• We are delighted to announce the 3rd International Symposium on Social Justice in ELT :

    "Language Education at Times of Turmoil"

    Friday 30 May - Saturday 31 May 2025, Bahcesehir University, Istanbul, Türkiye
    Click here for details.


About Us

Introduction

We live in a world fundamentally rooted in social injustice in terms of race, ethnicity, age, disability, appearance, sexual orientation, and geographic location, to name a few. Educators in all disciplines play an important role in the struggle for social justice, English language teachers being no exception. English language classrooms can serve as a learning space for transformation to engage the youth in conversations related to peace, conflict, environmental issues, and human rights.

While pre-service English teachers should be offered courses that address issues of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and environmental issues, there are no courses offered in English language teaching (ELT) departments in Turkey at the undergraduate level. Thus, our project aims to offer educational opportunities for pre-service English language teachers to integrate social justice issues in their classes and help eliminate any kind of discrimination and raise social justice and equality at large.

Mission

Our project has two overarching purposes. First, it aims to integrate social justice issues in English language teaching curricula in Turkey by educating pre-service teachers across four different universities in Turkey. Second, by enabling these pre-service teachers to run a small-scale social responsibility project in their local environment, our project aims to reduce social injustice and increase equality in socio-economically disadvantages areas in Turkey.

More specifically, we aim to:
- to educate English language teachers who can bring about social justice and reduce inequality
- to develop English language teachers’ social responsibility, critical thinking and consciousness as well as commitment to lifelong learning
- to raise pre-service English language teachers’ reflection on the integration of social justice issues in language classes
- to encourage cooperation among Turkish teachers and between Turkish and American teachers

Social responsibility & Language learning

TESOL Special Interest: Social Responsibility

American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Social Justice Listserv

People

Deniz Ortactepe
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Deniz Ortactepe, Ph.D.

Associate Professor Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

Adnan Yilmaz
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Adnan Yilmaz, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor Sinop University, Turkey
 

Eyyup Yaprak
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Eyyup Yaprak

EFL Instructor Karahan Middle School, Turkey
 

New Contributors

Servet Celik has joined the project team as the coordinator of the Social Justice in ELT: Volume II project.

Servet Celik
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Servet Celik, Ph.D.

Associate Professor Trabzon University, Turkey

Awards

Social Responsibility Projects

  • Each participant will be supported to carry out their own social responsibility projects through which they will identify a social injustice in their environment and develop a community project to address it. Alternatively, the pre-service teachers can apply their lesson plans in their Practicum classes and report the discussions they have in the class as part of their projects. They can also run a small workshops with the other pre-service teachers who are in their first or second year in the program. Each of the projects will be funded upto $500 which the participants can use to recruit volunteers, print materials, buy books, etc.

Attendance to TESOL International Convention and English Language Expo, 2022

  • The owners of the four best projects will be funded to attend the TESOL International Convention and English Language Expo to be held between 24-27 March 2022 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

Conference Travel Award, Turkey

  • The remaining project owners will be funded to attend a conference on second/foreign language learning and teaching in Turkey.

Funders

  • This project is funded by the U.S. Embassy Ankara, Public Affairs Office of the U.S. Department of State. The grant has been provided to carry out a project to reinforce U.S. - Turkish Shared Values.
  • This grant is offered to projects which build mutual understanding and promote U.S.-culture, including American Studies, English teaching/learning, music, art, sports, and education; encourage study in the United States; and support human rights, women’s and youth empowerment, LGBT rights, diversity, acceptance of minority groups, and other areas of mutual interest that promote freedom and democracy.