EAP Students Co‐constructing Alternative Narratives: Classroom Discursive Representations of Islam and Democracy

Abstract

Little research has been done exploring how Islam has been mediated by English language teachers and learners in the classroom through the prism of dominant discourses in social circulation. Drawing on an ethnographic English for academic purposes (EAP) classroom case study, this article explores how particular meanings of Islam were framed and challenged in this classroom context by examining how an instructor and her two Muslim students engaged with these discourses featured in a panel discussion video. Employing a mediated discourse analysis approach (Scollon & Scollon, ; Wortham & Reyes, ), two interrelated aspects are examined: In what ways did the participants engage with the video's discursive framings of Islam to open up critical and dialogic spaces to contest particular pernicious discourses about Islam? And what emerges from the instructor's ensuing reflections on her classroom approaches in addressing the controversial topic of religion with her students that can help further critical theories and practices in English language teaching (ELT) classrooms? The article argues that the dialogic spaces the instructor co‐constructed with her students allowed both the development of the students’ literacy skills and important mutual learning moments in which dominant discourses were questioned and challenged. The article concludes with these implications for EAP pedagogy.