Why discuss gender in language teaching? There are obvious reasons such as the growing interest in global issues-which include women's studies, human rights, and lesbian and gay studies as content-based themes-as well as in learner development and teacher education-which aim to empower students and educators, females and males alike. Using the term gender rather than women's or feminist issues was a conscious choice not only to be inclusive of masculinity and to point out the intersection with issues of sexuality, but also to highlight the recurring themes that appear throughout the articles in this volume: raising awareness of ideology, concepts, and terms; developing instruction that promotes active student participation; and reframing gender within language education in Japan.
The first three feature articles investigate the politics of language: Beebe begins by examining sexist language in EFL as a problem of knowledge and choice, Kanamaru continues by exploring sexism within Japanese EFL textbooks, and McDonald shifts the discussion to sexuality to clarify concepts and terms. The next three articles examine pedagogical practice: Summerhawk explores gay themes in the EFL classroom, Fujiwara introduces women's studies through film, and Soga has her students encounter women around the world to transform them into active learners. The last three articles look at gender issues in Japanese society: Usuki examines Japanese fairy tales as a source of gender stereotypes; Yamashiro and Ogane provide a historical perspective by discussing Tsuda Ume's life and achievements; and McMahill introduces WELL (Women in Education and Language Learning), a relatively new women's organization in Japan. In addition to the feature articles, Lubetsky argues for more sensitivity towards sexual orientation in his Opinion & Perspective piece; three My Share articles by Chris Heaume, Mariko Fujita, and Thomas Hardy illustrate gender- related activities for classroom application, and NetNuggets introduces some useful on-line gender resources.
It has been nearly seven years since The Language Teacher has devoted an issue to gender (Fujimura-Fanselow & Vaughn, 1991). The current issue similarly grew out of a panel presentation, based on a university monograph project having the same title, "Gender Issues in Language Education" at the '96 JALT Conference in Hiroshima. The interest and enthusiasm of the colloquium participants in addition to the original monograph contributors provided the necessary momentum to secure this volume of The Language Teacher. Because gender issues cover such a broad spectrum of social theory and pedagogical practice, we (un)fortunately had too many submissions to our call for papers, thus, we could include only a fraction of the articles. We take this as a clear indicator of the growing interest in this area and hope that this volume will inspire language educators and researchers to continue investigating gender issues in language teaching.
Sandra J. Smith & Amy D. Yamashiro
References
Casanave, C. P., & Yamashiro, A. (Eds.) (1996). Gender issues in language education. Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture: Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus.
Fujimura-Fanselow, K. Vaughn, D. (Eds..) (1991). Feminist issues in language teaching [Special issue]. The Language Teacher ,15 (7).
Yamashiro, A., Hardy, T., McMahill, C. (1996, November). Gender Issues in Language Education. Colloquium presented at the 22nd Annual JALT Conference, Hiroshima, Japan.