Black,White, and Rainbow [of Desire]: the colour of race-talk of pre-service world language educators in Boalian theatre workshops |
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| Authors: | Jennifer Wooten Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor |
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| Institution: | 1. School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Peabody Hall/CB #3500, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3500, USA;2. Department of Language and Literacy Education, University of Georgia, 309Q Aderhold Hall, Athens, GA 30602, USA |
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| Abstract: | This article examines how Boalian Theatre of the Oppressed exercises helped instructors and pre-service teachers navigate the consequences of ventriloquized, racialized discourses in a pre-service world language teacher education classroom. Applying a critical and performative approach, we analyse the mostly White student–actors’ varying representations of a “White teacher’s” use of the term “hoodlum” for classroom management and the resulting communication breakdown that occurred between the teacher and a “Black parent.” Findings indicate that rehearsing pre-service teachers’ classroom struggles helped to move the group away from monochromatic perceptions of White/Black, Teacher/Parent interactions to a polychromatic view of interlocutors’ multiple histories and investments. This study has implications for revitalizing the place of world language education in K-12 education, extending the acquisition of second language verbs and nouns to incorporate connections between language, culture, history, and power. |
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| Keywords: | foreign language education student teachers race critical pedagogy performance-based focus groups Augusto Boal |
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