"Bringing Authors and Actors into the Classroom: A Pedagogical Model for Transformative Learning through Direct Dialogue" – Lessons from a Philosophy of Sports Course at a U.S. Liberal Arts College

This pedagogical study examines an integrative teaching model observed in a Philosophy of Sports course at a U.S. liberal arts college, where the professor has been inviting guest speakers – Vygotsky’s "more knowledgeable other", as described by Abtahi (2017) – such as original authors of assigned book readings (including himself as a scholar-practitioner), historical participants of 1960s social movements, university attorneys and student sports team coaches, to the classroom to engage in unfiltered dialogues with undergraduate students. Through qualitative analysis of classroom observations, student feedback, and comparative assessment of learning outcomes, this paper argues that such "living text" pedagogy significantly enhances critical thinking, historical empathy, and interdisciplinary synthesis. The study highlights three mechanisms: 1) decentralization of academic authority, 2) embodied historiography, and 3) multi-agent knowledge co-creation. As an EFL teacher from China, the author discusses the practical implications for adapting this teaching model in Chinese EFL contexts later, particularly for courses bridging social learning, critical reading, and academic writing.