WeChat Pandemia: Examining The Intersections In Isolation As A 59 Year-Old Black Doctoral Student With Young Online Language Learners In China and Costa Rica
Abstract
I intend to reflect how the plot points of my Otherness presented an opportunity for me to further explore decolonizing tools (Mignolo, 2007) adjacent to Critical Race Theory (CRT) in global language instruction. CRT (Donnor & Ladson-Billings, 2017) is often applied to examine bias and hegemon among the Othered in United States settings. Though teaching online to students in the Global South provides an opportunity for diverse learning environments, instructors don’t always address the residue of epistemological knowledge erasure that is a product of racism transported by those with access to the academic West (Jupp et al., 2018). Recent global events have increased an opportunity to explore lingering colonized thought loops embedded in dominant narratives in global learning spaces (Berry, 2017). Though I have always layered language learning with a curriculum relevant to the individual lives of my students, I have rarely exposed how my own vulnerability as an intersected language instructor impacts every area of my life. A strategy for interrogating structures of Otherism is to analyze the lived experiences of underrepresented populations with counterstory to dominant narratives (Berry, 2104). These narratives, what we say to ourselves about ourselves (Pinar et al., 1995) often sit on Black/White binaries neglecting other racialized groups and fail to carry discourse to global settings. I will present how we came together, trapped in isolation and uncertainty, and redefined roles of teacher and learner moving toward more emancipated thought construction of each other, connected in ways we had never been prior to COVID-19.
Presentation Description
Unavailable
Location
Stream B
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Clover, "WeChat Pandemia: Examining The Intersections In Isolation As A 59 Year-Old Black Doctoral Student With
Young Online Language Learners In China and Costa Rica" (2021). Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative. 75.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cssc/2021/2021/75
WeChat Pandemia: Examining The Intersections In Isolation As A 59 Year-Old Black Doctoral Student With Young Online Language Learners In China and Costa Rica
Stream B
I intend to reflect how the plot points of my Otherness presented an opportunity for me to further explore decolonizing tools (Mignolo, 2007) adjacent to Critical Race Theory (CRT) in global language instruction. CRT (Donnor & Ladson-Billings, 2017) is often applied to examine bias and hegemon among the Othered in United States settings. Though teaching online to students in the Global South provides an opportunity for diverse learning environments, instructors don’t always address the residue of epistemological knowledge erasure that is a product of racism transported by those with access to the academic West (Jupp et al., 2018). Recent global events have increased an opportunity to explore lingering colonized thought loops embedded in dominant narratives in global learning spaces (Berry, 2017). Though I have always layered language learning with a curriculum relevant to the individual lives of my students, I have rarely exposed how my own vulnerability as an intersected language instructor impacts every area of my life. A strategy for interrogating structures of Otherism is to analyze the lived experiences of underrepresented populations with counterstory to dominant narratives (Berry, 2104). These narratives, what we say to ourselves about ourselves (Pinar et al., 1995) often sit on Black/White binaries neglecting other racialized groups and fail to carry discourse to global settings. I will present how we came together, trapped in isolation and uncertainty, and redefined roles of teacher and learner moving toward more emancipated thought construction of each other, connected in ways we had never been prior to COVID-19.
