From Instrumentalism to Humanistic Education: The Changing Purposes of Language Teaching

Abstract

This article makes an argument that language teachers should (re)consider their purposes and that humanistic purposes are as significant as instrumental ones. It demonstrates that this perspective is increasingly present in policy documents internationally. It also illustrates the possibility of realising such purposes by describing a teaching project developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The project was based on three pedagogies: a pedagogy of discomfort, an arts-based pedagogy, and a pedagogy of intercultural (communicative) competence. The third of these is then explained by introducing recent work at the Council of Europe on a Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture, which includes democratic values. Values, it is argued in this Framework, should be taught, and this raises questions about whose values and whether there are universal values. The article then analyses the possible positions a teacher might take with respect to encouraging their students to critique the values of others and their own, and suggests that “critical cultural awareness” is perhaps the optimal position. The implications, if this argument is accepted, are significant with respect to pedagogy, to teachers’ definitions of their professional identity, and to the need for further experimentation at all levels of education.