Mainstreaming marginalized voices

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by Ben Goldstein

I have been writing ELT materials for mainstream publishers for over 25 years, during which I have attempted to include marginalized or diverse content from time to time with very little success. While ELT publishers do have increasingly rigorous guidelines aimed at promoting inclusiveness, above all with regard to the presentation of women and different culture and ethnicities, you’d be hard pressed to find a member of the LGBTQIA[1] community in ELT mainstream content[2]. This sanitizing process is, of course, so potential markets will not be offended, in that respect ELT products remain resolutely global. If it does get through the first edit, the “PARSNIP[3] police” will make sure that it does not get any further than that. I know this from bitter experience.

 
 

Wenzile’s vlog: “More than just Make-up”

It is for this reason that I was delighted to come across DLA’s latest addition to their Vlogger Academy. If you’re new to the Academy, it is an archive of over 60 vlogs which are CEFR graded and topic aligned and hence ready for immediate use in the classroom. They feature a huge variety of different authentic content in the vlog format, including a number of voices representing minorities. This latest vlog features Wenzile Thwal a black transsexual from Johannesburg and is entitled “More than just Make-up”.

 

In the 3-minute vlog, Wenzile describes the importance of make-up to her trans identity. She explains its role in expressing her individuality, of making her who she is. In so doing, she takes us on a journey back into her past. ­For example, she tells us that at 16 her love for make-up started but she felt scared and embarrassed. At 18, her make-up skills developed, while at university she perfected ways to make herself feel more feminine. At the end of the clip, she celebrates that progression:

 
“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
 

A relatable role model

The strength of the material is that Wenzile comes across at all times as a relatable role model, she is simply “one of us”. After all, you don’t have to be black or a transsexual to relate to the insecurities that she describes when growing up as an adolescent. At no time do you feel that her experience applies only to a trans person. Her video is fundamentally about an exploration of her sense of self. As such, she becomes somebody any viewer could, in theory, relate to or empathize with.

The DLA resources that accompany the vlog play to the video’s strengths by highlighting this issue of relatability in the teachers’ notes. The important thing is that Wenzile is considered as a person first and foremost before she is considered as a transgender person.

This is foregrounded by particular tasks such as this speaking activity designed for after students watch the clip:

 

Make-up made Wenzile feel confident and helped her to express how she truly felt inside.

1. What other ways can people express their feelings?

2. Why is it sometimes difficult to be true to yourself?

A post-viewing writing task also encourages an empathetic response from learners:

 

What, if anything, did you learn from Wenzile’s vlog? Can you relate to anything she said about her experience?

Finally, students imagine that they have watched Wenzile’s video on her channel and write a comment - a couple of example comments are provided as prompts. Importantly, these comments are of different kinds, some of them empathize while other focus on how much they got out of watching the clip:

 

Hiro: I know how hard it is to hide your true self from your family. Your video has given me hope. Thank you!

Liz: Now I appreciate how important make-up can be to someone.

Boubacar: "I learned so much from your video, thanks for sharing!"

 

“Normalisation” vs “Disruption”: A delicate balance

The approach taken by the vlog and the materials falls into what we could call a Normalization Approach to inclusive content. What do we mean by this? Essentially, in a normalization approach, the “specialness” of the narrative is not referred to explicitly. We know (and can see for ourselves) that Wenzile is a transgender person but this is not the be-all and end-all.

 

Another important aspect of this approach is that learners are exposed to such content alongside other voices. This is clearly the case because Wenzile’s video is contextualized within DLA’s Vlogger Academy, it is not given any particular prominence but is simply seen as one of many voices (some of which are marginalized). Therefore, her narrative is never regarded as special or tokenistic.

Finally, in a normalization approach, debate and discussion is largely left up to the learners. There are no leading questions in the DLA resources and no attempt to present this material as “difficult” or “different” to any of the other videos in the Academy.

However, it is equally important that if students wish to investigate the topic of transgender identity in more depth then they should be allowed to do. The extent to which this happens, of course, will depend on the context in which the material is used, the profile of the learners and their relationship with the teacher.

For this reason, although the approach here is one of “normalization”, the topic of transgender identities should not be shied away from. This means that elements of a “disruption” approach could be implemented. So, what do we mean by a disruption approach?

Essentially, in a disruption approach, the marginalized narrative is highlighted as such, learners are pushed to discuss and debate this issue and critical evaluation is encouraged. In the case of Wenzile’s vlog, although her experience is relatable, there are moments in her narrative which refer explicitly to her transsexual identify. For example, when she says:

 
“Years later in university, before I had any medical help to transition into a woman,
make-up was one of those things that I used to feel feminine.

… And for the longest time, makeup allowed me to pass to a degree. If you feel like a girl inside, passing means that you also look like a girl to other people. ”
 

These terms – transition and pass – which have a particular meaning in this context can not be overlooked as they are part of Wenzile’s overall message and, thus, need to be understood by students. For this reason, the resources include a glossary in case there is any doubt about their meaning (although Wenzile defines “passing” herself in the quote above). How much these concepts are then analyzed by students (if it all) depends on the context in which the material is presented.

This shows the delicate balance between the normalization and disruption approaches. The video and resources clearly follow the former far more than the latter but that does not mean to say that the material could not be used for a more thorough examination of transgender identity - if that were an appropriate thing to do or if interest in that came from the students’ themselves[4].

Conclusions

If you are interested in digging deeper into these approaches and the nature of inclusive materials, check out Tyson Seburn’s excellent How To Write Inclusive Materials.[5] There, Seburn establishes certain key principles for inclusive content creation which include[6]:

  • Members of minority groups are represented with regularity alongside other narratives.

  • Authentic voices should be consulted and inform narrative creation.

  • Members of minority groups are represented as individuals, not as a collective whole.

I believe that Wenzile’s vlog “More than just Make-up” and the accompanying resources fulfill all three of Seburn’s criteria. The video is indeed authentic, non-tokenistic and represents an individual voice which is highly relatable. What’s more, due to its inclusion in the Vlogger Academy it will hopefully receive greater exposure and be used in a larger number of classrooms around the world.

Wenzile’s vlog, is apart from anything else, such a positive portrayal of black trans identity that it deserves to be seen by as many students as possible, to really enter the ELT mainstream. Indeed, having spent so long trying to give wider exposure to voices such as Wenzile’s, I’m hopeful that videos such as hers may now pave the way for a new inclusive direction for ELT materials. A path hopefully unhampered by PARSNIPS - it is certainly high time that happened!

[1] This acronym refers to a number of sexual identities: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual.

[2] I’m glad to say that this is not the case outside the mainstream. A good example is the Raise Up! Project: https://raiseupforelt.com. This is just one of a number of recent initiatives to feature diverse and inclusive content within the ELT coursebook format.

[3] Parsnip is another acronym referring to the topics that can not be included in mainstream ELT content: politics, alcohol, religion, sex, narcotics, isms (such as communism or atheism), and pork.

[4] Bold face added by me for emphasis

[5] One important aspect of the disruptive approach is that the materials never allow opportunities to question the existence or debate the rights of the individuals involved. Instead of discussing the validity of an individual’s characteristics, disruptive materials encourage discussing the validity of an accepted status quo by highlighting how it does not accommodate an individual’s characteristics justly (Seburn 2021: 75)

[6] Seburn, Tyson (2021) How To Write Inclusive Materials. Available for purchase at: https://eltteacher2writer.co.uk/our-books/how-to-write-inclusive-materials/ Seburn 2021: 14