{"title":"Discursive construction of online teacher identity and legitimacy in English language teaching","authors":"Wing Yee Jenifer Ho","doi":"10.1080/17439884.2023.2259295","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACTThe paper investigates YouTube teachers’ identity construction within dominant language ideologies. Drawing on the constructs of language teacher professional identity, social media micro-celebrity persona, linguistic entrepreneurship, and raciolinguistic ideologies and online persona, the study analyses banner images, biographies, and semi-structured interviews of online teachers and provides a framework for understanding online teacher identity. The findings reveal that online teachers strategically align or distance themselves from different identity positions to foreground their identity as online English teachers. The findings point to the complex identity construction of online teachers as they navigate the complex terrain of the online English language teaching (ELT) marketplace dominated by neoliberal and raciolinguistic ideologies. The study contributes to a better understanding of the opportunities offered by technology in promoting or challenging such ideologies and calls for a recognition of the identity work online teachers put in to foreground their teacher identity.KEYWORDS: Online teacher identityonline teaching videosmultimodalitylanguage ideologies Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1 A popular online English teacher was interviewed by BBC News for the success of her online teaching channel: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-39672663.2 While this classification has been critiqued in the literature, it still plays an influential role in accounting for the spread and development of English globally. The terminologies associated with this model are still used in this article for clarity.3 In recent years, there is a greater awareness of the raciolinguistic ideologies associated with native-speakerism among online ELT professionals. One specific incident has been particularly impactful to the industry, which led to one of the most popular online teachers on YouTube publishing an apology video for perpetuating ‘accent discrimination’ in her videos. In the apology video, the teacher appeals for the industry to be aware of the unintended consequences of creating videos which may perpetuate raciolinguistic ideologies.Additional informationFundingThe work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No: 21610321).","PeriodicalId":47502,"journal":{"name":"Learning Media and Technology","volume":"2010 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Learning Media and Technology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2023.2259295","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACTThe paper investigates YouTube teachers’ identity construction within dominant language ideologies. Drawing on the constructs of language teacher professional identity, social media micro-celebrity persona, linguistic entrepreneurship, and raciolinguistic ideologies and online persona, the study analyses banner images, biographies, and semi-structured interviews of online teachers and provides a framework for understanding online teacher identity. The findings reveal that online teachers strategically align or distance themselves from different identity positions to foreground their identity as online English teachers. The findings point to the complex identity construction of online teachers as they navigate the complex terrain of the online English language teaching (ELT) marketplace dominated by neoliberal and raciolinguistic ideologies. The study contributes to a better understanding of the opportunities offered by technology in promoting or challenging such ideologies and calls for a recognition of the identity work online teachers put in to foreground their teacher identity.KEYWORDS: Online teacher identityonline teaching videosmultimodalitylanguage ideologies Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1 A popular online English teacher was interviewed by BBC News for the success of her online teaching channel: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-39672663.2 While this classification has been critiqued in the literature, it still plays an influential role in accounting for the spread and development of English globally. The terminologies associated with this model are still used in this article for clarity.3 In recent years, there is a greater awareness of the raciolinguistic ideologies associated with native-speakerism among online ELT professionals. One specific incident has been particularly impactful to the industry, which led to one of the most popular online teachers on YouTube publishing an apology video for perpetuating ‘accent discrimination’ in her videos. In the apology video, the teacher appeals for the industry to be aware of the unintended consequences of creating videos which may perpetuate raciolinguistic ideologies.Additional informationFundingThe work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No: 21610321).
期刊介绍:
Learning, Media and Technology aims to stimulate debate on digital media, digital technology and digital cultures in education. The journal seeks to include submissions that take a critical approach towards all aspects of education and learning, digital media and digital technology - primarily from the perspective of the social sciences, humanities and arts. The journal has a long heritage in the areas of media education, media and cultural studies, film and television, communications studies, design studies and general education studies. As such, Learning, Media and Technology is not a generic ‘Ed Tech’ journal. We are not looking to publish context-free studies of individual technologies in individual institutional settings, ‘how-to’ guides for the practical use of technologies in the classroom, or speculation on the future potential of technology in education. Instead we invite submissions which build on contemporary debates such as: -The ways in which digital media interact with learning environments, educational institutions and educational cultures -The changing nature of knowledge, learning and pedagogy in the digital age -Digital media production, consumption and creativity in educational contexts -How digital media are shaping (and being shaped by) educational practices in local, national and global contexts -The social, cultural, economic and political nature of educational media and technology -The ways in which digital media in education interact with issues of democracy and equity, social justice and public good. Learning, Media and Technology analyses such questions from a global, interdisciplinary perspective in contributions of the very highest quality from scholars and practitioners in the social sciences, communication and media studies, cultural studies, philosophy, history as well as in the information and computer sciences.