Language teacher candidates of color's critical emotional work toward interrogating raciolinguistic shame

Abstract

This study draws on raciolinguistic perspective (Rosa & Flores, 2017) and theorization of emotions (Benesch, 2018) to examine two teacher candidates of color's (TCCs’) experiences of racialization. Data come from two research projects the authors conducted as part of their dissertations. Findings demonstrate TCCs’ experienced raciolinguistic shame or a hovering sense of embarrassment that results from speaking marginalized linguistic varieties. Findings also show TCCs engaged in critical emotion work to challenge feelings of raciolinguistic shame by foregrounding alternative identities. Our discussion highlights how TCCs reconfigured perceptions of their linguistic dexterity and call for centering emotion work in language teacher education, as a critical component.