Western Hypocrisy in Second Language Teacher Education

Abstract

Although critical theory and critical pedagogy have been studied since 1930s and considerable progress has been made in social sciences, the field of second language teacher education has been deprived of this progress owing to the capitalistic and political concerns. Participatory approach, an extension of critical pedagogy, has been underrepresented in second language teacher education. Various topics such as LGBT, religion, political issues, critical history and evolution have been deliberately ignored in this particular field. Thus, capitalistic and political concerns of textbook publishers and researchers have dominated the field of second language teacher education.

This study is qualitative in nature. Topics covered in different textbooks (N=10) and views of English teachers (N=15) were analyzed. The results of the study show that none of the textbooks contained any topic regarding LGBT. In addition, no current political topics were raised in the textbooks. The participants of the study stated that the curriculum did not contain any of these topics, and therefore they preferred not to mention these topics since they are seen as taboo topics in the settings where they worked. The elimination of these topics by western countries such as England and the USA implied their hypocrisy because their capitalistic and political concerns caused them to deliberately frame certain topics. The teachers stated that they received no education or training about the topics mentioned above. The implications of the study are that curriculum of ELT departments should incorporate subjects and classes that teach critical theory and critical pedagogy during pre-service teaching.