Nationalism, nationalized cultures, and English Language Teaching (ELT): what teacher interviews reveal about culture teaching as vehicle for ideological reproduction/transformation

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study explores the interplay of nationalism and English Language Teaching (ELT) classroom practices, as reported in 11 interviews with ELT educators in various locations (e.g., United States, Serbia, France, and Saudi Arabia). The study approach is informed by theories of discursive nationalism which interpret nations and nationalized things (e.g., nationalized cultures) as social constructions maintained and managed through discourse. Qualitative analysis of interview data identified teacher-reported practices reflective of national reproduction (e.g., analogy-making and neutral stance-taking) and of national transformation (e.g., recasting nationalized things to global levels and engaging students with cultural and linguistic diversity within an otherwise coherent nationalized culture). The data reporting national reproduction are consistent with the existing literature, and the teacher reports of national transformation offer something new to the existing literature on nationalism in ELT. The analysis further highlighted teacher-reported use of assimilation/dissimilation discursive strategies in representing nationalized things to their students. The study findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of how the ideology of nationalism intersects with ELT classroom practices. Such an understanding is valuable to the critical project of raising teacher sensitivity to the implications national representations have for social relations of power and privilege outside the classroom.