The sharp morning air cleared away the
drowsiness felt after my early-morning flight from Thessaloniki in Macedonia,
N. Greece, as did the brisk walk down Amalias Street to the Royal Olympic
Hotel, venue of the Summit on the Future of the TESOL Profession -Teachers of
English to Speakers of Other Languages. After registering, I joined the 200+ delegates
from more than 70 countries. Round our table were arrayed ladies from a
wonderful range of places: Indonesia, Bahrain, Israel, Washington D.C. and a
Greek representative from National Geographic Learning.
The TESOL
President, Dudley Reynolds, had come from the US headquarters in Virginia, USA,
to welcome us and to open the summit. Our
first speaker was Sue Garton of Aston
University, Birmingham. She spoke of Futurology
through the lens of Inquiry, listing the stakeholders in TESOL research: researchers, ministry officials,
head-teachers, schoolteachers and students. She regretted there was a
theory-practice divide.
Considering the current megatrends of political instability, economic
uncertainty, social change and rapid technological development, she said we
need to anticipate how these might impact on our profession.
Stressing how important it was for everyone concerned to be involved in
TESOL inquiry, she asked that all stakeholders be identified and form
committees to draw up agendas, outlining the way forward.
For our profession to be an
agent of change, to value alternative approaches and disseminate findings from inquiry,
she claimed we have to operate within an interlinking model.
Coffee breaks meant we could
admire some beautiful items of décor in the hotel. I loved the floral tapestry
as well as the copy of one of my favourites : The Charioteer, the original is
housed in the museum at Delphi.
But I did have a question: What
was a bust of Plato doing in the anteroom to the ladies’ toilets? I guess he
was being stoic – a term deriving from Stoicism: the Hellenistic School of Philosophy
which held that the path to happiness was found in accepting that which we have
been given in life. Bit of a comedown from conversing with great minds in the
Agora!
Our next speaker, Greg
Kessler, of Ohio University, continued our Futurology focus from the
professional perspective and, in particular, on the role of the social
media. With continuing global increase in the use of the social media and the
internet, he sees these as powerful communicative tools to be actively involved
with as individuals, institutions, professional organisations and students.
Though Facebook attracts around
75% of the internet traffic, he advised us to think critically before selecting
which social platform to use and how to use it, given that they all serve
different functions.
He saw the challenges before us as:
- to establish practices for ourselves and our students
- to become more engaged and better informed
- to learn to use IT tools to remove what is blatantly false and in this way
- to improve the quality of the content we have access to.
A lunch break
was most welcome and gave me the opportunity to catch up with Lourdes Ortega, a
previous Diploma student of mine in Athens. Now based in Washington D.C., she
is a professor at Georgetown University and a member of the TESOL Summit
Steering Committee. I am happy to say we are now Facebook friends so we can
keep in touch. Another buddy it was good to meet up with was Roy Cross, of the
British Council. We first met when studying Applied Linguistics together at
Lancaster, then later became ‘neighbours’ when Roy had a BC posting
in Baghdad while I was in Kuwait – small world !
Our final
speaker on the subject was Asmaa Abu
Mezied, of Internet2, who
considered Futurology in terms of
Equity. Speaking of the current trends of demographic change, economic
change and protracted conflict, her map showing areas of organized violence
brought home how serious the situation is. She asked us to consider, for those people
whose lives are affected, what education, access and equity mean.
While humanitarian
aid will initially focus on providing food, water and shelter, she felt education
tends to be overlooked. She supported that by stating that families in conflict
zones, even when bombardment is going on, will send their children to school as
education is seen as the key to breaking that cycle of poverty.
She also
highlighted the importance of knowing the English language as a means of
learning what opportunities were available, in particular, access to
scholarships to study in the United States.
She defined access to education as not being
the number of schools but for children having safe access to schools with safe
environments. In dealing with such major issues, she described UNICEF as being
under-resourced and oversubscribed. For her, long-term planning was a basic
requirement as this may show how we can compensate for entire generations being
lost whose higher education had been interrupted in conflict zones, thereby denying
these young people the skills and knowledge they could have brought into their
communities to instigate change.
She outlined one project where young displaced
persons could continue their education online and another which had brought blended learning
– onsite and online instruction - to young people in refugee camps. If international
organizations and local stakeholders work as partners, and students could
create and use a digital identity, then they could receive an online education.
She did acknowledge, however, that there
was no one-size-fits-all solution and that some refugee camps were devoid of
the infrastructure that was a necessary prerequisite for such development.
Such support programs could be beacons within
the current turmoil, showing us what the future could hold. That they were in
operation was inspiring, but the problems being so widespread and enormous felt
overwhelming!
The day was nicely brought to an end with a reception on the
hotel roof-garden, attended by the American Ambassador to Greece. We all
enjoyed the tempting buffet, a welcome glass of wine and a magnificent view
over the city, with Mount Lykavittos in the background and, before us, the
pillars of Olympian Zeus. As I left, admiring the well-waxed moon hovering over
Hadrian’s Arch, I felt that it had been a long day, but one that had been extremely
stimulating.
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