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This month we launch Season 4 Episode 4 of the podcast Gender. Sexuality. School. The Podcast. In the episode I talk to Tyson Seburn who has recently published a book for English as a second/other language teachers called How to Write Inclusive Materials. In the interview Tyson discusses what inclusive English language materials look like and what English language teachers and curriculum writers need to consider.
Review of How to Write Inclusive Materials
Review by Bronwyn Garden-Smith
Tyson Seburn’s new book, How to Write Inclusive Materials, is an imperative resource for all English Language Teachers (ELTs): those who teach the English to speakers of another language. What works magnificently about the book is that all ELTs can benefit from it, no matter how much or little they may know about using their pedagogy to seek justice and equity for all.
For ELTs who are newer to inclusivity concepts, who want to learn more about how they can change ELT materials to make everyone feel welcome and represented, but who aren’t sure where to begin, Seburn’s work will feel accessible and comprehensible because he builds from the ground up by thoroughly defining important terms throughout. The form of the collection helps to further accomplish this. Helpful aides like footnote definitions on the bottom of the page help to explore broader context for concepts that might be new to some ELTs, like “heteronormativity” or “tokenism”. There is also a glossary in the back matter, lesson examples, and lists of additional reading materials at the end of each section allow for both general and more advanced learning. Seburn expertly gives the reader space to delve deeper, if they choose to. The examples for how to use concepts in the classroom give the reader a sense of how they can move beyond the abstract to use concepts practically, so that they can teach them to others.
This manual is just as useful For ELTs who are actively equity-seeking and who perhaps know a lot about inclusivity concepts already. Firstly, understanding how Seburn defines particular concepts helps establish a consistent framework for inclusive writing that can be shared with other ELTs who have read the work. This is highly necessary for accomplishing a more inclusive world and turning the tides of English language teaching more broadly: it is not something we can accomplish alone. Further, ELTs who already try to bring an ethic of inclusion to the creation of their teaching materials will still find the databases Seburn has compiled very useful. How to Write Inclusive Materials contains a veritable cornucopia of links to audio, visual and text-based inclusive resources, many of them free, that address the need for specific forms of representation for groups that are underrepresented in typical stock image collections. Among these resources there is a site for images of people of specifically older ages engaging in a multitude of activities and situations; one for images of specifically darker-skinned Black women; another for people with all sorts of gender expressions, etc. Another ubiquitously useful aspect of Seburn’s book is that, beyond calling for inclusivity in the abstract, he concretizes the process of how to get there. This is to say, the book contains clear protocols and guidelines for how materials writers can create diverse and meaningful representation. He breaks down into steps the complex task of writing original materials that are inclusive, without being tokenizing or unrealistic, but which also evoke common experiences to engage as many English learners in the ELT’s classroom as possible. Seburn also includes a final list of seven questions to ask of one’s original teaching materials. This list succinctly addresses all of the concepts that the reader will have learned through the course of reading the book, and is sure to be consulted by readers long after their initial read-through.
It comes as no surprise that this book is written well, given that it was written by an expert of communicating clearly for all audiences, but it makes the reading experience no less wonderful. By introducing personal examples, taking an active tone, and reflecting on his own positionality in relation to the topics at hand, Seburn prevents the manual from reading drily and encourages the reader to engage in a dialogue with the text rather than simply take it in. Perhaps due to this strong reflexive quality to Seburn’s writing, I found myself caught in a desire to nuance or problematize the notion of inclusivity earlier in the book. As a student of disability studies/disability justice theory, and from firsthand experience, I have learned that the notion of “inclusion” of a marginalized group implies that the group is only ever included as a fundamentally excludable subject. A framework of inclusion necessarily involves the inequitable state of the marginalized group’s acceptance being contingent, always, on the will and mercy of the dominant group. Seburn cogently explores this limitation of inclusivity frameworks, noting that we can work with such a framework while acknowledging its inadequacy, but this conversation comes well into the second half of the book. Placing it earlier might have gained the complete trust of readers like me, who were at first skeptical that an inclusion framework could solve inequities in ELT materials at the root. On the other hand, the inclusivity nuance arriving later in the book gives readers who are skeptical of the importance of inclusivity some time to accept Seburn’s stance; it lets them acclimatize to inclusivity as important (necessary) to work towards. The efficacy of the choice to introduce limitations of the framework late will depend on the reader’s pre-existing knowledge.
Language is powerful. ELTs recognize, more keenly than most, the truth of that old adage. The imperialist and colonial past and present of the world we live in has rendered contemporary life ever more globalized, and therefore standardized, along the fault lines of power. Because of English imperialist expansion and settler colonialism, the English language is particularly powerful. It is a currency; it is important leverage for many, especially for those learning English while making a new life in an English-speaking place. ELTs have a responsibility to make learning English inclusive for marginalized folks, and also not to let the English language contribute to further oppression and hegemony of the historically powerful over the historically disempowered. This is a complex task, one that we must undertake collectively; thus, it is all the more important that ELTs access this manual so they can begin from a place of shared understanding. How to Write Inclusive Materials is a fantastically practical steppingstone that will help us think and act toward a just future for all.
References
Seburn, T. (2021). How to Write Inclusive Materials. ELT Teacher 2 Writer.