Integrating UN SDGs to Foster Critical Engagement in the ESL Classroom
Turn passive commercial ESL textbook consumers into active critics by integrating UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Southern Feminism, and Critical Literacy in your classroom.
Presented by:
Hajra Pardesi, Austin Community College
From the author, in their own words...
Hajra Pardesi, Austin Community College
Transcript:
Hi, I’m Hajra Pardesi from Austin Community College.
My research focuses on turning English language learning students from passive textbook consumers into active critical thinkers. ESL classrooms rely on commercially published ESL textbooks that not only teach language but also shape learners’ perceptions. These textbooks are written and published in western countries. They often overrepresent Western lifestyles and doesn’t represent or stereotype non-Western
women. The ESL learners are offered few to no opportunities to question these embedded biases.
To address this, I conducted Critical Participatory Action Research in an adult ESL classroom setting. Working with thirty adult ESL students analyzing their course textbook, Ventures, we moved through three stages: building a critical lens, examining whose stories were missing in visual and textual content, and engaged in reflection and dialogue. Through pre- and post-reflections, classroom artifacts, and surveys, we evaluated how critical textbook analysis impacts student thinking.
The findings were clear: instead of remaining passive textbook consumers, students became active critics. They leveraged their diverse cultural backgrounds to challenge gender representations in the textbook and demand missing Global South perspectives. Ultimately, this project offers educators a practical model to turn standard commercial materials into powerful sites of critical inquiry and student agency.
Abstract:
Globally published commercial ESL textbooks function as unquestioned curricular authorities, actually reinforcing Western-centric biases and unilateral gender representations. This critical practitioner action research project from Austin Community College transforms static educational material into dynamic sites of inquiry. By integrating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 and 10 through 3-session critical literacy module: “Whose Story is Missing?,” learners shift from being passive consumers to active critics. Drawing from Freire’s critical literacy and Mohanty’s Southern feminism, the audience will explore qualitative student engagement outcomes and take away a transferable framework designed to foster student agency and deconstruct curriculum biases across disciplines.
Key Words:
Critical Literacy, Gender Representation, Practitioner Action Research
Outcomes:
1. Analyze commercial educational materials through the lenses of critical literacy and Southern feminism, to identify existing cultural, regional, and gender biases.
2. Adapt a practical 3-session critical literacy module in their own disciplinary context, to integrate the UN’s SDGs 5 and 10 into their coursework.
3. Design inquiry-based class activities to engage learners from diverse cross-cultural backgrounds by bringing their meaningful lived experiences into the learning process to cultivate agency and critical engagement.
References:
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Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th anniversary ed.). Continuum.
Kemmis, S., McTaggart, R., & Nixon, R. (2014). The action research planner: Doing critical participatory action research. Springer.
Mignolo, W. D. (2011). The darker side of Western modernity: Global futures, decolonial options. Duke University Press.
Mohanty, C. T. (1984). Under Western eyes: Feminist scholarship and colonial discourses. Boundary 2, 12(3), 333–358. https://doi.org/10.2307/302821
Mohanty, C. T. (2003). Feminism without borders: Decolonizing theory, practicing solidarity. Duke University Press.
Roberts, C., & Connell, R. (2016). Feminist theory and the Global South. Feminist Theory, 17(2), 135–140. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464700116645874
Shah, W. A. (2024). Globalectics, critical discourse studies (CDS) and Southern feminisms. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 19(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/17447143.2024.2331510
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Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and the interpretation of culture (pp. 271–313). University of Illinois Press.
United Nations. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (A/RES/70/1). United Nations General Assembly.