Introduction: Critical Approaches to TESOL

Abstract

This introductory article aims to pull together the unifying concerns in the varied articles, reports, and discussions in this special issue. I focus on three main themes that may be said to constitute critical approaches to TESOL: (a) the domain or area of interest (To what extent do particular domains define a critical approach?), transformative pedagogy (How does the particular approach to education hope to change things?), and a self-reflexive stance on critical theory (To what extent does the work constantly question common assumptions, including its own?). Whether in terms of the domain in which they operate, the pedagogies they use, or the theories they engage, I argue here for the importance of seeing critical approaches to TESOL not as a static body of knowledge and practices but rather as always being in flux, always questioning, restively problematizing the given, being aware of the limits of their own knowing, and bringing into being new schemas of politicisation. The critical approaches to TESOL developed here can both help us as TESOL professionals understand in much more complex ways the contexts in which TESOL occurs and offer the prospect of change. Given the cultural politics of English teaching in the world, critical approaches to TESOL may help us deal with some of the most significant issues of our time.