Rose Aylett
About
About
Who is she?
Rose Aylett is a freelance teacher, trainer and CELTA tutor, based in Liverpool. She has worked in ELT for 20 years, in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Her most recent work has involved project managing the British Council PRELIM 1, 2 & 3 projects, and developing a course in global citizenship for language teachers for NILE (source).
Professional life
Rose completed her MA in Professional Development in Language Education with NILE / University of Chichester (2020), and was awarded a commendation in the 2020-2021 British Council Master’s Dissertation Awards. (source). She is a former Joint-Coordinator of the IATEFL Global Issues SIG. During her time in this role she also produced and edited the IATEFL GISIG e-zine FUTURITY, and the Global Issues Podcast. She speaks regularly at national and international conferences on how to teach controversial issues, and the integration of critical perspectives into ELT. (source)
Interests
Her professional interests lie in developing English teachers’ critical literacy and critical pedagogy, the focus of her MA thesis (2020). She is also particularly interested in the use of oral storytelling, materials-light teaching, and the integration of global issues into the EFL classroom. A focus of her earlier work was the search for teacher-centred alternatives to traditional INSETT and creative solutions to overcome ‘training fatigue’ amongst trainee teachers. (source)
Her weekends are spent hiking and wild camping in the UK’s national parks. (source)
Biographical Sources
Rose Aylett
Recommended books
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Paolo Freire
For Freire, teaching is a political act. He makes the case for dialogic education as a potential source of liberation, in contrast to traditional 'banking' methods of teaching and learning, which he believes are characteristic of oppression. Freire's work has heavily influenced my practice and since reading POTO, I have been critically aware of the power dynamics at play within my own classroom teaching - and the responsibility I have as a teacher educator to draw attention to, and challenge them.
Theatre of the Oppressed
Augusto Boal
I am a relative newcomer to Boal's work, but it has already had a big impact on my work in global citizenship teacher education. The book introduces a practice Boal calls 'forum theatre' in which audience members are invited to join and become part of the scene - in so doing, transforming from 'spectators' to 'spect-actors', and impacting the outcome. For Boal, theatre was a rehearsal to prepare participants to better address real-life injustice - and I have seen just how effectively this can work in the training room.
Taking on Critical Literacy: The Journey of Newcomers and Novices
Mitzi Lewison, Amy Seely Flint, Katie Van Sluys
In this journal article, Lewison et al. outline their 'Four Dimensions Framework' of critical literacy, drawing on 30 years of prior research in this area. The four aspects of the framework ('disrupting the commonplace'; 'interrogating multiple perspectives'; 'focusing on the socio-political'; 'taking action for social justice') are a lens through which I try both to view the world and act within it. Once the glasses are on, it's difficult to 'un-see' social injustice. The question is how we use the power we have to do something about it…
The Danger of a Single Story
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The central premise of Adichie's TED talk is the harm that can be caused through the reproduction of stereotypical or essentialist representations in discourse. Her TED talk is often cited at ELT conferences to highlight the importance of including a diverse range of voices and narratives within our teaching materials. I would argue this principle can and should be applied to all aspects of our work - de-centering our methodologies, teacher education and classroom management practices, as well.
You're Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters
Kate Murphy
At a time when we are surrounded by so much noise (in both a literal and figurative sense), this book is an incredibly readable deep dive into how to listen better, and how developing this skill might actually make us happier people. I remember reading it and suddenly becoming acutely aware in my day-to-day interactions of how often we listen in order to speak, rather than listening to understand. Listening is something I am constantly striving to better as an educator, and as a human being.
Place in HLT
Rose Aylett has fully embraced the central tenets of humanising language education through her work on critical pedagogy, her engagement with global perspectives and social justice, and her exploration of the ‘unseen’ in educational approaches and materials. Her work with teachers in Egypt was strengthened with a Master’s degree and thesis on critical literacy within teacher education, which was awarded a commendation in the 2020-2021 British Council Master’s Dissertation Awards. In parallel, Rose became IATEFL Global Issues SIG Coordinator and editor of the Global Issues in ELT e-zine ‘FUTURITY’. She has since designed and delivered a Global Citizenship in Language Education teacher development course, which has run face to face and will soon launch as an online programme for teachers. She continues to work with pre-service and in-service language teachers from all around the world and speak at international language education conferences.
