International Conference: language education for sustainable development

Kotb, K. S. (2021). The features and roles of universities in creative cities. In A. A. R. Galaby & A. A. Adrabo (Eds.), Handbook of research on creative cities and advanced models for knowledge-based urban development (pp. 285-304). IGI Global.

Newton, L. D., Newton, D. P. (2014). Creativity in 21st-century education. Prospects 44, 575–589. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11125-014-9322-1

UNESCO (2020). UNESCO creative cities network for sustainable development. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000375210?posInSet=1&queryId=77f568c6-aac0-495b-9b17-fe0fcb1ecb8b

UNESCO and World Bank. (2021). Cities, culture, creativity. Leveraging culture and creativity for sustainable urban development and inclusive growth. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000383744

The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) aims to develop strategies and good practices to utilise culture as an engine to arrive at sustainable, resilient and inclusive cities, and to promote intercultural exchange. English language teaching offers opportunities to contribute to the UCCN’s mission as the network’s aims and practices can be integrated as content into instructional practice, thereby disseminating the rationale and work of the UCCN and facilitating language learning. For these reasons, sustainable development needs to be covered in teacher education so that teachers can gain an understanding of sustainable development and develop ways of implementing it into their current or future teaching. Against this backdrop, this study will report on an undergraduate course entitled “Creative Cities and Education” offered, for the first time between September 2024 and January 2025, to English language pre-service teachers at a Turkish university. The university’s city is a UCCN candidate city in the field of literature. The course lecturer and author of this study is a member of the city’s UCCN application team. Besides introducing the pre-service teachers to the UCCN, a central component of the course will be the design of instructional materials including lesson objectives and procedures to be used in English lessons. Based on data collected through journals, interviews, field notes and the lesson materials produced by the pre-service teachers, this study seeks to examine the pre-service teachers’ understandings of sustainable development and knowledge of the UCCN at course beginning, and to what extent the undergraduate course helps them raise awareness of the significance sustainable development and cultural diversity. Additionally, the reports on experiences gained throughout the course are considered to be informative for teacher education curriculum designers. Finally, the lesson plans to be designed by the pre-service teachers are likely to serve as inspirational sources for classroom practitioners.

Stefan Rathert, PhD, is assistant professor in the field of English language teaching at the Faculty of Education, Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, Turkey. His research interests include language teaching materials development, teaching methods, translingual practices in language teaching and professional development for teachers.