Article Title

Addressing Religious Issues and Power in ELT Classrooms: Voices from English Teachers in Indonesia

Authors

Joseph E. Mambu, Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana

Keywords

critical thinking, interfaith dialogues, power (relations), religious flexibility, values, ELT, TESOL, ICS, English Language Teaching

Abstract

Drawing on insights from the ELT literature on values, power (relations), and dialogues on faith, this article will explore how EFL teachers reflected on their attempts to communicate their religious views to students. Data was acquired from three Christian English teachers. One was from the USA and the other two were Indonesian nationals. They participated in a larger case study project in an undergraduate English Language Teacher Education program at a university in Indonesia. In interviews teachers demonstrated the enactment of interfaith dialogues, critical thinking, respect, and religious reflexivity. This exploratory study concludes that religious values can be incorporated into ELT in a critical and reflexive manner, with a heightened awareness of religiously associated power relations, particularly between teachers and students.

Recommended Citation

Mambu, Joseph E. (2017) "Addressing Religious Issues and Power in ELT Classrooms: Voices from English Teachers in Indonesia," International Journal of Christianity and English Language Teaching: Vol. 4, Article 4.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.biola.edu/ijc-elt/vol4/iss1/4