I Am Woke

Abstract

This praxis-based chapter explores advocacy in the English language teaching (ELT) field. The chapter introduces a new conceptualization of advocacy, the Critical Advocacy Framework, informed by Freire's critical consciousness (conscientização), Fanon's race (Black) consciousness, and Crenshaw's intersectionality paradigms. For critical advocacy praxis, this chapter integrates the “iron triangle” model from the American politics and public policy fields to highlight patron-client relationships between multilingual learners (MLs) advocates and stakeholders. This chapter highlights how the racially mixed author, a trained political scientist and newcomer to the ELT field, leveraged her Blackness, experiential and organizational knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) in a Machiavellian sense, to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) throughout a TESOL state affiliate. The chapter provides evidence-based practices and learning activities for MATESOL program administrators, pre-service, and in-service English teachers.