Foreign English Teachers in South Korea: Negotiating Bodies, Dress, Teacher Selves and Professionalism
Open Access
- Author:
- Chesnut, Michael Andrew
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 03, 2016
- Committee Members:
- Kimberly A. Powell, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Kimberly A. Powell, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Jamie M. Myers, Committee Member
Gail L. Boldt, Committee Member
Suresh Canagarajah, Outside Member
Gerald K. LeTendre, Outside Member - Keywords:
- South Korea
Teacher Identity
Gender
Professionalism
English Language Teaching
TESOL
Native Speaker - Abstract:
- This study examines the identities of individuals from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland who travel to South Korea and teach English as a foreign language. These “foreign English teachers” work in widely varying contexts ranging from private language academies, to public schools, to universities and teach a similarly wide variety of students and English language classes. As these teachers go about their daily lives and teach English, they construct stories of who they are as teachers, develop understandings of their roles within educational institutions, and shape and are shaped by various “teacher selves”. Additionally, these teachers, both initially when they arrive in Korea and later as they develop common daily routines, negotiate new experiences of gender and develop new understandings of gender as part of their larger social worlds and within educational institutions. This ethnographic interview study examines the teacher selves and gendered selves of 27 foreign English teachers through ethnographic interviews, but also draws upon other sources of data and my own experiences as a foreign English teacher in Korea. This study highlights the different possible stories these teachers tell about being English language teachers in Korea, and how constructing oneself as a “professional” teacher can shape teacher careers and practices within educational institutions in counter-intuitive ways. Further, this study examines the disruptions in gendered selves some foreign women initially experience after arriving in Korea, and their subsequent renegotiations of gendered selves. This study contributes to a growing discussion concerning language teacher identity, opening new areas of discussion regarding professionalism, gender, and teacher development.