Educating Language Teachers for Social Justice Teaching

Abstract

This paper describes an experience of introducing critical literacy in a pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher education course at a large university in Brazil, aimed at students' critical education and their preparation as future critical teachers. The paper tries to show how the concepts of transnational literacies and critical literacy have been used as a standpoint for teacher education and for the development of critical approaches to language teaching. The paper also highlights the importance of including education for citizenship in Brazilian teacher education programs in order to have EFL teachers and student teachers question themselves as globalized and technologized (LANKSHEAR; KNOBEL, 2003, p. 155) citizens, as well as to reflect on their roles in fostering responsible social transformation and in the promotion of social justice (HAWKINS, 2011a; ZEICHNER, 2011).