Empowering Language Learners: Critical Approaches to SDGs

 

In an increasingly interconnected world, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) offer a powerful framework for addressing global challenges. They provide a shared language for discussing crucial topics like fairness, planetary protection, and equitable access to education. However, in our urgency to integrate them, are we sometimes missing a deeper opportunity?

This article proposes moving beyond a superficial "checklist" approach to the SDGs in language teaching, particularly for those in subsidiary language courses who might feel time-constrained. By embracing a more critical and relational pedagogy, we can transform SDG engagement from a managerial task into a truly transformative learning experience, empowering students to become critical thinkers, not just well-behaved global citizens. This approach aligns with calls from post-development thinkers like Arturo Escobar (2018), who urge us to question the "one-size-fits-all" Western idea of progress often embedded in such global frameworks.

 

Let's illustrate this with SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, using the example of a university German language course. The principles, however, are readily adaptable to any language and cultural context – be it French, Spanish, Japanese, or Arabic. The key lies in the conceptual shift, not just specific examples.

 

1. The Conventional Approach: Raising Awareness, but not Questions

 

Imagine a German language lesson focused on SDG 6. A common approach might involve:

• Vocabulary Building: Introducing terms for water sources, purification, sanitation systems, and related environmental issues in German.
• Reading Comprehension: Analyzing articles about water scarcity in Germany or international initiatives to build wells in developing countries.
• Role-Playing: Students might role-play a meeting to raise funds for a water project or discuss personal water-saving habits.
• Presentations: Researching technological solutions for water purification or presenting statistics on global water access. 

 

While valuable for language acquisition and general awareness, this "soft" approach to global citizenship education often stops short. As warned by scholars like Vanessa Andreotti (2014) in her work on "soft" versus "critical" global citizenship, it tends to depoliticize complex issues. It focuses on symptoms and simple solutions, inadvertently reinforcing existing power structures and potentially glossing over complex realities. For students juggling multiple subjects, it can feel like a disconnected add-on, a superficial nod to sustainability rather than a core inquiry into justice.

2. A Transformative Path: Cultivating Criticality and Connection

 

What if we could use the language classroom to delve deeper? What if we leveraged the unique space of language learning to explore the why behind water inequality, rather than just the what or the how of technical fixes? Here are suggestions for a more transformative approach to SDG 6, applicable across languages:

1. Deconstructing Narratives and Exploring "Who Decides?":
• Beyond the "Charity" Lens: Instead of merely discussing fundraising for a well, engage students in analyzing German-language news reports, historical documents, or even advertising campaigns related to water. Ask: Whose voices are heard? Who benefits from current water management policies? What historical events (e.g., colonial legacies, industrialization) have shaped contemporary water access in different regions, including Germany's own relationship with water? This could involve comparing policies in Germany with those in former German colonies, or examining the role of German companies in global water markets.

 

• Unpacking Language: Explore the connotations of words like "development" or "aid" in the target language. Do they imply a one-way transfer of knowledge or a more reciprocal exchange? Discuss how language itself can embed certain assumptions about "progress" or "modernity." This connects to the idea that sustainability is not just a managerial task, but about "mending relationships... with other ways of knowing" (Andreotti et al., 2018).

 

2. Engaging with Diverse Epistemologies (Ways of Knowing):
• Beyond Western Science: Introduce German texts (poems, folk tales, philosophical essays, Indigenous perspectives translated into German) that explore alternative relationships with water, viewing it not just as a resource, but as a sacred entity, a living being, or a communal heritage. This challenges the singular "Western idea of progress" and opens up space for "alternative epistemologies," such as Indigenous knowledge systems that offer holistic views on balance and sustainability.

 

• Case Studies: Research specific examples of conflicts over water rights, whether locally in Germany or internationally involving German actors. Encourage students to explore the diverse perspectives of stakeholders, from indigenous communities to corporate entities, and how these perspectives are articulated in the target language.

 

3. Fostering Critical Reflection and Systemic Thinking:
• "Complicity" and Interconnectedness: Instead of simply focusing on individual actions (e.g., shorter showers), encourage students to reflect on their own roles within broader systems of consumption and global resource distribution. How might their own choices, even in a seemingly affluent context like Germany, connect to water issues elsewhere?

 

• Debates and Dialogues: Organize debates in German on complex water-related issues, such as water privatization, the environmental impact of certain industries, or the concept of "water as a human right" versus "water as a commodity." Encourage students to articulate nuanced arguments and engage with conflicting viewpoints.

 

• Project-Based Learning with a Critical Edge: Instead of simply "solving" a problem, task students with investigating its root causes. For example, they could research a German company's water footprint or analyze the political debates in Germany surrounding agricultural water use and its impact on international supply chains.

 

3. Building a Community of Practice: Resources and Inspiration

 

This deeper engagement with SDGs in the language classroom isn't about adding more to an already packed curriculum, but about enriching existing topics and developing critical thinking skills that are invaluable for any field of study. It's about moving from "teaching about water" to "teaching through water for justice and transformation."

This approach encourages teachers to:

• Look beyond typical textbook content: Seek out authentic materials that reflect diverse perspectives and critical analyses.
• Embrace complexity: Be comfortable with not having all the answers and facilitating open-ended inquiry.
• Connect the local to the global: Show how local actions and policies in Germany (or any target culture) have global repercussions for water. 
  

 

By sharing such examples and conceptualizations, we can build a vibrant community of practice for language educators. This platform can serve as a pool of inspiration, resources, and tested ideas. For those with less time, it offers readily adaptable frameworks and starting points. For those eager to delve deeper, it provides a space for intellectual exchange and conceptual guidance, enabling all teachers to move beyond the SDG checklist and foster genuinely transformative learning experiences in their classrooms.

 

4. Valuing Multilingual Resources for Critical Engagement

In multilingual classrooms—which many language learning environments are by default—students often possess repertoires that extend beyond the target language. While the instructional focus may be on developing German, French, or Spanish proficiency, students frequently draw on their stronger languages (including their first or academic language) to engage more deeply with complex topics. This multilingual potential is not a distraction but a pedagogical asset. Critical and justice-oriented approaches to sustainability, as advocated in this article, often require learners to grapple with abstract ideas, conflicting perspectives, and unfamiliar historical contexts. These challenges can exceed what students can comfortably express or process in a still-developing language. Allowing them to research, reflect, or even draft arguments in a language they are more proficient in can enable deeper cognitive and emotional engagement, especially in the exploratory phases of learning.

This does not mean abandoning the target language, but rather using multilingual scaffolding as a bridge toward more meaningful learning. Research in translanguaging pedagogy supports this approach, showing that flexible language use fosters participation, criticality, and a sense of agency (García & Wei, 2014; Vogel & García, 2017). It helps maintain the delicate balance between language development and content exploration, ensuring students aren’t excluded from transformative inquiry because of linguistic insecurity. For example, a student might investigate water politics in their region using sources in English or their home language, then present or discuss findings in the target language at a level appropriate to their proficiency. In this way, multilingualism becomes a driver—not an obstacle—of sustainability education in the language classroom.

 

Ultimately, this is about mending relationships – with each other, with the planet, and with diverse ways of knowing – through the powerful medium of language. It's about empowering students to question, to connect, and to imagine a more just and sustainable future.

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Further Reading & Resources:

• Andreotti, V. (2014). Soft versus critical global citizenship education.

A foundational text that distinguishes between different approaches to global citizenship education.

• Andreotti, V., Stein, S., Sutherland, A., de Souza, L. M., Sianturi, I., & Shrestha, M. (2018). Mapping Interpretations of ‘Sustainability’ in Higher Education: Towards a Pedagogy of Questioning for a More-Than-Human World.

This work expands on the idea of sustainability beyond managerial tasks to relational mending.

• Escobar, A. (2018). Designs for the Pluriverse: Radical Interdependence, Autonomy, and the Making of Worlds.

A key text in post-development studies that critiques Western-centric notions of development and advocates for alternative approaches.

• García, O., & Wei, L. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education. Palgrave Macmillan.

This foundational text introduces translanguaging as a theory of language practice and as a pedagogy, offering insights into how bilingual and multilingual students draw on their full linguistic repertoires to make meaning and learn effectively.

• Vogel, S., & García, O. (2017). “Translanguaging.” In O. García, N. Flores, & M. Spotti (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society (pp. 558–574). Oxford University Press.

This chapter elaborates on translanguaging theory and pedagogy, offering more refined applications in diverse educational contexts.