XXIVth International CALL Research Conference Portal

“Humanising CALL for Language Teacher Wellbeing: Why We Should ‘Care’”

Abstract

In this talk, I focus on the teachers who have traditionally been in the background of academic concerns where the focus instead tends to be on learners’ needs and wellbeing. I outline why language teacher wellbeing is not an optional extra but rather the foundation of good practice whether in CALL or otherwise. Together, we reflect critically on what wellbeing is and why we should ‘care’. We explore reasons why teacher wellbeing is increasingly under threat from changes in learner profiles, developments in technology as well as broader societal issues including teacher status and neoliberal discourses and social pressures, which ignore teacher needs. Drawing on data from studies conducted with the Graz team for wellbeing in language education, I illustrate educator concerns from across the career span in diverse contexts. The talk moves on to reflect on the implications of these issues and what it means to take a contemporary humanistic view of CALL. We discuss how technology can be meaningfully drawn upon to humanise practice and support teacher wellbeing, while remaining critically mindful of some of the commensurate concerns it poses. The talk concludes by asking the audience to reflect upon how their own research and/or practice can humanise language education, integrating technology in ways which care for the wellbeing of both teachers and their learners.

“Why Care Demands Criticality: Critical CALL as Critical Digital Pedagogy”

Abstract

Care without criticality risks reproducing the very inequalities it claims to address. In this contribution I will argue that genuine care in CALL contexts requires systematic engagement with issues of power, and an understanding of how our digital classrooms are connected to broader social, cultural, and political challenges. In an era of accelerating AI integration, the question is not simply whether we care, but how we care, and whether our caring practices challenge or entrench existing injustices. Critical Digital Pedagogy (CPD) provides a framework for examining these questions, and Critical CALL represents an instantiation of CPD within the learning and teaching of languages and cultures. Critical CALL takes as its premise that the world is inequitably multilingual and technologised. It demands acknowledgment that technology tools are not neutral, and that their use must be considered in the light of issues related to gender, race, social class, geography, etc. . The digital divide, the dominance of the English language, and the prioritisation of Global North knowledges constitute forms of structural carelessness embedded in language learning technologies. Caring ethically requires educators to question value-neutral claims and to systematically identify inequalities that mediate technology use. Why should we care about criticality? Because care that ignores power is potentially complicit in harm. Because wellbeing cannot be divorced from equity. Because ethical design must address epistemic justice: whose knowledge counts, whose voices are amplified, and whose are being silenced. As AI increasingly mediates learning including in CALL, Critical AI Literacy becomes essential: equipping educators and learners to identify embedded biases and leverage technologies for social justice rather than its erosion. My contribution is a call for pedagogical approaches grounded in critical consciousness and the courage to truly care in CALL and beyond.

“Human‑centred Language Education in the Age of GenAI: Ethics of Care and Learner Agency”

Abstract

The rapid rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) presents significant challenges for language teachers, prompting a re‑examination of their professional roles and a restructuring of pedagogical relationships with learners. These technological shifts also require reconsideration of the aims and priorities of language education. In this presentation, I argue that a central goal of language education is to foster learner agency, enabling students to take ownership of their learning and navigate linguistic and life pursuits beyond the classroom. This humanistic orientation situates the ethics of care at the core of technology‑enhanced language education. Accordingly, a human‑centred approach to technology integration emphasises nurturing, trust‑building, and responsive, reciprocal relationships between teachers and learners. Language education thus becomes not only a process of developing a repertoire of communicative skills for diverse real‑world contexts, but also a process of socialising learners into becoming individuals with desirable attributes and dispositions. Ultimately, language teachers play a crucial role in supporting learners’ subjectification—helping them author their own life trajectories and act agentively in response to emerging situations in real‑life contexts beyond the classroom.