Brokering Britain, Educating Citizens

Exploring ESOL and Citizenship

Edited by Melanie Cooke, Rob Peutrell

Publication date:

16 September 2019

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781788924627

This book addresses the politically charged issue of citizenship and English language learning among adult migrants in the UK. Whilst citizenship learning is inherent in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), the book argues that top-down approaches and externally-designed curricula are not a productive or useful approach. Meaningful citizenship education in adult ESOL is possible, however, if it brings social and political content centre-stage alongside pedagogy which develops the capabilities for active, grassroots, participatory citizenship. The chapters deliver a detailed examination of citizenship and ESOL in the UK. They address a range of community and college-based settings and the needs and circumstances of different groups of ESOL students, including refugees, migrant mothers, job seekers and students with mental health needs. The book draws attention to the crucial role of ESOL teachers as ‘brokers of citizenship’ mediating between national policy and the experiences and needs of adult migrant students. The book links together language pedagogy and citizenship theory with the practical concerns of ESOL teachers and students.

Introduction. Melanie Cooke and Rob Peutrell

Part 1: Framing ESOL and Citizenship in the UK

Chapter 1. James Simpson: Policy and Adult Migrant Language Education in the UK

Chapter 2. Rob Peutrell Thinking About Citizenship and ESOL

Chapter 3. Melanie Cooke: ESOL Teachers as Mediators of the Citizenship Testing Regime

Part 2: Brokering Britain in the Classroom

Chapter 4. John Callaghan, Tesfalem Yemane, Mike Baynham: Steps to Settlement for Refugees: A Case Study

Chapter 5. Michael Hepworth: Argumentation, Citizenship and the Adult ESOL Classroom

Chapter 6. Pauline Moon with Roseena Hussain: Using Participatory Photography in English Classes: Resisting Silence, Resisting Dis-citizenship

Chapter 7. Melanie Cooke, Dermot Bryers and Becky Winstanley: ‘Our Languages’: Towards Sociolinguistic Citizenship in ESOL

Part 3: ESOL and Citizenship in Migrants' Lives

Chapter 8. Stefan Vollmer: Digital Citizenship for Newly Arrived Syrian Refugees Through Mobile Technologies

Chapter 9. Sheila Macdonald: Migrant Women, Active Citizens

Chapter 10. John Gray and Melanie Cooke: Queering ESOL: Sexual Citizenship in ESOL Classrooms

Chapter 11. Celia Roberts: From the Outside in: Gatekeeping the Workplace

Afterword. Rob Peutrell and Melanie Cooke: ESOL, Citizenship and Teacher

Professionalism

This is a coherent, lively, ethnographically-informed critique of ESOL teachers being encouraged to broker official narratives of Britain at the expense of minority perspectives. Positive examples of students as partners in learning make this an authoritative and challenging contribution to the still sparse literature on nationalism, citizenship and language teaching.