Non-native English–Speaking Teachers' Negotiations of Program Discourses in Their Construction of Professional Identities within a TESOL Program

Abstract

The professional identity of language teachers has gained prominence in research on language instruction in the last decade. This article adds to work by critically exploring how teacher education programs allow non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) to construct positive professional identities and become pro-active educators. It reports on a study of the discursive constructions of professional identities that 20 NNES preservice teachers developed within a Master of Education TESOL program for international students in a Canadian university. Drawing on post-structural and sociocultural understandings of identity, the article offers a Bakhtinian analysis of the negotiations and dialogical appropriations of authoritative program discourses that these pre-service NNESTs reflected upon in portfolios summarizing their learning in the program. The article concludes by describing the implications of this research for TESOL and cost-recovery international programs in British, Australian, and North American universities.

“I Mean I'm Kind of Discriminating My Own People:” A Chinese TESOL Graduate Student's Shifting Perceptions of China English

“…Although one of Linlin's instructors encouraged learners to unpack NS myths of their own accord (Nuske, ), the moment when Dr. Roberts bluntly negated her preexisting perspectives stood out foremost in her memory. In an outcome similar to what Ilieva () cautioned against, this heavy‐handed attempt to prescribe a liberal stance provoked silent resistance and could have caused Linlin to remain mired in largely uncritical worldviews if not for the subsequent reflection she undertook through her participation in the present study. Instead of inviting students to commence dialectical negotiations between familiar and new conceptual understandings in order to achieve internally persuasive discourses, such banking modes of education can prompt “ventriloquation of Western discourses”—that is, the forced or superficial embrace of concepts for the sake of pleasing the instructor or obtaining a good grade (Ilieva, , p. 363).…”

“…The need to make TESOL programs more responsive to diverse populations of novice scholar‐practitioners is a long‐established topic of research (e.g., Chowdhury & Phan, ; Ilieva, ; Liu, ), and there is a general consensus concerning the need to amend traditional, “top‐down” paradigms of teacher education predicated on the transmission of a “preselected and presequenced body of knowledge from the teacher educator to the prospective teacher” (Kumaravadivelu, , pp. 551–552).…”

Reinventing aspects of multicultural education under the shadow of globalisation

“…Marina would have to make adjustments and changes that would be responsive to the cultural context of her native country. In a way, she would have to reinvent herself as a professional (Ilieva 2010). If reintegration classes did not exist for her (Chowdhury and Le Ha 2008), who was going to help her find her path?…”

“…. Many discussions in her classes centred on the educational and social space of the host country and oftentimes the views of the 'periphery' countries (including hers) were either neglected or misrepresented (Ilieva 2010). Although Marina had maintained her silent role, she could not help but revolt internally, every time that wrong information was presented about her own 332 E. Oikonomidoy country.…”

Demonized Learners in Sociocultural Theory

“…This focus on social settings heightened postmodern awareness of the unique, situated, dynamic nature of learners' circumstances (McKay and Wong, 1996;Norton & Toohey, 2001;Black, 2005;Hawkins, 2005;Ilieva, 2010;Yamat, Fisher & Rich, 2014). One element of this accent on situatedness was the relationships and interactions learners experienced with interlocutors including teachers (McKay and Wong, 1996;Duff, 2002;Ilieva, 2010), colleagues (Pierce, 1995), a community of peers (Day and Toohey, 1999;Rollinson, 2005;Talmy, 2010), and members of a greater contact zone (Chalmers and Volet, 1997;Fotovatian, 2012). In each of these relational contexts, leaners and their interlocutors are neither neutral nor static and nuanced analysis is necessary in order to fully appreciate the complexity of interactions.…”