Artful Teaching: The Art of Play in Language Education

This chapter describes approaches to playful pedagogy drawn from Artful Teaching: The Intersection of the Arts and Language Acquisition, an elective course for advanced undergraduate and graduate students offered since 2014 at Brown University (USA). The course is for students interested in becoming educators in general and language educators specifically, and it originated within the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies. The playful approaches utilized in this course primarily help students develop self-awareness and uncover ways to perform their authentic selves in their teaching roles. The learning journey throughout the course’s arch supports students’ holistic growth as unique individuals, typically taking them from hesitant curiosity to joyful and collegial confidence; this chapter maps this learning journey through an outline of the projects and activities around which each course week is structured, which encourage students to (re)discover and experiment with their abilities as meaning makers. The activities are scaffolded throughout the semester to engage learners at increasingly complex self-exploration and social connection levels. Weaving together our reflections as instructors and students’ quotes, the chapter highlights playfulness as a vital component of how this intentional community-building approach creates transformational experiences. Finally, we offer readers some ideas they can try and adapt within their contexts.