Diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility

Abstract

In the editorial of the first issue of this volume of Die Unterrichtspraxis, we announced a number of teaching perspectives on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) (Baumgartner & Schulze, 2023, p. 5). These Forum articles are featured at the end of this issue, preceded by an extensive history of the DEIA movement in the United States (Tarnawska Senel, this issue). We are excited about being able to provide readers with a number of concrete suggestions about how to decolonize the curriculum and work toward a more just and equitable world.

The research section begins with James Stratton's article “Implicit and Explicit Instruction in the Second Language Classroom: A Study of Learner Preferences in Higher Education,” which discusses the preference of the German learners in his study for explicit instruction for pronunciation and vocabulary, for which they also showed improved learning gains. He argues that both implicit and explicit instruction have a place in teaching-and-learning processes. In their article “Effects of Extended Exposure to Video in the Language Classroom on Listening Proficiency,” Theresa Schenker and Lieselotte Sippel suggest that using a telenovela for targeted listening practice is useful to help learners develop their listening skills. The third Research Article “Reading Literature in the Digital Age: Connecting Students to Texts Orally and Aurally” is by Carol Anne Costabile-Heming and Rachel Halverson. They also make an argument for the importance of listening. Students are guided toward listening to authors reading their own work or participating in an interview because combining spoken and printed texts by literary authors helps improve students’ listening and reading comprehension.

The research section is followed by two Praxis Articles, which are normally shorter than Research Articles (ca. 4000 words) and are not necessarily rooted in a research question or hypothesis. Rather, these articles focus on applicability in a practical educational context, provide a solution to a genuine challenge, or disseminate best practices in a challenging context. In the first Praxis Article “Integriert, allgemeinbildungsorientiert und digitalisiert: Neuorientierungen bei der Vermittlung der deutschen Sprache in China,” Nannan Ge and Yuan Li discuss a number of changes in the landscape of teaching-and-learning of German in China. They emphasize the necessary improvements in the articulation of German programs from schools to universities, the integration of the German program with a specialized subject program at the university level, and the increasing digitalization. The second Praxis article, Magda Tarnawska Senel's “Contextualizing DEIA in the German Language Classroom: Terminology and History, DDGC and Recent Developments, Practices, and Resources”, introduces the historical development of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA), focusing on its evolution to encompass accessibility, belonging, and anti-racism, and highlights the role of the scholarly collective Diversity, Decolonization, and the German Curriculum (DDGC) in fostering solidarity, activism, and its relevance to current political events. Additionally, the paper discusses three DEIA classroom practices—positionality, social justice framework, and anti-racism—along with available resources and emerging trends in language and culture education.

Tarnawska Senel thus frames the topic of the Forum that is dedicated to DEIA. The section opens with Priscilla Layne's article “Teaching German from a Decolonial Perspective: Critical Dystopia as Critique of Race, Gender and Class in Unternehmer,” arguing that decolonizing German Studies is not solely about introducing diverse perspectives but also involves examining themes related to race and racialization, even in texts without BIPOC characters, thereby emphasizing the importance of discussing whiteness in language teaching. Li Juntao, Manuela Wagner, and Anke Finger describe a program-wide, grant-funded project entitled “Decolonizing Area Studies: Towards Intercultural Citizenship and Social Justice” that allowed the German program at the University of Connecticut to design and incorporate social justice-focused Intercultural Citizenship Projects in all German language and cultures course levels. Natalie Eppelsheimer addresses the practice of using Karneval as a popular recruitment tool. Her article “Teaching Karneval: Costumes, Cultures, and Cultural Appropriation” focuses on teaching Karneval and addresses “Problemkostüme” (problematic costumes) with attention to anti-racist pedagogy and DEI, highlighting the role of culturally sensitive teaching in raising DEI questions in the classroom. In “Wild Zeitung—Translanguaging Above and Below the Fold,” Carlee Arnett and Harriett Jernigan write that one of their goals was to help our students envision themselves in the target culture. By helping all students create meaning from materials produced in the target language, instructors encourage them to navigate a new identity between their known culture(s) and the new culture(s). “Confronting Disruptions Through Student Agency” by Scott Windham and Kristin Lange shows how German programs can respond to disruptions in higher education with a focus on student agency. This approach involves students in decision-making about course topics, technology use, and addressing important societal issues, contributing to strong enrollment retention despite national disruptions in modern language enrollments. “Beyond Teaching Heritage Speakers: Prioritizing Diversity in an Elementary School-University SPARK Teaching Partnership” by Pascale LaFountain describes how herSPARK for German program raises intercultural awareness among elementary school students and inspires a more diverse German teaching force through a community-engaged teaching and learning partnership. Stephanie Schottel's article “Mental Health Literacy: Practicing Ethics of Care in the Online Language Classroom” reminds us of the need for an ethics of care framework in online language courses, especially given the increased feelings of anxiety and isolation experienced by students during the pandemic. Senta Goertler concludes the Forum with her article “Inclusive Pedagogical Practices for Multiple Stakeholders,” which discusses adjustments in pedagogical practices, policies, and grading criteria necessary to promote equity, inclusion, and access. She argues that by adopting a multilingual perspective, a universal design approach, reducing credit hours, and offering courses in various formats, programs can better meet the needs of a diverse student population and, importantly, ensure a more equitable workload for contingent faculty.

As always, the issue is completed by Invited Reviews. All three contributions review textbooks and pay particular attention to the appropriateness of the materials for DEIA activities in the German classroom. Martina Kerlova discusses Impuls Deutsch 2, Chiedozie Uhuegbu has analyzed Wir Alle A1, and Maxwell Phillips has inspected Wolkenkratzer A1 und A2.

We hope you will find this diverse set of articles and reviews intellectually stimulating, pedagogically motivating, and a joy to read. We are hoping to present future issues of Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German with all four manuscript and article types: Research articles, Praxis articles, Forum articles, and Invited Reviews. Subject to us receiving a sufficient number of submissions, we plan to publish Forum articles (about 2000 words) on the topic of “Recruitment and Retention: Challenges, Strategies, and Best Practices.” If you have a short paper to contribute to this Forum, please get in touch with the co-editors as soon as possible. We are also always looking for suggestions for general Forum topics for future issues. Ideas are welcome at [email protected].

We are immensely grateful to the many reviewers for Die Unterrichtspraxis/Teaching German who completed one or more reviews in the last 12 months. The quality of this journal is in no small part due to your volunteer work. Thank you to Brigetta Abel, Yasemin Acar, Carlee Arnett, Gizem Arslan, Hester Baer, Katharina Barbe, Katrina Bauerlein, Catherine Baumann, Teresa Bell, Bartell Berg, Elizabeth Bernhardt, Erika Berroth, Viktorija Bilic, Nick Block, Carolyn Blume, Iris Bork-Goldfield, Jennifer Bown, Lauren Brooks, Connor Brown, Beate Brunow, Andrea Bryant, Nicole Burgoyne, Albrecht Classen, Nicole Coleman, Valentina Concu, Kathleen Condray, Carol Anne Costabile-Heming, D. Joseph Cunningham, Edward Dawson, Eric Downing, Roswita Dressler, Lara Ducate, Karina Duncker-Hoffmann, Melissa Elliot, Mohamed Esa, Susanne Even, Anke Finger, Adam Gacs, Paul García, Kathleen Godfrey, Senta Goertler, Andrea Golato, Nicole Grewling, Julia Gruber, Dean Guarnaschelli, Dan Hawkins, Norbert Hedderich, Emily Heidrich, Martha Helfer, Petra Hundemer-Friedman; Birgit Jensen, Katherine Kerschen, Penelope Kolovou, Jan Kuehne, K. Eckhard Kuhn-Osius, Kerstin Kuhn, Lynn Kutch, Priscilla Layne, Olga Liamkina, Sabrina Link, Julia Ludewig, Abdel-Hafiez Massud, Bettina Matthias, Karolina May-Chu, Anita McChesney, Janice McGregor, Catherine McNally, Joerg Meindl, Nancy Nenno, Carl Niekerk, Adam Oberlin, Zehra Otus, Seth Peabody, Peter Pfeiffer, Marc Pierce, Anne Popovich, Jamie Rankin, Nels Rogers, Jasmin Root-Joswig, Arina Rotaru, Lucian Rothe, Marianna Ryshina-Pankova, Sibel Sayili-Hurley, Theresa Schenker, Stephanie Schottel, Katharina Schuhmann, Patrick Schultz, Renate Schulz, Kathryn Sederberg, Lieselotte Sippel, Christa Spreizer, Marija Stanojevic Veselinovic, Felicitas Starr-Egger, Maria Stehle, Margaret Strair, James Stratton, Carola Strobl, Magda Tarnawska Senel, Shaimaa Tawfik, Francis John Troyan, Erwin Tschirner, Didem Uca, Per Urlaub, Jefford Vahlbusch, Jacob van der Kolk, Colette Van Kerckvoorde, Daniel Walter, Johanna Watzinger-Tharp, Astrid Weigert, Meike Wernicke, Kelsey White, Andreas Wiebel, Thorsten Wilhelm, Scott Windham, Karin Wurst, Kate Zambon, Ingrid Zeller, and Margrit Zinggeler.