Purpose A traditional English Language Arts classroom is a community of practice, but it is one that often excludes students – and teachers – who do not belong to the dominant cultures that created those classrooms. As a result, students can miss out on the challenges and pleasures of joining a community in textual exploration. Many educators are imagining alternative ELA communities of practice. In this essay, we aim to offer a framework and a detailed example for doing so. Design/methodology/approach The authors focus on four elements of a community of practice: purposes, principles, practices and people. The authors then draw from Tawheedah’s experience in her HBCU college band – a community of practice dedicated to sustaining Black American culture-and map those elements from HBCU band to ELA classroom. Findings The authors designed a performance-based course built on performance, interdependence, student creativity, culturally sustaining language arts and the principles of “jammin no shammin.” Like HBCU band, the authors’ ELA class focuses on canonical texts and pop favorites, and students lead along with teachers to explore and perform those texts to audiences. Research limitations/implications No community of practice is perfect. Some aspects of communities of practice do not map well onto creative, culturally sustaining, inclusive classrooms. Practical implications Still, the authors hope educators engage in this exercise in imagining alternatives to the traditional classroom. Social implications Such imagining is a step toward redesigning a classroom for all students and teachers, but especially for students who may experience cultural dissonance as they engage in the historically entrenched traditions of English Language Arts. Originality/value This essay offers a practical framework for speculative dreaming.
PurposeThe purpose of this integrative critical literature review is to conduct an in-depth analysis of two decades of empirical studies on agency in literacy education to explore how conceptualizations of agency shape how researchers interpret enactments of agency in learning spaces, and examine the kinds of ideologies framing agency that have been normalized, privileged, marginalized or silenced across the field. Design/methodology/approachThe following research questions guide the analysis: How have literacy researchers operationalized the concept of agency through data analysis and interpretation as evidenced in their findings? What patterns have emerged in relation to how researchers think about how those positioned as teachers and learners enact agency? What ideologies framing agency have been normalized, privileged, marginalized or silenced? FindingsFindings examine the interrelationships among researchers’ conceptualizations of agency and factors situated as mediating agency, including goal-oriented behavior, capacity, identity, narrative and storying, positionality and contextual resources. Originality/valueDiscussion and implications examine how literacy researchers might account for sociopolitical discourses that are more inclusive of collective notions of agency. The authors encourage literacy researchers to expand their conceptions and theoretical framings of agency that extend beyond the individual and encompass the communal, as well as to critically reflect on what becomes visible to them through their expressions of agency, given how they frame the concept of agency.
Purpose English Language Arts (ELA) teachers routinely guide students in analyzing competing perspectives, motivations and social pressures within literary texts. Yet teachers do not always have access to frameworks that explicitly connect disciplinary analysis with professional identity work for interpreting similar tensions within their own professional identities. This study aims to theorize this transfer gap and examines how disciplinary practices in ELA might support teacher identity work when connected to Dialogical Self Theory (DST). Design/methodology/approach The article reengages a qualitative data set from a study of three secondary English teachers, including classroom observations, interviews and instructional artifacts. Using theory-building analysis, the study develops illustrative vignettes to examine how DST concepts (e.g. I-positions, meta-positions, authoritative discourse) illuminate patterns in teachers’ navigation of professional tensions. Findings Analysis identifies three dialogical identity configurations: structural isolation, dialogical gridlock and strategic repositioning. These configurations illustrate how relationships among I-positions shape teachers’ experiences of vulnerability, exhaustion and resilience within institutional contexts. The analysis demonstrates that teachers’ disciplinary expertise in interpreting literary multiplicity does not automatically transfer to interpreting their own professional identities. Practical implications The article argues that ELA teacher education can leverage familiar disciplinary practices such as analyzing character motivations, tracing competing commitments and examining dialogical voices as structured entry points for professional identity development. Explicitly linking literary interpretation with dialogical reflection may help teachers develop meta-position awareness and navigate moments of professional “wobble.” Originality/value By reframing teacher identity as dialogical architecture rather than individual disposition, the article offers a conceptual foundation for pedagogical approaches that connect literary analysis with teacher identity development.
Purpose Pronunciation remains a contested area in English language teacher education (ELTE), particularly in contexts where standardized native-speaker norms continue to shape teaching expectations, even as English is used by speakers from diverse linguistic backgrounds. This study aims to explore how Turkish pre-service English language teachers (PELTs) engage with pronunciation pedagogy during a Global Englishes (GE)-informed teacher education module. In particular, it examines how they negotiate pronunciation norms, linguistic legitimacy and intelligibility as future teachers. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a qualitative case study design, situated within a critical language teacher education (CLTE) framework, and was conducted over a seven-week pronunciation module. Data were collected through pre- and post-module reflective journal entries, microteaching sessions, focus group discussions and instructor observation notes. To support in-depth interpretation, a two-stage thematic analysis was carried out, focusing on the developmental trajectories of three focal participants to explore how they responded to emerging ideological tensions. Findings The findings revealed four interconnected dimensions of teacher learning. Participants questioned deeply internalized native-speakerist ideologies, gradually shifted their pedagogical focus toward intelligibility, navigated complex emotional tensions, renegotiated their professional identities and demonstrated emerging pedagogical agency by experimenting with GE-informed practices. Originality/value This study contributes to ELTE by showing how GE-informed pronunciation pedagogy can support PELTs in reclaiming their linguistic voices, moving beyond reproducing standardized norms to become confident and intelligible educators. It also highlights GE-informed pronunciation pedagogy as an important ideological space within ELTE, where language ideologies can be critically examined, and more inclusive approaches to English teaching can be developed.
Purpose This paper aims to explore how contemporary Indian picturebooks represent climate-induced migration and children’s experiences of belonging through multimodal storytelling. Focusing on A Butterfly Smile (2017) by Mathangi Subramanian and Lavanya Naidu, it explores how verbal and visual narratives construct meanings around displacement, ecological vulnerability and emotional adaptation in rural-urban migration contexts in India. Design/methodology/approach The study employs multimodal analysis, drawing on Kress and Leeuwen’s visual grammar, to examine narrative voice, color, spatial composition and word-image interaction in the picturebook. The study is situated within Critical literacy scholarship relevant to English language education and children’s literature in India. Findings Three interrelated themes emerge: affective displacement, ecological precarity and emerging agency. The picturebook frames migration not only as an economic necessity but as an emotional and ecological condition shaped by drought, environmental change and linguistic marginalization. Visual and Verbal elements depict silence, vulnerability, adaptation, and belonging, creating entry points for classroom discussions on climate change, forced migration and social inclusion. These multimodal representations support literacy practices by making complex social and environmental realities accessible to young learners. Originality/value By foregrounding climate-induced internal migration in an Indian picturebook, this study extends children’s literature research beyond dominant Global North contexts and establishes local picturebooks from the Global South as significant pedagogical and cultural texts within English education scholarship.
PurposeGame-based learning can support young children's vocabulary, sequencing and collaborative talk, yet English-medium classroom designs that explicitly introduce early literary metalanguage for children under eight remain under-documented. This study aims to develop and examine Tale Track, a teacher-mediated, game-like tabletop pedagogy designed to promote active participation, create challenge without competition and support story retelling through the selection and manipulation of character and item cards. The intervention uses a two-board structure: an open retelling board followed by a structured board for plot, character and story-message/moral learning. It also aims to support lexical precision, story recall, plot sequencing, character-role understanding and story-message/moral articulation.Design/methodology/approachThe intervention had two stages to engage children with the story and its literary metalanguage. Stage 1 used enlarged picture-book pages and an open retelling board with movable scenes and characters for matching and guided retelling. Stage 2 used a literary-concepts board with sections for plot, character and story-message/moral discussion to support sequencing, role sorting and discussion. An assessment rubric recorded performance at both stages. A pilot case study involved 21 Grade 1 pupils in an English-medium classroom in Salalah, Oman; one did not finish. Evidence included VSI, NSS-EC, PSA, CIS and TCR measures, collected across rolling one-day sessions for analysis.FindingsChildren engaged well with the intervention and completed both stages consistently. In the complete-case subset (n = 20), descriptive results showed relatively strong performance in lexical specificity (VSI M = 1.70 / 2), plot sequencing (PSA M = 10.30 / 12) and character-role identification (CIS M = 4.10 / 5), while story-message/moral articulation was more challenging (TCR M = 1.15 / 2). Exploratory associations among outcomes were uniformly positive, and qualitative evidence pointed to mediated meaning-making within a teacher-guided design. These findings are presented as descriptive and exploratory rather than causal.Originality/valueThe study offers a low-cost, adaptable game prototype for future work that more directly centers child co-construction, critical interpretation and cultural reframing. The study contributes a novel two-board instructional design that integrates guided retelling, categorization, tangible manipulatives and AI-generated visual cards within a teacher-mediated framework. Unlike broader game-based learning research, this paper offers a carefully bounded design case that demonstrates how early narrative understanding, sequencing, lexical specificity and story-message/moral articulation can be scaffolded through a low-cost, contextually adaptable pedagogical prototype.
Purpose This paper aims to reimagine narrative in English language arts (ELA) through tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) by framing them as sites of multimodal, collaborative storyworld construction. It challenges print-based models by showing how narrative emerges through play, tool use and shared authorship. Design/methodology/approach As a conceptual paper, it integrates cultural-historical activity theory and multimodal social semiotics to theorize narrative as an emergent, participatory process shaped by semiotic resources and social interaction. Findings This paper introduces narrative models for solo and multiplayer TTRPGs that account for recursive meaning-making, distributed authorship and the stabilization and revision of shared storyworlds. These models illustrate how semiotic inputs and outputs circulate to generate narrative, offering a new lens for understanding literacy as a process rather than a product. Research limitations/implications Although theoretical in nature, the paper proposes a framework for future empirical work on narrative participation, mediation and power in classroom gaming contexts. Practical implications The framework supports ELA pedagogy that values improvisation, collaboration and multimodal expression. By making narrative architectures (rules, genre defaults and division of labor) visible and revisable, educators can design for disciplinary aims while using student-created artifacts as authentic assessments of understanding. Social implications The framework positions students as recursive co-authors of narrative, enabling them to interrogate dominant story logics and collaboratively imagine more just futures. Originality/value This paper extends narrative theory to analog game spaces and provides original models for understanding storytelling as multimodal and tool-mediated. By advancing a multimodal activity system approach to story construction, it contributes to ongoing conversations about critical gaming literacies, narrative theory and English education.
Purpose This paper aims to develop a conceptual approach to examining digital narrative games by combining concepts from digital narratology and transactional theory. A key bridging concept is interactivity which, in both perspectives, draws attention to moment-to-moment meaning making between the reader (or gamer) and the text (the designed story world of the game). Design/methodology/approach This conceptual approach is applied to exploring an example of extended play in a specific digital narrative game, Stardew Valley. The author, also the gamer, examines evidence from detailed documentation of game play including the design of spaces, evocative objects and interactive characterisation. Multiple avatars (player characters) were created and played to explore the narrative outcomes of different choices made in game play. Findings Stardew Valley's design weaves elements including the overall narrative frame, spaces, objects, player challenges and character interactions to create multiple affordances for storying. Consistent with a transactional theory perspective, the gamer is involved in the dynamic creation of meaning through interacting with these elements in the moment-to-moment process of play. A key feature is the presence of characters who have been provided with back stories and transformative narrative arcs, which become available based on decisions made by the gamer. The opportunity to take divergent narrative paths can sensitise the player to the implied ethical framework of the game world. Originality/value The conceptual originality of this paper lies in combining digital narratology with transactional theory and exploring this approach through an illustrative case study.
Purpose This study aims to examine the application of game-based learning in English language learning and how it mediates social participation, peer collaboration and identity negotiation. It explores how the mechanics of a purposefully developed game, Treasure Hunt, create inclusive and participatory classroom dynamics.Design/methodology/approach A qualitative design was used, and two learning sessions on the same topic were compared: conventional instruction and a game-based learning session on "Direction and Location". Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 40 sixth-grade students at the Indonesian School in Johor Bahru (SIJB), most of whom were children of undocumented migrants, data were collected. Analysis focused on social interaction practices that emerged during gameplay.Findings Treasure Hunt game mechanics, which required interdependence, role distribution and collective decision-making to progress, led to greater collaboration and participation among migrant students. Game-based learning creates a safe space for interactions where students with varied language proficiency contribute in multiple ways. Games disrupt exclusionary spaces and create inclusive spaces, enabling migrant students to negotiate their identities and strengthen them as active members of the learning community.Research limitations/implications This study cannot be broadly generalized because it focused on only one migrant school. Furthermore, the intervention was brief and focused on only one subject and material, so its long-term impact on other language skills and subjects is unknown. Future research could expand to multiple schools, different topics and longer-term interventions to assess the lasting effects of game-based learning.Practical implications A study conducted among migrant communities at the Indonesian SIJB provides empirical evidence that game-based learning can position English learning as a collaborative social practice, rather than simply an individual exercise in linguistic skills. In Treasure Hunt, English is used as a tool for coordination, negotiation of meaning and shared decision-making, thus encouraging functional and contextual language use in peer interactions. For language teachers, these findings emphasize the importance of designing activities that offer diverse forms of participation, so that migrant students with varying language proficiency levels can remain actively engaged. The teacher's role shifts from being the center of content delivery to being a facilitator of interaction, providing scaffolding through clarifying instructions and prompting questions. This approach is relevant for migrant education contexts with limited resources and requiring inclusive and participatory language pedagogical practices.Social implications This study demonstrates that educational games can be a means of social inclusion for migrant students who are often socially and culturally isolated. Treasure Hunt encourages marginalized students to interact across backgrounds, fosters empathy by strengthening solidarity and helps students discover their social identity at school. This evidence has implications for strengthening the social integration of migrant communities in host countries.Originality/value This study contributes to the sociocultural approach to language learning by emphasizing game-based strategies for migrant students. By integrating Critical Gaming Literacies, it demonstrates how games serve as inclusive spaces for identity negotiation and social connection in resource-poor classrooms. The study also highlights insights for designing inclusive, game-based pedagogies in migrant and multilingual educational settings.
