of essays. They then shared their papers with their classmates as well as the teachers for comments. Based on the critique of the teacher and their peers, the students revised their papers and brought them to the subsequent classes.
Notably, allowing students to critique each other’s drafts, pose several ques- tions, and share their experiences and values helped them to develop a critical awareness without the teacher’s direct intervention. This pedagogy also chal- lenged the teacher’s assumptions, dominant ideologies and also allowed him/
her to negotiate meanings with the students (Canagarajah, 2011; Kim, 2015).
It is important to acknowledge that the read, reason, and respond tasks were complex, owing to different interpretations made by the students throughout the semester. For instance, while some students saw the task as “challenging”
(Rafat), and “time-consuming” (Ali), others felt that it was important to have prior experience of how to “ask questions” (Khaled), “put opinions on others’
papers” (Abdullah), and “evaluate written texts” (Saleh). Others, Sami and Mohammed, felt that they “needed more time” to become familiar with such teaching strategies. These different views put forward by the students helped me identify critical gaps pertaining to my course expectations and the stu- dents’ readiness. In the following section, I report in detail on the case of Alaa.
49 Osman: Well, as a future engineer, I want you to take control of your own learning. I am sure you will bring some interesting materials to the class.
Alaa: But my friends may not like the readings I choose. I don’t want to be put on the spot like this. Can’t you just suggest some reading topics for me?
Osman: I would prefer you to choose your own reading materials and tell us why you chose them.
Alaa: OK, [but] I want to discuss them with you before I share them with the class. (Interview on writing development)
Interestingly enough, the above example shows how Alaa is resisting, responding to the new challenge, negotiating his identity, and at the same time bridging the gap between the course expectation and his own under- standing. Although I eventually allowed him to share his reading material with me before the class, these moments of negotiation between us were use- ful for me too. They allow me to revisit some of the “dominant expectations on writing in university courses” (Canagarajah, 2011, p. 11) we as writing teachers have on the one hand, and help me to understand the different com- peting ideologies shared by the students throughout the course on the other hand, as I demonstrate below. Alaa did his major assignment—read, reason, and respond task—on Saudi Arabia’s Youth Unemployment Problems. Alaa began his essay with the following statements:
… بابس� ألباذخ ألاو يعسلا ناسن إلا لىعو الله ديب قزرلا
(58–56( ةي آلا تيارالذا ةرو� .}ينتلما ةوقلا وذ قازرلا وه الله نإا *
I know that our sustenance is in the hand of God and we need to search and work hard for it. But still this is unfair I believe. We have millions of foreigners who are working in the country today, and Saudis are jobless. I think the gov- ernment should send all foreigners to their countries so that we can have job[s]
after graduation. I think our future is not good. I have 3 sisters with bachelor degrees since 2011 and [they] did not find jobs……… (Draft # 1)
Notably, Alaa started his first draft with a statement from the Holy Quran that says that although our sustenance is in the hand of God, we still need to work hard for it. He then related the text to his socioeconomic reality by giv- ing the example of his three jobless sisters, together with a suggestion for the government if it wants to create more job opportunities for young Saudis.
Alaa seems to use the verse from the Holy Quran at the beginning of his essay to support his position as well as to create what Planken (2005) calls a “safe space” strategy to invite readers—his classmates—to read his essay and accept his position. At the same time, by relating the text to his socioeconomic real- ity also shows how neoliberalism is now directly and/or indirectly affecting
Critical Pedagogy in Saudi College EFL Classrooms…
our social, economic, educational, and daily lives (both public and private) (Barnawi, 2017; Chun, 2017). As Harvey (2005) puts, neoliberalism now seems to be the “common-sense way many of us interpret, live in and under- stand the world” (p. 3).
Nevertheless, some readers’ comments on the draft seem to disrupt the strategy Alaa aimed to use in the paper. One reader, Sami, commented that
“we all know that everything is in the hand of God, but you are not giving any good solutions to the problem you chose. Also, this is an English Academic Writing Course, not Arabic”. Another reader, Rafat, stated that “I like the introduction of your essay. However, I think your sisters might not have good degrees for the job market. We all have financial and other private problems”.
Khaled, another reader, suggested that “you should not bring your family problems to the course. You need to bring something related to engineering so we can all learn from it. Our life is already full of stress”. It was also observed, however, that some students were reluctant to comment critically on Alaa’s paper. They only put statements such as “a very good draft”, “no comments so far”, and “good luck”. This behavior may be attributed to their schooling background as well as to their unfamiliarity with or unpreparedness to engage in the sort of critique and self-expression expected on the course.
At the same time, the above assertive comments on Alaa’s draft seem to challenge his efforts to resist the convention of academic writing and make sense of a written text in a creative manner. These comments hurt Alaa’s feel- ings and made him decide to change his topic in his subsequent draft. During the course of the interview, he rather indirectly blamed me for putting him in such an unpleasant position. He said, “Teacher, I told you before that what is interesting for me may not be the same for others. And I do not want to be put on the spot like this anymore. I want to change this topic even though it is important to me and I like it”. However, I advised him that he should not change his topic because of his peers’ comments. He should rather find ways to convince his readers. He replied, “I am worried about this task and do not want people to hurt me with harsh comments. Also, I don’t want to lose my friends [either]. However, I will revise the paper and share it with the class again”.
These incidents informed me that, as a writing teacher, it is important to encourage our students to take control of their own learning and stick to their own views. At the same time, we should not exercise our power on students by forcing them to engage in tasks they do not like. Instead, we should seri- ously consider the relationship between emotions, classroom incidents, and the social reality of our students in critical English language teaching. As Benesch (2012) warns us, since critical theory has not yet established a con-
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nection between emotions and power, it is easy to overlook the importance of these in the classroom. To address this critical gap in classroom settings, we, as writing teachers, have to act on our strongest intuitions and accommodate the key literacy and identity issues our students are facing in classrooms set- tings. “One way of enhancing [teachers’] mind [and emotion] engagement is to recognize the symbiotic relationship between theory, research, and practice and between professional, personal, and experiential knowledge”
(Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p. 22). Put differently, teachers need to look at the interrelatedness of emotions, the various socioeconomic realities surrounding their students, and institutional and classroom practices. We need to maintain our professional identity and take control of the classroom atmosphere in order to prevent chaos, as well to protect students’ feelings and emotions (Freire, 2001). It is for these reasons that I allowed Alaa to share his reading materials with me at the beginning and at the same time encouraged him to stick to his views when he wanted to change his topic as a result of the harsh comments by some of his peers, as shown in the example below. In subse- quent drafts, Alaa maintained his strategy of a “safe space” as follows:
…بابس� ألباذخ ألاويعسلاناسن إلالىعواللهديبقزرلا
(58–56( ةي آلاتيارالذاةرو� .}ينتلماةوقلاوذقازرلاوهاللهنإا *
I know that our sustenance is in the hand of God and we need to search and work hard for it. But can we find possible answers to some important questions in our life: Why [are] the numbers of unemployment increasing in the country?
As future engineers, do we have the necessary education and technical skills for the job market? Who is responsible for the high rate of unemployment in Saudi Arabia? What went wrong in our current education system? In this essay I want to answer these questions based on my opinions and understanding………
(Draft #3)
After Alaa shared the revised introduction of his essay with his classmates, I made the following statements in order to decrease the anxiety of the class and invite students to negotiate and reflect more on the text: “These are very interesting questions and we are always going to look at them from our own points of view. I am sure there are different interesting answers to such ques- tions. So who wants to share his comment?” Interestingly, my participation at this stage seemed to contribute to changing the readers’ attitudes, in that they attempted to comment on Alaa’s draft in a more constructive manner. For instance, Sami declared that “high unemployment rates in the country are serious problems and they concern everybody in the class I think. Well done”.
Another reader, Khaled, commented, “I now understand your arguments. We
Critical Pedagogy in Saudi College EFL Classrooms…
need to prepare ourselves too. I think you may want to include the following point[s] in your essay: (i) our teachers do not ask us to take responsibility in schools (ii) they cut marks if we make mistakes, (iii) we study only what is available in the book”. Saleh suggested that Alaa should add the following ideas: (a) “connecting our education with [the] job market is important” and (b) “cancelling academic programmes that are not required in the job mar- ket”. Anas and Ahmed saw learning “more English” as the best solution to current socioeconomic problems.
What is evident from the above responses is that my participation, coupled with the strategy adopted by Alaa, seemed to open up a space for dialogue, negotiation, reflection, and suggestions in the classroom. It helped the stu- dents understand what to do and how to do it when they are asked to critique and evaluate written texts, though in the context of neoliberal education pol- icy framework—the importance of linking education with immediate job market needs. Elsewhere, one reader called Talal said, “At the beginning I was confused because I was not familiar with this teaching method. But now I can critique others’ works and share my opinions, too”. It is important to acknowl- edge that these students had an instrumental conceptualization of education in general and of English language learning in particular. They are compelled to learn English for the sake of employability and economic mobility. This is exactly what researchers like Kubota (2014, p. 1) are concerned about: “Many individuals are compelled to learn an additional language to seek global career opportunities and develop a competitive edge in increasingly uncertain employment conditions under neoliberalism”. In this context, students’ criti- cal discussions are shared and reshaped by neoliberal discourses centered on education for employability as well as issues of accountability (McNamara, 2011; Park, 2011). These neoliberal discourses often overlook the emotional,
“personal, cultural, and historical dimensions of the subjective experiences of language learning” (Kubota, 2016, p. 3). Simply put, “it is the lack of atten- tion to the humanistic and dispositional aspects of language learning that creates” (ibid.) the current status quo among Saudi EFL students.
At the same time, it was observed that one of the reasons that my students gradually started to respond to the read, reason, and respond task on this course is that such tasks help them to take ownership of their own learning;
that is, the students decide on the topic based on their own interests and take full responsibility for their own knowledge construction. Their learning process takes place through sharing their real life concerns and acting as inves- tigators in the classroom. In this sense, passive learning is converted into active learning (Pennycook, 2001). Those assertive comments made by some
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of Alaa’s peers might also be due because “they were unaware of the necessity of tolerance of different tastes in a dialogical context” (Abednia & Izadinia, 2013, p. 342).
The read, reason, and respond approach as an aspect of the problem-posing method I employed in this course also shows that Alaa was struggling to strike a balance between issues of form, accuracy, coherence, and critically voicing personal opinions throughout his paper. For instance, in the conclusion to his fifth draft he wrote as follows:
After several revisions and comments on my paper I think there is no harm to express your ideas on the paper the way you like. Some people may like your ideas but other will not. This is because we all have our own experiences in understanding the world. Thanks to my classmates. Thanks to my teacher for supporting me in this course…. (Draft #5)
It was observed that Alaa was reluctant to make sense of the text and at the same time focus on form and coherence in the paper. After I pointed out several mechanical issues in his paper, he said, “how about my ideas? It is difficult to focus on two things together I think”. Such comments from Alaa informed me that it is always important to offer space for students to con- nect between their readings and real-life experiences. At the same time, it is crucial to draw their attention to linguistic elements (e.g., forms and struc- tures) as such issues disrupt communication and mislead readers. One pos- sible way of helping students to achieve a balance between accuracy in writing and critical reflection is to emphasize the culture of dialogue between students and teacher as well as between student and student. The teacher should negotiate such challenges with his/her students and at the same time encourage them to connect their word to the world in a creative manner.
This is because creativity is one step toward criticality. That is, if it is through criticality that students are able to pose questions and challenge the status quo, it is through creativity that they will find solutions to problems in both social and educational settings (Ada, 1988). As Abednia and Izadinia (2013, p. 342) argue, “since creative action and transformation are an integral part of CP, creativity can be regarded as a fundamental component of critical consciousness since it involves the ‘subject’ position of people who take action and transform the status quo” (ibid.).
What we found in the above case study is that the read, reason, and respond task as an aspect of problem-posing method allowed Alaa gradually to voice his personal opinion and at the same time make sense of written texts by relating the reading materials to his real-life experience. Importantly, the dialogic pedagogy I
Critical Pedagogy in Saudi College EFL Classrooms…
employed throughout the course encouraged and invited some of the students to pose questions and evaluate their classmate’s paper. The students’ reactions to the read, reason, and respond helped me to revisit some dominant ideologies I had as a writing teacher and thus accordingly adjust my pedagogical practices.