Plenary Session Friday

Friday Plenary, 4:15-5:00 pm, May 7, 2021

Spring Virtual Conference

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Social Justice Praxis – In and Beyond the Classroom

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion plenary panel seeks to explore how ESL/EFL educators may effectively engage in social justice praxis (Freire, 1970 /1993) – in and beyond the classroom.  U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (2009) noted that the process of promoting opportunity and reducing inequality not only begins in the classroom, but also argued that great teaching was defined by a daily fight for social justice (Hastings & Jacob, 2016, p. 3). 

Inspired by Duncan’s call to arms, this panel advocates for the creation of Socially Just Classrooms, in which English language educators serve as Social Justice Educators who become aware and critical of oppressive practices by

  • engaging in self-reflective processes that focus on their respective positionality in relation to oppression;

  • advocating for the eradication of biased and socially unjust practices within and beyond the classroom; and

  • designing social justice curriculum, lesson plans, and equitable assessments that effectively place their students’ funds of knowledge (Espinoza, et al., 2021) at the epicenter of the classroom.

In a Socially Just Classroom, educators proactively create classrooms of belongingness - classrooms inclusive of the languages and cultures of minoritized communities.

Nancy Kwang Johnson

Nancy Kwang Johnson, Ph.D. (Government), is CATESOL Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Taskforce Coordinator.  Dr. Johnson, former US Senate staffer, Associate Professor, liaised with the White House on behalf of Asian American Pacific Islanders, historically Black colleges and universities, Native American tribal colleges and universities, and Hispanic-serving institutions.  

Esther Gross

Esther Gross, Ed.D. (Educational Leadership), a visiting professor at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, serves as the Global Education Director for Hebrew Studies at The Center for Educational Technology in Israel. A Hebrew language teacher and K-12 director for two decades, Dr. Gross teaches pre- and in-service Hebrew teachers globally.
Jenifer Crawford

Jenifer Crawford

Jenifer Crawford, Ph.D. (Urban Education), is a Professor of Clinical Education in the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. Crawford earned her Ph.D. in Urban Schooling from UCLA specializing in teachers’ leadership and advocacy in public schools in collaboration with linguistically and racially minoritized communities. 

Ekaterina Moore

Ekaterina Moore, Ph.D. (Applied Linguistics) is an Associate Professor at Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California. Her research interest is in social aspects of language learning, including classroom language socialization, heritage language learning and teaching, and classroom discourse analysis.

Emmy Min

Emmy Min

Emmy J. Min, Ph.D. (Education), is an Associate Professor of Clinical Education at the University of Southern California's MAT-TESOL program where she has been a faculty member since 2009. Dr. Min has presented her work on teaching and assessment strategies at conferences and her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals.   

Kimberly Ferrario

Kimberly Ferrario

Kimberly Ferrario, Ph.D. (Language, Literacy and Culture), is a professor in the MAT-TESOL master's degree program in the Rossier School of Education at USC for 11 years, additionally has 20 years teaching experience in K-12 public schools. She brings her expertise in literacy with a special focus on critical literacy and pedagogical practices.

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