From Script to Screen: Language Teacher Emotions as Discursive Resources in Multimodal Sociodramas Exploring Raciolinguistics

• In Event: Multimodal Identity Work: Visual and Embodied Approaches to Critical Reflection in Teacher Education

Abstract

This study examines language educators' developing awareness of ideologies as part of their preparation for responsive action, with particular attention to the role of educator emotions. Through a multimodal sociodramatic script assignment, 71 graduate students explored raciolinguistic perspectives by collaboratively writing and enacting video-recorded dialogues. Using multimodal discourse analysis, we analyzed how participants assembled talk, embodied actions, and material resources to construct emotionally charged moments. Findings reveal how emotion displays were strategically used to construct accountability, engage in confrontational empathy, and negotiate structural constraints on change possibilities. The assignment created space for participants to explore how race and language ideologies operate in educational settings, demonstrating how emotions bridge orientations and actions toward collective praxis for humanizing education.

Authors

• Amber N. Warren, Vanderbilt University

• Fares J. Karam, University of Nevada - Reno