Call for papers: Resistance to the known in FLE

Update: Published!

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Resistance to the Known, the edited volume that was advertised in the call for papers below, has now been published by Macmillan Palgrave. You can read more about the book, which contains a chapter by me, here.

The content that follows is no longer current, but it is retained here for archival purposes.

Call for chapters

A call for papers has been issued for an edited volume entitled: Resistance to the known in Foreign Language Education: Creating new dynamics, attitudes, possibilities and opportunities. The volume will be edited by Dr Damian J. Rivers (Osaka University, Graduate School of Language and Culture, Japan).

The full text of the call is reproduced below (some emphasis added):

As academics across the globe collectively awaken to the boundless possibilities existent within Foreign Language Education (FLE), the lure of intellectual and moral liberation from conventional ways of being, thinking, acting and teaching continues to increase and can no longer be ignored. This edited volume seeks to gather chapters from diverse locations that embody a growing demand for new dynamics, attitudes, possibilities and opportunities to be created by highlighting various forms of resistance to the known. On a basic level, the editor conceptualizes the known along the lines of Krishnamurti (1969) who describes it as the tyranny of the expected or the dogma into which we have been conditioned. Although the exact focus of each chapter may vary, the editor wishes to tease out and emphasize a unifying theme of discontent and uneasiness with the regurgitation of conventional ways of being, thinking, acting and teaching. Submissions that aim to challenge, deconstruct or critique strands of FLE which are generally accepted as being above and beyond ridicule (i.e. the universal truths of the profession) are most welcome. Furthermore, proposals that display a critical open-mindedness and imagination toward educational possibilities and opportunities aiming to be free from the limitations of institutional constraint, academic tradition and sociopolitical regulation will be embraced. Potential authors are invited to email a 300-400 word outline of their prospective chapter with a few lines of bio-data to the editor damian.rivers[at]lang.osaka-u.ac.jp by June 20^th 2012.

It is envisioned that each chapter will be approximately 7,500 words in length and that final chapters will not be required until the end of 2013.

More information will be posted as it becomes available.