Reading Groups as Spaces of Learning and Resistance

Winiarska-Pringle, I. , Muir, C., Watson, L. and Kaur, K. (2023) Reading Groups as Spaces of Learning and Resistance. BALEAP Conference 2023, Coventry, UK, 19-21 Apr 2023.

Abstract

Although the conference reading group session on Care, Emotions and Feminism in EAP was proposed and run by an individual EAP practitioner, the write-up for it is intended to be a collective effort co-constructed and co- authored jointly with the session’s participants*. The intention behind this approach is twofold. Firstly, by bringing to the fore voices beyond that of the session’s ‘speaker’, the text can offer a more nuanced reflection on the event. Introduced at the BALEAP 2023 conference, this new format of a conference session, attracted a fair attention from the attendees**, suggesting that such collaborative learning spaces have a place in the highly stimulating, but also to some extent overwhelming, BALEAP conference programmes. Reading circles have been reported to positively contribute to professional development and community building (e.g. Hesling et al, 2018) by creating opportunities for collaborative critical reflection and increasing teachers’ sense of belonging (Himelein and Anderson, 2020). These benefits appear to be shared by the EAP community where reading groups are increasingly common. For example, in 2021 EAP for Social Justice SIG’s ran a three-part summer reading group on race in language teaching; in September 2022 Alex Ding has started an ongoing reading group on social theory while in June 2023 Transnational Education SIG’s Reading Café discussed an article by Simon Cotteril (2020) on the practice and experience of adopting English names by Chinese’s students studying in the UK’s HEIs. However, these events tend to be regular and organised by formal groups or prominent community members. It is unclear whether similar benefits can be obtained through running a reading group event at a conference, especially one such as BALEAP one which take place bi-annually adding extra pressure on the attendees (and the organisers) to optimise conditions for the most effective knowledge sharing. By offering a collective reflection on the ‘care, emotions and feminism’ reading group, this write-up offers to capture multiple perspectives to embed greater diversity and criticality into the final text, contributing to the discussion on the value of such gatherings for professional growth. Secondly, inviting the session participants to the reflection and write-up reflects one of the core feminist praxis principles to include ‘the other’ in the inquiry process to disrupt the epistemological power relations (Hesse-Biber, 2012). Which stories are being told and whose experiences are being excluded have significant consequences for the knowledge creation within the EAP community as these decisions shape what we know about our field. The joined authorship of this write-up highlights the interconnectedness of knowledge building as social and relational practice as well as material (Taylor & Ivison, 2013), especially in the context of in-person conference events. Additionally, as the three selected texts for the session*** offer new and/or less explored perspectives on the work of EAP practitioners and their field, the collective write-up allows the participants’ and the ‘speaker’s knowledge and experience of discussing these under-explored concepts in EAP to be equally visible and, therefore, valued. The authors will first individually reflect on three themes: motivation(s) for attending/running a reading group at a conference, the concepts from selected texts, and their application for EAP practice/research experience of reading and learning together at a conference The individual reflections will be discussed asynchronously via a combined shared document and then via a live online discussion as the authors are located at HEIs across the UK. The process data collection and write-up will follow the basic tenets of duoethnography – dialogue, polyvocality, reflexivity and ethic of care (Sawyer and Norris, 2013). The text aims to offer the proceedings readers a collaboratively written ensemble (Handforth & Taylor, 2016) offering an insightful and critical commentary on the value of collaborative reading for the development of the EAP practitioners and their field, especially in terms of less explored areas of EAP theory and practice. * The invitation to participate in the write-up has been shared with those who expressed interest in the session via the conference application along with a proposed focus for the write-up. Out of five who initially responded to the call, three joined the main author bringing the total number of authors to four. **In total 32 conference attendees signed up to the two reading groups timetabled in the conference programme: ‘Care, emotions and feminism – what can they tell us about EAP?’ by Iwona Winiarska-Pringle ‘Using Corpus Linguistics to understand the academic domain’ by Ben Naismith and Ramsey Cardwell *** Texts used for the reading group are as follows: Benesch, S. (2020). Emotions and activism: English language teachers' emotion labor as responses to institutional power. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 17(1), 26-41. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2020.1716194 Cerda, Y. (2022). Feminism: Affordances and applications for EAP. In A. Ding & M. Evans (Eds.). Social Theory for English for Academic Purposes: Foundations and Perspectives (pp. 199–219). London,: Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved October 16, 2022, from http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/10.5040/9781350229198.ch-9 Tuck, J. (2018). "I'm nobody's mum in this university": The gendering of work around student writing in UK higher education. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 32, 32-41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2018.03.006

• Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Winiarska-Pringle, Mrs Iwona
• Authors: Winiarska-Pringle, I., Muir, C., Watson, L., and Kaur, K.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Modern Languages and Cultures > Language Centre

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