Greetings Social Responsibility Interest Section (SRIS)!

We are Trisha Dowling and John Turnbull, the editors of the SRIS newsletter, TESOLers for Social Responsibility.

We are excited to announce that the theme for our December 2020 issue is Reflections and Lessons on Disruption. For this issue, we are looking for articles, personal reflections and stories, and lesson plans. We are also open to artistic submissions such as paintings, poems, or pictures.

Choosing a theme for the latter half of the year 2020 has been a challenge, as so much has occurred in just this first half of the year. It is difficult to imagine what the remainder of the year will look like. Originally, we thought that focusing on Social Responsibility in the time of COVID-19 was most appropriate, but now, as we see global protests occurring that begin to acknowledge and address systematic racism and police brutality, we have settled on the theme “Reflections and Lessons on Disruption” as it feels all-encompassing.

As we see it, disruption is the theme of 2020. COVID-19 has disrupted both our personal and professional lives (including how or even IF we teach). We are seeing not only protests occurring but global movements. We hope to hear transnational perspectives on the disruption that everyone is feeling.

Additional (non-exhaustive topics) include:

• Use of current-event topics in English learning environments (lessons, activities, etc.)
• Personal reflections on how the disruption of 2020 has impacted you (teachers and/or students)
• Activities that promote anti-racist perspectives that aim toward social justice in TESOL classrooms
• Poems, visual representations, and other forms of artistic expressions

We would love to share a wide range of voices and perspectives on this topic and particularly encourage submissions from ESOL/ESL/EFL communities, students, writers, and scholars from around the world.

We are looking for:

• Feature articles: Share your presentations, research projects, or classroom practices.
• Lesson descriptions: Describe a lesson plan you’ve created about a social justice topic so that other teachers can use it with their students as well!
• Anecdotes and stories: Do you have a story or personal reflection on incorporating social issues into your classes? If so, we’d love to hear it!
• Visual Representations/Visual Arts: Share any drawings, pictures, paintings, etc. that fit into the special issue and that align with social justice.
• Lists of useful resources: Share resources that you use in your work, along with an explanation of how you use them or why you find them helpful.
• Reviews: Write about a book or an article that has inspired you as a teacher or researcher.
• Written Interviews: Is there a member of the TESOL community you would like to interview? Send the interview our way!
• Calls to action: Overviews of pressing issues around the world, and suggestions on how TESOLers can get involved in the conversation.
• Responses to articles published in the newsletter: We welcome submissions in dialogue with articles we have already published. Continue the conversations started in this issue!

Your submission can be between 500 to 1,500 words. Please keep this word count in mind as you draft your piece. It includes the title, byline, teaser, and references, so the actual body of the article should be less than the limit of 1,500 words. If you have an idea but need some guidance on how to develop it more fully, please email us at srisnewslettertesol@gmail.com, and we will brainstorm together!

Please send your articles to Trisha and John at srisnewslettertesol@gmail.com with the subject line "SRIS Newsletter Submission.”

The deadline for submissions is 30 November 2020. We aim to publish this issue by the end of December 2020.

General Submission Quick Guide

Articles should

• have the title in ALL CAPS;
• list a byline (author’s name with hyperlinked email, affiliation, city, country);
• include a 2- to 3-sentence teaser, written in the third person;
• be no longer than 1,750 words (including bylines, teasers, main text, tables, references and author bios)
• include a 2- to 3-sentence author biography, written in the third person;
• contain no more than five references;
• follow the style guidelines in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th Edition (APA style); and
• include an author photo (120 pixels wide by 160 pixels tall) and any other photos (up to 400 pixels wide, no limit on height) as separate files (do not embed them into your Word document).

The SRIS newsletter is a great venue to share your innovative work and ideas with our community. We look forward to receiving your submissions soon.