Critical Language Pedagogy: Learners as Agents of Social Change

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Critical Language Pedagogy: Learners as Agents of Social Change
Friday, April 5, 2024
McIntosh Center (University Hall 3999)
12 - 3 p.m.

Critical Language Pedagogy: Learners as Agents of Social Change
Seminar with Distinguished Guest Speaker Henry A. Giroux

Critical language pedagogy (CLP) is an approach to language teaching that incorporates critical thinking, social justice, and cultural awareness. It views language as a tool for social transformation, emphasizing the cultural and social contexts in which language is used and encouraging critical examinations of power, privilege, and oppression. The seminar begins with a talk by Professor Henry A. Giroux, who will address the vital role that critical pedagogy plays in confronting the multiple threats facing education in our times. The seminar continues with a workshop, in which faculty and students explore ways of empowering learners as agents of social change.

Lunch will be provided to in-person participants.

About the Bellarmine Forum

The Bellarmine Forum is LMU's annual celebration of the life of the mind, offered by the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts. The 2023-24 Bellarmine Forum invites students, faculty, and the entire LMU community to think about how we understand “internationalization” and how to break it down into what that actually means to us.
Henry A. Giroux, McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies Department, and the Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy.
Rebeca Acevedo, Professor of Spanish & Linguistics in the Department of Modern Languages
and Literatures at LMU. Her research interests include the teaching of Spanish as a heritage
language, Spanish in the United States, Mexican Spanish, sociolinguistics and historical
linguistics.

Laura Huffman, Senior Instructor of French in the Department of Modern Languages and
Literatures at LMU, has teaching interests in the language, literature, culture, and food of France
and the Francophone world.

Yu Li, Associate Professor of Chinese in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
at LMU. Her research and teaching interests include Chinese language pedagogy, the
Chinese writing system and calligraphy, linguistic landscape, and social semiotics.

Alicia Partnoy, LMU Professor Emerita. With twelve books and dozens of publications, she has
embraced Freire’s ideas for fifty years.
12:00-12:15 Opening remarks
12:15-1:25 Talk by Professor Henry A. Giroux, Distinguished Guest Speaker
1:25-1:40 Break
1:40-2:50 Workshop with faculty and students
2:50-3:00 Closing remarks