Transnational teacher educators’ critical reflection on multilingualism

ABSTRACT This study explored two teacher educators’ understanding of multilingualism and a change in their perception from monolingual native speakerism to multilingualism. Through exchanging the narrative about learning to be a professional and being a teacher educator in ESL and EFL settings, they deepened their understanding of multilingualism and heightened their critical awareness of monolingualism in their local contexts thereby gaining critical insights into the roles of language ideologies. The findings of the study were twofold. Firstly, native speakerism was still working as a dominant view in teacher education and had a great impact on nonnative English teachers’ identities and their teaching confidence. Secondly, critical reflection through narrative writing allowed the participants to reflect on the hidden sociopolitical influences of native speakerism that shape their perceptions and perspectives and reconstruct their identities as multilingual teacher educators. The findings imply the benefits of collaborative narrative for critical reflection on ideologies about race and language and for building empowered professional identities.