Beyond Inclusion: Challenging Normative Ideologies Through Queer Inquiry in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Teacher Education

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Creating Spaces of Inclusion Across Disciplines (Table 37)

Abstract

This paper presents an ethnographically-informed discourse analysis of a TESOL teacher educator's integration of queer inquiry into pre-service TESOL teachers' social justice training. The study's theoretical framework questions the effectiveness of inclusive approaches to Gender and Sexual Diversity (GSD) training, advocating for the use of queer inquiry to challenge oppressive systems and normative ideologies. The findings reveal the teacher educator's discoursal strategies to critique and challenge pre-service teachers’ (PSTs') inclusive GSD contributions, guiding them towards embracing queer inquiry in their TESOL practice through modeling. Through this analysis, the research emphasizes the importance of transformative pedagogies that disrupt normative language teaching practices and promote critical engagement with GSD topics in language education.

Author

• Andrew D. Seibert, The Ohio State University