Teaching linguistics attracting black students to linguistics through a black-centered introduction to linguistics course

Department(s)

Graduate School of Education and Psychology

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2021

Keywords

African American language and culture, Culturally sustaining pedagogy, Inclusive education, Introductory linguistics, Online teaching

Abstract

In response to the lack of culturally sustaining pedagogies for Black students in linguistics, we created an online Introduction to Linguistics course designed as part of a specially funded research program that serves Black undergraduates from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as well as Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). In recognition of the fact that con-ventional introductory linguistics courses often alienate Black students, the course was designed to center Black language and culture in every lesson. We describe the rationale for and implemen-tation of the course, as well as the impact of the model on students and instructors. The course’s Black-centered content as well as its online synchronous and asynchronous teaching model can be adapted for other teaching contexts as a way to recruit Black students into linguistics and to offer linguistics courses to students at universities, especially HBCUs, that do not have linguistics pro-grams. The work is particularly relevant as linguists seek to be inclusive in their teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic and work toward the greater inclusion of Black people in every aspect of linguistics due to the heightened awareness of anti-Blackness in higher education and specifically in language studies.

Publication Title

Language

ISSN

00978507

E-ISSN

15350665

Volume

97

Issue

1

First Page

e12

Last Page

e38

DOI

10.1353/lan.2021.0007

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