Debunking Stereotypes about Middle Eastern Women in the EFL Classroom
I won the JALT GALE Professional Development Scholarship 2018 and had the chance to present at GALE Forum: “Equality Across Borders” which examined issues related to gender and identity both within Japan and globally.
My colleague, Elisabeth Fernandes, and I explored the theme of debunking stereotypes of Middle Eastern Women. We are both teaching English in the Japanese university context. We first shared our personal narratives focusing on Iran, my homeland, and Pakistan, which Elisabeth visited. We then talked about our collaboration in our English classrooms to dispel stereotypes about Middle Eastern women. We introduced our projects (e.g., “I Am More Than A Stereotype: Meet An Iranian Woman”, “Exploring Stereotypes”, and “Write4Change”) aimed at helping our learners reflect upon these existing stereotypes, and the impact of these misconceptions on attitudes towards the identity of these women. We also discussed how technology helps us fulfill our goals of challenging stereotypes.
Connecting to Puerto Rico through Augmented and Virtual Realities
After a massive hurricane hit Puerto Rico in September 2017, Antonio Vantaggiato, a professor at the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan, started a campaign on social media for his students, asking people to send postcards of encouragement. In response, we designed a corresponding project for our university classes in Japan, titled “How Can I Change the World: Bookmarks for Puerto Rico”. We chose bookmarks as an “educational” item on which our students could write encouraging messages in English, and which could then become a keepsake for the Puerto Rican students. Through the use of virtual reality (VR), our students were able to “travel” to Puerto Rico to experience the devastating results of the hurricane. They were also able to explore the campus of the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón through 3D images. We also utilized augmented reality (AR) to bring our #care4sagrado message to life. Our learning objectives in this project were to teach our EFL Japanese learners to empathize and to become caring global citizens. In our presentation, we demoed our AR-generated message and introduced the AR app, Blippar, we used to create it.
This is the story about human connections, about caring, about planting seeds of hope, about changing the world.
Chapter 1: Visa Rejections
My UK visa got rejected three times and I could not physically attend EUROCALL2017. I think the world knows about my visa story, but I share the link here again, just in case:
Chapter 3: Antonio, Alan, and Postcards for Puerto Rico
After the conference, we stayed in touch on Twitter. She mentioned me in a tweet and introduce a a campaign of mailing postcards to Antonio Vantaggiato and his students, devised by Alan Levine, to say unlike Trump#WeCare about #PuertoRico using these hashtags #care4sagrado#inf103#inf115. You can read more about the details of the campaign here:
I’d love to record one live while Alan is in Australia and interview Parisa Mehran, the author of the first postcard to arrive here, which carried the powerful message:
A woman who has to prove her humanity every day.
We want to talk humanity.
And we did and here are the links to the podcasts:
Elisabeth is a great friend and I know her through JALT, . I talked to her about the campaign and she suggested that we could introduce it to our Japanese students and make a lesson pan on how to empathize in English.
Chapter 8: How Can I Change the World: Bookmarks for Puerto Rico
We chose bookmarks as an “educational” item on which our students could write encouraging messages in English, and which could then become a keepsake for the Puerto Rican students.
Through the use of virtual reality (VR), our students were able to “travel” to Puerto Rico to experience the devastating results of the hurricane. They were also able to explore the campus of the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón through 3D images.
Most of the time I have to deal with micro/macroaggressions and reply to questions that they sound like an interrogation, and people even don’t know my name. “Postcards for Puerto Rico” made a bridge and connected me to people who know my name and they don’t ask me questions. They don’t want me to prove my humanity.
I’m a conference goer, and I’ve decided to put the logos of the following movements on my poster or in my last slide and introduce them to my audience. I contacted them and they kindly allowed me to do so.
ELTtoo To raise awareness against harassment & bulling in ELT
Yesterday I contacted EVE and asked about PanSIG2018’s plenary speakers’ line-up. I am happy to announce that PanSIG2018 qualified for a purple (the Gender Balance) EVE and was included in the EVE calendar:
Another feminist Killjoy speaking truth to power. Another feminist Killjoy dismantling racism and white supremacy in the academy. Another feminist Killjoy who shall not be silent/silenced.
In everything that my students and I do together, we strive to find ways to use reading and writing to make the world outside of our classroom a better place for all of us to be
