Reframing teachers’ role in post-conflict and crisis-affected contextsXerri, Daniel; Pentón Herrera, Luis Javier
doi: 10.1093/elt/ccag007pmid: N/A
This introduction to the special issue on teachers in post-conflict and crisis-affected contexts examines the roles, identities, and pedagogical practices of ELT professionals working in environments where instability, displacement, and violence profoundly reshape educational realities. Moving beyond policy-centred accounts, it foregrounds teachers’ lived experiences, highlighting how ELT practitioners function as multidimensional agents who combine language instruction with trauma-sensitive care, peacebuilding, and community stabilisation. The article conceptualises teacher identity and well-being as ecological and relational, shaped by systemic precarity, emotional labour, and limited institutional support. It further illustrates how context-responsive and politically charged pedagogies transform ELT classrooms into spaces of psychological safety, critical dialogue, and collective coping. The article argues for a shift away from reliance on individual teacher resilience towards coordinated professional development, policy reform, and systemic support. By centring teachers’ agency and expertise, it offers insights for stakeholders concerned with sustaining education and social recovery in contexts of crisis.
The demise of critical agency in a post-conflict teaching environmentBasarati, Ali
doi: 10.1093/elt/ccag001pmid: N/A
In this autoethnographic study, I examine how my tension-filled lived experiences and the economic conditions of working as an English teacher in Iran have constrained my critical agency in a post-conflict teaching environment following migration. The guiding research question for this inquiry is: How is my critical agency adversely influenced and compromised in conflictual and post-conflict teaching environments? Analyses revealed that economic instability at the socio-political level, along with prescriptive teaching methods and internal deterioration, created a conflictual condition that pressured me to silence my critical agency. In the post-conflict setting of Poland, although the conditions are more supportive, the memory of past trauma and the fear of losing my current position still discourage me from openly exercising critical agency. Instead, I adopt a more conservative and innovative approach, working within existing structures to make small changes while protecting my role as a migrant academic.
Effects of emotional labor on teachers in post-crisis-affected BrazilColombo-Gomes, Gysele da S
doi: 10.1093/elt/ccaf064pmid: N/A
Emotional labor plays a key role in teachers’ emotional knowledge and development. This case study focuses on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives and professional practices of a group of Brazilian English language teachers, highlighting the post-crisis emotions and emotional labor these teachers had to navigate. Data were collected through a questionnaire and narrative frames. Analysis of the data revealed that, even 5 years after the crisis, participants continue to face distress, apathy, anxiety, and fear in the classroom, stemming from the increased inequality of opportunities among learners in the challenging context of emergency remote teaching in higher education in Brazil. The study also sheds light on the implications for both pre- and in-service teachers, as well as for teacher educators, emphasizing the need to cultivate a deeper understanding of building resilience and well-being through ELT practices.
ELT teachers and the July revolution: identity, pedagogy, and wisdomRafi, Abu Saleh Mohammad
doi: 10.1093/elt/ccag002pmid: N/A
This qualitative case study explores how ELT teachers in Bangladesh reconfigured their professional identities during the July Revolution, focusing on the nuanced role of negotiations that unfolded in classrooms amid political upheaval and emotional strain. Drawing on interviews with five university teachers and the analysis of multimodal artefacts, the study employs translanguaging pedagogy and social and emotional learning (SEL) as intersecting frameworks. The findings reveal a spectrum of teacher roles, from cautious witnesses to empathetic mentors, who responded to crisis through translanguaging practices, trauma-informed approaches, and creative multimodal strategies. This relational and ethical stance foregrounds care, presence, and cultural responsiveness as central to teaching in times of disruption. The study calls for embedding emotional literacy and context-sensitive pedagogies in teacher education to support educators in sustaining learning during periods of crisis.
Linguistic landscape for joint learning amid conflict in IsraelSchvarcz, Brigitta R; Yitzhaki, Dafna
doi: 10.1093/elt/ccag008pmid: N/A
This article describes two ELT initiatives in Israel, offered by the English Inspectorate, aimed at learning about ‘the other’ in an area of intractable conflict. These initiatives create contact between Jews and Arabs, teachers and students, where the two school systems are separated, and contact between the communities is scarce. Both initiatives are based on linguistic landscape (LL) pedagogy that fosters activism and critical thinking. In the first initiative, teachers planned projects for learning about cultural narratives through LL. The second initiative involved collaborative work of Jewish and Arab students who met to study each other’s LL environments, inspired by the Shared Education model. The manuscript integrates visuals from the projects. We show how LL can be used to bring politically divided communities together, enabling contact in times of severe tension in long-standing conflict.