Performing the advocate bilingual teacher : drama-based interventions for future story-making

This doctoral project focuses on exploring how critical drama-based pedagogical techniques in the development of future bilingual teachers can prepare them to become leaders and advocates inside and outside the classroom. This research examines the use of Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed techniques in the bilingual teacher preparation classroom as future teachers reenact real life experiences of experienced Bilingual teachers to examine social justice issues. as a way to provide a stage for future bilingual teachers to develop their assertiveness and stance in their practice. In this yearlong study, the participants—a cohort of pre-service bilingual teachers—engage in the re-imagining of the oral narratives of experienced bilingual teachers by physically reenacting their stories and providing alternative endings. My research aims to study the outcomes of pedagogical practices for the preparation of future Bilingual teachers that have the potential to empower themselves to not only think critically about the issues that surround Bilingual education, but also motivates them to engage in leadership and advocacy inside and outside the classroom. At the same time, this research examines translanguaging practices among bilingual pre-service teachers and how such practices shape both their identities as bilingual beings and bilingual professionals through reenactments. In order to complete this work I use a methodology bricolage, which combines performance ethnography, critical discourse analysis, and participatory action research.