Spirituality and English Language Teaching

Mary Shepard Wong is a Professor in the Global Studies, Sociology and TESOL Department, Azusa Pacific University, USA. She is the co-editor of Christian Faith and English Language Teaching and Learning (with C. Kristjánsson and Z. Dörnyei, 2013, Routledge) and Christian and Critical English Language Educators in Dialogue (with A.S. Canagarajah, 2009, Routledge).Ahmar Mahboob is Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, Australia. He is the co-editor of Language and Identity across Modes of Communication (with D.N. Djenar and K. Cruickshank, 2015, Mouton De Gruyter) and English in Multilingual Contexts (with L. Barratt, 2014, Springer).

This much-needed collection provides abundant and valuable support for English teachers thinking through the significance of their spirituality in their professional practice. The authors illuminate ways teachers’ belief systems – whether under the guise of formal religion, ethically informed value system, political or ideological stance, or philosophy explicitly detached from organized religion – weave themselves intractably into every corner of their pedagogical lives.

• List of ContributorsAcknowledgementsForeword: Suresh Canagarajah: Complexifying Our Understanding of SpiritualityChapter 1. Mary Shepard Wong: Introduction: Why A Book on Spirituality and Language Teaching? Part I. Religious Faith and Teacher IdentityChapter 2. Mary Shepard Wong: The Dangers and Delights of Teacher Spiritual Identity as PedagogyChapter 3. MaryAnn Christison: Buddhist Principles and the Development Leadership Skills in English Language Program Administration and TeachingChapter 4. Joel Heng Hartse and Saeed Nazari: Attempting Interfaith Dialogue in TESOL: A DuoethnographyChapter 5. Ryuko Kubota: Response to Part I: Possibilities For Nonattachment: Investigating the Affective Dimension of ImpositionPart II. Religious Faith and Pedagogical PracticeChapter 6. Sid Brown: A Buddhist in the Classroom RevisitedChapter 7. Bal Krishna Sharma: The Relevance of Hinduism to English Language Teaching and LearningChapter 8. Stephanie Vandrick: Multiple, Complex and Fluid Religious and Spiritual Influences on English Language EducatorsChapter 9. David Smith: Response to Part II: ‘Religious Faith’ and ‘Pedagogical Practice’ – Extending the Map: A Response to Brown, Sharma and VandrickPart III. Religious Faith and the Language Learning ContextChapter 10. Kassim Shaaban: Language and Religion in the Construction of the Lebanese Identity Chapter 11. Deena Boraie, Atta Gebril and Raafat Gabriel: Teachers’ Perceptions of the Interface between Religious Values and Language Pedagogy in EgyptChapter 12. Carolyn Kristjánsson: Church-Sponsored ESL in Western Canada: Grassroots Expressions of Spiritual and Social Practice  Chapter 13. Brian Morgan: Response to Part III: Religious Faith and the Language Learning Context: Exploring the InterfaceChapter 14. Ahmar Mahboob and Eve Courtney: Spirituality and English Language Teaching: Moving ForwardAfterword: Henry Widdowson: Spirituality in Language Teaching