Aleks Palanac

My current role is Head of Sanctuary at the University of Leicester’s Sanctuary Seekers’ Unit, which is one of the four units of the Centre for International Training and Education. I came into this role through a teaching route, starting out by teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) in community settings in 2004, and moving into English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teaching at the University of Leicester in 2011. 

On moving into EAP teaching, I identified a need for EAP among refugee background students wishing to access university. Since then, I have been taking a lead role in developing and implementing widening participation initiatives for refugee-background students, particularly for those requiring an English language pathway before being able to access university. As well as being involved in the development and implementation of various sanctuary scholarships, I have played a lead role in conducting research into the development of trauma-informed ESOL pedagogy for refugee contexts, sharing this research with practitioners through live workshops and free self-access online training materials and in developing our flagship RefugEAP Programme of free online trauma-informed EAP provision for refugees.

I have also been active across the HE sector, particularly through co-founding and convening the EAP for Social Justice Special Interest Group of BALEAP, and through setting up the RefugEAP Network. The EAP for SJ SIG has the aim of promoting social justice focussed awareness, research and practice in the field of EAP, and has been able to do this through running webinars and workshops, publishing blog posts, interviews and podcasts on our website, and providing a forum through which people can network and share good practice. The other initiative, the RefugEAP Network, aims to facilitate the development of widening participation initiatives enabling refugee-background students to access HE via English language pathways, with a particular focus on English for Academic Purposes. It does this through bringing together practitioners from across the sector to share good practice and take this work forward together. 

I have recently completed a British Council funded research project entitled Beyond Resilience: Facilitating Learning and Well-Being in the Refugee Language Classroom. This was an inter-disciplinary study conducted with colleagues Sarah Hunt, Prof. Pamela Rogerson-Revell, Emeritus Prof. Wasyl Cajkler and Gabi Witthaus. The aim of the study was to explore how language teachers in Higher Education (HE) contribute positively to the linguistic, social, psychological and educational outcomes of refugee students in a University Sanctuary setting. The report is due to be published by the British Council in early 2023, but, in the meantime, more details can be found on the Beyond Resilience Research Gate page.

I am currently working on another research project in a similar vein, along with my colleague Deirdre McKenna from the University of Leeds. This BALEAP funded study intends to develop, pilot and evaluate the RefugEAP Programme of online EAP classes for refugee-background students, based on trauma-informed principles. This programme is taught by committed volunteer tutors, and is supported by a range of partner organisations, including Screen Share UK and RefuAid. More information about the programme can be found on the RefugEAP Programme web pages.

My teaching is focused around English for Speakers of Other Languages. Over the years, I have taught and co-ordinated courses focussing on: general English; academic English, including pre-sessional (pre-university) academic English programmes and in-sessional programmes; medical English programmes; business English; trauma training workshops for teachers of refugee-background students.

Currently, I mainly teach on and/or co-ordinate the RefugEAP Programme, the Occupational English Test Preparation Programme, the Sanctuary Summer School and trauma training workshops for teachers of refugee-background students.

Based on my work in the area of trauma-informed ESOL pedagogy for refugees, I have developed a live workshop and a set of free self-access online materials to support practitioners teaching ESOL to refugee-background students in different contexts around the world.

Along with my colleague Deirdre McKenna from the University of Leeds, I am currently developing the RefugEAP Programme,which is a free online pre-university academic English skills programme for refugee-background students across the UK, based on trauma-informed principles. It is for students who need to improve their academic English skills to help them access a degree programme at university, but perhaps have not been able to access a formal pre-sessional English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programme yet. RefugEAP has been developed to meet this need, providing students with an opportunity to continue to develop their academic English skills in a supportive way while they are waiting for more formal opportunities to become available. This programme is taught by committed volunteer tutors, and is supported by a range of partner organisations, including Screen Share UK and RefuAid. 

I have been a founding member and convenor of two groups - BALEAP's EAP for Social Justice Special Interest Group and the RefugEAP Network. 

In the face the current genocidal war on Gaza, I am keen to use my knowledge and experience in these areas to support students, academics and HEIs in Gaza and Palestine more widely. To this end, I am compiling a growing list of educational initiatives, putting on events such as a webinar to raise awareness of the educide which is being perpetuated and what UK HEs might do to support the Palestinian education system in the face of this, and contributing to groups of educators who are doing work in this area.

University Distinguished Teaching Fellowship (awarded in 2021 for my sanctuary and social justice activities)

Palanac, A. (2022). ‘Towards a Trauma-Informed ELT Pedagogy for Refugees’, keynote address at NATESOL Annual Conference 2022: TESOL Today: Local, Global, Equal and Open. Online, 14/5/22 (invited speaker)

Palanac, A. (2022). ‘Trauma-Informed ESOL for Refugees’, webinar for NATECLA. Online, 20/1/22 (invited speaker)

Palanac, A. (2019). ‘A Shift from Handmaidens to Enlightened Waiters: EAP Practitioners for a Grassroots Sanctuary Movement’, paper presented at the BALEAP Conference, Leeds, 12/4/19, https://baleap2019.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/BALEAP-Programme.pdf (pp140-141)
 

DELTA (NILE, 2017)

PGCE in Post-Compulsory Education (De Montfort University, 2006) 

MA Oxon (University of Oxford, 2006)

BA in English Language and Literature (University of Oxford, 2001)