Fair play in building a curriculum for English learning?

Abstract

In this narrative inquiry research paper, I narrate and compose meaning of my teaching experiences, guided by the use of digital and non-digital games, and permeated by tensions, uncertainties and learning. I follow the premises of Narrative Inquiry according to Clandinin and Connelly (2000), who propose that narrative is both the research method and the phenomenon researched. The stories I tell refer to those I had with EFL students attending a language center at a Federal Institute. For the curriculum design of the course, I questioned the dominant narrative of the use of an internationally renowned textbook and planned the integration of gamification and game design in order to foster my students’ engagement. Even though I was aware that I was entering the field in the midst during the process, and that I should consider my personal practical knowledge and professional practical knowledge, I was surprised when I unpacked some of the competition stories told by myself. I sought theoretical knowledge on curriculum and games to make sense of the tensions that I lived while negotiating the curriculum I was building in the landscape of my professional knowledge. By living ontological, epistemological and methodological dilemmas, I understood how some of the teaching practices I adopted were against what I understand as fair play in education, and I cast a new look at the concept of competition.