Meghan Corella Morales

Despite educators’ efforts to create open-minded and welcoming environments for students of all kinds, hegemonic language ideologies are still widespread among students and instructors in institutions today (Briggs & Pailliotet, 1997; Cho, 2017; De Costa, 2016; Séror, 2008). Students continue to experience discrimination and gatekeeping on the basis of perceived language competencies through the enactment of language ideology throughout their educational careers. Furthermore, even students who adhere to dominant discourse practices are often perceived as deviating due to racial bias (Flores & Rosa, 2015). This multiple case study examined how five English language learners (ELLs) encountered hegemonic language ideologies in their mainstream courses at a North American college and how those encounters impacted their identities. Data from interviews, classroom documents, and reflective journals was analyzed utilizing discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1989; Gee, 2014b), drawing on a critical post-structuralist theoretical framework (Creswell & Poth, 2018) to conceptualize significant concepts such as discourse, power in language, ideology, and identity. The participants in this study encountered hegemonic language ideologies predominantly through assessment practices and explicit instances of Othering. As a result, they often suffered inequitable grading practices which led to lower grades, and many expressed a lack of confidence in their language competencies. While many students took up these oppressive ideologies and reproduced them through how they positioned themselves and others in interactions in and outside of class, some participants resisted hegemonic language ideologies. The implications of these findings highlight the need for educators and educational institutions alike to recognize hegemonic language ideologies as a significant contributing factor to institutionalized racism. Thus, this study reaffirms the need for language awareness or language diversity training for mainstream instructors and students to examine both their own ideologies and exactly what constitutes equitable pedagogical practices (Bucholtz, 2010; Gee, 2014a; Lippi-Green, 2012; Wolfram, 2009). In particular, the use of critical language awareness which informs students about language ideologies in comparison to linguistic facts may help empower them to resist the hegemonic language ideologies they encounter throughout their educational career (Fairclough, 1989; Siegel, 2006).

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With a dramatic advancement of digital technologies, the South Korean Ministry of Education has embarked on a nationwide digital education initiative to expand technology-equipped classrooms by 2023. While most public schools are far from achieving this goal, a substantial gap between early- and late-funded schools has emerged, creating a digital divide among schools, teachers, and students. Yet, some teachers are actively seeking to overcome challenges. Investigating how individual teachers in different environments implement educational technology would shed light on what factors afford or hinder their engagement with technology.Focusing on three in-service junior high school teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) who participated in a collaborative professional development (PD) program in Seoul, this qualitative multiple case study investigates how language teacher agency (LTA) and classroom practices are interrelated with ecological conditions and explores the role of a collaborative inquiry community in fostering their LTA. Drawing on an ecological understanding, this study focuses on the iterational (past), practical-evaluative (present), and projective (future) dimensions of LTA within overlapping layers of educational contexts (micro, meso, and macro). The participants engaged in PD in a collaborative inquiry community, in which they explored the use of technologies for facilitating students’ learning, conducted collaborative action research, and implemented reflective teaching practices. Data encompassed semi-structured individual and group interviews as well as an analysis of a lesson plan, an action research paper, and presentation materials. The findings of three participants situated in different ecological conditions suggest that macro-level national policies were mediated through meso-level school resources and socio-cultural contexts, ultimately affecting EFL teachers’ LTA and micro-level classroom practices. Furthermore, the collaborative inquiry community offered a space for collaborative reflection, critical analysis of technologies, and transformative actions, which in turn promoted their LTA. These findings indicate that language teachers as agentic professionals can make deliberate choices based on their own understanding of teaching contexts and pedagogical needs although equal educational opportunities must be provided by reducing the digital divide among schools. This study further invites K–12 language teachers, teacher PD program coordinators, or policymakers to incorporate teachers’ voices and experience into technology-related policies.

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