English as a medium of instruction and the discursive construction of elite identity

Abstract

Debates over medium of instruction, as ideological skirmishes, showcase discursive identity construction, reproduction, and contestation by different social groups. Drawing on such debates in letters to the editor and internet‐based newsgroup posts written by Bangladeshi English‐medium (EM) and Bangla‐medium (BM) educated writers, this article examines the construction of elite identity by the EM educated group. It illustrates how this group drew on changing discourses of elitism, language ideologies, and other identity resources to construct self‐identity that emphasized the achievement of qualifications and attributes rather than unearned social privilege, and how the territorially bound elite identity was transformed into deterritorialized cosmopolitan identity in the process. The article contributes to our understanding of the relationship between language, identity, and society by illustrating struggles for identity and status maintenance in education that is increasingly being dominated by English and English as a medium of instruction under the influence of neoliberal globalization. It also suggests how English and national languages may relate to (post)colonialism, nationalism, national identity, and social class in a globalized world.

To be, or not to be elite, that is the question: the unresolved identity struggles of ex-consultants

“…Like in other studies on elites though (e.g. Kenway and Lazarus 2017;Jahan and Hamid 2019), none of the interviewees made explicit use of the terms 'elite' or 'elitism', therefore the chosen unit of analysis were discursive 'markers of elitism' (Thurlow and Jaworski 2017) which suggested distinctiveness and superiority in comparison to reference groups (Ashforth and Mael 1989).…”

“…While in the seventeenth century, the word 'elite' was used to describe superior social groups such as prestigious military groups or higher ranks of the nobility, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the notion of elitism opened up to a wider range of people including government officials, intellectuals and managers (Bottomore 1993). Elites have often been categorized in comparison to other groups, namely as the ones occupying the highest positions in a social pyramid (Jahan and Hamid 2019).…”

“…Interestingly, the ambiguity around elite identities already becomes obvious when looking at the discursive resources (Kuhn 2009) that people deploy for claiming eliteness and for differentiating themselves from others through elitist appeals. Scholars have observed that members of an elite group often avoid explicit use of the terms 'elite' or 'elitism' (Kenway and Lazarus 2017;Jahan and Hamid 2019) in their construction of elite identities, as direct claims to eliteness are associated with 'pretentiousness', which contradicts the very notion of being elite (Alvesson and Robertson 2006). Instead, they make claims to elitism through allied signifiers such as excellence, distinction, superiority and exclusivenessterms which are often used interchangeably (Thurlow 2020) as 'markers of eliteness' (Thurlow and Jaworski 2017, 248).…”

“…Thereby, it holds the promise to dismantle and strip away both inherited privilege and under-privilege. This marks a more general shift from a logic of the 'old elite'who you areto a 'new elite' based on achievement rather than inherited and unearned class privilege (Jahan and Hamid 2019).…”

A research agenda for English-medium instruction

“…Finally, together with our interest in academic issues, we need to consider social and socio-cultural questions about EMI to understand how it may perpetuate the social divide (Jahan & Hamid, 2019) as well as unite students of different language backgrounds in the same classroom and nurture a sense of community (Wijesekera & Hamid, forthcoming).…”