Critical Dialogue in Roleplays with Administrators: What Teachers Learned

• In Event: Criticality, Dialogism, and Advocacy in Online Teacher Education: Exploring Avenues and Intersections Toward Equitable Futures

Abstract

Our project explores how teachers undertook critical and dialogic conversations necessary to advocate for multilingual learners through roleplays. Using Critical Dialogic Education, researchers analyzed data from a graduate-level online ESL teaching methods course where participants engaged in synchronous roleplay assignments between ESL teachers and administrators. Our inductive/deductive analysis finds how teachers used varied tactics to challenge administrators' views while negotiating power dynamics: noticing inequities as structural and persistent; recognizing that challenging the status quo required knowledge of systems and empathy with leaders and students; taking action through relationship-building and suggesting concrete next steps. This work demonstrates how teachers collaboratively deepened understanding of advocacy through structured roleplays, engaging in critically oriented and self-reflexive practices essential for supporting multilingual learners.

Authors

• Elena Andrei, Cleveland State University

• April S. Salerno, University of Virginia