“Is This a Safe Space?”: Examining an Emotionally Charged Eruption in Critical Language Pedagogy

Gordon Blaine West

doi:10.3390/educsci11040186

Abstract

Unexpected conflicts, or eruptions, in class during discussions of controversial issues are not uncommon in the field of English language teaching (ELT). This can be especially true for critical English language teachers who hope to address social justice issues in their classrooms. Existing literature of these events often mentions emotional responses of teachers and students, without fully analyzing the ways in which emotions are processed and constrained around these eruptions. This article examines a homophobic incident during an in-service English language teacher course taught by the author to illustrate ways in which emotions shaped the response to the incident, and how social justice aims can be achieved for critical language teachers in emotionally challenging environments, where there may be competing claims of injustice and narratives of oppression. Drawing on feminist theories of emotion, the case is made for a conceptualization of emotions not as private, individual experiences, but rather as public, socioculturally and materially mediated experiences. Social justice is theorized as an active fight against injustices that cannot be seen as an individual, isolated effort. Implications for critical language educators are shared.

Highlights

Conflict can arise suddenly and unexpectedly during class
Shutting down the discussion, both damages the trust needed to achieve any sort of dialogue and makes more difficult the task of helping the teachers be more self-reflexive in understanding their own emotions around this issue and how their position may have serious consequences in alienating and harming students who identify as LGBTQ
I may not have been successful in this, had I returned to the discussion after a break to let emotions cool, and worked to build trust, it may have been possible, through dialogue and problemposing, to help the teachers reflect on the anger and fear they might feel toward the LGBTQ community, what it means to use homophobic, biblical arguments about them, and what it might mean to have students who identified as LGBTQ in their classes, or students who have friends or family members that identified as LGBTQ when they hold these sorts of feelings and beliefs

Summary

Introduction

Conflict can arise suddenly and unexpectedly during class This is especially true in fields like English language teaching (ELT), where teachers work together with people from widely different backgrounds with different cultural values and norms. The suddenness and intensity of reactions to the video prompted my own critical self-reflection and motivates the investigation in this article These sorts of moments have been defined in critical language pedagogy as “eruptions” [3]. Feminist scholars have long noted the importance of understanding and analyzing emotions as public, socioculturally and materially mediated experiences that are subject to control, often in ways the serve to further delegitimize claims of oppressed groups [5,6,7] This conception of emotions is useful to critical language teachers to better understand the ways in which emotions may be used, constrained, and shape responses to eruptions. Through my analysis of the moment, and a review of interdisciplinary literature, I recommend ways in which teachers might respond to eruptions such as the one that occurred in my classroom by seeking out critical educator groups and setting up structures of support for students in classes

Eruptions in Critical Language Pedagogy

LGBTQ Rights and Protestant Opposition in Korea

Understandings of Social Justice

The Eruption

My Positionality

Social Justice Aims

Critical Collaboration around Eruptions

Conclusions