Writing Together: Reclaiming Dialogue Journals as a Mutually Humanizing Teaching Practice

Abstract

This article builds on the work of adult literacy scholars to explore how dialogue journals might be used to enact a mutually humanizing pedagogy within adult English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classrooms. The researcher extends the discussion of using dialogue journals to consider not only how they can be used to meet the ends of specific class and language learning goals but can be utilized by teachers and researchers as a humanizing practice in a context historically and contemporarily dominated by the dehumanizing of adult immigrants through popular and political discourse. Through a review of literature and data from a practitioner inquiry study, the researcher revisits research on dialogue journaling and offers a reclaiming of dialogue journals as a mutually humanizing practice, using the discussion to interrogate what humanizing practices look like in a contemporary adult ESOL classroom.