‘Native’ English Teachers Navigating Native-speakerism: Investigating the Intersection of Identity, Beliefs, and Emotions through Narrative Inquiry

Despite increasing academic interest in exploring how native-speakerism affects English language teachers’ identities, past research has focused primarily on the identities of ‘non-native’ teachers. This study investigates the intersection of identity, beliefs, and emotions of two experienced teachers who identify as ‘native’ speakers of English and were educated on native-speakerism during their postgraduate teacher preparation programs. A narrative design which elicited written narratives and semi-structured interviews as data collection methods was used to explore how the participants developed awareness of native-speakerism and how they attempted to realign their identities in consideration of ideologically normative attitudes in their pedagogical contexts. The findings indicate that the participants’ professional identities were impacted by emotional experiences in their personal histories and by exposure to the ideas of English as a Lingua Franca. In turn, their awareness shaped their current teaching beliefs and their emotions towards native-speakerism. Furthermore, ‘native’ teachers of English may experience identity conflict and emotional fluctuations stemming from the way their ‘nativeness’ is positioned by other educational actors. The study offers suggestions for teacher preparation programs to support ‘native’ teachers of English in navigating their emotions towards native-speakerism and argues that discussions of native-speakerism need to become more widespread, within and outside of academia. A future research agenda is also proposed to further investigate how ‘native’ teachers’ identities, emotions, and beliefs are affected by native-speakerism.

Keywords:

teacher identity , emotions , teaching beliefs , native-speakerism , narrative inquiry