Deconstructing Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers’ Professional Identity: Looking Through a Hybrid Lens

Abstract

This article critically analyses how the construct of non-native English-speaking teachers’ (NNESTs) professional identity has evolved in the context of binary logic and power relations. From a socio-historical point of view, colonial origin of English language teaching and native speaker ideology have been identified as prominent discursive influences of NNESTs’ professional identity. Although influenced by (post)colonial discourses, research into NNESTs’ professional identity is now veering off to a new direction that questions the binary logic and explores experiences beyond the boundary between the native self and the non-native other. This paper argues that nativeness and non-nativeness are not mutually exclusive and objective categories for NNESTs’ professional identity. Their identity is rather subject to constant innovation and plasticity. Beyond the critical analysis of the native speaker construct, the paper proposes a professional conceptualisation of a hybrid professional identity of NNESTs in a third space of reflection, enunciation and productive articulation.