Okon Effiong – författare

Advocacy has been an important part of English language teaching, teacher training, and the experiences of individual students. By bringing together ELT advocates that represent diverse continents and countries, Decentering Advocacy in English Language Teaching highlights global efforts in advocacy as it provides an overview of best practices for English language teaching and learning. In each chapter, an ELT advocate describes the need for their project, the steps they took, the challenges they faced in their particular context, the parameters they needed to work within, and how they worked within these constraints to achieve their goals. These stories offer insight into classroom and school focused efforts as well as social projects, and touch upon contexts in which educators may feel that they cannot engage in overt advocacy movements. With chapters focused on Africa, East Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, the volume contributors identify patterns based on what has worked well transculturally and in sociopolitically constrained contexts to develop effective principles and practices. By bringing many different advocacy efforts and the latest advocacy research together, Decentering Advocacy in English Language Teaching identifies recognizable standards that can take the onus off of individual advocates to reinvent the wheel.

Providing a timely and much-needed resource on LTAs, the book helps readers recognize the importance and nature of teachers’ professional development, while also contributing to the process of educational change. In order to achieve a suitable level of educational and policy change, a research base for LTAs is called for. This book represents a step in the right direction, introducing readers to essential research on the central role of LTAs in language teachers’ development.Although pre-service and in-service education programs, to be found at government and/or private institutions, are of great value, it is impossible to prepare teachers for all the challenges they will face throughout their careers. In response, many professional associations also provide a wide range of professional development activities for their teacher members.The book will be of interest to language teachers, graduate students, teacher educators and researchers, educational leaders and policymakers, as well as teacher associations.