Doing and undoing (non)nativeness: Glocal perspectives from a graduate classroom

Abstract

As dichotomized notions of “native” and “nonnative” are unraveled, an ongoing question is how teacher educators in their own classrooms can create spaces where candidates can explore and enact alternative identities that resist the (re)invention of such binaries. In this chapter, I consider pedagogical possibilities by examining how a teacher educator at a large, urban university integrates critical discussions, normalizes diversity, and encourages and facilitates her students’ exploration of identity in ways that resist traditional, dichotomized paradigms, while also advocating for more nuanced ways of thinking about language, its users, and its use. To contextualize the glocal significance of Anna Marie’s approach, I first develop (non)native speakering as a poststructuralist, dynamic way of framing both the historical emergence of (non)native speakered subjectivities, as well as how “native” and “nonnative” identities are reified, conferred, denied, and performed through everyday interactions (see also Aneja GA, Crit Inq Lang Stud 13(4):351–379, 2016a; TESOL Q 50(3), 572–596, 2016b). I then use (non)native speakering as a lens through which to analyze the significance of the possibilities Anna Marie’s classroom pedagogy offers for undoing structuralist, binary views of identity. The chapter’s conclusion will discuss participants’ resistance against the ‘traditional’ (non)native speaker concept and how ELT professionals can continue to address inequity in the “field.”