Teaching with purpose: cultivating civic-minded English educators through community engagement

The speaker for this Centre for International, Language and Teacher Education Research (CILTER) event is Agnes Tang, Program Director, MATESOL, College of Education, Wenzhou-Kean University, China.

Dr Agnes Tang is an Assistant Professor at Wenzhou-Kean University. Her research focuses on preparing civic-minded English educators through community-engaged teaching, service learning and asset-based approaches. She has led language education initiatives for migrant children across China and conducted teacher training throughout Asia, integrating pedagogy with social responsibility.

This session explores the development of a sustainable community service model that integrates English language teaching with pre-service teacher education to support migrant children in southeast China. The project began with bringing in foreign volunteers offering summer English instruction, providing short-term support and fostering global awareness. Guided by Empowerment Theory (Zimmerman, 2000), over time, the focus shifted toward engaging local volunteers, raising awareness and encouraging them to take an active role in addressing local needs.

The session also examines how community service was embedded into an English language teacher education programme, drawing on the Community-Engaged Education Framework (Sugawara, 2022) which emphasises collective engagement, civic responsibility and place-based learning. Pre-service teachers were trained to support English instructional support in rural schools while developing as civic-minded educators who apply an asset-based approach to community collaboration.

Participants will gain insights into how theory-informed practice can shape socially responsive teacher education, strengthen community partnerships, and promote inclusive instructional practices that meet the needs of migrant learners.