readily available resources, a number of concerns had kept us from jumping into this endeavor sooner, such as: were we, two white, cis-gender, (relatively) privileged women the right people for the task? What does a “critical approach to language teaching” entail and how is it best achieved? And how do these efforts fit into the larger mission of the liberal arts, into fostering a love of learning born of critical thinking? Empowered by our new-found knowledge, we can now answer those questions and more, which is the purpose of this guidebook.
Whether you are simply curious about critical pedagogies in general, or wanting to rewrite a lesson or two to incorporate new critical insights, or planning to overhaul your entire curriculum, we hope this slender volume will be of assistance. We have laid it out to be accessible either to a complete reading or to the cherry picking of particular topics. However you ultimately use it, we hope that it increases your confidence in your ability to make your lessons more diverse and inclusive, as well as offering guidelines for how to do so. Happy reading and best of luck to you!
