A free webinar presented by Adriana Diaz (University of Queensland).
Wednesday, May 14, 2025, 2-3:30 PM Arizona (UTC-7)
To see what time it starts where you are, click here.
Traditionally, instructional materials have shaped what and how students learn – but are they truly accessible, inclusive, and authentic? This interactive webinar invites language educators and program administrators to critically examine the evolving landscape of language teaching materials and explore transformative possibilities for their selection, development, and use. Moving beyond traditional coursebooks, we will (re)define instructional materials to reflect emerging resources that better align with contemporary linguistic and cultural realities, acknowledging the growing role of digital, multimodal, and learner-generated materials in language education.
Through the lenses of social justice, critical pedagogy, and decolonial theory, we will unpack three urgent and interconnected challenges – accessibility, inclusivity, and authenticity – while also exploring the opportunities they offer for more equitable teaching. How can we ensure that instructional materials reflect diverse identities and experiences, rather than reproducing dominant narratives? How can we move beyond static representations of culture to embrace linguistic and cultural fluidity? And how can we provide all students with equitable access to high-quality resources?
A key focus will be Open Educational Resources (OERs) as sustainable solutions that promote equitable access, dismantle normativities, amplify diverse voices, and empower educators to critically engage with content. Participants will explore real-world examples of OERs that challenge normative frameworks, encourage learner agency, and foster critical multilingual awareness.
This webinar will offer practical strategies for educators seeking to make more intentional, justice-oriented choices when selecting, adapting, and creating instructional materials. By the end of the session, participants will leave with concrete ideas for integrating more inclusive and critically engaged materials into their own teaching contexts.
Bio:
Adriana Diaz, PhD (she/her/ella), is a critical languages and intercultural education scholar born in Argentina and currently living and working on the unceded lands of the Turrbal and Jagera Peoples, colonised as Brisbane, Australia. Rooted in intersectional feminism, decoloniality, and critical pedagogy, her work seeks to un/re-learn dominant approaches to languages education and cultivate more just, pluriversal ways of knowing, being, and relating through linguistic and cultural diversity. Adriana’s scholarship and teaching are deeply relational, guided by a commitment to inclusive, reflective, and socially engaged pedagogies that centre diverse voices and lived experiences. She believes in language education as a site of transformation and liberation—one where both learners and educators can critically engage with the world, challenge colonial and normative frameworks, and co-create more equitable futures. This commitment informs her work as Director of Teaching and Learning at the School of Languages and Cultures, The University of Queensland. She is the author of Developing Critical Languaculture Pedagogies in Higher Education: Theory and Practice (2013, Multilingual Matters), co-editor (with Maria Dasli) of The Critical Turn in Language and Intercultural Communication Pedagogy (2017, Routledge), and co-author (with Chantal Crozet) of Tertiary Language Teacher-Researchers Between Ethics and Politics – Silent Voices, Unseized Spaces (2020, Routledge).
This is the second event in a three-part series on Transforming Language Teaching Materials: From Selection and Adaptation, to Creation, to Successful Implementation. See the series details here.
Participants attending this webinar live can request a certificate of attendance for 1.5 hours of Continuing Education in a request form that is shared at the end of the event. CERCLL will contact them after the webinar about how to request a digital badge.
Participants who require closed captions or an ASL interpreter during CERCLL’s events should make this request at least a week in advance by emailing CERCLL at cercll@email.arizona.edu.