About the event
Watch recordings of three sessions from our mini-event on 08 March 2023 to celebrate International Women's Day. Each 60-minute session looks at different elements of gender and English language teaching. #GlobalGenderEquality #IWD2023 #EmbraceEquity
About the webinars
THEMIS project (Evaluating gender equity and equality in the English language teacher curriculum, ICT policies and learning materials in Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa)
Speakers: Ayca Gunaydin Kaymakcioglu, Michael Thomas, Maureen Sindisiwe Kalane
This webinar introduces the THEMIS project, which evaluates the English language curriculum of teacher training courses, ICT policies and learning materials in Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa. THEMIS adopts a mixed method research approach and produces case studies from low-and middle-income countries to discuss gender inequalities aimed at teacher trainers, trainee teachers, curriculum designers and policymakers.
In this webinar, we provide an overview of the project and address the current themes and directions in gender and language education research. The webinar will also highlight preliminary findings on textbook analysis research from Botswana, one of the case countries.
Click or tap to watch a recording of this webinar
CEDAW in ELT
Speaker: Elizabeth S Coleman
This talk will examine how EFL and EAL can contribute to the aims of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the meeting of the 5th UN Sustainable Development Goal (gender equality).
Beginning by examining the representation of women in ELT materials, the talk will then move to look at the benefits of educating women and girls, including a focus on the benefit of learning English for migrant women.
At the end of the talk, attendees will have an enhanced knowledge of CEDAW and how they can support the development of women within their classrooms.
Click or tap to watch a recording of this webinar
Download the session summary below
Gender-ing ELT: What can we do in our everyday classes?
Speakers: Dr Vander Viana, Dr Aisling O'Boyle
Much of our attention in English language teaching can be dedicated to the language itself – for example, grammatical structures and thematically related sets of words.
In our language classrooms, there may be less attention given to social issues in teaching materials and fewer opportunities provided for students to engage in social issues.
As teachers, we may be overlooking the contribution that we can make to the education of our English language students as individuals who are fully engaged with global issues. Drawing on a research project conducted in several countries, this webinar shows how we can embed gender-related topics in our pedagogical practice.
To this end, we draw on activities designed by teachers and student teachers around the globe. Collectively, these activities illustrate how we can overcome existing barriers (e.g. lack of relevant pedagogical materials) and bring together the focus on both language and socially relevant themes.
We would hold that we, all English language teachers, should welcome gender-related topics to our classes with a view to educating gender-aware students, reducing gender issues in our present-day society and contributing to internationally relevant sustainable development goals.
Click or tap to watch a recording of this webinar
About the speakers
Ayca Gunaydin Kaymakcioglu is a Research Support Assistant at Liverpool John Moores University. Her research interests include gender and education policy, the global governance of education, and social justice in education. She is currently working on a research project focussing on gender equality and ICT policy in English Language Teacher Training in Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa.
Michael Thomas is a Professor of Education and Social Justice and Director of the Centre for Educational Research (CERES) in the School of Education at Liverpool John Moores University. His primary research focus is digital education and social justice across a range of sectors from higher education to schools, both in the UK and internationally (Asia, Europe and Low-to-Middle-Income Countries e.g., West Africa), and his current projects explore inequalities related to gender, social class and disabilities.
Maureen Sindisiwe Kalane is a Lecturer in Academic & Professional Communication for Business in the Communication and Study Skills Unit at the University of Botswana. Her research interests include the role of social media in organisational communication (including higher education) during crises, multidisciplinary research in issues of communication & gender, education and education policy.
Elizabeth S. Coleman has been working in ELT for 15 years. Currently, she is an instructor and CPD specialist at Istanbul Medipol University. Drawing on her background in gender and human rights, Elizabeth is engaged in research around social constructions, gender & sexuality, and the representation of minorities in education.
Dr Vander Viana is Senior Lecturer in Language Education at the University of Edinburgh (Scotland). He started his career teaching English in several educational contexts (e.g. schools and language institutes) before starting to work with English language teacher education in a range of countries (e.g. Brazil, England, Scotland). He is an active researcher, and his areas of expertise include English language (teacher) education, corpus linguistics, and academic/pedagogic discourse analysis. He serves on the editorial board of international journals, has reviewed for numerous high-impact journals, and has a track record of funded research and outreach projects aimed at social sustainability in partnership with international colleagues.
Dr Aisling O’Boyle is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Centre for Language Education Research at Queen’s University Belfast. Her research focuses on relationships between dialogue and education, with methodological interests in corpus linguistics and discourse analysis. Her applied research in English language education engages with the socially embedded nature of language teaching; including gender equality matters and community language education programmes for adults, young people, and children from refugee and asylum-seeking backgrounds.