Hello SRIS,

Thank you for taking the time to read our December issue of the Social Responsibility Interest Section (SRIS) newsletter, TESOLers for Social Responsibility. These days, every day seems like a battle. The news is constant and overwhelming at times. We have had a record intensity of natural disasters, massacres, attacks, and thousands of people coming forward to reveal their experiences with sexual harassment and assault in just the past few months. It has truly been a trying time in the United States and the world. It is by uniting that we stay strong. This community of activists, scholars, teachers, and professionals has been a source of strength and inspiration for us as we continue to navigate through these trying times. We have tried to do our part to provide support and resources for all of you through this newsletter. Over the past couple issues, we have brought you postconvention inspirations and pieces championing identity and inclusion in our field from all over the world. For this issue, we felt it appropriate to exhibit a theme that highlights how these pioneering and groundbreaking ideas can actually be applied in the classroom. As we have continued to emphasize in each of our issues, the work that we do has become more critical than ever, and your participation in submitting your work has been an integral part of the success of our newsletter.

As the proud editors, we find it is of the utmost importance to offer a platform for voices across the globe. We are pleased that the issue we present to you continues to do just that. The writers who have contributed to this issue showcase a diverse set of ideas on practical ways we can bring social justice elements into our classrooms. Their perspectives are their own, and our newsletter should be taken as a forum for our membership to share their views about issues that are important to them, which may or may not reflect the opinions or official positions of TESOL International Association.

This issue starts with a letter from our chair, Laura Jacob, who has reported more details about the new strands within SRIS, distilled from the survey that was dispersed over the summer. Please read her letter and take the follow-up survey. If you would like to be more involved with SRIS, you might also consider volunteering to lead one of the strands.

Next, we have four articles that demonstrate how teachers can incorporate social justice into their classes through lesson plans and curricula. We begin with two articles that detail insightful lessons on social justice issues. First, in “The N-Word: How to Engage ELLs’ Sociocultural Understanding,” Kendra Staley provides a lesson plan she designed to engage her beginning level Colombian students in a deep exploration of the N-word’s history and cultural context. Then Lucas Kohnke’s “Social Responsibility in the Digital Age: A Step-by-Step Guide to Student-Created Videos” outlines his approach to creating short videos on social issues with his students. Next, we shift our focus outward and examine courses and programs as a whole. In “Justice in Society Starts in the Classroom and the Community,” Janna L. Corn details her approach to teaching a social justice class, with sample readings and descriptions of how she facilitates community-based service learning. Looking at the effects of her graduate program’s commitment to developing critical consciousness in teacher candidates, Carli Danaher reflects on the transformation of her teacher identity in “Teacher Identity and Social Justice: A Graduate Student’s Transformative Journey.”

We are also very honored to bring you a special article about the urgent situation in Puerto Rico. Rosita L. Rivera and Edward Contreras provide a harrowing first-person account of Hurricane Maria, how they are rebuilding, and most important, how we, SRIS, can help in their recovery efforts.

The theme for our next issue is quite timely, and it follows the academic session which has been planned for our interest section during the upcoming TESOL convention in Chicago next March: Social Responsibility in the Current Political Climate. We strongly encourage submissions showcasing how you have dealt with the topics of politics in your classroom or how politics may have affected your classroom environment and how you have handled it. We are excited to see where this conversation goes. Submissions are due on 15 January. Please see the call for submissions for more details.

Finally, TESOL recently held elections for leadership positions in the Interest Sections, as well as for TESOL as a whole. Thank you, SRIS, for choosing us as your incoming chair elects! We are so excited to be taking on a new role in the interest section, and we thank you for placing your confidence in us as we continue the amazing work the leadership team has started during this year of IS transitions. We would also like to congratulate Elisabeth Chan, an important member of our SRIS family, on her election to TESOL’s nominating committee. Elisabeth served as chair of SRIS from 2015–2016 and has contributed a great deal to the success of this interest section. Thank you Elisabeth! We wish her all the best in her new role. We also want to thank all of you for your incredible contributions to our interest section newsletter this year and your unwavering dedication. As long as we continue to fight the good fight through our teaching, research, and advocacy, there is still hope for a brighter future. Let us remember and reflect on this as we close out 2017 and look toward 2018.

Anastasia and Riah

Anastasia Khawaja has been in the TESOL teaching profession for 10 years. She is a doctoral candidate in second language acquisition/instructional technology at the University of South Florida. Her dissertation research focuses on the emotions associated with languages that Palestinians use in Palestine and in the diaspora. She currently holds the position of senior instructor at INTO University of South Florida and has international teaching experience in Peru, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates.

Riah Werner is an English teacher and teacher trainer who has taught in Tanzania, South Korea, Thailand, Ecuador, and Cote D’Ivoire and trained more than 200 teachers. She holds an MA in TESOL from the SIT Graduate Institute. Her research interests include drama and the arts, social justice in ELT, and locally contextualized pedagogy. She documents her projects and blogs about the articles she reads at riahwerner.com.