About us
No matter how mind-blowing any scientific discovery is—in any discipline, including language and/or linguistics—its impact is not as powerful as it could be if it had the power to influence the daily lives of human beings. This means that teachers are an ever-important commodity because it is through them that the future is shaped. The over-arching goal of this project is to prepare learners not just for the workforce, but also for life itself—as individuals desirous of personal wellbeing and as citizens in a global community. Perhaps one key distinction that needs clarification is the extent to which the emphasis is on skills needed for the future workplace (typically digital literacies, creativity, critical thinking skills and collaboration skills) or on ways of living in society and as an individual (typically personal wellbeing, citizenship and social awareness). More typically, it is those skills associated with being successful workers in the future marketplace that tend to be the focus of many 21st-century skill frameworks.
There are valid and essential reasons for language and literature educators to engage in enhancing wellbeing and global skills alongside the promotion of linguistic and literary skills. This research cluster advocates for the academic and non-academic benefits of focusing on developing the competences that promote wellbeing and global citizenship. Non-linguistic and linguistic aims can be interwoven in practice in sustainable ways that do not compromise the development of either skill set, or overburden educators. Although many language teachers already promote many of these competences in order to facilitate language learning and the appreciation of literature, this is often done in ad hoc ways with no training or explicit support, guidelines or practical frameworks. Hence, one of the main goals of this cluster includes training at in-service and pre-service levels to support language and literature teachers in understanding what wellbeing is and how it can be fostered for both themselves and their learners. The wellbeing of learners and teachers should not be considered an optional extra but as a fundamental foundation of the skill sets both need to cope in their personal and professional lives in the future. Language and literature contexts are ideally positioned to facilitate the learning of wellbeing, sustainability and other 21st century skills through language use and learning.
