Race and Ethnicity in English Language Teaching by Christopher Joseph Jenks

Author:Christopher Joseph Jenks [Jenks, Christopher Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, General, Discrimination, Foreign Language Study, English as a Second Language, Education, Teaching Methods & Materials
ISBN: 9781783098446
Google: bjU8DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Multilingual Matters
Published: 2017-08-14T05:50:12+00:00

Figure 4.1 The look

1 T3:

uhm (1.2) I guess for me like I’m- I’m lucky because I- I have th:: I

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have the. look that Koreans are looking for when they want like a

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Western teacher so:: (.) I haven’t I haven’t had too much in the way

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of racism.

The admission that she is ‘lucky’ to possess ‘the [right] look’, and as a result has not experienced racism, may suggest at first reading that the interviewee is not involved in the reconstruction of racialized discourses, though these statements are inextricably connected to a larger system of racial hierarchies. That is say, although the interviewee has not experienced racism, her career has benefited from racial privilege and she is thus part of a larger system that discriminates against instructors of color. In this sense, White normativity is an issue that all instructors in the ELT profession must be aware of, especially teachers who reap the benefits of being located at the top of a racial hierarchy that discriminates on the basis of race and ethnicity. Further, the elite discourses that provide the means for the construction of White normativity come from, in addition to employers and recruiters who profit from stereotypical images of English speakers, instructors who are on the receiving end of privilege.

Conclusion

This chapter has demonstrated that White normativity is based on ideological constructs that treat Whiteness as an essential characteristic for good language teaching. Such belief systems come from, and are circulated by, different members of the ELT community. White normativity is circulated not only by professionals who are on the receiving end of privilege (e.g. employers and White instructors), but its elite discourses that lead to racism are also disseminated by instructors of color who exoticize race and ethnicity in and through job-wanted postings. This finding is significant, as critical race scholars have demonstrated that White normativity is typically reinforced by individuals who represent the ‘unmarked norm’ and/or benefit from such privilege. In the ELT profession in Korea, conversely, White normative discourses and ideologies are circulated and reinforced by employers and recruiters, White teachers and instructors of color. In other words, racism in the ELT profession in Korea is not only based on a White/non-White binary, but it also comes from hierarchies and a system of discourse that discriminate and privilege on the basis of race and ethnicity. Because immigration laws and recruitment practices create an institutional framework for racism to occur, White normativity transcends occupational spaces and thus represents the common-sense understanding of the profession.

White normativity is exceptionally problematic for the role of English in Korea. A system of White privilege hurts the relationship that Koreans have with English because it keeps the language ‘foreign’, attached to the cultural values of outside regions and forever unattainable given these reasons. The next chapter extends some of these observations by demonstrating that NES instructors and White teachers can reproduce elite discourses by transmitting colonial discourses that associate the English language with the cultural traditions and values of so-called inner-circle countries. These elite discourses

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