Language Teacher Identity: Confronting Ideologies of Language, Race, and Ethnicity

The first volume to focus on race, ethnicity, and accent as elements of language teacher identity, a valuable guide for in-service teachers and teachers-in-training

Language Teacher Identity presents a groundbreaking critical examination of how ideologies of race, ethnicity, accent, and immigration status impact perceptions of plurilingual teachers. Bringing together contributions by an international panel of established and emerging scholars, this important work of scholarship addresses issues related to native-speakerism, monolingualism, racism, competence, authenticity, and legitimacy while examining their role in the construction of professional identity.

With an intersectional and holistic approach, the authors draw upon case studies of practical teacher experiences from Brazil, Canada, Germany, Norway, Mongolia, Pakistan, and the United States to provide teachers with real-world insights on responding to the assumptions, biases, and prejudices that students, student teachers, and teachers may bring into the classroom. Topics include the impact of policies and ideologies on teacher identity development, the intersection between L2 teacher identity and teacher emotion research, awareness of ethnic accent bullying, and the use of transraciolinguistic approaches in the classroom. This unique new work:

• Provides a broad overview of the different types of challenges language teachers face in their careers
• Focuses on race, ethnicity, plurilingualism, and accent as fundamental elements of a language teacher’s identity
• Discusses the sensitive political and social factors that complicate the role of a language teacher in the classroom
• Covers the teaching of a wide range of languages, including English, Japanese, Portuguese, French, Spanish, and Norwegian
• Addresses key issues and significant gaps in contemporary research on language teacher education, including the experiences of teachers of two or more languages

Employing a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches, Language Teacher Identity is a forward-looking look at an exciting area of research and theory in language teacher education and training. It is essential reading for students training to become language teachers, in-service teachers, and for students and scholars in applied linguistics with a focus on TESOL, teacher and language education.

SÍLVIA MELO-PFEIFER is Professor of Romance Language Teacher Education at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Her research is focused on pluralistic language education and arts-based approaches to language teaching. Her publications include Portuguese as a Heritage Language in Europe: A Pluricentric Perspective and The Changing Face of the “Native Speaker”: Perspectives from Multilingualism and Globalization.

VANDER TAVARES is Postdoctoral Researcher at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norway. His research focuses on language teacher identity development and second language education. He is the co-editor of Reconstructions of Canadian Identity: Towards Diversity and Inclusion and the author of International Students in Higher Education: Language, Identity, and Experience from a Holistic Perspective.