How do pre-service English teachers talk about (potentially problematic) teaching materials?

Abstract

The dataset for this study consists of transcripts of ten group discussions conducted with participants enrolled in a seminar on racism in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom at a university in Germany. Five group discussions took place prior to the seminar (pre-discussions), and five were conducted 5 weeks into the seminar (post-discussions). The seminar combined theoretical input on critical anti-racism with practical phases of anti-racist textbook analysis and opportunities for participants to reflect on their own positionality and potential involvement in reproducing racist structures. The discussions were designed to capture not only what participants expressed about racism in EFL contexts, but more importantly, how they engaged in discourse about racism and about teaching materials collectively. In our research, the discussions were analyzed using reconstructive methods rooted in sociology of knowledge, focusing on the meta-conceptual level of interaction to uncover implicit knowledge structures and orientations related to racism and anti-racism in foreign language teacher education.