Linguistic imperialism: countering anti Black racism in world language teacher preparation

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to highlight the planning, process and results of drawing on engaged pedagogy to humanize Blackness in world language (WL) teacher education. The activities were designed to center lived experiences, augment self-reflection and model instructional differentiation for WL preservice teachers (PSTs). Design/methodology/approach This qualitative research paper uses a self-study in teacher education practices (S-STEP) method. It explores how tailored resources, peer and self-assessments and a responsive environment can increase awareness of antiBlackness in instruction and curricula among WL PSTs during a semester-long methods course. Findings Findings suggest that centering Blackness in WL methods initiates an awareness of antiBlack racism in WL pedagogy through opportunities for self-reflection and accountability through assessment. To varying degrees, participants demonstrated shifts in their understanding and valuing of Blackness in WL instruction as facilitated through a differentiated environment in which PSTs had access both to the instructor and to one another’s critical feedback. Originality/value Linguicism through antiBlack linguistic racism, native speakerism, idealized whiteness and other constructs has been demonstrated to decrease Black and minoritized participation in language teaching. What has yet to be addressed is this same pushout from an inclusive Black diasporic approach to WL teacher preparation. This study highlights nationalism, ableism, accentism, racism, anti-immigrant sentiments and racial stereotypes as different entry points to understanding antiBlackness within WL teacher preparation.

The presence and absence of race in world language education literature

“…Systemic or structural racism occurs when societal structures (re)produce inequitable access to power, resources, and opportunities. These inequities are invisibilized through social forces in policy, media, and schooling such that those racialized as White often enact colorblindness, race evasiveness, or post-racial discourses to avoid grappling with race (see Austin, 2022aAustin, , 2022bBaggett, 2018;Tatum, 2021). However, such ideologies erase the realities and lived experiences of racially minoritized individuals for whom racial realities are far from invisible (Bonilla-Silva, 2017).…”

“…These contexts contrasted significantly with my first position as a French teacher at a diverse urban public middle school in a large mid‐Atlantic U.S. city. This teaching context highlighted for me the inseparability of race and WL education as I experienced, but could not name at the time, racialized tensions between myself, some of my students, and our curriculum (see Austin, 2022a, 2022b for a discussion of racialized ideologies and tensions in WL curriculum and teacher preparation). As I continue to interrogate my own identity as a continued learner, this analysis is part of an on‐going journey to understand the role of race in WL teaching and learning.…”

“…For equitable learning to take place in WL education, teachers must engage in antiracist action (Kendi, 2019) and seek to prevent individual racism in their classrooms, including through contesting racism in curricula (Austin, 2022b). Yet for full transformation, WL education must also disrupt structural racism caused by systemic whiteness that leads to inequities for minoritized racial groups.…”

Toward humanizing SFL praxis: Coconstructing language teachers' understandings of their intersectional identities via language use

“…The present study is part of an on‐going collaborative self‐study of teacher educator practices (e.g., Austin, 2022a, 2022b; Peercy & Sharkey, 2020; Peercy & Troyan, 2017) in which we are collaboratively examining our development of a humanizing SFL praxis, moving back and forth between our language teacher education program and the classrooms where the language teachers teach (e.g., Sembiante et al, 2021; Troyan & Sembiante, 2021; Troyan et al, 2021). Because of the centrality of identity work in engaging in humanizing praxis, we position this reflexive work as a means for holding ourselves accountable, as teacher educators, to the language teachers we work with (Johnson, 2015; Troyan & Peercy, 2018).…”

Diversity and inclusion of culturally and linguistically diverse students in K‐12 Chinese language education

“…Culturally sustaining pedagogy in Chinese language education curricular design is one component in providing CLD learners of Chinese with greater access to the with explicit knowledge of cultural norms and semiotic configurations in academic, as well as the social literacies to support their participation across contexts (e.g., Khote & Tian, 2019), will embrace learners' full linguistic repertoires (García & Li Wei, 2014) in classrooms to increase CLD students' confidence and self‐esteem, and offer a feeling of normalcy and pride for their linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Likewise, world language teacher preparation programs should also aim to develop preservice teachers' critical consciousness about educational inequity (e.g., Baggett, 2018), equip them with tools and knowledge to construe subjectivities and ideologies in daily discourse (e.g., Sembiante et al, 2021; Troyan & Sembiante, 2021), and work to undo linguistic racism in world language education (e.g., Austin, 2022). In these ways, Chinese language teachers will be better prepared to create more inclusive and culturally sustaining world language classrooms.…”