"Social Justice and the University Language Learner"
Cassandra Glynn (Concordia College), Pamela Wesely (University of Iowa), and Beth Wassell (Rowan University)

Teaching for and about social justice positively influences all students, yet integrating social justice education into the college language curriculum can be challenging. In this talk, Drs. Cassandra Glynn, Pamela Wesely, and Beth Wassell, the co-authors of Words and Actions: Teaching Languages Through the Lens of Social Justice (Glynn, Wesely & Wassell, 2018), will address the principles of social justice education, looking specifically at how those principles connect with the guidelines and standards in world language teaching and common instructional practices in language programs. Attendees will be provided with illustrations, examples, and models of how social justice can be integrated in the college language classroom, and they will be encouraged to reflect on their own interests and strengths in becoming language educators for social justice. Participants will leave this talk with clear ideas about how to integrate principles of social justice education into their language classes.

Bios:
Dr. Glynn is an Associate Professor of Education at Concordia College, Moorhead, MN. She also serves as Director of Graduate Education, overseeing the Master of Education in World Language Instruction in partnership with Concordia Language Villages and the Master of Education with a concentration in Teaching and Learning. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota with a focus in Second Languages and Cultures Education. Dr. Glynn's research interests center around the experiences of marginalized and underrepresented students in world language classes and on world language teachers' experiences as they take critical approaches to teaching languages and cultures. Her work has been published in journals such as the L2 Journal, The Modern Language Journal, Language Teaching Research, and the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy. She is co-author of Words and Actions: Teaching World Languages through the Lens of Social Justice (ACTFL, 2014, 2018). Prior to starting at Concordia College, Dr. Glynn taught middle school language classes and high school German, including dual credit, and worked in the German and French Villages at Concordia Language Villages.

Dr. Wesely received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota in 2009, and she is currently an Associate Professor of Multilingual Education at the University of Iowa. She coordinates the World Language Teacher Education Program and serves as the Director of Graduate Studies and Associate DEO of the Department of Teaching and Learning. Dr. Wesely's scholarship and teaching examines K-12 world language education in the United States. Building on eight years of work as a middle school French teacher and 11 years working in the experiential learning environment of Concordia Language Villages in Minnesota, she studies the attitudes, motivations, perceptions, and beliefs of stakeholders in K-12 world language education using mixed methods, quantitative, and qualitative approaches to inquiry. Her work has been published in journals including Foreign Language Annals, The Modern Language Journal, Journal of Teacher Education, CALICO Journal, Language Teaching Research, and Journal of Mixed Methods Research. She is the co-author of Words and Actions: Teaching World Languages through the Lens of Social Justice (ACTFL, 2014, 2018). She recently (2018-2020) served as a member of the Board of Directors of ACTFL, and she is a former president of the Iowa World Language Association.

Dr. Wassell is a Professor in the Department of Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Education at Rowan University. Her research emphasizes the voices of students, teachers, and families and draws on critical and sociocultural frameworks to examine individuals' agency in reshaping the structures of teaching and teacher education in P-12 settings. She was a 2019 Fulbright Core Scholar to Spain and has published articles in journals such as Teaching and Teacher Education, Urban Education, TESOL Journal, Education and Urban Society, the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, and Teacher Education and Practice. She is co-author of Words and Actions: Teaching World Languages through the Lens of Social Justice (ACTFL, 2014, 2018). Dr. Wassell received an Ed.D. in Teaching, Learning and Curriculum from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Spanish from the University of Central Florida, a graduate certificate in TESOL from the Pennsylvania State University, and a B.A. from Rowan University in Spanish and Secondary Education. Prior to coming to Rowan, she taught Spanish as a world language at the high school level in Florida and New Jersey and English as an Additional Language to adults in Philadelphia, PA. 

Join us live on Zoom.