All in the same boat? - native and non-native English speaking teachers' emerging selves in a U.S. MATESOL program

ALL IN THE SAME BOAT? – NATIVE AND NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKING TEACHERS’ EMERGING SELVES IN A U.S. MATESOL PROGRAM By Dominik Wolff Non-native speaking teachers make up a large portion of English teachers worldwide (about 80%; according to Canagarajah, 1999) as well as of the enrolled students in graduate TESOL programs in the United States (Llurda, 2005). In order to reveal aspects of teachers’ identity development within an MATESOL program, teacher educators would benefit from doing justice to the ethnically, nationally, and racially diverse populations in these teacher preparation programs. What is necessary is a fresh perspective that does not fall victim to the “deficit discourse” (Bhatt, 2002), which traditionally has put non-native speaking teachers in a position of lower status and power when compared to their native-speaking peers. Recently, there have been attempts to change the established narrative of privileged native speakers versus deficient non-native speakers in the fields of applied linguistics and language teaching (see native speaker fallacy, Phillipson, 1992; Holliday, 2005). With regard to capturing teacheridentity development, Varghese, Morgan, Johnston, and Johnson (2005) argued for the use of multiple theoretical frameworks. Following this recommendation, I analyzed the empirical data in this longitudinal multiple-case study following possible selves theory (Markus & Nurius, 1986) and social identity theory (Tajfel, 1978). These two frameworks allowed me to uncover both the psychological and social complexities of MATESOL students’ burgeoning identities in light of the native vs. non-native speaker discussion in the field of language teacher education. Data sources included (1) semi-structured interviews, (2) class observations, (3) stimulated verbal and written reports, and (4) prompted journal entries, collected throughout the first year in an MATESOL program in the United States. Four female MATESOL students (two native speakers and two non-native speakers) with various degrees of previous English teaching experience participated in the study. The data allowed me to investigate their emerging teacher selves while critically considering the role the graduate program played in their development (or lack thereof) during the first year in the program. The findings reveal diverse trajectories for the participating teachers’ developing selves. While I found similarities in the somewhat modest development of the native speaking teachers in the course of the year, the differences between the non-native speaking teachers were quite noticeable. For one of the non-native speaking teachers, her membership in the lower status group ’non-native speakers’ negatively affected her confidence and, consequently, the way she saw herself as a teacher. Furthermore, her lack of an identity goal (Pizzolato, 2006) or desirable future teacher self (Kubanyiova, 2012) stood in contrast to the other three teachers, for whom their distinct, imagined future selves acted as a catalyst for change. With regards to the MATESOL curriculum, the participants criticized the missing link between theory and classroom practice, and one non-native speaking teacher felt ill-prepared to manage problematic students and utilize her own status as a highly proficient language user in her teaching. Furthermore, the participating teachers agreed that the program prepared them to teach in a second language context, but not all of them seemed to believe that it equipped teachers as well for other contexts. Based on the findings, I call for an increased focus on the creation of identity goals in language teacher preparation programs with an emphasis on their suitability to a variety of teaching contexts. I also urge teacher preparation programs to increase the use of reflective processes and peer learning opportunities, and to create an environment that cultivates teachers’ confidence and provides comparable amounts of teaching practice to all teachers.