LJ Randolph: Anti-colonial and anti-racist language pedagogies

On Friday, November 12th (2:20-3:40pm), Dr. LJ Randolph Jr. (UNC Wilmington) will give a lecture entitled "Anti-colonial and Anti-racist Language Pedagogies: Reimagining Curricular Frameworks." 

This event, co-sponsored by the BuckLER Center in the Department of Teaching and Learning and the Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese, with co-promotion by CLAS, is free and open to the public and will be presented via Zoom (https://osu.zoom.us/j/99169109673?pwd=bFI4SGpwR0tZbGxCY0djTW96VXcrQT09).

Eurocentric and colonial frameworks have traditionally been at the core of language and cultural studies, leading to ideologies that have diminished, devalued, or erased the language varieties, cultures, and experiences of racialized and minoritized communities. This talk will explore ways to challenge such ideologies by applying anti-colonial, anti-racist approaches to various elements of curriculum design, including identification of learning objectives, selection of resources, and assessment of students. We will discuss connections to interdisciplinary research in the field of critical pedagogy, and we will examine specific examples from the classroom.

L. J. Randolph Jr., Ed.D., is an associate professor of Spanish and Education and coordinator of the World Language Teacher Education Program at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington. L.J.’s teaching career has spanned nearly 20 years, including a decade as a Spanish and ESOL teacher at the secondary level. At the university level, he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Spanish language, contemporary Latinx cultures, and second language teaching methods. He has also directed study abroad programs in China, Mexico, Spain, and the Dominican Republic for secondary, undergraduate, and graduate students.

L.J.’s research, publications, and professional engagement have focused on a variety of critical issues in language education, including the teaching of Spanish to heritage and native speakers and the incorporation of social justice-oriented pedagogies in the language classroom. He has authored/co-authored several publications and given dozens of scholarly presentations on those topics. In addition, throughout his career he has served in leadership roles in various language organizations, including president of the Foreign Language Association of North Carolina (FLANC), president of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP), coordinator of the Cape Fear Foreign Language Collaborative (CFFLC), board member for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), and founding vice-chair of ACTFL’s special interest group for Critical and Social Justice approaches.