Hello SRIS!

The SRIS leadership team would like to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves to you, and to explain a little bit about the new leadership model we are introducing, with four Areas of Advocacy (AOAs). The goal is for this new system to create more ways for you, our members, to be involved in the interest section, with a robust calendar of year round activities.

Ous cochairs this year are Carter Winkle and Heidi Faust. Carter is an associate professor at Barry University in the Division of Curriculum, Pedagogy, and Research, working with doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate education students. He unapologetically wears the badge of “advocate-researcher” as he explores cultural and linguistic issues around English language teaching and learning. Heidi Faust is the associate director of TESOL Professional Training Programs at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Her research area focuses on equity and diversity in education. Heidi also previously served as the chair for the Intercultural Communication Interest Section in 2015.

Anastasia Khawaja and Riah Werner are are coeditors of this newsletter, as well as co-chair elects. Anastasia is currently a doctoral candidate in second language acquisition/instructional technology at the University of South Florida, busily writing her dissertation focusing on the emotions associated with languages that Palestinians use in Palestine and in the diaspora. She is also a senior instructor at INTO University of South Florida and has previously taught in Peru, South Korea, and the United Arab Emirates. Riah is an English Language Fellow at the National Pedagogical Institute for Technical and Professional Training in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, where she has developed a national continuing professional development program for in-service teachers. She uses drama and the arts to help her students address the issues facing their communities and is committed to developing locally contextualized pedagogies with the teachers she trains.

Laura Jacob has finished her term as our chair, but still provides guidance to the interest section in her role as past chair. She is an ESL instructor at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California and coeditor of Social Justice and English Language Teaching, one of TESOL Press’s best-selling books. Over the course of the past year, she pioneered the “strand” model of leadership, which brought many new leaders into SRIS as leaders of their respective areas of advocacy.

New to our interest section this year are our four Areas of Advocacy (AOAs).

The first area, EL Advocacy, serves to build a community within which equitable practices and pedagogies are examined from the theoretical spectrum to innovative practical applications. It is co-led by Christine E. Poteau, Babak Khoshnevisan and Georgios-Vlasios Kormpas. Christine holds a Ph.D. in Spanish Applied Linguistics from Temple University. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at Rowan University with research and pedagogical interests in ESL, EFL, and Spanish Applied Linguistics. She is especially interested in connecting second and foreign language learners in collaborative advocacy for equitable rights and access to education, medical care, and legal counsel in local and global contexts. Babak is a Ph.D. candidate in Technology in Education and Second Language Acquisition (TESLA) Program at the University of South Florida (USF). He is an instructor of EAP courses at INTO USF. His research interests include teacher education, CALL, idiomaticity, and AR. He sees advocacy as an umbrella term, which involves the sustainable development goals of the UN. He is interested in the UN goals in terms of quality education, as well as in the identity of international students. Georgios is currently the Senior Academic Specialist at the Continuing and Executive Education Division (CEED) at Al Yamamah University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Georgios is also a Ph.D. candidate researching Technology Enhanced Learning at Lancaster University. He has been involved with teacher and student advocacy for many years through different teacher associations. He believes that through advocacy and equity students and teachers can be greatly empowered and help their societies.

The next area of advocacy, Intersections of Identity and ELT, aims to support language teachers’ identit(ies) through attentiveness to individuality and is led by Hemamalini Ramachandran. Hema is a Senior Instructor in the INTO USF Academic Program at the University of South Florida; she has also taught & supervised undergraduate theses in the USF Honors College. Her education includes a PhD in Film, MA TESOL, & MA French; she has taught at the university level, in high school, and in community college in different national/cultural contexts. Hema comes into TESOL with an extensive background in cultural studies/theory. Her enduring interest in issues of culture, identity, representation, & equity motivated her to agree to lead the SRIS strand, Intersections of Language Teaching & Identity.

The third area of advocacy, Professional Learning, serves to connect members of the TESOL community who want to unpack specific areas of social justice and equity in education, and includes teacher education, curriculum development and social justice resources. This area is led by Dr. Chris Leider. She is a former ESL teacher and is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor of Bilingual Education and TESOL at Boston University. Her research focuses on instruction and assessment for emergent bilinguals and her teaching focuses on developing anti-racist pedagogy and critical perspectives with ESL, Sheltered English Immersion, and Bilingual Education teachers.

The final advocacy area, Global Issues in Education, includes peace, the environment and economic justice, and focuses on understanding how students, administrators, researchers, civil society can foster new generations of citizens who care about global issues. Its leader is Yecid Ortega, a Ph.D. candidate in the program of Language and Literacies Education (LLE) at OISE – University of Toronto. Yecid explores how globalization, capitalism and neoliberalism influence language policy decision-making and classroom practices. His current specific interest deals with aspects of social justice and peacebuilding within frameworks of epistemologies of the South. His research looks at how English language teaching policy in Colombia is being understood by the school community (students, teacher, parents, principal etc.) and how it influences classroom practices and students’ lived experiences.

If you’d like to join the leadership team, the position of community manager is currently open. SRIS has online presences on myTESOL, Facebook and Twitter, so if you would like to help facilitate our conversations and encourage engagement across those platforms, we would love to have you on the team! Please email Carter Winkle with a short bio and why you would make a good community manager.

We’re looking forward to another exciting year of Social Responsibility with all of you!

Sincerely,

The SRIS Leadership Team