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Abstract
This study explored how adult immigrant ESOL learners subject positionings shifted through discursive negotiations within the pedagogical practice of theatre in a U.S. classroom. Ethnographic data from a four month study of an ESOL classroom of newly arrived immigrants in which learners and their teacher wrote, rehearsed, and performed a play are analyzed through Foucault’s concept of heterotopias. Drawing from observational data, interviews, and video/audio recordings, the identity negotiations of four students are traced in relation to their participation in theatre. The study demonstrates how dominant discourses shape classroom positionalities and how both the discourses and subject positions manifest in classrooms may be taken up and/or subverted. Further, the study explores issues of ethics in the research process and how research-based theatre can serve as a tool for ethical examination.