by Deborah J. Short

It's summer here in the United States and for many the school year is over. It had been on hiatus for most of the spring as we grappled with the COVID-19 public health and financial crisis. Although some in our global community are returning to normal activity, others are unfortunately confronting rising rates of infection.

Now, in early July, we in TESOL are poised between two major events that are direct results of the crisis. We have just completed our first Virtual TESOL Advocacy & Policy Summit and will soon hold our first Virtual Convention. Both events came together in just a few months as our staff and council members pivoted from face-to-face meetings to remote ones. Despite the sudden transition, the Advocacy & Policy Summit was a terrific success with close to three times as many registrants than ever before (309 people!), and the Convention is shaping up to be a triumph as well.

The past few months have offered us opportunities to be strong advocates for our students, colleagues, and families. The COVID-19 pandemic came as a challenge that our educators rose to meet. Schools were shut and teachers had to provide remote learning in any way possible. Some educators made the transition fairly smoothly—they were familiar with distance-learning technology and their students were also. But many others had a steep learning curve to climb. Some worked in school districts and colleges that did not consider the socioemotional needs of English learners and made no provision for continuing the teaching of English. Some had learners who lacked devices to support remote teaching and learning, and/or limitations regarding Internet access, bandwidth, and learning platforms. Many were unable to assess their students to measure progress or determine placement. But through incredible amounts of time and effort, combined with creativity and advocacy for the needs of our learners, our TESOL members persevered. The myTESOL COVID-19 space and resources, along with the webinars and other supports our interest sections, professional learning networks, councils, and affiliates provided, helped turn what could have been 3 months of lost instruction into a time of collaboration, compassion, engagement, and ultimately, language learning.

The second opportunity came with the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. As we watched in horror at the police brutality that took the lives of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks, to name but a few of the more recent victims, we realized we needed to make it clear that TESOL is an antiracist association. Our Statement on Racial Injustice and Inequality was written to express solidarity with our Black colleagues and students and others in communities of color. It reaffirmed TESOL’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Social justice has walked hand-in-hand with English language teaching for many years, and we must continue to advocate for justice and the end of systemic racism, discrimination, and bias.

We also need to listen, reflect, and learn, and TESOL will continue to promote further conversation, education, and professional development. We have published online a freely available special issue of curated articles from TESOL Quarterly and TESOL Journal entitled “Race, Identity and English Language Teaching” and have collected resources including readings for self-education and classroom materials to support antiracist education (coming soon).

Nelson Mandela said, “Without language, one cannot talk to people and understand them; one cannot share their hopes and aspirations, grasp their history, appreciate their poetry, or savour their songs.” We are language educators with knowledge and expertise that can advance high quality English language teaching. Let us live and work in a manner that exemplifies our core values, including our commitment to equity, diversity, multilingualism, multiculturalism, and individuals’ language rights. Let us continue to advocate for our students, their families, our colleagues, and our friends and help provide them with safe and welcoming environments in which to teach and learn.

I hope to see you at our Virtual Convention 16–18 July 2020.

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Deborah J. Short, PhD, is TESOL International Association president (2020–2021). She directs Academic Language Research & Training, LLC and provides professional development on academic literacy, content-based ESL, and sheltered instruction worldwide. She has led numerous research projects related to English learner education, codeveloped the SIOP Model, and served as series editor for several 6 Principles books.

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