Time/Date: 3:30-5PM, Thursday, February 27

Speaker: Kate Paesani (Ph.D., Indiana University) is Director of the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) and Associate Professor in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Minnesota.

Title: Teaching for Social Justice Through Multiliteracies Pedagogy

Abstract: Critical pedagogies that prepare learners to participate in multilingual, multicultural, and multimodal societies are gaining ground in language education. The multiliteracies framework (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009; New London Group, 1996) is one example of a critical pedagogy that not only develops learners’ language proficiency as they engage with target language texts, but also empowers students to question and critique how language and culture embody, maintain, and challenge structural inequalities and biases. To illustrate how multiliteracies pedagogy can support social justice in language education, this talk is organized around three central questions: Why is the multiliteracies framework a viable critical pedagogy for implementing social justice in language classrooms?, How can language educators integrate multiliteracies and social justice principles?, and What do multiliteracies-and-social-justice integrated instructional materials look like? I begin by discussing key concepts related to social justice, critical pedagogies, and the multiliteracies framework. Then, I overview research, resources, and professional development from CARLA's Social Justice in Language Education initiative, homing in on instructional planning templates that integrate multiliteracies and social justice principles. Finally, I present a social justice curricular unit for French learners and explain how it develops students' language proficiency and their ability to critically engage with questions of identity, national symbols, and multiculturalism.

Bio: Kate Paesani (Ph.D., Indiana University) is Director of the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) and Associate Professor in the Department of French and Italian at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on postsecondary language programs, critical pedagogies, and language teacher cognition and identity development. She has authored and co-authored numerous  articles, chapters, and books, including Literacies in Language Education: A Guide for Teachers and Teacher Educators (Georgetown University Press, 2023).