Language Teachers’ Lives in Global Lockdown: Voices from around the World

At a time when 1.5 billion learners in 165 countries are affected by COVID-19 school closures (UNESCO, 2020), CLER has been talking to language educators around the world to understand how the pandemic is affecting their lives in isolation as they strive to support children, young people and adults from diverse geographical, socioeconomic, sociocultural and linguistic backgrounds. We gather these stories here as a gesture of solidarity with our colleagues in the global community of language educators. This collection cannot encompass the sheer complexity and diversity of challenges, opportunities and future anxieties as well as hopes that the pandemic has brought to all corners of the world. But we share it in the hope that these voices will resonate and guide our collective inquiry as we continue to ask difficult questions about the role of language education in building inclusive societies in global lockdown and beyond.  

The narratives are based on interviews with teachers conducted by Maggie Kubanyiova, Taguhi Sahakyan, Harry Kuchah, Loreto Aliaga-Salas, Natalie Donohue, Louise Dearden, Rumana Hossein, Laura Grassick, Chiara Bruzzano & Dani Fobi. 

We are grateful to all teachers who volunteered to share their stories. Some asked us to use their real names and/or their images, others chose to remain anonymous.  For any queries about the project, please contact cler@leeds.ac.uk.  

To cite this resource, please use: Centre for Language Education Research. (2020). Language teachers’ lives in global lockdown: Voices from around the world. Retrieved from https://cler.leeds.ac.uk/language-teachers-lives-in-global-lockdown/

To read CLER researchers’ short blog reflections in relation to these narratives, click here.