The Politics of TESOL Education Writing, Knowledge, Critical Pedagogy

Acknowledgments Introduction. Politicizing MA-TESOL and L2 Teacher Education 1. The Politics of TESOL Thought Collectives 2. The Politics of Local MA-TESOL Programs and Implications for the Larger TC 3. The Politics of Genres and Text Types 4. The Politics of Written Knowledge 5. Politics, Again: Some Practical Ways to Build Meta-Awareness into (L1 and) L2 Teacher Education Conclusion Appendix A Appendix B Notes References Index

Biography

Vai Ramanathan is Associate Professor in the Linguistics Department of the University of California, Davis. She is the author of Alzheimer Discourse: Some Sociolinguistic Dimensions.

"In this wonderfully written book, Vai Ramanathan deftly melds together a number of currently crucial areas in language and literacy studies and applies them insightfully to TESOL. The Politics of TESOL Education is a highly innovative and deeply significant contribution to the field." -- James Paul Gee, author of An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method
"Professor Ramanathan's approach and audience focus in this volume have been neglected in TESOL teacher education programs, which have come somewhat late to an ideological view of their practices. Consequently, teacher education programs may be failing to ask future teachers to confront with any depth ideological questions inherent in teaching English." -- Ilona Leki, Co-editor of the Journal of Second Language Writing and/or Director of ESL at the University of Tennessee (Quote continued below)
"Ramanathan's thoughtful reflections and scholarly depth of understandings provide both a questioning of disciplinary assumptions and a theoretically grounded yet practical way forward to effecting change where possible and necessary. Using the notion of Thinking Communities, Ramanathan's discussion points the way toward moving disciplinary newcomers, i.e., teacher trainees, in the direction of critically analyzing the discipline itself and some of its assumptions. By tackling head on such disputes as those revolving around genre and cultural essentializing, Ramanathan helps teacher educators see how to include this vital aspect of English teaching in their courses and curriculums." -- Ilona Leki, Co-editor of the Journal of Second Language Writing and/or Director of ESL at the University of Tennessee
"For me, the most helpful sections of The Politics of TESOL are the third and X chapter, both of which integrate the concepts of critical pedagogies, contrastive rhetoric, genre analysis, and ESL teacher preparation in ways that are innovative and transparent...The Politics of TESOL will help teachers-in-preparation work toward the meta-awareness of what it means to be a professional, the "critical edge" now lacking in the ESL field, that is Ramanathan's objective." -- Joy M. Reid, author of Understanding Learning Styles in the Second Language Classroom