Queer is as Queer Does: Queer L2 Pedagogy in Teacher Education

What does it mean to queer the L2 classroom and why does it matter? Building on inclusive pedagogical approaches, this paper considers what queering looks like/sounds like/feels like in the context of two case study classrooms where language teachers learned about Teaching Proficiency Through Reading and Storytelling (TPRS) methods in a novice Mandarin language context. Data include recorded videos and transcriptions, focus groups, fieldnotes, and survey responses. We analyze practice from these two workshops for the ways gender and sexuality were addressed in the teacher education classroom. Through queer analysis, we discovered that the most fully embodied student engagement was related to disruptions in what might be expected in both form and content. As TPRS teacher educators widened critical agendas beyond queer characters in classroom stories, they included nonnormative L2 approaches that were humorous, surprising, and inclusive of translanguaging as well as pop up connections to languages and cultures in change. This study suggests that L2 teacher education from a queer perspective offers teachers and learners opportunities to deconstruct and question what is conceived to be normal and instead imagine languages and pedagogies for what is possible, equitable, and inclusive.