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Author Biographies

Dr. Zuzana Tomaš is an Associate Professor of ESL/TESOL at Eastern Michigan University. Her interests are in second language writing pedagogy, teacher education, and community-engaged learning. In addition to her peer reviewed articles and book chapters, she has co-authored three books: Teaching Writing, Fostering International Student Success in Higher Education, and Teaching Effective Source Use: Classroom Approaches that Work.

Margita Vojtkulakova has graduate credentials from the University of Matej Bel in Slovakia and Eastern Michigan University. She is currently working as an ESL teacher at Frontier International Academy in Detroit. She has co-published an article in Reading Matrix online and presented at several professional conferences.

Nikola Lehotska is a graduate of University of Matej Bel in Slovakia and is currently pursuing MA in TESOL at Eastern Michigan University. She taught English at an elementary school via “Teach for Slovakia” program. She is currently conducting thesis research that examines the impact of online intercultural exchanges for English teachers in Slovakia.

Marie Schottin is an ESL teacher at Estabrook Elementary School. She is a certified SIOP trainer and has presented at TESOL and district professional development conferences. She is currently completing her MA in TESOL at Eastern Michigan University. Her professional interests are in effective elementary EL education and providing general education teachers with training and useful strategies for working with their ESL students.

Abstract

This article makes two contributions to culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy for English learners (ELs). First, we argue for the value of expanding cultural responsiveness to include an intercultural framing that not only cultivates ELs’ pride in their multicultural heritage, but also fosters their identities and capacities as global citizens. Second, we make a case for foregrounding student agency as a necessary prerequisite for what has been conceptualized as the ultimate goal of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy: to be able to maintain one’s cultural practices, while simultaneously learning how to critique dominant power structures (Paris & Alim, 2017). We illustrate how such agency-focused, (inter)culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy can be enacted in an online intercultural exchange (OIE) program that brought together elementary school ELs in Michigan and Slovak English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners.

Publication Date

2-1-2021

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