We Read Aloud to Each Other: Home Languages as Aesthetic and Decolonial Openings in Teacher Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Decentering the ethos of decolonial curriculum

Abstract

This study examines the impact of a small curricular decision in which graduate students read children’s books aloud in their home languages during a theory-intensive education course. Drawing on aesthetic theory (Dewey and Greene) and relational philosophy (Buber), the study explores how this practice unsettled English dominance, invited genuine dialogue, and cultivated community through vulnerability and presence. Post-course interviews revealed that these moments shifted classroom dynamics from transactional to dialogic, challenged curricular assumptions, and made space for pluralist, embodied pedagogies. What began as a small curricular gesture became an act of epistemic resistance, reorienting the classroom toward aesthetic encounter, ethical engagement, and curricular imagination. The study affirms that minor pedagogical choices can foster profound decolonial and humanizing possibilities.

Author

• Cathy L. Benedict, Teachers College, Columbia University