Editorial

This issue of set highlights the importance of deeply knowing one’s students and also knowing oneself as teacher. It stimulates an array of questions about student and teacher identity. Who are your students? How are they connected to the people and places around them? What has real meaning in their lives and how do they go about making meaning? Where are the points of connection between your life and the lives of your students? How do you personally relate to the material you teach? How do you learn more about yourself through your teaching and how might you make this reflexivity explicit to your students? Embedded in these questions is an acknowledgement of the critical relationship between identity and learning. | A basic teaching premise is that knowing your learners will enable you to tailor your teaching and thus enhance learning. In other words a better grasp of students’ identities provides a means to support their learning. Central to this issue is a reminder that exploring students’ identities is also a goal for learning. | The focus section looks at students’ linguistic and cultural diversity, and, in particular, English-language learners.