Building social inclusion through critical arts-based pedagogies in university classroom communities

Conceptualizing Language Teacher Education Centered on Language Teacher Identity Development: A Competencies‐Based Approach and Practical Applications

“…For this project, teacher candidates begin by working in collaborative groups to explore how “social, political, cultural and historical contexts… impact their developing identities” (Chappell & Chappell, 2016, p. 292). For example, they might review relevant literature on a particular social category and then analyze how that social category is represented in popular textbooks in order to better understand bias in terms of privilege and marginalization.…”

“…For example, they might review relevant literature on a particular social category and then analyze how that social category is represented in popular textbooks in order to better understand bias in terms of privilege and marginalization. Then, the groups can be invited to create collective art works or performances—such as a sculpture, an interactive drama, a graffiti wall, or a poetry slam—to convey their findings, focusing on creating an emotional experience for the audience (see Chappell & Chappell, 2016, for a variety of examples). Chappell and Chappell (2016) assert that such artistic works can act as counter‐narratives to the dominant, monocultural, monolingual, monomodal narratives that have taught us who has power, whose voices are important, and which languages we should value in the world.…”

“…Such activities may also engage and affect teacher candidates on a deeper, emotional level (Eisner, 2008), leading to internalization of meaning making in ways that other modes might not. In addition, engaging in such activities can promote social inclusion and social cohesion (Chappell & Chappell, 2016), and might help teacher candidates experiment with and enact transformative LTIs. When focused on identity‐related themes, such work may also further sensitize teacher candidates to the identities that their own students may bring with them into the classroom, of both privilege and marginalization.…”

“…Then, the groups can be invited to create collective art works or performances—such as a sculpture, an interactive drama, a graffiti wall, or a poetry slam—to convey their findings, focusing on creating an emotional experience for the audience (see Chappell & Chappell, 2016, for a variety of examples). Chappell and Chappell (2016) assert that such artistic works can act as counter‐narratives to the dominant, monocultural, monolingual, monomodal narratives that have taught us who has power, whose voices are important, and which languages we should value in the world. Work can be displayed in a gallery walk (possibly open to others outside the classroom) or shared through stage‐based performances.…”