2021 Book MobilityOfKnowledgePracticeAnd

Mobility of Knowledge,
Practice and Pedagogy in

TESOL Teacher Education
Implications for
Transnational Contexts
Edited by
Anwar Ahmed
Osman Barnawi
Mobility of Knowledge, Practice and Pedagogy
in TESOL Teacher Education
Anwar Ahmed • Osman Barnawi
Editors
Mobility of
Knowledge, Practice
and Pedagogy in
TESOL Teacher
Education
Implications for Transnational
Contexts
Editors
Anwar Ahmed Osman Barnawi
Department of Languages, Royal Commission Colleges and Institutes
Literatures and Linguistics Yanbu, Saudi Arabia
York University
Toronto, ON, Canada
ISBN 978-3-030-64139-9 ISBN 978-3-030-64140-5 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64140-5
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2021

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Contents

Introduction: TESOL Teacher Education: Oscillating Between
Globalization and Nationalism 1
Anwar Ahmed and Osman Barnawi
Oscillation Between Globalization and Nationalism 2
The Chapters 6
Conclusion with an Invitation 11
References 12

Transnationalism in TESOL Teacher Education and Applied
Linguistics: Reflections and (Re)imaginations 13
Eunjeong Lee
Introduction 13
Historical Development: Scholarly Discussion of Transnationalism
and Superdiversity 15
Transnational Language and Identity Practices and Changing
Language Around Languaging 17
“Changing” Realities and Lasting Ideology: TESOL Teacher
Education and Applied Linguistics in Transnational Times 22
v
vi Contents
Charting a New Pathway: Repositioning Toward Research,

Teaching, and Learning 26
Conclusion 32
References 33

Transnational Professional Development Practices in TESOL
Teacher Education 39
Bushra Ahmed Khurram, Kenan Dikilitaş, and Hadia Zafar
Introduction 39
Literature Review 40
Methodology 46
Findings 48
Discussion and Conclusion 58
Appendix 60
References 61

Bangladeshi English Language Teachers’ Use of Transnational
Teacher Training 63
Anne McLellan Howard
Transnational Teacher Training in Bangladesh 67
Results of the Change to the Classroom Teaching 74
Dealing with Differences in Roles and Cultural Expectations 75
Conclusion 77
Appendices 78
References 80
Assessment Literacy: Transnational Teachers’ Concepts,

Practices, and Professional Development Needs 83
Samar Almossa
Introduction 83
Methodology 90
Research Findings 93
Conclusion 102
References 103
Contents vii

Professional Development for Chinese EFL Teachers in
Australia: Perspectives, Challenges, and Research Potentials107
Dat Bao
Current Discourse: Needs and Challenges 108
Research Design 112
Finding 1: Teacher Contentment with Workshop Quality 113
Finding 2: Appreciating the Value of Fieldtrips 115
Finding 3: Exposure to Ways of Educational Practices in Australia 116
Finding 4: Ongoing Challenges 117
Recommendations 117
Conclusion: Contribution from the Study 120
References 121

The Effect of U.S. Curricular Ideologies on Mexican
Transnational Pre-service English Language Teachers123
David Martínez-Prieto
Introduction 123
Theoretical Framework 125
U.S. Vs Mexican Curricula 126
Identity and Transnational English Teachers in Mexico 127
Identity and Poblano Transnationals 128
Research Question 129
Methodology 130
Results 137
Discussion 138
Limitations of Study and Future Research 140
References 141

Holidays in Mexico: Developing Transnational Skills in
Teaching English as a Foreign Language147
Araceli Salas
Introduction 147
Purpose of the Chapter 148
The Research Question 149
Language and Culture 149
Multiculturalism and Interculturalism 150
viii Contents
Transnationalism 150
Holidays 152
The Day of the Dead in Mexico 152
Halloween 153
Awareness on Global Citizenship 154
Global Skills 155
Language Teacher Education in Mexico 156
Methodology 157
Context 157
Participants 158
The Results 158
Discussion 162
Conclusion 163
Appendix: The Questionnaire 164
References 165

Transnationalism Contextualized in Miami: The Proposed
Component of Dialectal Spanish Negotiations in
Undergraduate TESOL Courses169
Xuan Jiang, Kyle Perkins, and Jennifer Pena
Dialectal Negotiations to Undergraduate TESOL Courses 180
Conclusion 185
Appendix 186
References 187

Engaging East African Voices for Teacher Education in the
Digital Age: Exploring Transnational Virtual Collaboration191
Robin L. Rhodes Crowell
Introduction 191
Case Study 194
Combatting Negative Representations of Africa 198
Theoretical Frameworks 200
Digital Collaboration for Teaching and Learning 205
Conclusion 208
References 209
Contents ix
Transnational Peace-Education Framework of EFL Material

A
Development for the Islamic School Context in Indonesia213
Dana Kristiawan and Michelle Picard
Introduction 213
Issues in Teaching EFL and Culture/s in Indonesian Islamic
Schools 216
A Transnational Education Approach in English Language
Teaching for the Islamic Context 218
The Missing ‘Piece’ of Peace Education in Indonesian EFL
Curriculum 220
A Transnational Peace Education Framework for Developing
English Language Teaching Materials in Indonesian Islamic
Schools 222
The Framework in Practice 226
Challenges in Implementing the Framework 232
Conclusion 232
References 234

Promoting Transnational Teaching in Pre-service Language
Teacher Education Programs in Japan: An Autoethnographic
Approach239
Yutaka Fujieda
Transformations of English Education in Japan 242
Methodological Framework 244
A Narrative of English Teaching Methodology Course 245
Closing Statements 254
References 256

TESOL Teacher Education Programs and Transnational
Perspectives: Critical Reconstruction of Experiences Via
Duoethnography and Autoethnography261
Salim Almashani, Mahmood Alhosni, and Bryan Meadows
Introduction 261
Theoretical Background 262
Method 265
Narrative Findings 266
x Contents
Discussion 280
Conclusion 283
References 284

The Reflective Journal: A Transnational Networking Tool for
(TESOL) Teachers287
Dana Di Pardo Léon-Henri
Introduction 287
Retrospection and Introspection for Prospection and Projection 290
Reflective Journaling and Teaching Methods 295
Transnationalism and the Mobility of Knowledge, Practice and
Pedagogy 298
The Reflective Analysis Framework 300
Concluding Remarks and Future Directions 304
References 306

Developing Teaching Expertise Through Transnational
Experience: Implications for TESOL Teacher Education311
Zhenjie Weng and Mark A. McGuire
Introduction 311
Methodology 317
Findings and Discussion 319
Conclusion and Implications 328
References 330
Afterword: Who Controls the Production of Knowledge?

Teacher Empowerment in TESOL Teacher Education333
Ruanni Tupas
The Challenge 335
Ways Forward 339
Conclusion 342
References 343
Index347
Notes on Contributors
Anwar Ahmed is an assistant professor in the Department of Languages,

Literatures and Linguistics at York University in Canada. Previously he
published under the name Sardar Anwaruddin. Anwar’s articles have
appeared in journals such as Educational Philosophy and Theory, Professional
Development in Education, Discourse, Reflective Practice, Teaching in
Higher Education, Educational Studies, Curriculum Inquiry, International
Journal of Leadership in Education, International Journal of Research and
Method in Education, Oxford Review of Education, CALICO Journal, and
The Brazilian Journal of Applied Linguistics. Anwar was an editor of
Curriculum Inquiry from 2011 to 2016. His recent edited book is
Knowledge Mobilization in TESOL: Connecting Research and Practice
(Brill, 2019).
Mahmood Alhosni is an English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor
and a technology coordinator at Global College of Engineering and
Technology, Muscat, Oman. He graduated with a master’s degree in
Multilingual Education from New Jersey, USA in 2014. His main inter-
ests in education revolve around the use of technology to promote inde-
pendent language learning. Other areas of interest include authentic
assessments, digital learning, and gamification in English Language
Teaching (ELT).
xi
xii Notes on Contributors
Salim Almashani is an English Lecturer at the University of Technology

and Applied Sciences in Oman. He completed his M.A. in Multilingual
Education (Teaching English as a Second Language [TESL]/Teaching English
as a Foreign Language [TEFL]) at Fairleigh Dickinson University, USA. His
research interests include student motivation and learning difficulties. He is
an active member of TESOL Arabia. He has done several presentations on
using digital learning in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms.
Samar Almossa is an assistant professor at Umm Al-Qura University in
Saudi Arabia. She holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from King’s
College London. Her research interests are focused on teachers and stu-
dents learning, teaching and assessment experiences in higher education
context, assessment practices, and assessment literacy.
Dat Bao is a senior lecturer at Monash University, Australia. He has
worked with Leeds Beckett University in the UK, Cornell University in
the USA, National University of Singapore, and Assumption University
of Thailand. His expertise includes silence studies, creativity pedagogy,
visual pedagogy, curriculum design, intercultural communication, mate-
rials development, and young learners in language education. His recent
books include Understanding Silence and Reticence: Nonverbal participa-
tion in Second Language Acquisition (Bloomsbury, 2014), Poetry for
Education: Classroom Ideas that Inspire Creative Thinking (Xlibris, 2017),
and Creativity and Innovations in ELT Materials Development: Looking
beyond the Current Design (Multilingual Matters, 2018).
Osman Barnawi is an associate professor at the Royal Commission
Colleges and Institutes, Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. His research interests
include the intersection(s) of language and political economy, social and
education policy studies, the cultural politics of education, multilingual
and multicultural studies, second language writing, and transnational
education. His works appear in journals such as Language and Education,
Critical Studies in Education, and Language and Literacy. His recent books
are TESOL and the cult of speed in the age of neoliberal mobility (Routledge,
2020), Neoliberalism and English Language Education Policies in the
Arabian (Routledge, 2018), and Writing Centers in the Higher Education
Landscape of the Arabian Gulf (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).
Notes on Contributors xiii
Kenan Dikilitaş is a professor at the Department of Higher Education

Pedagogy at University of Stavanger, Norway. His recent areas of research
include digital pedagogy in higher education and teacher education with
focus on teacher development through action research.
Yutaka Fujieda is a professor in the Department of International Social
Studies at Kyoai Gakuen University, Gunma, Japan. He completed his
Ph.D. degree in the Composition & TESOL Program at Indiana
University of Pennsylvania, USA. His research interests include second
language writing and second language education. He published his arti-
cles in Asian EFL Journal (2012) and The Asian-Pacific Education
Researcher (2019) and book chapters in Reinventing in Second Language
Writing (2010) and Emotions in Second Language Teaching: Theory,
Research and Teacher Education (co-authors) (2018).
Anne McLellan Howard is a professor in the Department of
International Liberal Arts at Miyazaki International College, teaching
linguistics and English teaching methodologies. She holds a Ph.D. in
Applied Linguistics from Macquarie University. Her research interests
include evaluation in academic discourse and the pragmatics of giving
advice and feedback. She is a past editor of the JALT Journal. She has
been involved in developing workshops for Bangladeshi teachers
since 2007.
Xuan Jiang is an Assistant Director in the Center for Excellence in
Writing at Florida International University. Her research interests include
writing tutors’ professional development, issues and strategies in aca-
demic writing, various instructional scaffoldings, second-generation and
1.5-generation students’ academic performance and the factors behind,
linguistic and cultural challenges faced by immigrant and international
students in K-12 and higher education in the USA, using transnational
literature and dialogues to promote culturally responsive teaching and to
develop cultural and communicative competence in both English
Language Learners (ELLs) and native English speakers.
Bushra Ahmed Khurram obtained her Ph.D. in English Language
Teaching and Applied Linguistics from the Centre of Applied Linguistics,
University of Warwick, UK. She is an assistant professor in the Department
xiv Notes on Contributors
of English at University of Karachi, Pakistan. She has extensive experi-

ence of training English language teachers in a variety of settings in
Pakistan and the UK. She published her book chapters in Becoming
Research Literate: Supporting Teacher Research in English Language Teaching
(2018) and International Perspectives on Teaching English in Difficult
Circumstances: Contexts, Challenges and Possibilities (2018). Her research
interests include metacognition, reading strategies, learner engagement,
and teaching and researching in large classes.
Dana Kristiawan is an English Lecturer at Universitas 17 Agustus 1945
Banyuwangi, Indonesia. He is a Ph.D. student at the University of
Newcastle, Australia working on his thesis entitled Peace Education and
English Language Education in Indonesia: A framework of EFL Materials
development for secondary Islamic schools in Indonesia, funded by
Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (Lembaga Pengelolaan Dana
Pendidikan/LPDP). His areas of research interest are English material
development, teacher professional development, and intercultural and
peace education in the English as a foreign language context. He was an
invited speaker at the International Institute on Peace Education in
Cyprus Greece in 2019.
Eunjeong Lee is Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Rhetoric and
Composition at University of Houston. Her research centers on literacy
practices of multilingual writers, the politics of language, language ide-
ologies and equity issues in teaching of literacy and literacy teacher edu-
cation, and decolonial language and literacy education. Her work has
appeared in Composition Forum, Journal of Language, Identity, and
Education, World Englishes, and Journal of Multicultural Discourses, and in
edited collections such as Crossing Divides and Translinguistics and
Contemporary Foundations for Teaching English as an Additional Language.
Dana Di Pardo Léon-Henri is a tenured associate professor with the
Unité de formation et de recherche -Sciences du langage, de l’homme et
de la société (UFR SLHS) in the Polyglotte Department at the University
of Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France, where she teaches
English for Specific Purposes (ESP). As a member of the research group
ELLIADD (Édition, Langages, Littératures, Informatique, Arts,
Notes on Contributors xv
Didactiques, Discours) she conducts research on the pedagogy and didac-

tics of foreign language teaching and acquisition, diagnostic assessment
and evaluation with the assistance of artificial intelligence, as well as
metacognitive and professional skills development at the higher educa-
tion level. With Bhawana Jain as co-editor, she recently got published
Contemporary Research in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning (2020)
David Martínez-Prieto holds a PhD in Culture, Literacy, and Language
from the University of Texas at San Antonio (2020). He has taught
bilingual/ESL pre-service teachers in the United States and Mexico for
more than ten years. Martínez-Prieto’s research focuses on the analysis of
hegemonic curriculum ideologies in the language teaching process, the
identities of transnational pre-service language teachers, and educational
policies in Mexico and the United States. David co-edited In Search of
Hope and Home: Mexican Immigrants in the Trinational NAFTA Context (in
press) and has collaborated in English and Spanish publications.
Mark A. McGuire is a graduate associate at the Ohio State University.
He has been teaching university EFL and ESL courses for ten years, in
China and in the USA. His interests include the identity and pragmatic
development of English users, primarily, though not exclusively, from
China and Hong Kong. His research is based on integrating mixed meth-
odologies to better understand language according to Complexity Theory
and usage-based perspectives on language development. His goal as a
researcher is to encourage the voices and dignity of language users, espe-
cially of adults and professionals as they negotiate their expertise.
Bryan Meadows is an assistant professor in the Department of
Educational Studies at Seton Hall University (New Jersey, USA). He also
serves as director of the TESOL teacher education program and the
ESL@Seton Hall program on campus. His published work addresses
issues of power in the context of language education and can be found in
peer-reviewed and professional venues. He presents at international and
regional academic conferences regularly and is an active member of his
field, serving on review boards of academic journals and building part-
nerships with K-12 schools.
xvi Notes on Contributors
Jennifer Pena is a graduate student at Florida International University

(FIU), where she received a bachelor’s degree in Digital Communication
and Media. She is now pursuing a master’s degree in English and working
as a teaching assistant at FIU. She formerly worked as an undergraduate
tutor at FIU’s Center for Excellence in Writing. Her recent research has
focused on multilingualism and professional development practices at
writing centers.
Kyle Perkins is a retired professor from the Department of Teaching
and Learning in the College of Arts, Science, and Education at Florida
International University. His research interests include second language
acquisition, language testing, instructional sensitivity, and reading
disability.
Michelle Picard is Associate Professor and Dean of Learning and
Teaching in the College of Arts, Business, Law and Social Sciences at
Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. She was formerly the Deputy
Director of the English Language and Foundation Studies Centre at the
University of Newcastle. Michelle has published, supervised, and admin-
istered grants in the fields of applied linguistics and [higher] education on
all aspects of academic literacy development, TESOL, online learning,
English for Academic Purposes, and language and culture. Her recent
book with Christo Moskovsky English as a Foreign Language in Saudi
Arabia was published by Routledge in 2019.
Robin L. Rhodes Crowell is Director of International Student Academic
Support at St. Lawrence University and a Doctor of Arts candidate in
English Pedagogy/English Language Specialization at Murray State
University. Robin also teaches academic writing to multilingual students
and TESOL teacher education in Modern Languages and Literatures and
African Studies. Robin regularly presents at conferences including Africa
TESOL, TESOL International, and NYS TESOL. Robin’s research
includes teaching English in Kenya and Rwanda, culturally and linguisti-
cally sustaining pedagogy, critical pedagogy, academic literacies, and sec-
ond language writing.
Notes on Contributors xvii
Araceli Salas is an ELT teacher-educator and researcher at Benemèrita

Universidad Autònoma de Puebla (BUAP), Mexico. She holds a Ph.D. in
Language Science and an M.A. in TESOL. Dr. Salas is an Associate
Editor of the Mexican Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language
(MEXTESOL) and TESOL Journals and the Editor in Chief of Lenguas
en Contexto, the academic publication of the School of Languages in
BUAP. Her research interests are ESP, discourse analysis, and teacher edu-
cation. She has written several articles and chapters in the field in English
and Spanish, her mother tongue.
Ruanni Tupas teaches sociolinguistics in education at the Department
of Culture, Communication, and Media, Institute of Education,
University College London. His research programs of more than two
decades have investigated the role of language in perpetuating and trans-
forming all forms of social inequality, and he does so through the lens of
Unequal Englishes and inequalities of multilingualism. He is the editor
of Unequal Englishes: The Politics of Englishes Today, and co-editor of Why
English? Confronting the Hydra, Language Education and Nation-Building:
Assimilation and Shift in Southeast Asia, and (Re)making Society: The
Politics of Language, Discourse and Identity in the Philippines.
Zhenjie Weng is a Ph.D. candidate, majoring in Foreign, Second, and
Multilingual Language Education, at The Ohio State University. She also
teaches second language writing to international undergraduate and
graduate students in the USA. Her research focuses on second language
writing teacher identity, teaching expertise, and teacher agency. In her
recent work, she studies graduate level ESL composition teachers’ iden-
tity construction and teaching practice.
Hadia Zafar is pursuing her M.Phil. in ELT & Applied Linguistics
under the supervision of Dr. Bushra Ahmed Khurram from the University
of Karachi. She is also working as an English Language Teacher in the
University of Karachi.
List of Figures

Transnational Pre-service English Language Teachers
Fig. 1 Linear model of predictor and criterion variables 137
Transnational Peace-Education Framework of EFL Material

A
Development for the Islamic School Context in Indonesia
Fig. 1 A transnational peace-education framework of EFL material
development for the Islamic school context in Indonesia 226
Fig. 2 Draft sample material 228
Fig. 3 The sample material after PALAR process 229
xix
List of Tables

Transnational Professional Development Practices in TESOL
Teacher Education
Table 1 Our participants’ geographical distribution 47

Bangladeshi English Language Teachers’ Use of Transnational
Teacher Training
Table 1 Participant demographic information 72

Professional Development for Chinese EFL Teachers
in Australia: Perspectives, Challenges, and Research Potentials
Table 1 Chinese teachers’ reflection on experiences with the ELT
development program at Monash University 114

Transnational Pre-service English Language Teachers
Table 1 Items in the survey and their relation to current research 132
Table 2 Reliability statistics all 9 items analyzed together 133
Table 3 Inter-item correlation matrix when deleting items 3 and 8 134
Table 4 Content validity index 135
xxi
xxii List of Tables
Table 5 Model summary 138

Table 6 ANOVA 138
Table 7 Coefficients 138

Transnationalism Contextualized in Miami: The Proposed
Component of Dialectal Spanish Negotiations
in Undergraduate TESOL Courses
Table 1 FIU Undergraduate degree programs and the required
TESOL courses 186
Introduction: TESOL Teacher Education:
Oscillating Between Globalization
and Nationalism
Anwar Ahmed and Osman Barnawi
In response to our call, contributors to this edited volume have taken dif-
ferent epistemological, theoretical and empirical positions to examine the
ways TESOL Teacher Education constantly oscillates between globaliza-
tion and nationalism. Like other contributors, Araceli Salas, in chapter
“Holidays in Mexico: Developing Transnational Skills in Teaching
English as a Foreign Language”, underscores the importance of English
language teachers’ transnational skills “in a world that fluctuates between
globalization and nationalism” (p. 163). Taking the notion of oscillation
between globalization and nationalism as a point of departure, we invite
you to read and engage with the chapters of this volume. As editors, we
wonder what TESOL Teacher Education (TE) may offer us to under-
stand this oscillation and how the field may prepare future teachers for a
successful career in a complex world that requires innovative ideas, new
A. Ahmed
Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics, York University,
Toronto, ON, Canada
e-mail: sardar15@yorku.ca
O. Barnawi (*)
Royal Commission Colleges and Institutes, Yanbu, Saudi Arabia
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 1

A. Ahmed, O. Barnawi (eds.), Mobility of Knowledge, Practice and Pedagogy in TESOL
Teacher Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64140-5_1
2 A. Ahmed and O. Barnawi
skills, and ethical dispositions. After briefly commenting on the notion of

oscillation between globalization and nationalism, we introduce the
chapters to you. Then we conclude with an invitation to a dialogic think-
ing exercise on re-thinking the nation-states in terms of language teach-
ers’ mobility, knowledge and practice.
scillation Between Globalization

O
and Nationalism
In the post-Cold War world, the idea of globalization emerged as a poten-
tially liberatory force. However, the promise of a global society champi-
oning equality, justice, and prosperity was soon hijacked by corporate
greed. Nation-states found themselves immersed in a great dilemma: how
to open up to the world while maintaining national identity and cultural
integrity. Apart from difficult decisions regarding citizen’s mobility, eco-
nomic activities and trade relations, nation-states had to wrestle with lan-
guage policies. It is noteworthy that the standardization of language,
often in the form of a national language, was a first and important step to
the formation of modern nation-states. The economic pressures of glo-
balization have forced many nations to re-consider their language policies
and prioritize English in their education system. Once viewed as a sym-
bol of national identity and pride, local languages were soon de-prioritized.
This was among the first sacrifices made by national governments in order
to participate in the global marketplace. Like the governments, many
citizens in resource-poor countries believed that adopting a dominant
language such as English was necessary for their upward social and eco-
nomic mobility.
Since the turn of this century, the world has witnessed a backlash
against globalization. Technological advancements and free-market econ-
omy have not resulted in equitable distribution of resources as some had
predicted. In consequence, many people in both resource-rich and
resource-poor countries believe that globalization has failed them. There
are increasing pressures on governments to restrict free trades by impos-
ing tariffs, strengthen border security, and focus on the preservation of
Introduction: TESOL Teacher Education: Oscillating… 3
national culture and heritage. Thus, when nation-states fluctuate between

the forces of globalization and nationalism, language continues to remain
as a topic of concern and debate. Educational policies across the world
continue to favour English over national and indigenous languages. This
problem is particularly acute in post-colonial nation-states that are still
trying to recover from historical inequalities implanted by colonial rela-
tionships of various types. For example, while the constitution of the
Maldives recognizes Dhivehi as the official language, the country’s
national curriculum adopts an English-first policy. Mohamed’s (2020)
study has shown that the English-first policy of the Maldives promotes a
discourse of “equal opportunities and frame[s] language learning as
enrichment;” however, the enactments of the policy “suggest that the
presence of inequalities as subtractive approaches to language teaching
undermine students’ cultural capital and linguistic heritage” (p. 764).
This brings us back to the globalization’s demand for a common lan-
guage. While global businesses and communications need a lingua franca,
the democratic potential of a common language (which is English at the
current historical moment) is never without political and ideological con-
testations. In fact, a cosmopolitan desire for a common language is
marked by “ever-present issues of coercion and economic, political and
cultural inequalities” (Ives, 2010, p. 517). The aforementioned accounts
are issues that also arise in the field of Global Englishes, where scholars
stress the importance of teacher education in creating a more equitable
field of language education (see, for example, Rose & Galloway, 2019).
In the unequal linguistic landscape of a globalized world, how should
students be taught so that they can learn and preserve languages and cul-
tures? What should language teachers know about such teaching? What
should teacher education programs do to prepare teachers for a complex
world where languages are trapped in ideological wars, and the dilemmas
of cultural preservation and upward social mobility? While teacher edu-
cation has important roles to play in creating a more equitable field of
language education, it is one of the pieces of a complex puzzle. While
teachers continue to change and grow throughout their career, initial
teacher education and in-service training can contribute much to their
pedagogical thinking, beliefs and activities. The curriculum of TESOL
TE has traditionally focused on “effective” teaching understood largely in
terms of content, delivery and measurement. With too much focus on

outcomes and assessments, the TE curriculum has ignored pressing issues
of social and linguistic justice (Anwaruddin, 2016). At present, when
countries are trying to find a stable middle ground between the forces of
globalization and national identity, one crucial task of TE programs, we
believe, is to disrupt the idea of the English language as a neutral and
disinterred medium of communication. Thus, we agree with Guy Cook
(2013) when he affirms that “teachers should be educated in a way which
helps them critique and resist a neoliberal business model of language
teaching” (p. 19), and that TE programs should “embrace and promote
the ideal of a global civil society” (p. 20).
While the creation of a global civil society continues to be an impor-
tant educational goal, the question of teachers’ knowledge remains to be
explored with greater attention. What kinds of knowledge do teachers
need in order to teach for resisting a neoliberal business model and pro-
moting a global civil society? How do they gain such knowledges?
Historically, a dominant flow of English language teachers’ knowledge
has been from Britain, Australasia, and North America (BANA) to the
rest of the world. The dominance of western knowledge in the global field
of TESOL education has been critiqued for its colonial, one-way trans-
mission. However, developing professional knowledge is a complex pro-
cess. Knowledge in use is almost always different from knowledge in store.
Local epistemic cultures and contextual circumstances of professional
work have strong influences on how knowledge coming from other con-
texts is interpreted, understood and utilized. Moreover, teachers’ profes-
sional growth does not follow a linear trajectory. An extra layer of
complexity is added to the knowledge question when the geographical
borders of nation-states are taken as a unit of analysis. International
mobility of teachers appears to be a growing trend in the field of
TESOL. However, we do not know enough about how teachers’ mobility
intersects with their professional knowledge and pedagogical practice in
diverse teaching contexts.
To understand TESOL teacher education “in a world that fluctuates
between globalization and nationalism,” we utilize transnationalism as an
analytical lens. Transnationalism refers to multiple ties and activities that

connect people, institutions and cultural practices across the borders of
nation-states (Vertovec, 2009). In the last three decades, the notion of
transnationalism has attracted considerable attention from social scien-
tists interested in globalization, migration, and international education.
Although transnationalism has been hailed as a transformative analytical
concept, we want to take a nuanced and careful approach to it. We believe
that this construct sheds light on the multifaceted nature of human
migration in the contemporary world. We find transnationalism helpful
to understand “that migrants do not simply take their social identities
from one place to another; rather, they maintain a complex web of identi-
ties and activities across national borders” (Toukan, Gaztambide-
Fernández, & Anwaruddin, 2017, p. 10). However, we do not wish to
look at transnationalism as an unproblematic good. As Toukan et al.
(2017) argued, there are reasons to ask questions about who and what
transnationalism is good for. While transnationalism’s contributions may
be analyzed from various perspectives, in this current volume we are
interested in the intersection of transnationalism and TESOL Teacher
Education. One area of critical relevance is the professional knowledge of
language teachers. How does transnationalism affect the knowledge con-
struction of teachers who travel internationally as part of their profes-
sional education and training? What does transnationalism do to those
teachers who are not able to travel internationally? As editors of this vol-
ume, we are interested in exploring the sources and “travel histories” of
professional knowledge in TESOL Teacher Education. We believe that a
transnational approach is instructive because it decentres, but does not
ignore, the role of nation-states in shaping the construction and spread of
knowledge. Thus, we agree with Krige (2019) that “the view that knowl-
edge circulates by itself in a flat world, unimpeded by national boundar-
ies, is a myth” (Krige, 2019, Cover copy). Having expressed our nuanced
position, we are curious to see how the contributors to this volume take
up the issue of transnational mobility of teachers and their professional
knowledge.
The Chapters
Setting the Stage
In chapter “Transnationalism in TESOL Teacher Education and Applied

Linguistics: Reflections and (re)imaginations”, Eunjeong Lee explores
transnationalism in relation to language and literacy practices. She pro-
vides a historical background that helps us understand how transnation-
alism sheds light on complexities around language practices in superdiverse
social and cultural contexts. She points out why the global field of TESOL
and its teacher education programs cannot shy away from the challenges
posed by accelerated mobilities in a changing time. In our view, this
chapter sets an excellent stage for the ideas and implications of the subse-
quent chapters.
Professional Development
Historically, teachers’ professional development has been conceptualized

through a deficit lens, that is, teachers are lacking in appropriate knowl-
edge; therefore, they are in need of developing. This kind of deficit
approach has ignored teachers’ lived experiences and personal knowledge
that develop as a result of their pedagogical experimentation within spe-
cific socio-cultural-material contexts. In the field of TESOL, the question
of knowledge and its sources and directions of flow have recently attracted
research attention. The mobilization of knowledge for teachers’ profes-
sional development is a complex process that requires interpretive, cul-
tural and contextual attention (e.g., Anwaruddin, 2019). In chapter
“Transnational Professional Development Practices in TESOL Teacher
Education”, Bushra Ahmed Khurram, Kenan Dikilitaş, and Hadia Zafar
present their findings from eight educators from seven different coun-
tries. Their findings include how these educators conceptualize transna-
tional professional learning, their learning and development opportunities,
and the challenges they encounter in transnational initiatives.
In TESOL, professional development (PD) initiatives often involve
individuals from multiple national contexts. In chapter, “Bangladeshi
English Language Teachers’ Use of Transnational Teacher Training”,

Anne McLellan Howard presents Bangladeshi English-language teachers’
perspectives on professional development provided by non-Bangladeshi
trainers. Howard reminds us why it is important for transnational train-
ing programs to pay attention to local contexts and needs. In chapter
“Assessment Literacy: Transnational Teachers’ Concepts, Practices, and
Professional Development Needs”, Samar Almoossa picks up the issue of
teachers’ assessment literacy, a topic which is often neglected in discus-
sions of inter/transnational education. The focus of her study is on trans-
nationally mobile language teachers’ understanding and practice of
classroom-based assessment. Almoossa’s participants are foreign educa-
tors currently teaching in Saudi Arabia, who bring with them diverse
beliefs and practices of assessment, but have to constantly negotiate their
beliefs and practices of assessment in order to meet the local pedagogical
conditions. In chapter “Professional Development for Chinese EFL
Teachers in Australia: Perspectives, Challenges and Research Potentials”,
we move to Australia where Dat Bao tells us about Chinese EFL teachers’
professional development activities. Bao presents findings about Chinese
teachers’ PD activities at Monash University, field-trips outside of
Monash, and their exposure to Australian ways of education. He also
identifies and discusses challenges in such transnational PD
programming.
Ideology, Culture and Peace
There is no such thing as ideology-free, neutral education. For example,

the most instrumentalist forms of education that teach to the scripted
curriculum have a certain kind of ideology, i.e., the goal of education is
to prepare efficient workers and obedient citizens. What is more interest-
ing to us, as the editors of this volume, is how ideologies embedded in
TESOL Teacher Education programs interact with epistemic and politi-
cal cultures across the world. For a globalized field like TESOL, the ideo-
logical layers and cultural lenses are never secondary to the officially
mandated scripted curricula. Language educators have the potential to
work as cultural workers and contribute to a culture of peace (e.g.,
Morgan & Vandrick, 2009). However, an empirical question that needs

further digging is whether or how TESOL TE programs are taking up
this challenge of preparing teachers as cultural workers aiming for a
peaceful world. In chapter, “The Effect of U.S. Curricular Ideologies on
Mexican Transnational Pre-service English Language Teachers” David
Martínez-Prieto investigates the effects that the United States of America’s
curricular ideologies have on the education of Mexican transnational pre-
service language teachers. Martínez-Prieto depicts complex trajectories of
Mexican transnationals’ migration journeys and construction of identity
as prospective English language teachers. We stay in Mexico in the fol-
lowing chapter “Holidays in Mexico: Developing Transnational Skills in
Teaching English as a Foreign Language”. In this chapter, Araceli Salas
takes up the issue of English language teachers’ transnational skills. Salas
highlights the importance of developing transnational skills and shows
the complexities in such skills development through the examples of cel-
ebrating the Day of the Dead and Halloween in the English classroom.
In chapter, “Transnationalism Contextualized in Miami: The Proposed
Component of Dialectal Spanish Negotiations in Undergraduate TESOL
Courses” we go to Florida, USA. Here, the authors Xuan Jiang, Kyle
Perkins and Jennifer Pena make an argument for including the Hispanic
cultural familiarity and Hispanic culturally relevant knowledge in TESOL
pre-service teacher education curriculum. The primary means for this
curricular goal, as the authors propose, is dialectical negotiations of
Spanish. This is an important goal to recognize and reflect local demo-
graphics in the TESOL teacher education curriculum. In chapter
“Engaging East African Voices for Teacher Education in the Digital Age:
Exploring Transnational Virtual Collaboration”, Robin L. Rhodes
Crowell takes us to a world of virtual collaboration where one of the key
goals is to disrupt the naïve assumption that speaking English as a mother
tongue means teaching it effectively to speakers of other languages.
Rhodes Crowell’s case study demonstrates virtual collaboration between
pre-service TESOL teachers at a liberal arts university in the USA and
in-service English teachers in Nairobi, Kenya. One of the outcomes of
this collaboration that, in our perspective, is much needed in a transna-
tional world is what the author describes as intercultural pedagogical
identity. This leads us to ask a question about peace. Do teachers’
ideological awareness and intercultural competencies enable them to

work towards building a more peaceful future? In chapter, A Transnational
Peace-Education Framework of EFL Material Development for the
Islamic School Context in Indonesia”, Dana Kristiawan and Michelle
Picard propose a framework of transnational peace education, with a spe-
cial focus on EFL materials development. While their work is based in
the Islamic school contexts of Indonesia, the framework may be applied
to other similar contexts.
Turing to Self in a Crowded World
When we hear the term “transnational mobility,” the images that come to
mind are busy airports, long lines at immigration checkpoints, and meet-
ing new people from diverse contexts who often speak different languages
and exhibit different cultural practices. In other words, the idea of trans-
national mobility creates a mental image of a busy world (although the
pandemic of COVID-19 has recently painted a picture of a somewhat
lonely world). While we are busy meeting new people and ideas, we may
sometimes forget to look inward and understand our self in relation to
the world. In this context, autoethnographic approaches to research and
pedagogy become relevant. Recently, we have seen a growing interest in
autoethnographic approaches to language teachers’ professional knowl-
edge formation and identity construction (e.g., Sánchez-Martín, 2020).
With this inward look, Yutaka Fujieda – in chapter “Promoting
Transnational Teaching in Pre- service Language Teacher Education
Programs in Japan: An Autoethnographic Approach”, − takes an autoeth-
nographic approach to promoting transnational language teaching in a
pre-service teacher education program in Japan. Focusing on the inter-
section of autoethnography and transnationalism, Fujieda makes a case
for embracing World Englishes and reflective practices in TESOL TE
programs. In chapter “TESOL Teacher Education Programs and
Transnational Perspectives: Critical Reconstruction of Experiences Via
Duoethnography and Autoethnography”, Salim Almashani, Mahmood
Alhosni and Bryan Meadows examine their evolving perspectives on
TESOL TE program in the United States. Taking autoethnographic and
duoethnographic approaches to reconstructing their experiences in

teacher education, the authors detail their views on transnationalism,
power relationships, and ownership of knowledge. In chapter, “The
Reflective Journal: A Transnational Networking Tool for (TESOL)
Teachers” Dana Di Pardo Léon-Henri describes how journal writing can
be an important tool for teachers’ professional learning and development.
She argues that journaling is helpful not only for an examination of daily
in-class experiences, but also for expressing emotions such as joy and
frustration in teaching. She also provides important implications for how
teacher journals can become a professional knowledge base and a trans-
national networking instrument.
Rethinking Teaching Expertise
Throughout the history of formal teacher education, there have been

heated debates about the kinds of knowledge that teachers must possess.
For example, should teachers possess propositional knowledge codified
by educational research or practical knowledge gained from teaching
experiences? What should be the legitimate sources of their knowledge?
What does teachers’ expertise entail? Should they be expert in content
areas or in pedagogy, or in both content and pedagogy? What should be
the role of professional context in teachers’ knowledge and expertise? If
“context is everything” in teacher education (Freeman, 2002, p. 11), then
how are we supposed to understand context in a transnational world?
Does context mean a stable, physical, and geographically demarcated
space, or is it a fluid entity subject to constant change and re-construction?
While answering all these questions is beyond the scope of a single study,
in chapter “Developing Teaching Expertise Through Transnational
Experience: Implications for TESOL Teacher Education”, Zhenjie Weng
and Mark McGuire investigate how contextual factors influenced one
teacher’s development of teaching expertise across EFL and ESL contexts.
By chronicling an American teacher’s journey of teaching in China and
the USA, and his professional education and training in the USA, the
authors show how teaching experiences in different transnational con-
texts impact the development of teaching expertise. This chapter brings
us back to the broader question of knowledge generation and dissemina-

tion in TESOL TE. The very notion of formal teacher education pro-
grams suggests that teachers need certain kinds of knowledge to develop
expertise and claim authority. The idea that an educated native speaker of
a language can effectively teach that language has already been debunked.
Now the question that we are left with is how to generate knowledges for
pre-service and in-service language teachers that will promote socially
just pedagogies in an unequal world divided by privileges, colonial mind-
sets and nationalist agendas.
Conclusion with an Invitation

In the social sciences, the popularity of transnationalism has been an
appropriate response to methodological nationalism. As an ideological
orientation, methodological nationalism “approaches the study of social
and historical processes as if they were contained within the borders of
individual nation-states” (Glick Schiller, 2009, p. 17). Methodological
nationalism conflates societies with nation-states and assumes that the
members of those states “share a common history and set of values”
(Glick Schiller, 2009, p. 17). Transnationalism, on the other hand, calls
for new frameworks for understanding globe-spanning mobility, connec-
tivity, institutional arrangements, and cultural practices. However, con-
trary to some critics’ accusation, transnationalism does not overlook the
significance of nation-states. In fact, many prominent scholars of trans-
national migration studies including Glick Schiller (2009) “view nation-
states, with their legal systems, migration policies, and institutional
structures, as significant for the establishment and persistence of transna-
tional social fields” (p. 33). We agree with this position, and for this rea-
son, we began this introductory chapter with the idea of a world oscillating
between globalization and nationalism. Now, we would like to conclude
this introduction by inviting you to enter a conversation with the chap-
ters ahead. Your dialogic and reflective engagements with the chapters
may reveal interesting insights into the roles of national borders in the
production and circulation of English language teachers’ professional
knowledge.
References
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Transnationalism in TESOL Teacher
Education and Applied Linguistics:
Reflections and (Re)imaginations
Eunjeong Lee
Introduction
Transnationalism has become a central framework in applied and socio-
linguistics that helps account for linguistic matters in a globalized world
with accelerated mobility of people, semiotic resources, and ideologies in
contemporary lifestyles as well as geopolitical relations (Hawkins & Mori,
2018). Broadly understood as a process and practice of maintaining con-
nections across geopolitical borders, including crossing of real and imagi-
nary boundaries across cultures, named languages, and geopolitics
(Vertovec, 2007), transnationalism has challenged language and literacy
scholars to attend to new social relations that have emerged in the pro-
cesses and practices of crossing.
Considering the development of TESOL and its teacher education as
a global industry that emerged along with the spread of English and
accelerated migration, the centrality of transnationalism may seem only
E. Lee (*)
University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
e-mail: elee33@central.uh.edu

14 E. Lee
natural. As professionals in teaching and learning of English—the lan-

guage that has come to be perceived as the necessity for upward mobility
on a socioeconomic ladder—we have a responsibility in not only think-
ing about how our praxis influences the way individuals imagine and do
languaging in the transnational world but also interrogating how theori-
zation of transnational language and literacy practices serves our transna-
tional student populations. In other words, what does it mean to think of
what we do as professionals in TESOL teacher education, and, more
broadly speaking, Applied Linguistics and TESOL from a transnational
perspective? How much has our work using a transnational framework
actually contributed to better educating TESOL practitioners and, ulti-
mately, serving our transnational students?
As transnational approaches to research and teaching of language and
literacy are becoming more prevalent, this chapter takes a reflexive stance
and discusses how TESOL teacher education and Applied Linguistics are
implicated in the project of (re)imagining and enabling new relations
intersected with language and identity. In particular, the chapter high-
lights how the persistent colonial logic of nation-state-based monolingual
ideology still maintains the linguistic and racial hierarchy across different
subject positions in language teaching, despite the insights on new iden-
tities and semiotic practices from research on transnationalism. To this
end, I argue that language teacher education needs to resituate itself away
from a colonial legacy of monolingual conceptualization of language and
identity, and take an activist stance in (re)imagining new relations for
both teachers and students. I conclude by calling for TESOL teacher
education’s reconstitution to remain answerable to racialized and lan-
guage-minoritized students and their communities to move beyond “the
romantic celebration of difference and creative agency” (Rampton, 2013,
p. 3). I suggest a decolonial approach to knowledge making as well as
teaching (Kumaravadivelu, 2016; Patel, 2016) to go beyond such liberal
multiculturalist approach in discussing diversity and difference in research
and practice.
Given its extensive discussions across multiple disciplines, providing a
comprehensive review on transnationalism is beyond the scope of this
chapter, and even taking a reflexive stance, I acknowledge the bounded-
ness of my reflection, as a female transnational scholar of color with ties
Transnationalism in TESOL Teacher Education and Applied… 15
to Korea and US. Therefore, this chapter focuses on some of the key
terms of transnationalism, as relevant to seeing transnational subject
positions and relations and their impacts in TESOL and TESOL teacher
education, and, relatedly, Applied Linguistics. This reflection has a par-
ticular bearing in the current sociopolitical climate; as of 2020 when this
manuscript is being written, xenophobic, racist, nationalist discourses,
hate crimes, and terrorist attacks have continuously been on the rise
against those deemed “different” or “Other” such as asylum seekers,
Black, Indigenous, and Other people of color, international students, and
immigrant communities in the US and across Europe. In this sociohis-
torical context, it is crucial to not just produce theories and practices that
promote linguistic and cultural pluralism but critically examine how we
have also participated, and continue to participate, in discriminatory and
nationalist approaches to language and literacy.
istorical Development: Scholarly Discussion

H
of Transnationalism and Superdiversity
While transnationalism has been studied and adopted in different disci-
plines since the 1960s, the most relevant to language and literacy research
lies in its development in anthropology and, specifically, studies on immi-
gration and mobility. In contrast to structural, macro-focused analysis of
immigration and mobility, scholars have argued for an approach to study
migration more focused on individuals as an agent with multiple identi-
ties who navigate complex realities, away from the economic-based
accounts that mostly describe these individuals’ “lack” (Glick Schiller &
Furon, 1990). Glick Schiller, Basch, and Blanc (1995), for instance,
argue that such account overlooks individual migrants’ transnational
practices of maintaining ties to their home country, only portraying them
as someone uprooted, failing to assimilate to the new host country,
thereby viewing them as “deficient.”
In illuminating the agentive actions of the migrants, scholars have rec-
ognized the multiplicity and fluidity of identities and the centrality of
negotiation in migrants’ identity construction and everyday life experi-
ences. Unlike the model of immigration driven by a nationalist approach,
16 E. Lee
which tends to only emphasize migrants’ social connections unidirection-

ally (i.e., to the “new” country), Glick Schiller and Furon (1990) argue
that transmigrants’ ties to multiple locales are “fully encapsulated neither
in the host society nor in their native land but who nonetheless remain
active participants in the social settings of both locations” (p. 330). From
this perspective, transmigrants’ identities are not tied to one particular
place. Rather, their identities “are configured in relationship to more than
one nation-state” over “multiple and constant interconnections across
international borders” (Glick Schiller et al., 1995, p. 48).
Some have contended that migration and transnational movement
have always existed, as our history is replete with wars, colonialism, and
other geopolitical interactions that had led to dislocation of people,
resources, ideas, and so on (e.g., Pavlenko, 2018). For instance, Flores
and Lewis (2016) note that recognizing superdiversity as “new” kind of
diversity is to ignore the diversity that existed in different contexts
throughout the history. At the same time, as Appadurai (1996) points
out, we need to understand the difference in this new wave of migration
patterns in the backdrop of “global interactions of a new order of inten-
sity” (p. 27). Indeed, Vertovec (2007) observed that various patterns of
migrant flows are results of “differential legal statuses and their concomi-
tant conditions, divergent labor market experiences, discrete configura-
tions of gender and age, patterns of spatial distribution, and mixed local
area responses by service providers and residents” (p. 1025). Calling the
dynamicity in the interactions among these different elements “superdi-
versity,” Vertovec (2007) emphasizes “diversity” or “difference” in social
positions now emerges in new forms, patterns, and stratifications. The
discussion above shows the importance of understanding from whose
vantage point the concept of “diversity” is constructed, and for this rea-
son, discussion of “difference” requires a more nuanced approach.
Among many factors that influence the global migration pattern, one
aspect that research has been focusing on is how socioeconomic opportu-
nities motivate individuals’ movement. Particularly relevant to TESOL is
individuals’ pursuit of study abroad in learning English. As English has
come to be increasingly recognized as a language for educational and
socioeconomic success (Heller & Duchêne, 2012; Shin, 2016), students
often seek immersion opportunities in many Anglophone countries.
Along with perceived importance and desire to learn English, researchers

have noted the role of global models of education and agencies that facili-
tate students’ pursuit of educational opportunities beyond their country
of origin (Park & Lo, 2012). In addition to students’ travel “outward” to
study abroad, educational institutions and personnel themselves have
joined the transnational movement as part of internationalization of
higher education project. Behind the pursuit of international education
and transnational experiences is the desire for upper socioeconomic
mobility for students and additional profits for the institutions, driven by
neoliberalism, which centers on commodification of things, values, and
systems based on their potential profits to contribute to the global econ-
omy (Heller & Duchêne, 2012).
More recently, scholars have argued that “transnational” is not just a
way to describe the mobility, but a way of looking at the world. Jaffe
(2016) argues that superdiversity can not only be understood as an ana-
lytical starting point but also be viewed as an ideological orientation, or
“a way of being in the world” (p. 15), that helps one to see various rela-
tions in which difference can emerge—after all, difference is a matter of
how one positions a reference point to define a difference, and therefore,
it is emergent, relational, and thus, sociopolitical. Literacy scholars,
Lorimer Leonard, Vieira, and Young (2015) also argue “to do transna-
tional work, what matters most is not what researchers look at but how
they look” (emphasis in the original). The rapid and ongoing linguistic,
cultural, economic, and other forms of flows across the globe then require
researchers to consider both multiple scales and their own epistemologi-
cal standpoint in examining transmigrants’ experience and movement,
including their language and literacy practices (Blommaert, 2010).
ransnational Language and Identity Practices

T
and Changing Language Around Languaging
In the backdrop of rapidly changing populations and social spaces that
transmigrants occupy, sociolinguists have turned their attention to how
transnational processes and practices have intersected with language.
18 E. Lee
They noted that the “new” forms of migration and other transnational
practices have generated complex social environments where mobility of
people, their semiotic resources, and meanings are interacting in commu-
nicative situations. Particularly, development of technologies has fostered
“new, specialized modes of communication on digital platforms, involving
new identity performance opportunities, as well as new norms for appro-
priate communicative behavior, and requiring new kinds of visual literacy-
based semiotic work in new genres and registers” (Blommaert, 2014, p. 8).
At the same time, one’s language and literacy practices and values may
transform through the very transnational experience, as individuals nego-
tiate with conflicting values and literacies and go beyond the constraints
of the boundary of named languages, nation-states, and other borders.
Research has shown how migrants adapt their literacy practices in
response to various sociocultural and material conditions. For instance,
in her ethnographic study, Vieira (2011) analyzes how literacy practices
of undocumented migrants in the US have been largely shaped by their
lived experiences as undocumented, leading them to a particular space
and nature of literacy (i.e., church, religious), compared to their literacy
practices before the migration. Focusing on migrant women’s mobility
and literacy, Lorimer Leonard (2017) discusses how social and economic
values affect these women’s literacy valuation and movement. Lorimer
Leonard explains that migrants’ literacy practices and repertoire are re-
evaluated throughout their transnational migration “at a nexus of pres-
tige, prejudice, and power that creates multiple mobilities, simultaneous
struggle and success” (p. 5).
As people cross linguistic, cultural, and other boundaries, they find the
boundaries of spaces that they occupy malleable, porous, and fluid, and
negotiable, rather than fixed in time and space. For instance, the concept
of “speech community”—originally conceived as a group of speakers who
share a language that indexes ones’ “belonging to” that community—
operates on the assumption of a homogenous community, which is
incompatible in a highly heterogenous transnational world. In other
words, increasing mobility of people and their semiotic resources also
uncover the contingency of what is traditionally recognized as norms and
standards by which to evaluate one’s successful communication.
Problematizing the untenable assumption of universality on the link

between a speech community and one’s repertoire, Blommaert and
Backus (2012) characterize the nature of repertoires as individual; they
define the repertoire as “biographically organized complexes of resources,
and . . . [therefore] following the rhythms of actual human lives” (p. 8).
Repertoires, in this sense, indirectly show how, where, and through what
means one has learned a language. This way, the view of language as
“mobile semiotic repertoire” (Blommaert, 2010) allows us to “disinvent”
the construct or language as pure and homogenous by attempting to
examine one’s competence based on one’s evolving repertoire (Busch,
2017). The notion of semiotic repertoires helps to “disinvent” the con-
struct of language as pure and homogenous with a premise that one’s
competence should be understood based on his or her changing reper-
toire (Makoni & Pennycook, 2012).
Beyond the focus on named languages, scholars argue for the impor-
tance of “semiotic assemblage” (Pennycook, 2017), including non-
linguistic (e.g., gaze, gesture, posture) and non-human elements (e.g.,
artifacts, materiality of the place, the layout of the space, relations among
them), as it “gives us a way to address the complexity of things that come
together in the vibrant, changeable exchanges of everyday urban life”
(p. 278). Indeed, the mobility framework in transnational work and the
translingual orientation that sees meaning making as emergent by deploy-
ing different semiotic modes throw a light on how individuals recognize
and draw on resources available in a given communicative place. Scholars
call such engagement with spatial resources in meaning-making processes
and practices “spatial repertoire” (Canagarajah, 2017; Pennycook &
Otsuji, 2015). The attention to individuals’ engagement with the spatial
repertoire also means we need a more nuanced and situated approach in
its methodology (Blommaert, Spotti, & Van der Aa, 2017).
Translingualism in ways reconceptualizes language and literacy that
reflect this changing transnational world. Seeing fluidity and mobility of
linguistic repertoire in the superdiverse and multilingual communicative
conditions as a norm, translingualism rejects monolingual ideology that
sees monolingualism as the default (Canagarajah, 2013; García & Li,
2014). It sees multilingual conditions as the norm, recognizing language
boundaries as fluid and porous. A translingual orientation argues for a
20 E. Lee
more holistic approach to study of language and literacy, focusing on

integrative and dynamic use of semiotic resources available to the lan-
guage user across named languages beyond the structuralist view of lan-
guage as a set of discrete skills with a fixed boundary. From this perspective,
then, individual speakers become a pivotal social actor who mobilizes
multimodal resources from one’s repertoire while negotiating with differ-
ent communicative norms and performing their identities.
In such multilingual and transnational realities, scholars have argued
that our understanding of what contributes to successful communication
should be shifted (Lee & Canagarajah, 2019b). One’s orientation to dif-
ference can prudently shape one’s action and interaction on everyday life.
In superdiverse sociolinguistic settings where one cannot assume shared
norms of communication, what one may need more than a language
norm in communication are the strategies to negotiate language norms
and dispositions that can productively draw on such strategies
(Canagarajah, 2013).
The importance of dispositions in a translingual perspective has pro-
ductively challenged what “competence” and “proficiency” mean. In a
transnational world where communicative norms are not given but emer-
gent in each interaction, and, therefore, negotiable, the notions of com-
petence and proficiency that are traditionally conceived from a
monolingually oriented view of language would not sufficiently explain
multilinguals’ fluid and dynamic language practices and how individuals
draw on ecological resources. From a translingual perspective, Canagarajah
(2013) redefines competence of reading and writing as “openness to lin-
guistic difference and the ability to construct useful meanings from per-
ceptions of them,” and “deftness in deploying a broad and diverse
repertoire of language resources, and responsiveness to the diverse range
of readers’ social positions and ideological perspectives” respectively
(p. 308). Calling such competence “performative competence,”
Canagarajah explains that this kind of competence emerges and develops
through the actual language practice, rooted in one’s embodied experi-
ences with and in language. In this new orientation to language, profi-
ciency, just like language itself, is emergent and varies across contexts,
rather than a given and innate quality within individuals.
As discussed above through the concept of speech community, a

monolingual and nationalist approach to language and identity assumes
that a particular named language represents one’s group membership,
including one’s racial and ethnic identity. In the current superdiverse late
modern society, such assumption cannot be held always. Rather, as
Pennycook and Otsuji (2015) argue in theorizing metrolingualism, racial
and ethnic identities are (co-)constructed, negotiable, and performative
(Alim, Rickford, & Ball, 2016; Maher, 2010). While by what degrees
ethnic and racial identities can be linguistically performed is a debatable
matter that needs more discussion, the link between one’s ethnic identity
and language practice is a questionable one in transnational contexts.
Rosa and Flores (2017) argue that the connection between race and lan-
guage was only naturalized through the colonial project of white suprem-
acy. While race is not the same construct as ethnicity, the process behind
the link between race and language also applies to the link between eth-
nicity and language, as both stem from the European colonial history.
The new orientation to individuals’ communicative repertoire, includ-
ing both linguistic and spatial ones, challenges us to think about new rela-
tions that transnational migrants can form and in what ways researchers
and practitioners, including teacher educators, directly and indirectly
encourage them to forge new relations, which further opens up opportuni-
ties to build and experience different identities and subject positions. What
the mobility framework allows us to see is then that language use and prac-
tice are not only situated but also dynamically connected and extended
beyond the focus on “here” and “now,” as transnational practices add mul-
tiple points of focus and connection (Appadurai, 1996). Underneath such
theoretical shift lies the attempt to view transnational migrants’ actions and
interactions from non-deficit perspectives, away from “host country”, and
often white-, -centered view that sees migrants as a perpetual foreigner who
lacks and cannot attain full citizenship. Teacher educators then bear the
responsibility in making that perspective shift in their work with transna-
tional students, and ultimately, their teachers.
As shown above, work on transnationalism and superdiversity as an
ideological orientation has highlighted the way individuals agentively
navigate their transnational realities, while pointing to multiplicity and
22 E. Lee
complexity of transnational subject positions as constructed and trans-

formed through various forms of transnational practices. TESOL teacher
education and Applied Linguistics, as a field that concerns the very prac-
tice and process of transnational meaning making and becoming, have
also participated in highlighting these positions, and, therefore, are
responsible for the very discourse about and practice for transnationalism
and transnational students ultimately, it is the language and literacy
teachers through whom students are often socialized into ways of using
and valuing language in a particular way (Hawkins & Norton, 2009;
Johnson, 2009). In this sense, whether and how research on transnation-
alism contributed to reimagining transnational subjects, and what ideol-
ogy or paradigm it perpetuates or disrupts, and importantly, how teacher
educators participate in this reimagination is a crucial matter. Therefore,
reflections on how our research and practice have contributed to chang-
ing the very transnational realities requires equal, if not more, attention.
I turn to this reflection in the next section.
“ Changing” Realities and Lasting Ideology:

TESOL Teacher Education and Applied
Linguistics in Transnational Times
In a sense, TESOL and Applied Linguistics are bound to transnational-
ism, considering that many in both fields are transmigrants themselves,
experiencing transnational migration, language learning, and identity
negotiation first-hand (Duff, 2015). And unsurprisingly, such experi-
ences often become the basis for knowledge-base and pedagogical
resources for teachers and teacher educators themselves (Motha, Jain, &
Tecle, 2012) and guide the way a research issue is framed, problematized,
and approached. TESOL itself is a transnational enterprise whose influ-
ence goes beyond the US, the original home of the organization.
Despite its transnational positioning, the social relations and subject
positions that were created and circulated in research and practice of
TESOL and Applied Linguistics have been based on language identities
and, more specifically, language difference through the colonial and
monolingual lens (Pennycook, 1998) and white gaze (Paris & Alim,
2017). In such an ideological setting, many social identities and labels
have been brought about, focusing on the difference from the reference
point of the “center,” and by its monolingual association, “white,” such as
“native” and “non-native speakers,” ESL/EFL, English Language Learners,
and Long-Term English Language Learners to name a few. In contrast to
TESOL’s mission in teaching English in “multilingual contexts world-
wide” (TESOL International Association), these terms highlight transna-
tional students’ language difference, or, more precisely, their “lack” of a
particular variety of English, from a monolingual perspective, where the
linguistic reality of the student’s future self is presumed to be English-
dominant, not the multilingual one.
Perhaps this is only natural given the imbalanced power structure of
the “center-periphery” in our teaching and knowledge-making practices.
Scholars have indeed long problematized these labels, and the role of
TESOL in general for linguistic imperialism, for its native-speaker-biased
epistemological ground and its inability to account for multiple differ-
ences in the last three decades or so (Holliday, 2006; Pennycook, 1998).
Tracing the history of English as a colonial product, Pennycook (1998)
extends the critique on TESOL’s role of reproducing the colonial relation
in its premise. Pennycook points out, “[t]he colonial construction of Self
and Other, of the ‘TE’ and ‘SOL’ of TESOL remain in many domains of
ELT” (p. 22). Such colonial construction of Other is also a matter of how
language and race are naturalized, as Rosa and Flores (2017) crucially
point out. And as the work on raciolinguistics has shown, the colonial
scheme of naturalizing the link between language and race is often evoked
in (mis)identifying who “sounds” and “looks” like a native speaker of
English, from the white gaze (Alim et al., 2016). Indeed, terms such as
“diverse,” “minority,” “at-risk,” and even “transnational” often signal the
linguistic and racial Others, while “erasing” the colonial, white gaze by
which these subject positions are created upon (Paris, 2019). TESOL
teacher education still perpetuates the colonial logic by focusing on trans-
national students’ positions and their relations with TE as Other, based
on their linguistic and racial difference, and, therefore, deficiency.
Nevertheless, simplistic linguistic labels and the colonial gaze are still
widely circulating in both research and practice of teacher education,
24 E. Lee
stigmatizing transnational students and teachers. In TESOL teacher edu-

cation courses and textbooks, categories such as ESL/EFL are introduced
as part of discussions on knowledge about students. While this in and of
itself may not be harmful, it largely overlooks the complex and fluid iden-
tity practices and relationships with language(s) transnational students
construct and their transnational and transcultural flows and activities a
view still ground in the nation-state boundary and preconceived relation-
ship with different named languages. Also importantly, assumptions
behind what students and teachers need to succeed mostly begins with
questions about their relationship to English, often referring to standard-
ized English in anglophone countries as monolithically conceived, and
assumed for academic purposes—a problematic distinction to begin with
(Flores & Aneja, 2017). Similarly, students’ and teachers’ racialization in
their experience with standardized English is largely pushed aside without
problematizing the pursuit of standardized English and its promise (Flores
& Rosa, 2015). Despite the decades of world Englishes scholarship, the
incorporation of world Englishes in TESOL teacher education is still rare
and often met with resistance and material constraints in implementation
(Matsuda, 2017). Relatedly, despite the increasing view of meaning mak-
ing as multimodal and spatially organized and negotiated, multimodality
has not been actively taken up in TESOL teacher education (Yi, 2017).
The focus on alphabetic literacy over multimodal one reflects the colonial
approach to meaning making that privileges language, thereby determin-
ing students’ “need” based on language difference rather than what mean-
ing students can make holistically. The series of practices and assumptions
undergirding these practices prevalent in teacher education reflect the
dominant subject positionings that our field produces and invites our
transnational students to occupy that still lie in the colonial root.
In recent years, some scholars in TESOL and bilingual education have
explicitly problematized the monolingual and nationalist ideology, pro-
moting pluricentric, translingual-oriented ideology that values linguistic
pluralism and students’ dynamic and fluid language use both in TESOL
teacher education programs and in language classrooms (Flores & Aneja,
2017; Seltzer & de los Ríos, 2019). This is certainly a welcome and prom-
ising shift. Yet, some of the discourses promoting linguistic pluralism have
emerged out of the argument for fostering multilingual competence being

a desirable quality as a competitive worker in the neoliberal global econ-
omy, rather than out of the criticism on the colonial history (see the cri-
tique by Flores, 2013). As Ramanathan (2013) has asserted, “This focus
on linguistic solutions fails to account for the workings of white suprem-
acy within global capitalism” (p. 20). Similarly, Kubota (2016) raises a
concern about how research with and on the multi/plural turn merely
participates in neoliberalism, rather than critiquing and challenging it.
Kubota warns the multi/plural turn, without critical inquiry on a larger
social structure, perpetuates “color blindness and racism,” operating
within a neoliberal multiculturalism (p. 474). In this sense, promoting
linguistic pluralism without critiquing the colonial legacy behind the
monolingualism only maintains the continued positioning of transna-
tional students as linguistic Other.
While rooted in efforts to illuminate migrants’ mobility and related
practices in a positive light, the notion of nation-states and monolingual
ideology as a product of colonial thinking still influences our praxis for
transnational students and their meaning-making practices, which ulti-
mately shapes the way we educate our teachers. The dominant relations
we constructed, examined, and, to some extent, promoted as well as the
way they have been examined then are still grounded in the colonial epis-
temology of counting, categorizing, and other ways of making beings
“manageable” and tamable (Paris, 2019). As long as the colonial legacies,
including the long-held categories of difference, linger in our orientation
to research and practice, we then reproduce the colonial subject, who
needs a very particular English in a particular way, and in turn, limit the
opportunity to portray and highlight alternative subject positions and
relations that are dynamically and fluidly shaped and mobilized. This
way, TESOL and Applied Linguistics are implicated in the transnational
network of coloniality in a sense that we, knowingly and unknowingly,
have created, and continue to create, reinforce, and reify social identities
based on the language difference.
26 E. Lee
harting a New Pathway: Repositioning

C
Toward Research, Teaching, and Learning
How can the reflection above on research on transnationalism inform
how we construct knowledge and what we do as a professional, and, par-
ticularly, as a language teacher and teacher educator? In order to attend to
such diverse and complex forms of transnational individuals’ lifeworlds
away from the colonial logic, we need to first reconstruct the relations
between who constructs or “owns” knowledge and who is spoken about
in our practice. As shown in the discussion above, despite the very empha-
sis on complexity and differences in the transnational framework and the
concept of superdiversity, the difference and complexity can be easily
reduced under monolingual ideology. Then, it is important to rebuild
these constructs away from the colonial history and white gaze (Makoni
& Pennycook, 2012; Motha, 2014; Paris, 2019) and move toward a
decolonial one (Macedo, 2018; Patel, 2016).
In this regard, Patel (2016) finds an answer in the very relation between
the researcher and the researched. She points out a parallel between the
relationship of educational researcher to the research participants (who
are often students and their communities), and that of settlers to slaves
and indigenous communities, which centers around the notion of “own-
ership”—ownership over various artifacts and beings, including knowl-
edge. In the context of educational research, researchers often position
themselves as the “owner” of the knowledge about the researched—in the
case of transnational research, transmigrants and transnational students.
From that positioning, Patel warns, “the trend has been to focus (pathol-
ogizing) attention on the lower strata and how to provide them with
experiences that mimic those in the upper strata in the hope of being
integrated functions more as mythology than attainable reality” (p. 42).
Patel then argues that one way that educational research can practice its
decolonial efforts is to reflect on who are likely to be researched and how
they are framed. In other words, as long as we position ourselves as “an
expert” who “knows” what our transnational students and their commu-
nities “need,” we continue to reproduce the colonial relations even in the
best attempt to transform the realities in our research.
In pursuing a decolonial approach in our research and teacher educa-

tion, we need to reflect on our own positionality and think about who we
remain answerable to rather than focusing on the “intellectual elabora-
tion” (Kumaravadivelu, 2016). Patel (2016) explains that at the core of
this reflection for answerability, we need to keep in mind the question of
which community we serve and how we approach answering this ques-
tion in our research and practice. From this perspective, we must attend
to not only what kinds of new social identities and relations are being
produced through our work but also importantly who we are (un)answer-
able to in our field.
Implications for TESOL and Teacher Education
In the classroom context, focusing on answerability can start with a shift

of our role and goal in how we remain answerable to transnational stu-
dents. Instead of solely focusing on their academic performances and life
within the walls of the classroom, we can reimagine our relation to stu-
dents by facilitating them to build upon and sustain their rich linguistic
and cultural practices and relations in their communities (Paris & Alim,
2017). Then we can move away from what we envision our students to be
from the deficit-oriented white gaze, but contribute to their life as they
imagine, as a fellow member of the society. Such decolonial thinking can
help us to chart our own pathway “based not on the logic of coloniality
but on a grammar of decoloniality” (Kumaravadivelu, 2016, p. 81) within
the forces of transnational movements.
For teacher education, remaining answerable can mean answerable to
our teachers and their future students our teachers should remain answer-
able to. As discussed earlier, one way the logic of coloniality is maintained
is in how students’ language practices and related identities are termed. In
order to move toward “a grammar of decoloniality,” teachers and research-
ers need to move away from our practices of positioning and understand-
ing students’ language practices based on the named languages. And
terms such as “English as a Second Language” or “English as a Foreign
Language” have served to highlight different ways that people may be
situated in with regards to the role English plays in a given sociolinguistic
28 E. Lee
landscape. Yet, in our increasingly transnational and translingual reality,

we need to question how these terms serve our students to what end, as
these terms could portray the speakers’ individual histories and relation-
ship with English monolithically (Kleyn & García, 2019).
Centering answerability in TESOL teacher education also requires
continuous interrogation of what language teacher education recognizes
as essential and legitimate in learning, practicing, and teaching language
(Lee & Canagarajah, 2019a). Teacher education has traditionally empha-
sized different knowledge domains in language teaching. Language,
which to many language teachers become the matter of content knowl-
edge, has often been monolithically understood, focusing on the struc-
ture and forms of language.
Foremost, teachers need to better understand how language can operate
as a proxy for racism, sexism, and any other sociopolitical mechanism that
engenders inequalities and inequities. Particularly given the coloniality of
English and the dominant whiteness of the field, TESOL teacher educa-
tion has much potential and responsibility to disrupt its status quo. More
specifically, teacher educators need to pay attention to developing teach-
ers’ raciolinguistic literacies, and how they themselves maintain or disrupt
raciolinguistic ideologies in their classroom and beyond (Seltzer & de los
Ríos, 2019). Teacher education programs then should treat sociolinguis-
tics courses not just as a place to learn more about language varieties in
terms of its variations. Instead, such course should function as a site for
teachers to reflect on their own sociolinguistic reality they have lived in
and further interrogate and contend the sociolinguistic inequalities and
inequities that the current education system continues to reproduce.
The reflection on the history of language and how teachers participate
in the perpetual oppression of language on our transnational students can
extend to re-understanding of language. Given the research on transling-
ualism and transnationalism that has highlighted uncertainty and com-
plexity as qualities that characterize multilingual communication in a
globalized, late modern society, teacher education programs also need to
prepare teachers to understand what this means in their teaching. In this
regard, teacher educators should actively engage teachers in not only
understanding but also teaching language as a social practice, away from
the form-focused view, while being conscientious of how students’ expe-

riences of language difference and racialization may vary.
This re-orientation to language as a social practice, along with the goal
of forging relations where teaching and learning become answerable to
students and their communities, also requires teachers to reconsider their
relations with students. As seeing language as a social practice requires
teachers to approach language, focusing on what students are doing with
the language beyond the form alone, TESOL teacher education should
also inculcate current and future teachers to understand their role as a
fellow communicator to students who are developing relationships with
English and other languages, not from the colonial standpoint of “own-
ing” the language per se. Similarly, in order for teachers to amplify stu-
dents’ multimodal practices beyond the field’s logocentric approach,
teacher educators also need to include multimodality as an important
aspect of TESOL teacher education (Yi, 2017).
More specifically, the reconceptualization of language as well as repo-
sitioning of teachers’ relations to the students also require reapproaching
all aspects of language teaching and teacher education, including cur-
riculum development, pedagogy, and assessment. Both teachers and
teacher educators need to move away from setting the goal of language
learning as acquisition of a particular form, but what opportunities for
language and, therefore, social practices a classroom engages students in
toward what goal. In other words, rather than organizing the curriculum
based on the language features that students will be producing, as many
language learning textbooks are organized, the curriculum should be
designed by centralizing what social actions students participate in for
what purpose and toward what goal. Equally important is what language
practices students are encouraged to engage in while pursuing these
actions and how such practice contributes to being answerable to com-
munities marginalized due to coloniality. Ultimately, such curriculum
work can help students to also orient themselves to language as not just
form and structure, but ways of “doing” things with critical awareness,
positioning them as the agent of meaning making based on their experi-
ence rather than a passive learner whose job is to show the mastery of
language.
30 E. Lee
In actualizing this reconceptualization, repositioning, and reapproach-

ing, teachers and teacher educators should continue to think about how
their own and students’ rich can be more actively drawn in language
teaching and learning (García & Leiva, 2014). As much research has
shown, teachers’ own transnational lived experiences and dispositions can
be recognized and utilized as pedagogical resources in language class-
rooms (cf. Lee & Canagarajah, 2019b; Motha et al., 2012). And TESOL
teacher education should help teachers to recognize how their own iden-
tities and language repertoire can be more productively and critically
taken up in their classroom practices. Doing so also can help the teachers
to recognize (dis)connections across multiple semiotic spaces—at times
seemingly conflicting ones such as school and home, and continue to
question how such a disconnection is constructed and who (does not)
benefit(s) from such (dis)connected positioning of different modalities
that constitute a semiotic repertoire. Such questioning should be at the
core of the teacher education program if TESOL teacher education were
to take the transnational realities as a given, rather than viewing it as a
problem to resolve, as seen in a monolingual and monocultural framework.
In this regard, translanguaging can serve as a major pedagogical prin-
ciple in TESOL teacher education (De Costa et al., 2017; Flores & Aneja,
2017; García & Li, 2014). Teacher education programs can centralize
translanguaging’s understanding of communication as drawing on one
holistic semiotic repertoire rather than focusing on individual named lan-
guages. While how such curriculum may constitute needs more long-
term research, García, Ibarra Johnson, and Seltzer (2017) emphasize one
of the important dimensions of a translingual pedagogy is the teacher’s
sensitivity to a translanguaging corriente—a flow of students’ language
practices that constitute a linguistic ecology in a given classroom.
Particularly if language practices in transnational realities are even more
complex and dynamic across multiple named languages and literacy prac-
tices, teachers’ ability to attend to the flow of students’ language practices
will be ever more crucial, and teacher educators should also incorporate
this ability as a significant quality for teachers.
Such practices should also be equally valorized in assessing students’
language practices. Ascenzi-Moreno (2018) argues that teachers can
make space for students’ multilingual practices in assessment by focusing
on what students are able to do with languages, beyond just focusing on

one named language, English. In order to move away from the deficit
perspective, teachers need to pay attention to the questions of “What is
language doing? What meaning is being made?” rather than “What form
is used?” and “How closely is the language produced to the norm?” At the
same time, the extent to which teachers are able to read beyond the lan-
guage difference is the matter of their dispositions and willingness to
engage in such labor (Alvarez & Lee, 2019). And if this work were to be
considered as an important aspect of pedagogical labor, teacher education
programs need to focus on not only fostering teachers’ dispositions but
also engaging their teachers in actual practices of how they can enact
translingual and transnational dispositions in a classroom with physical
and ideological constraints. This ability to engage with language differ-
ence in teachers’ pedagogy too should be an important part of teacher
knowledge for language teachers and actively promoted in the language
teacher program.
In the series of re-doing described above, it is important to remember
the very attempt to seek universal ways to materialize decolonial options
may end up following the colonial logic. The question of what “works” or
seems “legitimate” is the question of power and ideology. And in this
sense, we have to approach this question in a more situated manner, tak-
ing into consideration histories and geopolitical relations in transnational
students and relations. As Canagarajah and Dovchin (2019) remind us,
“We have to consider social domains as layered, with different potential
for resistance at different scales of considerations” (p. 15). In other words,
there is no approach that is universally good or bad, or one single method
that is best for a particular context (Prabhu, 1990). We can only evaluate
a given approach, in a given context with its historicity. And similarly,
teacher education needs to make sure that teachers also understand
knowledge as not universal but also grounded in a particular perspective
and, therefore, serving a particular group’s interest. In a transnational
world that is characterized with uncertainty and complexity, teacher edu-
cators need to make sure prospective teachers to approach each student’s
experience and historicity without any presupposition.
It is equally important that scholarly efforts not stop in just “promot-
ing” and “raising” critical awareness and approach in our research and
32 E. Lee
practice. This also includes taking a more reflexive stance on the relations
answerable to different social positions and subjectivities our research
highlights to move beyond “the romantic celebration of difference and
creative agency” (Rampton, 2013, p. 3). In order to do so, we need to
foreground this issue more clearly, with more interrogation of the struc-
ture, situating individual embodied experiences of transnationalism
within the structure. As Rosa and Flores (2017) emphasize, “No embod-
ied form is inherently racialized nor is any linguistic form discretely clas-
sifiable in relation to a named language” (p. 17). This reminder is crucial
in attending to the very stratified differences and unequal material condi-
tions and systemic oppressions within which these differences are gener-
ated. And this reflection needs to be also re-examined and re-enacted
along with teaching practice.
Conclusion
Research on transnationalism has made many contributions through the
paradigmatic shift of the nature of language and methodological appara-
tus in studying language and literacy. Yet, a closer examination at how
TESOL teacher education and Applied Linguistics contribute to (re)con-
structing the transnational realities, and actions, or lack thereof, and ide-
ologies within them can help us question how we work toward
transforming the realities for people who we serve—who are oftentimes
racialized and marginalized in many ways. In the invisible, yet powerful,
global movement, we need to remain vigilant and think about ways to
make our own pathway away from the danger of maintaing the structure
that relies on racializing the linguistic and other kinds of difference. This
requires a different way of thinking about who we are and what we do for
whom. Without questioning or challenging the transnational field of
colonial framework, the scholarly work and practices can easily become
the vessel of transnational coloniality. If we do not move away from the
colonial formulations of language, research, and teaching and learning,
including our understanding of what we are supposed to achieve through
this investigation and exploration, transnationalism and superdiversity
will remain only an ideological position, without transformation toward
more equitable and just society. That is the direction in which we,
researchers and practitioners in TESOL and Applied Linguistics, can
move toward.
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Transnational Professional Development
Practices in TESOL Teacher Education
Bushra Ahmed Khurram, Kenan Dikilitaş,
and Hadia Zafar
Introduction
Since the past two decades, there has been an increase in the trend of
transnational education, a term that refers to the deliverance of education
from an institution in one country to the students based in another coun-
try (McBurnie & Ziguras, 2006). The term ‘transnational education’ is
most commonly used as collaborative international provisions or distance
education, even by the key target audience. It takes place through
e-
learning and distance education, validation and franchising
arrangements, twinning, and other collaborative provisions (Dunn
&Wallace, 2004).
B. A. Khurram (*)
Department of English, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan
K. Dikilitaş
Department of Higher Education Pedagogy, University of Stavanger,
Stavanger, Norway
H. Zafar
University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan

40 B. A. Khurram et al.
The literature sees teaching as an important, complex, and equally

challenging process in transnational education (Sanderson, 2011). It
revolves around diverse content, cultures, roles, people, contexts, pro-
grams, and modes of delivery. Transnational contexts thus demand teach-
ers to acquire the responsibility based on completely different assumptions
(Molina, 2015). It is because of this multifaceted and complex nature of
teaching in transnational context that professional development practices
of teacher educators have been considered an important area in research
(Keevers et al., 2014). Teacher educators are the teachers of teachers
(Loughran, 2006) who are responsible for not only teaching teachers but
also developing curriculum, conducting research studies, and doing gate-
keeping of the whole educational system (Murray & Male, 2005; Smith
2007). Their professional development is therefore important for them to
successfully fulfill these responsibilities in a transnational context. With
this in mind, in this chapter we explore our participants’ professional
development experiences in transnational contexts in order to gain insight
into potential impact on their understandings and potential challenges
that could be involved in their developmental process.
Literature Review
Challenges in Transnational Professional Development
Much research in the area of professional development in transnational

teacher education is focused on investigating the challenges faced by
teachers in teaching in transnational contexts. These challenges include
the lack of interest and attention given to transnational teacher educa-
tion. For instance, Dunn and Wallace (2006) conducted a study at
Australian universities operating transnationally with the aim of investi-
gating teachers’ experiences of their professional development and their
perceived professional needs. In order to reach and inquire wider teach-
ing staff functioning from different Australian universities, a survey
method is used, filled by 61 teachers. The findings of the study unpack
strong desire for the presence of transnational teacher educators in their
Transnational Professional Development Practices in TESOL… 41
universities for effective teaching and learning. Teachers were found to be

complaining about the lack of interest in delivering proper guidelines,
workshops, and teacher education by their institution regarding methods
and material that should be used in transnational contexts. Teachers,
therefore, did not only end up using the same material and methods of
teaching in transnational contexts as they otherwise use in domestic
teaching, but were also not sure about its effectiveness in terms of learn-
ing. Considering Leasks’ (2004) description of a transnational academic
as a strange teacher in a strange land, the study emphasized the need for
having a uniform teacher education for transnational teachers.
A similar study was done by Rytivaara et al. (2019) on the perceptions
and expectations of Indonesian transnational future teacher educators,
starting their MA program in teacher education in Finland about their
professional development. The sample of the study consisted of 30 teach-
ers and the method used to collect data was empathy-based stories. The
stories obtained from the teachers demonstrate that they demand teacher
educators to extend their teaching from pedagogical content and practice
to the understanding of culture and language in transnational contexts.
Culture was seen either as an opportunity or obstacle to their learning.
Hence, apart from content, learning environment also plays a crucial role
in making these teachers reflect on their professional development and
identities.
Moving along the same path, Bovill, Jordan, and Watters (2015) inves-
tigated the challenges encountered by authors themselves as transnational
teachers in higher education. The study resorted itself to the cultural
dimensions presented by Hofstede (1984). The most prominent chal-
lenges that emerged were difference in expectations, perceptions of learn-
ers and learning, illusory nature of transformed practice, and time
limitations. As a result of these challenges, the study presented some
guiding practices for teacher educators in terms of transnational teaching.
These practices include modeling pedagogical practices, guaranteeing
mutual benefit, ensuring individual integrity and institutional credibility,
and supporting each other as a transnational staff.
Transnational Conceptualization
and Development Practices
Reflection and Self-Awareness
Other than highlighting the need for transnational professional training

for effective transnational teaching experiences, the literature has also
shown an interest in investigating the role of teacher education programs
in encouraging reflective practices among transnational teachers. Ball
(2016) conducted a study on two teacher education programs, offered at
two of the major universities in South Africa and USA respectively. The
aim of these programs was to grow teachers professionally in terms of
classroom management, educational theory, and teaching strategies in trans-
national contexts. For this purpose, interviews and observations were
held and writings from teachers were collected to gain a glimpse of their
metacognitive thinking and changing perspectives. The findings of the
data show that in order to help both teachers and the teacher educators
themselves to develop professionally in transnational context, writing is
seen as a pedagogical tool in teacher education for their conceptual
growth in terms of changing identities and attitudes.
Warwick (2008) too, while investigating the effect of intercultural
identities on the pedagogical practices of two transnational teachers
teaching English as a second language in USA, makes recommendations
for TESOL teacher education in terms of encouraging transnational
teachers to make students reflect not only on their experiences of learning
but also on their own practices in a culturally diverse setting. These reflec-
tions can be made possible by making teacher education classroom a site
for teachers to discuss their dilemmas from personal experiences and offer
solutions. This would serve as a strategy of metacognitive awareness for
both teacher educators and their TESOL students.
Role of Cultural Disposition
Besides, the need for teacher education in terms of preparing teachers for
cultural dispositions in transnational contexts as part of their professional
development has also turned out to be an important area of inquiry.

Casinader (2018), for instance, conducted a comparative qualitative study
on three Australian schools regarding the transcultural capacities of teach-
ers who accompany students going in exchange programs. The findings of
the study reveal not only some major transcultural disposition among
almost all of them but also both personal and professional development.
Both of these developments were found to be connected in a way that
while personal development was about individual’s self-awareness of his/
her knowledge and skills, professional development included the imple-
mentation of those skills and abilities in practice at educational level. The
study recommends teacher educators to prepare and help teachers in their
transcultural dispositions for effective teaching and learning.
The importance of cultural disposition is also reflected in another
study conducted by Molina (2015). While working on the professional
development practices of TESOL teacher educators, Molina (2015),
being a teacher educator, carried out a project in which TESOL teacher
candidates worked with a staff of a non-profit organization, Kito
International, in developing an online business English program for
Kenyan youths. The aim of the study was to investigate the lessons learnt
for TESOL teachers while teaching in this transnational context. There
were a total of eight weekly lessons delivered for a period of 14–16 weeks.
For data collection, weekly sessions were held between the teacher educa-
tor and the teachers to discuss teaching practices used and challenges
faced within this transnational context. Based on the challenges faced by
transnational teachers, the discussions reveal a bunch of practices impor-
tant for the professional development of transnational teachers. First, it is
important to make curriculum sensitive to not only students’ needs and
goals but also the societal, economic, political, and historical contexts of
education. Second, in order to lessen the impression of English as creat-
ing binaries and racial inequalities, teachers are expected to use students
as cultural and linguistic informant by encouraging translingual practice
to negotiate understanding. Third, teachers must be given knowledge
about different varieties of world Englishes to provide correct feedback
based on the backgrounds of the students. Thus, the study urged teacher
educators to help teachers learn ways to develop these meta-dialectic,
meta-cultural, and translingual competencies.
Joint Responsibility Practices
Moreover, the practice of keeping ongoing dialogues between partners in

transnational education for developing context-sensitive curriculum as
an indication of joint responsibility has also been emphasized in much of
the literature. Keevers et al. (2019) investigated the role of participatory
action learning (PAL) in enhancing and supporting boundary relations in
transnational education (TNE). The TNE partnership between an
Australian university and a private Malaysian college was the sample of
the study. The results of the study make different contributions, that is,
reshaping the concept of boundaries with a home-host collective approach
and demonstrating the importance of PAL in supporting the creation of
teams consisting of transnational and intercultural communities of prac-
tice through the use of communal media. These practices helped to enact
quality assurance and facilitate intercultural engagement.
Similarly, Lunenberg, Murray, Smith, and Vanderlinde (2017) while
carrying out an embedded case study of an international forum, InFo-
TED, that aimed to focus on the professional development of teacher
educators across national borders also emphasized the need for joint
responsibility practices. The study relied on self-narratives of authors
involved in the study about their professional learning experience through
participating in the forum and the analysis of the documents based on
the activities done by all. The findings of the study showed that engaging
in making a shared final conceptual framework of what it means by pro-
fessional development for European teacher educator and discussing the
development of an international survey on the professional development
needs of teacher educators served as major activities for authors regarding
their professional learning. This learning can be seen from two perspec-
tives. One is the interplay between personal learning by engaging in the
forum and the second is the way this learning can further be used to
professionally develop transnational teachers.
Likewise, Huijser, Wilson, Johnson, and Xie (2016) did a case study
on the role of communities of practice (CoPs) model (Lave & Wenger,
1991) for teacher educators in enhancing teaching and learning at a
Chinese transnational university that consists of a large international
staff. The aim of the study was to investigate if CoPs can be organized and
structured in a way to improve professional development. The CoP refers
to the group of people who share a concern for something they do and how to
do it better by interacting on daily basis. For this purpose, the study
reports the stages of its implementation in the university and the chal-
lenges it encountered. The model consisted of three components: domain,
community, and practice. With the help of Academic Enhancement
Centre (AEC) consisting of teacher educators, the model was imple-
mented within the domain of professional development, consisting of the
community of teachers to share their challenges and offer solutions.
Drawing on the value creation framework (Wenger & Wenger-Trayner,
2016) that consists of seven values, the study argued that once the initial
immediate and potential stages are overcome and fully established, the rest
of the values, that is, applied, realized, transformative, strategic, and
enabling, can be delivered easily regardless of which discipline the CoP
belongs to.
se of Proper Technology for Successful e-Teaching

U
and Learning
Besides, research trends have also seen a convergence toward investigating

the role of e-learning in developing transnational teaching pedagogies.
Rizvi et al. (2017) carried out an experimental study on the uses of syn-
chronous technology in developing language pedagogies of Chinese and
Australian teachers in a virtual context. For data collection, a survey was
used to gather perspectives of teachers on the use of technology in devel-
oping their teaching and learning, a critical review was done of other
projects working on technologies in transnational contexts, an observa-
tion of sessions took place with respect to student engagement, intercul-
tural understanding, and technical viability, and an experiment was
carried out by enabling Chinese and Australian students to learn lan-
guages in a transnational virtual context facilitated by expert language
teachers. Although the experiment turned out to have positive and pro-
ductive effects on developing teachers professionally and encouraging
student learning and intercultural understanding, the process faced some
challenges in recruiting the participants, encouraging participation and

retention, and internet access, because of the difference in the educa-
tional culture of the two countries.
The literature above shows that most of the research on transnational
professional development has highlighted transnational development
practices and made recommendations for teacher educators in response
to various challenges that transnational teachers encounter. Moreover,
most of the previous studies have investigated transnational professional
development opportunities and practices as part of general teacher educa-
tion. The current study, however, specifically focuses on inquiring the
professional learning practices in TESOL teacher education.
Methodology
Research Question
What insights can we gain into professional learning practices of TESOL

teacher educators?
Research Design
In the current study we adopted basic interpretive research which views

the social reality is shaped by human experiences in particular contexts
and is considered to be a sense-making process closely associated with
contextualized experiences. The transnational experiences of the partici-
pants helped us induce our themes and create interconnected thematized
categories which offered lens through which we interpreted how transna-
tional professional development was understood.
Participants
The participants of the study comprise eight teachers who are actively
involved in transnational professional development practices in
TESOL. These teachers are practicing TESOL in seven different
countries. To elaborate, the participants were from Argentine, Ecuador,

Turkey, Pakistan, Japan, USA (x2), and UAE, which offered a reasonable
diversity in geography and variety in responses. Table 1 using pseud-
onyms for the participants provides geographical location of their TESOL
practice.
Data Collection
The data for the study was collected through written interview shared
and submitted via responses to our original email. To elaborate, we shared
our questions with 15 academics whom we thought have been engaged
in transnational experiences and initiatives. Eight of them accepted our
call to participate and share their comments with us. The total length of
text was almost 5000 words. We asked four open-ended questions (see
Appendix).
Data Analysis
The study adopts a data-driven analysis and induces emerging themes to

explore and generate a theoretical understanding of such learning. On
receiving the responses from the participants, one author thematically
coded the data, while the other checked the themes and sub-themes for
accuracy and appropriateness. We negotiated the recurrent themes that
emerged from the data to reveal the issues raised by the participants. One
limitation of our small-scale data was the diversity of the participants’
TESOL transnational professional experiences. This provided us an
imbalanced amount of data in terms of the depth and breath. For
Table 1 Our participants’ Daniel Argentina

geographical distribution
Ceren Ecuador
Cemile Turkey
Rehana Pakistan
Malcolm Japan
Jennifer USA
Carol USA
Sue UAE
example, we noticed that one of our participants, Jennifer described and

discussed her transnational professional experiences much more than the
others, whose quotes helped us thematize the insights that emerged.
Although this seems to be a weakness, in qualitative research what makes
a theme is how powerfully it is expressed and highlighted through by one
participant. To increase the credibility of the analysis, the other author
continuously debriefed the selection of the participant quotation for each
theme and sub-theme. As a result, we came up with three major themes
which helped us make meanings out of the participants’ reported
experiences.
Findings
The findings section provides the results of the qualitative data analysis.
Through the interpretive approach to thematize and represent the partici-
pants’ comments in an analytical way, we revealed three major themes
including (a) conceptualizing transnational professional learning, (b) learn-
ing and development opportunities in transnational initiatives, and (c) chal-
lenges in transnational initiatives.
Conceptualizing Transnational Professional Learning
International communities showed that the participants used these orga-

nizations as those which could offer opportunities for further interna-
tional network and collaboration. Daniel, for example, described this as
opportunities for learning and developing various skills including devel-
oping collaborative projects, sharing materials, and participating in
discussions:
I also participate in online professional learning communities (PLCs) as

opportunities for learning. For example, I am actively involved in teacher
associations in Arg in, to some extent, in the IATEFL RESIG. These are
opportunities for discussing projects, sharing reading material, and even
working on common research projects. (Daniel)
While Daniel’s comments highlight very specific skills development

opportunities, it implies a counter-productive stance and being an active
member of the community who both enjoy benefits and contribute to
others. Ceren, on the other hand, stresses the one-way benefit flow from
the community to herself by saying ‘I have been attending conferences,
professional development trainings, seminars, workshops etc. I also fol-
low online platforms to be informed about the current issues and trends
in my profession’ and conceptualizes these communities as those that
established and sustained by others for public use rather than as those
that are co-constructed by the participating members. Rehana, who sees
online communities as transnational venues, echo’s Ceren and say ‘I per-
sonally feel we have huge opportunities to learn in current times. I keep
updated by participating in webinars, MOOCs courses, Reading research
papers on several websites, Keeping updated national events in the field’.
This also implies that these online communities are offered for public use,
an instrumentalist view of using resources rather than an integrationist
and developmentalist one. The former lacks an essential aspect for the
sustainability of the communities, namely the sense of ownership, which
creates stronger bonds with the community.
These communities are also viewed as social venues where people think
they can initiate interconnection, but the view above seem to imply that
such memberships may not involve deeper collaboration but a system of
sustainable networking. Although there is a great opportunity to develop
transnational network, these networks may not always organize to co-
focus on projects that involve making it fully mutual and create and build
capacity and knowledge. Jennifer, in her comments, highlights a key dif-
ference in her understanding of the meaning of international and trans-
national, which is markedly different from the above interpreted views.
She says:
In my research on transmigration and transnationals the “trans” empha-

sizes commitment and community membership—on a sustained period—
across two or more places. Since 2008, I have been collaborating with
colleagues in Colombia, particularly in Bogotá. We have visited each oth-
er’s classes and university programs; developed course assignments together;
had our students share their work; and have co-authored articles and chap-
ters and co-presented at conferences [let me know if you’d like to see some
of our manuscripts]. In one of our research projects, I conducted some
interviews in Spanish—this was a HUGE learning experience and oppor-
tunity for me. Then, trying to write articles in English involved some really
interesting challenges in terms of analysis and interpretation. (Jennifer)
Jennifer highlights the sustainable commitment, goal-orientedness,

and mutually functioning relationships for a strong transnational rela-
tionship, which highlights the mutually transformative influence involv-
ing multiple partners from diverse intellectual background.
I have just begun what I hope will be a transnational project with new col-
leagues in Pakistan. Again, the “trans” means going back and forth and
with activities happening in both countries. It’s been really exciting to be
with one of my key partners in her home in Karachi as well as her US resi-
dence in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Jennifer)
Sue on the other hand points to another key notion, namely devotion
to communities she has been partaking over a long period of time. She
describes herself as an opportunity creator and positions her as someone
who benefit others.
This type of volunteer and PD initiative is very much a part of my profes-

sional life. For many years I have devoted myself to helping F/SL teachers
develop their language assessment literacy. In this capacity, I developed a
curriculum and a handbook to go along with it and have done
“Fundamentals of Language Assessment” events (FLAs) in over 25 coun-
tries worldwide. Many of these events were supported by ETS, US DOS
and ILTA grants to help defray costs and help participants attend the
events. FLAs are mostly face-to-face events but we have run the program a
few times online with less success in terms of completion rates. (Sue)
It is evident here that the word ‘transnational’ has been interpreted in

three major ways. One implies ‘multimembership’ (Lave & Wenger,
1991), which could influence ways of thinking, doing, and being, as has
been described by Daniel, Rehana, and Ceren. Another, as Jennifer
described themselves to be, implies transnational communities as those
that are socially and jointly constructed social and living entities that are
in the constant process of mutual influence. The other is the position that
Sue described for herself by highlighting the efforts to build capacity in
transnational contexts with the resources she has, but it is worth noting
that as opposed to the first group she self-positioned her role in creating
and finding opportunities rather than receiving benefits from these
contexts.
L earning and Development Opportunities

in Transnational Initiatives
The second theme that emerged from the data was concerned with learn-
ing and development opportunities in transnational initiatives which
have several sub-themes that offer insightful aspects of contributions for
various participants.
Sense of Privilege, Identity, and Sense of Self-Awareness
Jennifer, despite her long-standing experience in the field and in transna-

tional initiatives, stressed the privilege she thought she was granted within
these communities: ‘I love all of them! I am so fortunate and privileged
to have these opportunities [referring to transnational initiative she was
involved]. I was born and raised in a working-class family and not many
of my family members have interest in global issues/awareness’. She also
describes how she established and designed transnational projects for her
students and created opportunities to identify with their sense of self by
comparing and contrasting the two contexts that seems markedly differ-
ent, namely media/cultural representations of women.
Oh! they enrich my curriculum and research in too many ways to count. I
am a US-based teacher educator and work with pre- and in-service teachers
who are predominantly White, monolingual English speakers who have
had limited experiences with people different from themselves. My inter-
national/transnational experiences make their ways into my syllabi—
whether as new assignments and/or readings. For example, this past
semester a group of 5 of my students (again, in the US), were able to part-

ner with my Pakistani colleagues on project where women in both coun-
tries shared their perspectives on media/cultural representations of women
in their countries and how this affected their sense of self. (Jennifer)
Learning about ‘women representation’ in the global arena essentially

requires recognizing other cultures and individuals who could increase
the chances of critical and cross-cultural interpretation. On the other
hand, Ceren, who was more aligned with the instrumentalist view, men-
tioned how she might be undergoing identity shifts as a result of her
membership with these communities by saying: ‘They [referring to trans-
national communities] help use reconstruct our identity, beliefs, percep-
tions, understanding and practices not only as a teacher but also as an
individual. We explore our own potentials again while experiencing and
expertizing at the same time’. The depth and breadth of the potential
impact she reported is important in that for individuals to change these
internal and cognitive process should be enacted, which creates self-regu-
lated room for practical changes.
Raising Intercultural Awareness and Positive Emotions
Jennifer and Carol, who are engaged in transnational projects in the US

context, highlight the potentially emerging influence on the develop-
ment of intercultural awareness. Carol describes how transnational initia-
tives could be illuminating for these partaking in the projects and satisfy
their curiosity about the mystery of cultural differences.
I appreciate the opportunities to interact with people from cultural con-

texts different from my own. I enjoy learning about other people and their
cultures, and I appreciate the different perspectives that they illuminate on
both their cultures and our greater US culture. (Carol)
In the same way, Jennifer, who perceives transnational projects as

intercultural experiences, describes their role in cultivating understand-
ing and peace among people by saying: ‘I believe intercultural experi-
ences are crucial to nurturing a more tolerant and peaceful world. My
experiences have helped me develop a global citizen identity and mind-

set’. Along similar lines, Carol expresses the mutual cultural illumination
that could be enjoyed by saying: ‘In Pakistan, I was amazed by the level
of dedication and civic engagement of so many people I met, in addition
to their professionalism. I think both of these experiences inspire me to
try harder to do research that includes “the studied” in meaningful ways
and to extend the impact of my work’. Likewise, Daniel stresses the role
of such transnational projects or opportunities in offering intercultural
dialogues by saying: ‘Even though I’m now based in the UK, my main
focus in terms of learning opportunities for myself and for colleagues is
still set in Argentina and South America. These opportunities help us
cross physical boundaries and engage in more context-responsive and
intercultural dialogues’.
xploring Multiple Perspectives and Becoming Open-Minded,

E
and Develop New Understanding
The comments also revealed the potential effect on developing multiple

perspectives through co-participation and co-dialogue in transnational
initiatives. Rehana, for example, stressed this asset clearly by coupling it
with the increased professional learning opportunities:
Professionally, you need to remain alive. If you stop, you wither away.
Therefore, these are the opportunities I have managed to find and use for
myself. Most of them offer a number of learning opportunities and the best
part is that you can avail them from the comfort of home and at your own
convenience. The discussion forums in these courses are an amazing way to
learn more and explore multiple perspectives. (Rehana)
Malcolm expressed the role of such experiences in making the partici-

pants more open-minded, collaborative, and social by saying: ‘I think
they help me to be more open minded and to have a richer experience
and understanding of my work. After all, people learn and teach English
to facilitate cooperation across national borders and to share stories across
cultures’. Jennifer similarly focuses on the perspectival expansion in
understanding and the growth in awareness, as well as the mutual trust

that she has established by saying:
My students shared how the experience gave them a better, richer under-
standing of Pakistani and Muslim women and cultures. And they named
ways they would bring this awareness to their future classrooms. In my
TESOL methods and curriculum courses, my international/transnational
experiences help me infuse a more English as an International Language
(EIL) perspective into my classroom. Also, my experiences help me bring
our local immigrant/diaspora communities into my classes. I’ve been able
to build trust more quickly with our Latinx communities (in NH) by shar-
ing my work and experience in Colombia, in Mexico, in Ecuador.
(Jennifer)
Daniel also refers to professional development and learning as well as

enriched understanding of profession that he has built on through these
opportunities characterized by the twenty-first-century skills including
criticality, creativity, and collaboration. He also stresses the need for pub-
licizing the local experiences and individuals through the access to these
venues. He says:
I get to hear teachers’ stories, teachers in “the frontline”, teachers who are
not academics. Then, I learn from them, and I can tell my own students
about these teachers’ stories so as to remind ourselves of the nexus between
theory and research, our (sometimes colluding/imposing) agendas in the
ELT industry/field, and the need to make our discussions connected in
detail with practice. I share these reflections with my student-teachers so
that we maintain the pedagogical aims above everything else. These oppor-
tunities, thus, have an influence in terms of trying to be more reflective,
more critical, more creative, and more aware of the local knowledge and
expertise around me. (Daniel)
He mentions the opportunities he has been granted in these commu-

nities ranging from learning from other to sharing his own story and
experiences for further scrutiny to social influence.
ustainability in Learning, Source of Motivation,

S
Confidence, Inspiration
Another key role of transnational initiatives in influencing people was the

opportunity to sustain learning as part of professional development. Ema
described this aspect by saying: ‘The network that I have built up over the
years serves the interests of my colleagues and students. Frankly speaking,
they are the ones who keep me going, if it had been just for me, I would
have stopped long ago’. She also stresses that her own network also ben-
efited her colleagues which created a contextual positive influence via her
own engagement in these initiatives. Rehana also makes a similar remark
focusing on the motivational support that could be nurtured and again
the indirect effect of such engagement on his learners when he keeps
learning and develops new knowledge.
They keep me intrinsically motivated, as a result of which I’m always trying

out new ways with my learners; they keep me attuned to changes, they help
me explore newer strategies and keep me excited about teaching. (Rehana)
Rehana also mentions above the emotional aspect closely involved in

learning by saying he sustains his excitement about teaching. Ceren refers
to another emotional dimension as a result of being in these environ-
ments. She highlights the sense of self-confidence in multiple pedagogical
and research-related areas. She says:
I feel myself more self-confident. While making decisions I can evaluate

the issues not only based on my beliefs and experiences but also based on
the academic research findings. I approach the issues that I face from mul-
tiple perspectives. I do focus on solutions rather than problems and solve
the puzzles more easily. (Ceren)
Sue on the other hand expresses her resulting emotion as gratitude

once she has realized that she has the opportunities and resources which
others may not possess, which could be very useful for the sense of
renewal and self-awareness. She says:
I have been greatly influenced by these experiences. I am currently working

in an area that is well funded and teachers are relatively well paid. We have
the best of everything: classrooms, technology etc. When I go to other
places, I am reminded that others do not have it nearly as lucky as we do.
This realization has helped me feel more grateful for what I have. (Sue)
Another area of emotional dimension was how the social interaction

with the individuals in the transnational initiatives could be self-
challenging. Carol describes how her assumptions about teaching and
learning have been challenged and become more creative. She expresses
the process of self-challenging, revisiting, and reworking own assumptions
by saying:
I think the main influences are to challenge my assumptions about how

people learn and to make me think more creatively about engaging learn-
ers. My “teaching” is all training, all with adult learners, but I still need to
find ways to include active learning, hands-on experiences, and ways for
learners/trainees to assess their own learning. (Carol)
Ema also implies the lifelong professional learning with an expressive

language that implies autonomy in the agency of the engagement within
these communities and she says:
All in all, I can say that each and every time I find a learning opportunity,
I try to make it my own by extending it and creating a space for personal
professional contact and experience sharing. I’ve been pro-active in this
regard and this is how I have gained so much both personally and profes-
sionally. (Ema)
A similar opportunity is engendering professional development involv-

ing perspectival broadening, gaining new insights, and a collective learn-
ing process that touch upon personal intellect, and professional
engagement:
I think we should benefit from these kinds of opportunities to be able to

broaden our horizons, gain new insights, develop various perspectives
which will reflect on our daily teaching practices in a way since these
opportunities and practices help us improve individually, intellectually,

and professionally. (Ceren)
Challenges in Transnational Initiatives
Lack of Interest in Transnational Opportunities
Jennifer laments that there is a lack of interest in potential learning initia-

tives in transnational contexts and describes this as ‘off-putting’ despite
the growing need and trend toward internationalization at tertiary levels
departments. She says:
Hmmm... When I think of immediate colleagues—those in my depart-

ment, only a few have any interest in international/transnational learning
opportunities. This is actually very disheartening, but it matches the find-
ings in research regarding mainstream Teacher Education programs in the
US. While university campuses are promoting internationalization, depart-
ments/schools of education remain the least interested/committed to inter-
cultural experiences and exchanges.
Lack of Resources
As Sue describes, it implies that these entities are to be developed by

experts who have intellectual and supportive resources, which she has
expressed explicitly:
I have been greatly influenced by these (referring to transnational) experi-

ences. I am currently working in an area that is well funded and teachers
are relatively well paid. We have the best of everything: classrooms, tech-
nology etc. When I go to other places I am reminded that others do not
have it nearly as lucky as we do. This realization has helped me feel more
grateful for what I have. (Sue)
This concern also realizes the issue of resourcefulness which is a key

aspect in sustaining transnational practices. We see how the individuals
realizing this necessity work to support these establishments with the

resources that they have to co-create productions and offer facilities and
opportunities for others who do not.
Discussion and Conclusion

The current study demonstrated that TESOL teacher educators develop
sensitivity toward cultural differences, recognize intercultural differences,
and appreciate the emerging intercultural awareness in transnational
projects. In fact, Jennifer considers transnational projects as intercultural
experiences. Daniel too considers transnational projects as an opportu-
nity to engage in context-responsive and intercultural dialogues. This is
also highlighted in Rytivaara et al.’s (2019) study, discussed in the section
“Challenges in Transnational Professional Development”, which showed
that Indonesian future teacher educators were keen to extend their under-
standing of culture in transnational context, which could also initiate a
mutual influence on understanding their own culture from a diverse per-
spective as our study implied. Likewise, as stated earlier in the section
“Role of Cultural Disposition”, Casinader (2018) in his study on the
transcultural capacities of Australian teachers also reveals that transna-
tional teaching experience not only develops their intercultural awareness
but also trains them for context-responsive and intercultural dialogues.
Link with the above is the finding that in transnational projects
TESOL academics reflect on their practices and hence become metacog-
nitively aware of the impact intercultural exchanges have on their profes-
sional, academic identity and attitude toward learning and development
in such contexts. This is noticeable from Malcolm’s assertion that trans-
national experiences make him more open-minded. Along similar lines,
Jennifer showed awareness of her ‘perspectival expansion in understand-
ing and the growth in awareness’. Besides that, Daniel shared how the
projects led to the ‘enriched understanding of the profession’. These
instances from the data provide evidence of the conceptual growth with
regard to changing identities and professional development. This finding
resonates with the finding of Casinader’s (2018) that showed that teach-
ers in transnational contexts developed individual self-awareness of their
knowledge and skills. What is not clear from the data, however, is how
such experiences helped these teacher educators reflect on their own prac-
tices and understandings, that is, is it the learning environment as shown
by Rytivaara et al. (2019), or is it the writing process as claimed by Ball
(2016) that resulted in reflection and increased metacognitive awareness?
We hypothesize that the impact felt as a result of participating in transna-
tional projects could be so powerful that they are urged to revisit their
beliefs and understandings upon encountering internal conflicts that
offer constant dissonance with different ways of working, being, and
knowing as modeled and remodeled by others in transitional setting.
Moreover, as highlighted by the present study, teachers see the concept
of ‘transnational’ as a platform that promotes multimemberships, joint
collaboration, and the creation of further opportunities for benefiting
others. The latter two conceptualizations corroborates with the findings
of Lunenberg et al.’s (2017) study. In their study, as stated earlier in the
section “Joint Responsibility Practices”, they found that teachers as a
result of participating in different transnational communities not only
develop their social collaboration skills but also empower them in further
creating opportunities to benefit others. They also found that practices as
such keep teachers motivated and develop them both personally and pro-
fessionally. These findings verify the findings of the current study that
sees transnational experience as a source of motivation, self-confidence,
and empowerment.
Besides, the findings of the present study regarding the role of transna-
tional professional development practices in giving teachers more insights
about their profession confirms the similar claims made by the existing
literature (Menard-Warwick, 2008). This study claims, as discussed in the
section “Reflection and Self-Awareness”, that teacher education class-
rooms should be made a site to learn from the stories of other teachers.
The present study found similar claims from Daniel who believe that
participating in transnational development practices makes them open-
minded and critical by learning from the stories and experiences of other
teachers.
The findings of the current study also highlight that like other teachers
working in transnational context, TESOL teacher educators also face
challenges as transnational teachers in higher education. The major chal-

lenges underscored by TESOL academics in the current study were lack
of interest in transnational opportunities by tertiary level departments
and lack of resources available for teachers. Challenges like the absence of
attention and interest toward transnational teacher education as found by
the present study stays in harmony with the findings of Dunne and
Wallace’s (2006) study (for details see the section “Challenges in
Transnational Professional Development”). Other challenges like the lack
of resources are different from those highlighted by Bovill et al. (2015).
Hence, the present study contributes to the literature on the challenges in
transnational teaching by highlighting the factor of insufficient resources
as one of the obstacles toward effective transnational professional
development.
We argue that the role of transnational experiences in developing
knowledge and capacity need to be further investigated, which could
offer alternative ways of working as multinational study groups. We con-
ducted a small-scale qualitative study which revealed issues and chal-
lenges, which need to be expanded to offer some generalizable findings
regarding what could be done to promote transnational projects.
Appendix
1. What transnational professional learning opportunities and practices

you engage in?
2. What do you think of these opportunities and practices? How you feel
about them?
3. How do these opportunities and practices influence you as a
teacher/educator?
4. Do you have future plans to develop (further) links to transnational
professional learning? If so, what are these? and why do you
want to do so?
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Bangladeshi English Language Teachers’
Use of Transnational Teacher Training
Anne McLellan Howard
It has been noted that teacher education is at “the forefront of a global

battle” in which increasing communication between countries has led to
increased competition, which in turn causes a call to more effective teach-
ing (Dale, 2014, p. 44). However, the goal of the government for edu-
cated citizens can clash with the local culture (Bruno-Jofré & Johnston,
2014; Dale, 2014). In the case of language teaching, this can be seen in
the widespread adoption of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).
In common with other Asian countries, Bangladesh has mandated CLT
for over 20 years. The attempts to implement it have not been considered
successful, because of poor infrastructure, inadequate training and lan-
guage skills of English teachers, and cultural aspects (Chowdhury &
Kabir, 2014; Hamid & Erling, 2016; Rahman, 2015). A difficult fit with
Asian contexts (Littlewood, 2007; Nunan, 2003) may also play a part. It
seems clear that this is what Hamid and Nguyen (2016) refer to as a
“policy dump” in which policy is made on the macro level and classroom
teachers at the micro level are left to figure out how to put it into practice.
A. McL. Howard (*)

Miyazaki International College, Miyazaki, Japan
e-mail: ahoward@sky.miyazaki-mic.ac.jp

64 A. McL. Howard
Many different types of teacher training have been implemented in

attempts to bridge the gap, with varying levels of success. This research is
an attempt to investigate the ways in which teachers are using self-
initiated transnational teacher training to implement CLT in their class-
rooms. Implementation of CLT may require a high level of motivation as
well as special circumstances. Even teachers who fit this description and
felt favorably toward CLT felt a great degree of difficulty due to the local
culture. In their responses the teachers oriented to CLT and concepts
related to CLT as the salient point of transnational teacher training, and
they discussed their difficulties with it, and its meaning for them as pro-
fessionals and Bangladeshi teachers. Because the training is delivered by
non-Bangladeshi professionals, it brings to the foreground the fact that
CLT has its origin outside of Bangladesh, and has an uneasy fit with
Bangladeshi classrooms and culture. As the training is undertaken by the
teachers using their own time and, if necessary, money, it is possible to see
the ways in which motivated teachers grapple with the differences of
classroom environment and culture which can make CLT difficult to
implement in the classroom.
For the purpose of this research I am defining the training as “transna-
tional” because it was delivered either outside of Bangladesh or by non-
Bangladeshi people, and because the participants, while having positive
feelings about the concepts of the training, were clearly conscious of these
concepts as non-Bangladeshi in origin. While CLT is a national educa-
tional policy in Bangladesh, this research deals with people and concepts
on the level of the classroom, and how border-crossing ideas take shape
there. It also explores the issue of how this training affects the teachers’
professional identity.
Literature Review
As studies involving transnationalism very commonly deal with diaspora
(Vertovec, 1999, 2009), within the field of education transnationalism is
often discussed in terms what Duff calls “mobile users of language” (2015,
p. 59), that is, focusing on language use in a transnational context (e.g.
Warriner & Wyman, 2013), or the experiences of students and teachers
Bangladeshi English Language Teachers’ Use of Transnational… 65
who have crossed borders and the implications of this for teaching
(Hébert, 2014; Warriner, 2017). This chapter will focus on teaching
practices and the ways in which these are adapted to a local context after
having crossed a border. It has been noted that ideas which originate in
another country are not usually adopted without being changed for a
local context (Appadurai, 1996; Vertovec 1999, 2009), and Toukan,
Gaztambide-Fernández, and Anwaruddin (2017) have noted the com-
plexities of cross-border curricular changes in particular. Leder and
Barucha (2015) have described the process of implementing transna-
tional teaching goals in situations where there is little buy-in at the micro
level. In this case teachers may not have much incentive to adopt the
ideas, and there may be knowledge gaps as well. This chapter describes
the use of techniques or methods that have their origin outside of
Bangladesh by highly educated teachers who are taking the training on
their own initiative and thus are motivated to make use of its content.
The training discussed in this chapter is self-initiated, and the teachers
referred to professionalism and agency when describing their motivation,
sometimes with reference to teachers who lack those things. Professionalism
and agency are important components of a teacher’s identity. The ques-
tion of identity with respect to a teacher’s investment in a method or
technique is quite complex, particularly in this case when the teachers are
outside of English-speaking western countries, or the center, in
Canagarajah’s (1999a; 1999b, p. 4) term. Varghese, Morgan, Johnston,
and Johnson (2005), in their overview of theoretical viewpoints on iden-
tity, point out the issues of marginalization, the status of the non-native
speaker, and the status of the profession as being issues that call for fur-
ther study. In Varghese’s study (Varghese et al., 2005), she shows that
agency is a crucial factor in establishing teacher identity. Canagarajah
(1999b) has noted the agency of teachers in resisting the dominant dis-
course of English, and Anwaruddin (2017) has shown the way in which
teacher training and an over-reliance on “methodism” can remove agency
from the teacher. Kanno and Norton (2003) examined the role of imag-
ined communities in language learning and the way that these can act as
a motivating tool for learners. Imagined communities in this case draws
on Anderson (1991) and Wenger (1999) to describe communities that
learners may feel they belong to, without having actual physical contact
66 A. McL. Howard
with all, or any, of the other members. Kanno and Norton point out that
these communities are not fantasy, in that there is a possibility of actual
belonging, and that they are rule bound, with the individual having an
idea of things they need to do or accomplish in order to belong to that
community. Pavlenko (2003) draws on this same concept to describe the
changing identities of teacher trainees, as they claim membership first as
non-native speakers and then, with changing awareness, as bilingual
teachers. Both Kanno and Norton and Pavlenko point out that imagined
identities and imagined communities can have a large effect on a teacher’s
motivation or willingness to buy in to a certain way of teaching.
It became obvious throughout the data collection that for the teachers,
the most important part of the transnational teacher training was that it
dealt with CLT. Although the participants’ view of CLT was uniformly
positive, many researchers are critical of it (e.g. Canagarajah, 1999a;
Morgan, 2016). Canagarajah (1999b) notes that a dominant discourse of
the west “progressing” from product-oriented to process-oriented peda-
gogical styles automatically casts product-oriented styles as more regres-
sive, and that product-oriented, transmission-based ways of teaching can
come to be associated with authoritarianism and traditional ways of
thinking. However, CLT has been educational policy since 1996, although
it does not seem to have been realized at the classroom level, for many
reasons. In Bangladesh the place of CLT is complicated by issues of lin-
guistic imperialism, cultural compatibility, top-down policy making, and
the place of English in a postcolonial culture (Chowdhury & Kabir, 2014;
Chowdhury & Phan, 2008; Hamid & Erling, 2016; Rahman, 2015). In
part this may be because of the tension between a view of English as the
language of colonialism and an awareness of English as a global language
which is necessary for economic growth of the country and is seen as
desirable by many of its citizens (Chowdhury & Phan, 2008; Hamid &
Erling, 2016). There is the added complication of Bangladesh’s unclear
and politically influenced language education policies (Chowdhury &
Kabir, 2014). CLT does not seem to have been realized at the classroom
level, for many reasons including poor infrastructure, inadequate training
and language skills of English teachers, and cultural aspects (Chowdhury
& Kabir, 2014; Chowdhury & Phan, 2008; Hamid, 2010, 2011; Hamid
& Erling, 2016; Hamid & Nguyen, 2016; Rahman, 2015).
Transnational Teacher Training in Bangladesh

To bridge the gap between policy and classroom, various types of teacher
training from non-Bangladeshi sources have been used. The most preva-
lent way is through the several donor-funded teacher training projects
that have been implemented in Bangladesh with mixed success (Hamid,
2010). This type of training is funded by foreign aid and may involve
foreign trainers. This type might be more precisely termed international
teacher training, as it involves actors on the national level (Toukan et al.,
2017). Transnational self-initiated training can be conducted by a foreign
entity, such as the British Council; it can actually take place outside of
Bangladesh with the teacher participating remotely, or it can involve
non-Bangladeshi trainers. It can also be a combination of any of these.
This type of self-initiated transnational teacher training can be divided
into two types: online options, such as a Massive Open Online Course
(MOOC), and various types of in-person options. The British Council
offers courses, including a Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of
Other Languages (CELTA) course, for a fee, as well as free materials such
as computer applications.
Teachers Helping Teachers (THT) is a Japan-based organization that
offers workshops throughout Asia, in partnership with the Bangladesh
English Language Teachers’ Association (BELTA), a national teaching
organization. The workshop leaders are largely self-funded, and they
choose the content of their workshops, based on their own areas of inter-
est and expertise. The workshops are generally offered for a nominal fee
to anyone who wishes to attend, and they are attended by teachers from
a wide variety of teaching contexts, students, and occasionally non-
teachers who wish to practice English. The workshops are generally con-
ducted over a two-day period in Dhaka, and then a one-day workshop is
offered in another BELTA chapter, the location of which differs each year.
Previous topics of workshops include basic ways of teaching vocabulary
and grammar in a participatory manner, process writing, formative assess-
ment, teaching large classes, and using games.
68 A. McL. Howard
Method
Interviewing was selected as a method to examine the question of the

ways in which Bangladeshi teachers were making use of the transnational
teacher training. By using interview data, it is possible to see the ideas
about the training that are relevant to the teacher, and to understand the
ways in which the teacher sees their own teaching. Before conducting the
interviews, a survey was done in order to prepare concepts for the inter-
views. It became clear through the survey that the teachers were orienting
to CLT as being the salient point delivered in the training, and thus the
ways in which teachers were dealing with CLT in their classrooms was a
focus of the interview.
A survey was distributed through the social media page of a Bangladeshi
professional organization. Forty-two responses were obtained. Of these,
29 indicated a willingness to answer further questions. When these
respondents were contacted, 15 confirmed willingness to be interviewed
and 7 completed the interview process. Because of difficulties with con-
nectivity as well as the time difference between Bangladesh and Japan,
participants were given the choice of Skype or email for the interview
format, and only two chose Skype. After having the participants sign an
informed consent form, an initial set of questions was sent to each par-
ticipant, and follow-up questions were answered by email as well. The
Skype interviews were recorded by hand by the researcher. Both the sur-
vey and interview responses were given in English, and they are recorded
here as written, except where clarification is needed.
The instructions of the survey informed the participants that the
researcher was part of THT, and in addition she is known to several of the
participants. Participants were informed that the research was being con-
ducted individually and not on behalf of THT, and the questions dealt
with all different types of transnational teacher training, defined as
teacher training delivered mostly by non-Bangladeshis. However, it is a
possibility that the researcher’s connection with such a group led the par-
ticipants to respond in a more positive way than they would have to a
researcher unaffiliated with the group. In addition, it is likely that partici-
pants who had a positive experience with the training and who found it
useful for their classes would be more motivated to respond. (The survey
and interview questions are included in the Appendices.)
Survey Results
Participants and Their Teaching Contexts
Of the 42 people who answered the survey, 19 identified themselves as

women and 22 as men, and 1 chose not to answer. Most of the respon-
dents fell between the ages of 23 and 48, with one 75-year-old respon-
dent outside of this range. The teachers on the whole had a high level of
education. All but 2 of 41 respondents who answered this question had
gone beyond a four-year degree to a master’s degree, and 1 had
obtained a PhD.
Pre-tertiary schools fall into three types. Government schools are
mostly Bangla medium, although there are “English Version” schools
which teach the government curriculum in Bangla. In addition, there are
Islamic religious schools, or madrasahs. There are three levels: primary
school through grade 6, lower secondary through grade 10, and college
through grade 12. English is compulsory in Bangla-medium schools
from the first grade. The participating teachers were almost evenly split
between English-medium (18) and Bangla-medium (20) schools, and
additionally there were 2 who taught in English Version schools and 1
from a madrasah. Their years of experience ranged from 1 to 21 years, but
only 11 had been teaching for more than 10 years. Seven teachers taught
in primary school, one in a professional school and fifteen teachers each
for secondary, college, and university. (Many teachers of course work in
more than one of these contexts.) Most, 64.3%, had never taken any
higher education outside of Bangladesh. Of those that had, two had
received MAs and two postgraduate diplomas. One person had a CELTA
and the others had short-term courses.
Experience with Transnational Training
Seventy-nine percent of the respondents had had some sort of transna-

tional training within Bangladesh, and this was evenly split between
online training such as a MOOC and in-person training, with 22
70 A. McL. Howard
respondents selecting each of these answers. Seven others specified

another course, which seemed to be in-person. Ninety-four percent of
these respondents said they had changed their teaching on the basis of
this training. On the nature of the change, 83.9% selected class manage-
ment, 54.8% selected a specific class or activity, and 58.1% selected a way
of assessment. One person wrote in “making an effective lesson plan,
syllabus.”
The respondents were asked to elaborate on the change, and 28 people
provided more information. Of these, although CLT was not directly
mentioned in the survey, a majority 15 people mentioned teaching com-
municatively, teaching in groups, making the class more student centered
or making classes more lively. These answers included “Have become
more learner friendly” and “I make my class an interactive one. I mean
my students learn by doing. Students can speak in English now.” Five
people stated that they had changed assessment techniques after having
taken the training. The other answers were difficult to categorize, usually
because of vagueness, such as “I have remodeled the course content of
one course at MA level.”
Eighty-three percent of these teachers said that they had to adjust the
changes to their context. When asked to elaborate, their responses fell
into five broad categories: class size, time constraints, language, assess-
ment, and context. Five teachers said that they had to adapt it to fit a
larger class size, for example: “We have a huge number of students in each
class, so it is not possible to motivate and cooperate each and every
learner.” Time was also a factor. One teacher noted, “Sometimes I could
not give proper feedback that I want due to time & number of students.
Then I focus on the topic only rather than focusing on grammatical mis-
takes.” The language at times had to be adjusted for the students’ level, or
to fit the goals of the class, for example: “Blended the text with online
materials thinking of the traditional question pattern for the school/
board exams.” Six teachers mentioned assessment, in various different
ways: peer assessment, rubric assessment, and speaking and listening
assessment (rather than writing only) were each noted once. Sometimes
participants noted a combination of several factors.
From the survey results it became clear that the teachers strongly iden-
tified the transnational teacher training with CLT and ideas associated
with it. This is interesting in that CLT was not referenced in the survey at
all; and THT workshops, which most of the respondents discussed, do
not always directly deal with CLT or student-centered techniques. The
survey also showed that there were difficulties with adapting the tech-
niques shown in the training to local contexts, as almost all teachers had
to adapt them to one extent or another. One of the goals of the interview
was to obtain more detailed information on the types of adapting that the
teachers had done, as well as to gain insights on such things as why the
teachers had been motivated to take the training.
Interview
Participants
Seven of the 42 survey respondents agreed to be interviewed by Skype or

email. The initial questions asked them to elaborate on their motivation
for taking the training, the way they changed their class following the
training, any adjustment that had to be made, and how they saw the
result of the change in their classroom.
The seven participants were all under 40, with Haleem at 27 being the
youngest, and all but one had less than 10 years of English teaching expe-
rience. Only one participant had not completed an MA. In terms of
teaching contexts they were more dissimilar, representing all different
types of Bangladeshi education (Table 1).
Motivation and Identity
In discussing motivation it became clear that the teachers’ self-image and

agency was quite important. They mentioned developing their own
expertise, their devotion to the profession, and their efforts to solve prob-
lems. Of the seven participants who were interviewed, all but one men-
tioned that they had taken the training of their own volition or to address
a personal need. Several mentioned learning new techniques or strategies.
Abhoy noted, “The techniques and strategies are also one of the main
72 A. McL. Howard
Table 1 Participant demographic information

Participants’
pseudonyms Gender Age Degree Years Context
Haleem M 27 MA 5 English-/Bangla-medium
college and madrasah
Imran M 33 MA 3 English-version primary and
secondary school
Maryam F 30 MA 1 Private university
Nadia F 31 MA 9 University
Rafiq M 37 MA 12 English-/Bangla-medium
college and university
Abhoy M 33 BA 8 English-medium college
Zara F 38 MA 3 English-medium primary
school
attractions from this kind of session.” Some teachers also mentioned a

love of teaching and desire to increase skill. In Nadia’s words, “I was self-
motivated. I just wanted to provide my students with something better
and more knowledgeable.” Maryam, the youngest in the profession, spe-
cifically made reference to being Bangladeshi and improving Bangladeshi
education: “Because I love teaching as well as my students. Even I know
if we, the newly appointed teachers, do not make change then it will not
promote our education system.” In the interview Haleem explicitly con-
trasted his own level of professionalism with other Bangladeshi teachers:
“Especially teachers in our country they think that, they have a disease
that is I know everything. So always they think I have everything I knew
everything I don’t need to learn after completing my graduation. . . .I
participated in many programs especially in British Council and online
programs and I communicated with some international trainers and I
learned many things from online also and …I’m really interested to learn
something from anywhere.” He also later mentions opportunities he has
had to make friends with non-Bangladeshi teachers, and that he contacts
them for teaching advice. Some participants noted a particular problem
that they felt the training had addressed. Rafiq explained, “My lectures
could not serve the need of the students effectively as my class size was
large. I wanted to find or devise ways to teach my students of large class-
room effectively.” Similarly, Abhoy noted, “Since the students of higher
secondary sections have to deal with a lot of grammar items, most of the
time they get bored and annoyed.” Imran was the only participant to
explicitly mention that he wanted to take training because of the possibil-
ity that he could make a higher salary, but added that he is also motivated
to develop himself as a teacher: “But I myself feel that what I am learning
or what I am getting out of those seminars or from those courses or
degrees I have to apply them in my teaching, otherwise I will not develop
myself.” In these excerpts we can see that some of the teachers are moti-
vated by their own image of themselves as competent teachers who are
interested in professional development, and thus are inspired to take
training that has its origin outside of Bangladesh.
lassroom Changes that Were Made as a Result

C
of the Training
Teachers without exception mentioned an approach—a more active,

student-centered classroom—when asked the actual changes they had
made in their classroom. This contrasts with their stated initial motiva-
tion for taking the training, which was learning specific techniques.
Nadia, who taught a class on using technology in the classroom, com-
mented “Mostly, the course was theoretical. After the training, I changed
the class into mostly practical.” Most of the classes described were lan-
guage classes, to which teachers also made changes. Abhoy mentioned
giving students more control: “Usually I had to keep a control over the
whole class which was more like teacher dominated but after getting the
training from the THT team, I could learn about the benefits of a student
centered classroom . . . The exercises which were more like regular prac-
tice tasks were modified to challenging tasks specifically done by the stu-
dents themselves.” Zara also specifically discussed participation: “During
the transnational teacher training, I motivated about the implication of
participatory method through different activities and training.”
There were only two participants who mentioned specific techniques
in addition to learner-centered classes The first is Rafiq: “From the train-
ing I came to understand that the students of my English classes were
missing two things: (1) participatory classes; (2) Necessary tools or means
to learn the standard pronunciation of English understood by the world
74 A. McL. Howard
. . . I started to make my classes participatory using “group study” and

‘group presentation.’” He related another specific technique later:
“Specifically, I stole the method of handling a large classroom prescribed
in a training session by a foreign teacher in [a regional capital].” Rafiq also
noted that he found specific ways of teaching by example through attend-
ing the training, specifically through use of slides and “engaging method
of teaching.” The other participant was Imran, who taught an entire unit
based on his CELTA training, adapting the content to fit his students’
textbook.
Results of the Change

to the Classroom Teaching
The teachers unanimously reported positive results which is unsurprising
for a number of reasons. It is likely that mostly teachers who had success
with transnational teacher training would have been motivated to answer
the survey and interview, in addition to the fact that the researcher is
known to the participants as a THT resource person. Moreover, teachers
who spend both time and money to attend training are more probably
predisposed to find good results. The teachers generally noted changes in
language skills as well as other behavior. Nadia, teaching the use of tech-
nology, saw a change in the students due to the changes she made:
“Previously, they couldn’t surf the Internet properly, now they can use
technology better.” Other teachers saw differences in various things. Rafiq
saw both changes in proficiency and the way he was able to teach: “The
changes I made in my teaching method have bolstered the teaching out-
come, I guess, up to 25%.” Abhoy noted changes in proficiency and atti-
tude: “The students get more motivated and interested in the tasks. . .
Since it was more student centered, they developed a sense of leadership
quality.” Zara also saw differences in attitude: “The change was really suc-
cessful cause I think this change made my students active and cooperative
in the classroom.” Only Maryam, who mentions that she is a novice
teacher, reports mixed results, although she attributes them to the stu-
dents: “20% of the students easily learn, 30% students try to learn and
50% students are unsuccessful because they are reluctant to adapt those
change. I think this depends on student’s quality.” Imran, also, reported
mixed but mostly positive results.
ealing with Differences in Roles

D
and Cultural Expectations
In describing either the changes that were made or the way they had to
adapt the content of the professional development, several teachers men-
tioned difficulties that they had had due to differences in the roles of
teachers and students in Bangladesh. Mostly, teachers reported that stu-
dents were uncomfortable with the new style of teaching or did not know
how to respond. As Maryam said, “They are improving day by day but
the growth of improvement is too slow. Because they do not enjoy these
[student-centered] strategies . . . Actually in Bangladesh students keep
silent in the classroom and teachers talk in the class for the whole time.”
Abhoy noted, “I faced [a] few difficulties . . . the concept of student cen-
tered teaching was a new thing for my students.” Maryam reported inter-
personal conflict. “Sometimes I usually make some groups to learn about
a topic and in those particular groups there might be one mentor or
leader who can understand the topic well and who can lead their particu-
lar group well. But sometimes students do not agree to accept the class-
mate’s viewpoint or leadership.” Abhoy saw hesitation among his students:
“Sometimes taking initiatives or decisions regarding learning process
seemed very odd to them. . . So this hesitation also caused pauses in their
spontaneous decision making. Again, they often became afraid of taking
decisions of their own as they had never done it before.” Haleem had a
few problems managing his very large class when he started using pair
work and group work. “Sometimes when I . . . intend to start my stu-
dents cannot get it clearly, so I have to instruct them several times, because
most of the students, this was their first time and they had no idea about
groupwork or pairwork in the classroom . . . and the first time some stu-
dents listened to my instruction but some students were chatting with
each other.”
76 A. McL. Howard
The teachers were able to use various strategies to overcome the prob-
lems caused by the students’ unfamiliarity or culturally based discomfort
with the more student-centered approach. Haleem, who had a very large
class, tried to keep students engaged enough that they would participate
in the class and not be disruptive. Haleem remarked, “When they can
start talking to others, at that time I cannot control them. . . I try to
engage them in work and I tried to capture their attention when I think
they feel bored. At that time I changed the topic or changed the activi-
ties.” Abhoy, whose students lacked confidence to participate in the more
active way his new approach required, tried various activities to get them
used to the new way of teaching: “I introduced project based assignment
where the students are assigned in a group of 4. My job was to monitor
their process. They were the actual decision makers.” One respondent to
the survey also wrote at length about interpersonal strategies to get stu-
dents used to the new way of teaching: “[M]y classroom size is of 150
students. Group works are a sort of chaos. So, I made groups with the
selected students randomly at first. . . Instead of asking all groups to pres-
ent their works, I deliberately ask the weaker groups to present. I tactfully
find out the weak areas of all the student and address the common ones.”
Imran did not report large problems, but he also had to think of strategies
to deal with cultural expectations: “On the A side [of a card] I put the
picture, on the B side I wrote the spelling, also the pronunciation and the
stress . . . the students didn’t get what I am doing because the B side faced
me. I knew if the students saw what I was doing from the B side they
might lose their interest because in my country the students have a men-
tality that teachers should know all of the things and sometimes we have
to do tricky things.”
Two respondents handled the negative reaction of their students to the
new way of teaching by integrating the new style with the accustomed
one. One respondent to the survey wrote “Say for instance, for pairwork
and group work, many of my students (whose proficiency level is high),
who don’t like to take part in, are given liberty to do individual work.”
Another teacher mentioned “1. Often, I use Bangla . . . when students
don’t get my instructions to save time. 2. I don’t always follow ideal class
procedures such as I often avoid setting context . . .” Maryam came to
conclusion that the innovation might not be right for her students: “So
as a teacher at that time I feel that we should not introduce new concepts
for the betterment of our students and they actually prefer the most typi-
cal teaching system like only lecture based.” Teachers in these circum-
stances had the knowledge and freedom to change or refuse the content
of the teacher training, which may have contributed to a feeling of own-
ership of the new techniques. One survey respondent noted, “I used the
cheap available tools instead of expensive ones used in tiny classroom in
the western countries,” indicating her awareness that the innovation is
more difficult for her than the facilitators.
One thing that the information from the interviews immediately sug-
gests is that at least some of the teachers have an unusual circumstance
that more easily allows them to make use of the training. One of the more
striking things is low class size. THT workshop participants regularly
report having to teach over 100 students, with some participants stating
that they teach 200 or 300 students per class. In contrast, three of the
interviewees reported having a very small class, from 8 to 55 students.
Rafiq had 200, which he characterized as “horrible,” and Haleem had
variable class sizes which could run to hundreds. Abhoy also had a mod-
ern classroom with technological equipment and moveable desks and
chairs. Imran actually asked his headmaster if he could teach four extra
classes, outside of the regular curriculum, in which he could put into
practice the ideas he had learned, and he was teaching at a school where
parents wanted their children to have the extra instruction. Teachers
mentioned in their interviews how important these circumstances were
to adopting the training, Abhoy saying that he was lucky for his small
class, and Imran noting that in an ordinary class he would never have
been able to develop his ideas.
Conclusion
This study found that the participating teachers felt positive about the
ways of teaching they learned through transnational teacher training.
They were conscious of the problems with implementing the training in
their classrooms, and attributed its success to their own work dealing
with these problems. Some of them were able to feel a sense of
78 A. McL. Howard
professional pride, both for taking the training and being able to adapt it.
Further, most of the teachers were aware of the fact that they taught in
special circumstances which allowed for easier adaptation. Although an
encounter with a transnational technique or curriculum can be ineffec-
tual or negative, it was not the case with these teachers. Kanno and
Norton (2003) have discussed the place of imagined identities and imag-
ined communities in motivating students and teachers, and it may be
that the teachers feel a sense of community: of professional Bangladeshi
teachers or of professional teachers worldwide. This was explicitly noted
by Haleem. Others noted the sense of community they felt with the
trainers, sometimes with reference to their being non-Bangladeshi.
However, although the teachers may still be seeing the west or non-
Bangladeshi trainers as being the “owners” of the more participatory style
of teaching, they may feel a sense of ownership through recognizing
problems and adapting the training.
It is essential that teacher training be suited to the local context in
which the teacher is working (Johnson & Golombek, 2018). In the case
of the local context in Bangladesh, problems with large classes, lack of
time, and inflexible, test-based curricula may contribute to making the
training difficult to adapt in the classroom. The relationship that the
teacher feels to the training in terms of identity and agency is also an
important factor.
The author would like to gratefully acknowledge the help of Dr. Syeda
Farzana Hafsa in preparing this manuscript. Above all, the help of the
seven interviewees is most appreciated.
Appendices
Appendix 1: Survey Questions
1. What is your age as of today?

2. What is your gender?
3. What is your highest level of education?
4. Do you currently teach English in Bangladesh?
5. As of today, what kind of school do you teach at? Select all that apply:
(a) English medium
(b) Bangla medium
(c) Madrasah
(d) Other (please explain)
6. As of today, how long have you been teaching throughout your career?
7. What is the level of students that you currently teach? Select all
that apply:
(a) Primary school
(b) Secondary school
(c) College
(d) University
(e) Other (please explain)
8. Have you received any instruction about language teaching (for
example: short training course, postgraduate degree) outside of
Bangladesh?
9. Please describe any teacher training you received outside of
Bangladesh. [Do not answer this if you answered “no” to Question 5.]
10. Within Bangladesh, have you received any short-term training, either
online or in person, from a non-Bangladeshi person or institution?
11. Select the type of training that you received:
(a) A MOOC or other course conducted online
(b) An in-person course conducted by the British Council, Teachers
Helping Teachers, etc.
(c) Other (please describe)
12. Has the training led you to change the way you teach?
13. Please describe the changes you made.
14. Were you able to directly apply the training you received to your
teaching, or did you have to adjust it?
15. If you adjusted it, please explain how and why.
16. Would you be willing to answer further questions?
80 A. McL. Howard
Appendix 2: Initial Interview Questions
Please answer the questions in as much detail as possible.
1. Please describe the teaching context. (What is the name of the class(es)?
What is the age/level of the students? What is the focus of the
class(es)—writing, grammar, test preparation, etc.? Is there any other
information you would like to give about the class?)
2. How many students are in this class?
3. What motivated you to take the transnational teacher training?
4. What change did you make in your class after having taken the training?
5. What was the motivation for making the change?
6. Specifically, how did you adapt the content of the training in order for
it to fit your class?
7. Why did you need or want to adapt it?
8. What was the outcome for your class? Was the change you made suc-
cessful or unsuccessful? Why do you think so?
9. Is there any other information you would like to give about the use of
transnational teacher training in your class(es)?
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Assessment Literacy: Transnational
Teachers’ Concepts, Practices,
and Professional Development Needs
Samar Almossa
Introduction
Saudi Arabian higher education is an increasingly transnational phenom-
enon in the Middle East, with fast-growing transnational campuses,
internationalised curriculum, and programmes hiring educational service
providers and teaching staff (Barnawi & Le Ha, 2015; Le Ha & Barnawi,
2015). Another face of this transnationalism is the growth of study-
abroad scholarship opportunities, through which Saudi nationals receive
full scholarships to pursue master’s and PhD programmes. In-service
teachers also receive professional development funds, mainly for confer-
ences, seminars, and training both inside and outside the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia (KSA). The Saudi government is increasingly recognising
transnational professionals, Saudis, and expatriates as important partners
in Saudi growth across all sectors. This demonstrates the importance of
the lived learning and teaching experiences of transnational teachers,
S. Almossa (*)
Umm Al-Qura University, Mecca, Saudi Arabia
e-mail: Symossa@uqu.edu.sa

84 S. Almossa
which may impact how they situate their knowledge and practices to the
context in which they find themselves. This study, therefore, focuses on
transnational Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
teachers, given the vital role they play in Saudi higher education.
This research adopted Hill and McNamara’s (2012) definition of
classroom-based assessment (CBA) to refer to both formative and sum-
mative classroom practices: ‘any reflection by teachers (and/or learners)
on the qualities of a learner’s (or group of learners’) work and the use of
that information by teachers (and/or learners) for teaching, learning
(feedback), reporting, management or socialisation purposes’ (p. 396).
Assessment literacy (AL) was understood as teachers’ appropriate knowl-
edge of assessment for formative and summative assessment purposes
(Popham, 2009). Fulcher’s (2012) definition of language AL informed
the present study’s understanding and exploration of teachers’
CBA. Fulcher (2012) defines language AL as:
The knowledge, skills and abilities required to design, develop, maintain or

evaluate, large-scale standardized and/or classroom-based tests, familiarity
with test processes, and awareness of principles and concepts that guide
and underpin practice, including ethics and codes of practice. The ability
to place knowledge, skills, processes, principles and concepts within wider
historical, social, political and philosophical frameworks in order to under-
stand why practices have arisen as they have, and to evaluate the role and
impact of testing on society, institutions, and individuals. (p. 125)
Such awareness on different levels is important for decision makers in

educational institutions and in the Ministry of Education (Ministry of
Higher Education), stakeholder groups, administrators, teachers, stu-
dents, and parents.
This study adopted a sociocultural perspective of learning to examine
transnational teachers’ education concerning conceptions of, and prac-
tices with, CBA in a transnational space. This sociocultural context is
essential for studying teachers’ AL, a fact echoed in the extant literature
(DeLuca, LaPointe-McEwan, & Luhanga, 2016; Firoozi, Razavipour, &
Ahmadi, 2019; Gebril, 2016; Scarino, 2013; Xu & Brown, 2016). Firoozi
et al. (2019) argue that AL components, based on assessment standards
Assessment Literacy: Transnational Teachers’ Concepts… 85
in the context of developed countries, might not adequately mirror teach-

ers’ needs in other contexts, given the variations in educational settings
and policies. Hence, understanding teachers’ AL conceptualisations,
practices, and professional development (PD) needs must be informed
via a sociocultural stance in which ‘assessment culture refers to educa-
tional evaluation practices that are compatible with current ideologies,
social expectations, attitudes and values’ (Inbar-Lourie, 2008, p. 285).
Teachers’ AL must be understood according to assessment practices in
the targeted context (Rea-Dickins, 2006). With this in mind, assessments
may be defined as social activities occurring while a teacher is teaching in
the classroom, discussing a topic, or engaging in collaboration, learning
and training opportunities within the culture where these activities are
noticed and recorded.
TESOL Teacher Education in Saudi Arabia
In Saudi Arabia, TESOL programmes for pre-service and in-service

teachers have developed over the years. Since the King Abdullah
Scholarship Programme was initiated in 2004–5, many TESOL teachers
have been sent abroad to earn master’s and PhD degrees. Nevertheless, in
some Saudi universities, TESOL is integrated into undergraduate and
postgraduate programmes (e.g., education, linguistics, literature), where
it is taught as a subject, rather than as a designated programme. However,
more postgraduate TESOL programmes are being established in Saudi
Arabia (e.g., those at Taif University and King Abdulaziz University).
Some Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) and
Diploma in English Language Teaching to Adults (DELTA) training
courses are also offered in a limited number of Saudi universities.
Noticeably, more professional platforms in the Middle East and North
Africa (MENA) region, designed for pre-service and in-service teachers,
have appeared and expanded in the forms of teaching forums and confer-
ences, such as the TESOL Arabia, English Language Teaching (ELT),
and Applied Linguistics conferences.
Building from this background, the present chapter is constructed as
follows. First, it succinctly reviews the extant AL literature and offers key
86 S. Almossa
information about the study site, data collection, and analysis procedures
for this research. Then, it details the findings, presenting direct quotes
from the participants’ narratives concerning assessment conceptualisa-
tion, assessment practices, and professional development opportunities
in assessment and beyond. Finally, the conclusion delivers the study’s
implications for TESOL transnational teachers’ assessment PD in Saudi
Arabia and similar contexts.
Literature Review
The Assessment-Literate Teacher
Discussions in the literature revolve around the topic of assessment: how

it is defined, how it is theorised, and how assessment standards are
updated. Teachers and students, as two main stakeholders, tend to be
overlooked when decisions are made about assessments in the
psychometric-influenced educational context. The importance of AL in
teachers’ TESOL education is heightened by the influence assessment has
on students’ experiences, academic progress, and success. Further,
assessment-literate teachers make better decisions about the assessment
activities they use, which impact their teaching skills and practices.
Scarino (2013) asserts that exploring AL raises stakeholders’ group aware-
ness of their assessment knowledge and skills.
Assessment position, as a high-stakes accountability tool, has increased
academic interest in teachers’ AL (Popham, 2013). Assessment-literate
educators are expected to know what they are assessing, why they are
assessing it, and how to develop sound assessment (Chappuis, Stiggins,
Chappuis, & Arter, 2011). There has been considerable discussion regard-
ing teachers’ AL (Fulcher, 2012; Inbar-Lourie, 2012; Malone, 2017),
with great emphasis placed on the importance of teachers’ knowledge,
skills, principles, and expertise in using assessment results and the impact
of that knowledge on students in general (Broadfoot, 2008; Malone,
2013; Vogt & Tsagari, 2014) and on students’ AL (Smith, Worsfold,
Davies, Fisher, & McPhail, 2013). Given the role assessment plays in
teaching and learning, teachers are expected to have an adequate under-

standing of several aspects of assessment to effectively develop their teach-
ing and to support their students, respond to students’ needs, and meet
the expectations of stakeholder groups (e.g., policymakers, administra-
tors, students, and parents) (Herrera Mosquera & Macías, 2015).
In the reality of the everyday classroom, teachers experience various
challenges, and they know the limitations and restrictions that control
teaching, learning, and assessment. Numerous studies have raised the
issue that unexperienced teachers’ assessment practices are unsupervised
by experts once teaching actually begins. Several authors state that many
teachers do not like assessment, which results in them designing unsound
tests that do not adhere to effective assessment principles (Brown &
Abeywickrama, 2004; Herrera Mosquera & Macías, 2015; Popham,
2004). According to Coombe, Troudi, and Al-Hamly (2012) teachers
who are not assessment literate are less likely to support students in
achieving high academic standards. In line with this finding, research
indicates that students’ learning outcomes can be heavily affected by poor
decisions made about assessment methods and tasks (Galluzzo, 2005;
Umer, Zakaria, & Alshara, 2018; Volante & Fazio, 2007). Therefore,
there are calls for familiarising pre-service and in-service teachers with
assessment principles, such as practicality, reliability, validity, authentic-
ity, washback impact, and fairness (Bachman & Palmer, 1996; Brown &
Abeywickrama, 2004; Green, 2013; Isaacs, Zara, Herbert, Coombs, &
Smith, 2013). This process of enhancing teachers’ knowledge of sound
assessment principles is beneficial, but it is only practical if it is supported
by institutional training programmes and encouraged by supportive poli-
cymakers. Assessment-literate teachers are expected to focus on what is
assessed (the construct), how it will be assessed (the instrument), and
whether the assessment tasks are aligned with the learning objectives
(responding to learning objectives).
Developing teachers’ AL is an international necessity, yet teachers’
assessment repertoires must be situated in their own sociocultural con-
texts. There are also more calls to consider teachers’ knowledge, skills,
principles, roles in assessment, awareness of tests’ power on students, and
use of assessment results (assessment consequences) (Fulcher, 2012;
Inbar-Lourie, 2012). With the evolution of contemporary assessment
88 S. Almossa
practices, teachers are expected to take a leading role in a partnership

with their students, focusing on summative and formative assessments
(Fulcher, 2012). This raises the importance of assessment-related profes-
sional development programmes.
Assessment in the Saudi Higher Education Context
As there are no published assessment standards in the Saudi higher edu-

cation system, every department is responsible for choosing diverse
assessment methods and tasks for their courses, aligned with the National
Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA)
requirements. The NCAAA documents (see NCAAA, 2015) broadly
define assessment as tests and other assessment tasks, with no further
information provided, which raises concerns over what standards should
be followed. Understanding assessment and its underlying principles in
the Saudi higher education context is, therefore, challenged by a lack of
precise specifications and standards. Consequently, wide variations in
conceptualisation and practical implications are to be expected. Darandari
and Murphy (2013) suggest:
Student assessment in Saudi universities supports a norm-referenced and

summative model and has always done so. Essentially, assessment is seen as
a way of rank ordering students based on what knowledge and skills they
have attained by the end of their subject or programme of study. (p. 61)
Few studies have focused on the higher education systems in the

MENA region (Gebril & Brown, 2014)—specifically in terms of assess-
ment practices across different departments in higher education institu-
tions. Research studies from the Saudi ELT context include small-scale
studies (Almansory, 2016), a quantitative study in an English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) context (Umer et al., 2018), and an analysis of pre-
service teachers’ perceptions of formative assessment (Alaudan, 2014).
The main findings from these studies suggest that summative assessment
is dominant, with a great emphasis on knowledge retrieval questions that
do not require high-order critical thinking. In some cases, where various
assessment tasks were used, standards and task-setting criteria were

lacking.
Compared to the international context, AL in the Saudi higher educa-
tion system is even less widely explored, and further research is needed
(Almoossa, 2018; Darandari & Murphy, 2013). In response, this study
explored assessment knowledge and practices in the ELT field, featuring
transnational teachers. Transnational TESOL teachers play a significant
role, which is apparent in how they carry and present themselves in dif-
ferent places, how they form identities, and how they adopt and innovate
teaching practices and pedagogy (Canagarajah, 2018; Jain, 2014; Selvi &
Rudolph, 2018).
Abundant research has been published concerning teachers’ CBA from
multiple perspectives, guided by established assessment standards in
Western countries. These studies have focused on exploring teachers’
knowledge, experiences, practices, and literacy, but little research has
documented transnational teachers’ PD needs and how these teachers,
with twenty-first-century mobility opportunities, understand and prac-
tise assessment. Given that assessments are barely mentioned in Saudi
educational documents, more data and empirical evidence are necessary
to contextualise assessment specifications, assessment practices, and pro-
fessional development needs. Contextualised research reveals how ideas
are implemented in certain contexts, how they are supported by policy,
and how they could be duplicated in other contexts. To address this gap
in the literature, the present study explored transnational English teach-
ers’ CBA conceptualisation, practices, and PD in the Saudi context. The
questions guiding the research were as follows:
(a) What are transnational teachers’ CBA knowledge and practices in a

Saudi TESOL context?
(b) What kind of professional development have the teachers received,
and what were their needs concerning assessment or other aspects
of TESOL PD?
90 S. Almossa
Methodology
A qualitative research design was adopted to obtain rich information
from the participants, including descriptions of their backgrounds, their
CBA understanding and practices, and their professional development.
This fits this study’s enquiry objectives, as it enabled the participants to
give detailed accounts and descriptions gleaned from their very personal
professional experiences. In line with the theoretical framework, the
sociocultural view the ethnographic approach to data collection adopted
in this study was suitable for capturing ‘the actions of participants on the
basis of their active experience of the world and the ways in which their
actions arise from and reflect back on experience’ (Burgess, 1984, p. 3).
The participants’ insights were the main focus of the research, investigat-
ing how they articulated their understandings of and experiences with
assessment.
Research Site
The research was conducted in an ELC at a Saudi university, one of the

most diverse transnational sites in terms of its academic staff members’
cultural, linguistic, and social backgrounds. The ELCs and English lan-
guage institutes in Saudi Arabia attract and hire teachers from various
countries, more so than any other departments in Saudi universities.
Therefore, job opportunities, with short- and long-term contracts and
benefits, are plentiful.
The Participants
The research participants were seven female, transnational, in-service

English teachers, who were frequent movers and had relocated to Saudi
Arabia. They had accumulated experiences by living in different cultures
and educational settings, which shaped and developed their identities as
professionals. Their teaching experiences ranged between 10 and 20 years,
and they held degrees in linguistics and education.
The participants had decided to work in Saudi Arabia for several inter-
related reasons: financial benefits, religious motives (i.e., performing pil-
grimages, visiting holy mosques, learning Arabic to read the Quran), job
prospects, geographical location, and financial crises in the countries in
which they had previously worked. Saudi Arabia was not their first desti-
nation, as they had already moved globally and throughout the Gulf.
Some had also worked in other cities within Saudi Arabia. Obviously,
these women were very mobile, and constant movement is a global phe-
nomenon for seeking better life opportunities (Villegas-Torres & Mora-
Pablo, 2018). The following subsections describe the participants, whose
names have been anonymised.
Participant 1 (Amani) has a PhD in linguistics and is originally from
Jordan. She has spent 21 years moving between the United States of
America (USA), Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. In Jordan, she held several
positions as a teacher and a teacher trainer. Later, she moved to the USA,
where she continued to study and work and obtained American citizen-
ship. In 2013, she was hired in Saudi Arabia. At the time of data collec-
tion, she was an assistant professor of linguistics and served on several
managerial committees.
Participant 2 (Julie) is from Canada. She has 20 years of teaching
experience—10 in the USA and 10 in the KSA. She holds an MA in
education and has worked as a schoolteacher, translator, and university
lecturer. Before moving to Saudi Arabia, she worked in the USA and the
United Arab Emirates (UAE). She voluntarily offered training sessions on
teaching strategies.
Participant 3 (Ahlam) is from India. She has a PhD in education and
a master’s in language and literature from India. She is an assistant profes-
sor with 12 years of teaching experience (10 years in Saudi Arabia, where
she has worked in two universities). She worked in a language institute in
Delhi before she took her position in the sampled university.
Participant 4 (Afnan) has a PhD in psycholinguistics from Canada,
and she is a Canadian citizen. She is an assistant professor with 20 years
of teaching experience (14 in Saudi Arabia). She offered workshops on
research methods.
Participant 5 (Sara) is a lecturer with a BA in education, a master’s in
language and literature, a certificate in TESOL, and an unfinished PhD
92 S. Almossa
in education. She has 19 years of teaching experience, 6 of which have

been spent in Saudi Arabia.
Participant 6 (Hala) is a Saudi instructor with a BA in language and
literature and a master’s in applied linguistics. She has 15 years of teach-
ing experience (10 in Saudi Arabia). She studied abroad in the UK for a
short period of time before returning to Saudi Arabia.
Participant 7 (Huda) is an American. She is a lecturer with a BA in
Arabic linguistics and a master’s in applied linguistics from the USA. She
has ten years of teaching experience in the sampled ELC.
Data Collection Procedures
An ethnographic data collection approach was adopted to capture the

sampled teachers’ experiences, not only through studying their words but
also by interacting with them, spending time in the teachers’ offices, and
observing their discussions with other colleagues. The data collection
instruments were semi-structured interviews and classroom observations,
and the intention was not to judge the participants’ teaching performance
because, as Wragg (2011, p. 105) asserts, research in classrooms ‘needs to
be seen as adding a thin layer to what was previously known, rather than
finding a miracle cure for some particular ill, or embarking on a quest for
the philosopher’s stone that will turn all to gold’ (p. 105). The data col-
lection procedures were conducted in the following stages:
• Invitation letters to participate in the study were sent to the teachers

through the female vice-head of the ELC. These letters deliberately
sought female participants only, given that the segregation system in
Saudi education would not allow the researcher to observe male
colleagues.
• The researcher reached out to the ELC to ask for permission to observe
lessons and talk to teachers. Then, the ELC sent the researcher a list of
teachers who showed interest in participating. The researcher con-
tacted those teachers by email and provided them with the necessary
information related to the study, along with the information sheet and
the consent form.
• The participants were informed about the study, received the consent
forms, and signed them.
In the first stage of data collection, the participants were given sets of
questions to think about and reflect on before the interview. These ques-
tions were mapped around their educational backgrounds, work experi-
ences (PD/training), CBA conceptualisations, and practices. Then, the
participants were interviewed, and the researcher posed more questions
about the given topics. The researcher observed participants’ lessons
before and after the interviews to find out more about their CBA prac-
tices. Field notes were also taken to support the data description and
interpretations.
Data Analysis Procedures
The data presented in this chapter emerged from the interviews with the
seven teachers, and the researcher’s analysis and interpretation were sup-
ported by field notes from both inside and outside the classroom. The
data analysis techniques were influenced by Kvale and Brinkmann (2014)
and Braun and Clarke (2006). The interview data were treated as a co-
construction work between the interviewer and the interviewee (Kvale &
Brinkmann, 2014). The researcher personally made verbatim transcrip-
tions of the recorded interviews as part of the data analysis process (Kvale
& Brinkmann, 2014). The researcher then read the transcriptions several
times before beginning to code the data; the codes were elicited from the
participants’ words. Thematic analysis was employed to reveal common
themes, which were gleaned from the coded interview data to represent
the participants’ views concerning the main topics of discussion. The
codes were renamed throughout the process, and the major recurring
themes were subsequently finalised.
Research Findings
Classroom-Based Assessment Concepts and Practices
The participants’ definitions and explanations were directly linked to

their working knowledge of assessment and their teaching experiences.
94 S. Almossa
They were also asked to share their daily CBA practices, so the researcher
could understand how their conceptualisations of assessment matched
their statements and practices observed in the classroom. The partici-
pants listed all their daily practices as CBA, believing that those practices
helped them check students’ learning progress and evaluate teaching
effectiveness. Concurrently, they mentioned encouraging participation,
asking many questions, facilitating discussions, implementing workbook
exercises, and giving quizzes. CBA was tied directly to assessed (graded)
practices, whether written (quizzes) or spoken (participation), but not in
general terms, where assessment was part of informing learning and
teaching processes. The teachers’ CBA practices were closely linked to
their daily teaching of the coursebook content. They covered that content
in less than 12 weeks (24 units, two coursebooks covering reading, listen-
ing, vocabulary, and grammar). The participants also mentioned devot-
ing most of their class time to teaching grammar and vocabulary, which
made up 80% of the mid-term and final examination questions. The
unified assessment covered reading (10%), listening (10%), vocabulary
(40%), and grammar (40%); as a result, it greatly impacted teaching and
learning throughout the course. Summative assessment items were writ-
ten and revised by the ELC assessment committee, while 20% of the
assessment grades came from assessment tasks the teachers designed
themselves or from graded classroom activities.
Huda’s and Sara’s approaches to teaching and assessment represent
common practices in the sampled ELC.
I do quizzes, maybe at least twice a week, beside[s] questions, discussions,

and the quizzes. We are big here on quizzes and exams. (Huda)
I use assessment in every class. Generally, once I finish a topic, I try to ask
students some questions. Some written and some personal. At least from
that I can assess whether or not they understood the topic. This is [the]
general assessment for every class. Other than that, I give them a proper
quiz every second week after we finish three to five units, and I get sample
papers from the university and prepare them for the exams. From this, I
can assess their level of understanding and determine if I need to give them
more time on a particular topic or less time. (Sara)
These findings are in line with those of Djoub (2017) and López and
Bernal (2009). The participants used their CBA for summative purposes
(to grade their students) rather than for formative purposes (to determine
where the students were in their learning, what they needed, and how to
get there while meeting the course objectives). Such use of assessment to
improve learning is difficult without institutional support.
As the participants mentioned that they frequently focused on ques-
tioning, feedback, and quizzes, the remainder of this section describes
these three methods. The data has shown that teachers’ roles in assessing
their students were limited and were structured around common assess-
ment methods that are widely used in the department (e.g., graded quiz-
zes). This explains why teachers presented similar assessment practices.
Questioning (Participation) and Feedback
The participants mentioned that involving students through participa-

tion is a way to assess students’ understanding. It is worth noting that
these participation activities were graded (5–10%) to encourage students
to be attentive and engaged, and students were aware of this:
Class participation is very important for me. I like to have an interactive

session. Normally, there is group [participation] involving the students,
and I try to help them to be involved. I prefer to ask questions particularly
to shy or sleepy students so that they become more active. She will think
‘…the teacher is concentrating on me and will ask me’. (Ahlam)
Assessment, maybe I depend on participation, yes, participation a lot, so I

ask many questions, ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions and quizzes and home-
work. (Hala)
Although feedback is an important technique associated with ques-

tioning, none of the teachers mentioned this in their initial reports.
Consequently, the researcher initiated a discussion concerning feedback
to elicit from the teachers the types of feedback they provide and to
understand feedback’s place in the teachers’ approach to managing class-
room interactions through questioning, participation, and discussion.
96 S. Almossa
The findings revealed that the participants were very selective in provid-
ing feedback. All participants mentioned that their feedback was (a)
mainly positive to encourage students; (b) given to weaker students who
needed it most or provided after a quiz or unified exam; (c) given as
generic feedback to the whole class (i.e., the most common oral form of
feedback); or (d) written on quizzes, papers, and homework. The follow-
ing quotations illustrate this approach:
Honestly, I would say there are some students I do not get a chance to give
feedback to. Like, I feel they are doing good. They are doing well. The ones
who are actually struggling, I try to do it at least once a week, whether by
phone or just to let them know this is their strength and their weak-
nesses. (Huda)
So, we have a variety of techniques to assess the students, right? So, we have
immediate feedback from the students. I, for example, express questions in
other words in order to get immediate feedback from the students, or [I
asked questions] after…a couple of days, or after we have a quiz or a prog-
ress test or a ‘Stop and Check’, so we have a variety of techniques. From
verbal spoken language to written language. Immediate feedback or struc-
tured quizzes and so on. (Afnan)
Based on the classroom observations and participants’ reports, oral

feedback was commonly used to praise students for participation. The
teachers approved or disproved students’ answers with nods or praise,
such as by saying ‘good’, ‘very good’, or ‘excellent’. The participants con-
nected feedback with positive and negative comments, such as when
teachers pointed out correct answers or errors. No feedback was consid-
ered feedback when teachers elicited answers from students. If the answer
was correct, they moved on to the next student without any comment. If
the answer was incorrect, the participants tended to avoid discourage
their students, who might have received feedback negatively. Therefore,
in many cases, they avoided giving feedback. Some teachers, such as
Hala, were afraid of students’ misinterpreting her feedback as being nega-
tive. All participants obviously tended to support all students. Yet, feed-
back was not given to every student. Access to feedback was selective,
depending on different factors, such as the time available and the task.
The teachers were more likely to intervene and give private feedback to
students who asked for guidance or were falling behind; they were likely
to give feedback to the whole class regarding their performance on a par-
ticular task, quiz, or exam. Teachers felt guilty when they did not give
feedback to everyone, as they had a limited amount of time to spend on
providing feedback. The following quote illustrates how Hala cautiously
approached error correction:
I do not like to stop at each error and correct each one because I find this
discourages students from speaking. Mostly, I accept what students say,
and I correct it. I do not say, ‘This is wrong’. I correct without harming
their self-confidence. (Hala)
The teachers expected their students to come to their offices to seek

advice, discuss their progress, look for one-to-one support, and so on.
Huda and Sara agreed that they would offer more individual feedback if
students came individually during office hours. However, most students
did not make use of this opportunity because they had classes during the
given office hours. To solve this issue, some teachers offered office hours
during lunch break, but that did not work because students were either
not interested or needed to rest and eat during their only break.
When asked about how their feedback impacted students, the teachers
were uncertain if students benefited, as they found it was difficult to tell
after teaching them for only 12 weeks. Some considered a semester a very
short time for evaluating feedback effectiveness. Taking note of students’
progress was not always possible, but the teachers still sensed that the
students were trying to improve themselves.
Quizzes
Quizzes were the most popular continuous assessment tool in the lessons
observed. The participants reported giving quizzes ranging from between
twice a week to twice a month. They stressed that quizzes were an essen-
tial assessment activity, which helped them collect information about
98 S. Almossa
students’ learning and evaluate teaching effectiveness. The teachers

repeatedly reported that quizzes prepared students for examinations. The
following quote exemplifies an opinion common amongst the partici-
pants: ‘We need to finish the book. The syllabus is quite heavy for the
students’ (Sara). So, quizzes and other tasks helped teachers check stu-
dent learning, review taught lessons, and give grades for accountability
purposes.
Though the teachers had little to no input in writing standardised
exam questions (summative assessments), they used their knowledge to
predict likely questions and guided their students accordingly. They were
very clear about their students’ immediate needs, which were related to
the goal of passing the first preparatory year with high grades. CBA,
therefore, involved teacher-led activities most of the time. From the class-
room observations, the researcher noticed that the teachers tended to
adopt similar assessment methods. These findings coincide with those of
Alkharusi (2011), who reports inconsistencies in teachers’ assessment
practices. The findings suggest that assessment policy controls teaching
and learning and limits teachers’ roles as assessors and educators, while
not supporting them to become assessment literate. As Djoub (2017)
argues, ‘traditional assessment practices are still prevailing where the
focus is entirely on the learning outcome instead of the process’ (p. 22).
This results in teachers coaching students to pass examinations. Similar to
this study’s findings, López and Bernal (2009) assert that language teach-
ers, who are trained to use assessment, use it to improve teaching and
learning, while those who are untrained use it merely for grading pur-
poses and employ more summative than formative methods.
Education and Professional Development
Teachers reported that they had little or no assessment-related training;

therefore, it was important to explore PD in the sampled ELC and to
determine to what extent PD was valued as an important aspect of teach-
ers’ professional growth in the institution. It was also necessary to explore
how assessment-related training was situated, or could be further situ-
ated, in PD. The participants had previously lived, studied, and worked
in various countries (the USA, Canada, Oman, Turkey, the United

Kingdom [UK], the UAE, and India) and cities inside Saudi Arabia, but
none had any in-service, assessment-focused training. Only two teachers
recalled having taken an assessment module during their undergraduate
or postgraduate programmes.
The teachers stated that they required PD for teaching the course-
books, dealing with students, responding to students’ needs, improving
their teaching skills and strategies, and managing student group work.
Only Huda mentioned the need for assessment-related training in writ-
ing questions for quizzes. Amani believed it was important to be accul-
turated into the Saudi education context, so she could connect with her
students and with the work environment. Afnan stressed the importance
of teachers having up-to-date knowledge about teaching theories, strate-
gies, and ELT research. She illustrated this view as follows: ‘Teachers
must be updated with research in the field, and they must attend work-
shops from time to time to update [themselves] with the contemporary
strategies, theories and research in the field. We are not only teachers; we
are learners also’.
As the participants mentioned, orientation sessions for new teaching
staff members were not offered after the staff members were hired, regard-
less of their educational, cultural, or religious backgrounds. Instead,
teachers were sent to teach and assess their students without any essential
teaching and assessment guidelines to inform and support their daily
classroom practices. Afnan noticed that her new colleagues experienced
educational culture shock as she explained the need for institutional
support:
For the new teachers who have little experience, they must have sessions
and orientations and workshops, so they become aware of the [cultural]
aspects in English language teaching. Most of the teachers are foreigners,
and sometimes when they come to a new culture there is a culture shock.
So, they need to be aware of the Saudi culture and of the university cul-
ture as well.
The only training session every semester was generic, provided by

British consultants who did not work or teach in the ELC. This finding
100 S. Almossa
is echoed by Alfahadi (2014), who suggests that EFL teachers in the

Saudi Arabian context are not given enough training on teaching activi-
ties and techniques.
The participants’ answers regarding equality in accessing opportunities
were diverse, depending on each participant’s experience and interest in
PD. Some explicitly said they did not seek PD; others pointed out that
there was unequal treatment between teachers. The participants experi-
enced what Rudolph, Yazan, and Rudolph (2019) call fluid privilege—
marginalisation. Some teachers felt that equality in providing and
encouraging personalised PD opportunities was lacking. The push-back
for enthusiastic teachers regarding training and PD opportunities was
discouraging. This issue was captured in Julie’s statement:
After years of teaching, do I have an equal opportunity to develop myself

like my Saudi colleagues? Yes and no. If I truly want to develop myself,
there are opportunities. I could certainly attend conferences in Qatar,
Dubai, Europe and the United States, but it is not convenient for me to
attend them, and they are expensive. So, they are valuable, but it is not easy
for me to attend these, basically due to the cost factor. It is very expensive.
Amani compared her experiences in the Saudi context and abroad. She
considered the Saudi university to be a better place for her PD, as she had
developed her use of technology and other skills there. She also felt more
privileged than her Saudi colleagues, as she was actively involved in man-
agerial roles in the department, such as evaluating coursebooks and serv-
ing on assessment committees. Amani went on to describe equality as
excellent, not only in the ELC but in her university as a whole: ‘For sure.
I have equal chances to develop myself, sometimes more than Saudi col-
leagues. I get the same chances and treatment. Equality in my university
is excellent’. Amani’s references to privilege reflected how participants’
experiences differed according to the opportunities to which they had
access or were selected to take. While travelling was not easy for Julie
because family responsibilities restricted her mobility, she discussed
online PD as a gateway for accessing opportunities when she could not
travel. She emphasised that institutional support was important for effec-
tively encouraging and supporting staff PD financially; she also said that,
in the absence of such support, questions were raised, such as ‘Who is

going to pay for it? How will it be appreciated and recognised?’
Some participants were unaware financially supported PD opportuni-
ties existed in the university, or they feared it would be a hassle to apply
for one. These PD opportunities were not publicly promoted in the
department, which might explain why some participants were unaware
of them. The reality in Saudi academia is that funding for PD, such as
participating in and attending conferences, is available, not exclusively to
Saudi teaching staff, but to all staff members. However, the Saudi univer-
sities’ standards document is written in Arabic, which makes its informa-
tion inaccessible to those who cannot read Arabic.
Paperwork, such as that related to visas, was another obstacle expatri-
ate teachers faced. Julie mentioned that, when seeking opportunities out-
side Saudi Arabia, they must complete a visa exit and return process if
they decide to travel during term time or spring break, among other
inconvenient and costly arrangements:
Not much was offered locally. Going outside Saudi Arabia, I have to take
my dependents and pay for their exit and re-entry visas plus tickets and
accommodation. It becomes very expensive, and for what?! I think we
know that; we know that. When we come to Saudi Arabia, we know there
are limitations, and we know that security is tight; and we accept that. We
do accept that wholeheartedly only because it is Makkah, do you under-
stand? In other cities, I do not know how they [expatriates] feel about that.
Julie and Amani were both expatriates but had different experiences
based on their positions in the institution. Amani felt that she was given
more opportunities than her Saudi fellows, including being fully spon-
sored to attend a conference. Julie, however, mentioned Saudisation—
which is the movement to counter the unemployment of Saudi nationals
by hiring Saudis for positions non-Saudis could hold—as affecting her
receiving and giving PD. As an expatriate, Julie said she was viewed as a
temporary labourer, who would eventually be replaced by a Saudi
national.
The participants were mobile teachers with many years of experience.
All had graduated from higher education institutions years prior to data
102 S. Almossa
collection, at a time when assessment modules hardly existed and were,

therefore, not a target for assessment-related PD. Therefore, equal access
to institutional support is necessary to heighten teachers’ assessment
awareness, inform their practices, and encourage a shift in departments’
assessment policies and guidelines. Taylor (2013) calls for not focusing
exclusively on teachers’ AL, but for going beyond to work on CBA com-
petencies for teachers and other stakeholders (e.g., administrators), who
make actual decisions that have an enormous impact on assessment
practices.
Conclusion
This study sheds light on the AL, practices, and professional development
of transnational English language teachers in the Saudi context. It con-
tributes to the current body of knowledge concerning how mobile teach-
ers understand, practise, and learn about assessment. The findings have
revealed that, while this is an age of rapid mobility and knowledge trans-
mission, the participants shared similar assessment education and assess-
ment practices. Though these teachers (and ELC teachers in general)
were teaching assessed language courses, and though the assessments were
high-stakes, their roles in assessment were marginalised. Because the
assessments that mattered the most (i.e., high-stakes summative assess-
ments) were provided by a special committee, the teachers were not
armed with the necessary assessment knowledge and skills relevant to
their daily assessment practices. Summative assessment noticeably
impacts the philosophy of encouraged practices and PD offered. It must
not be assumed that teachers are familiar with assessment through self-
learning or pre-service education. They may have never been formally
introduced to different aspects of assessment, such as formative assess-
ment principles involving questions and feedback techniques, summative
assessment involving written test questions, and considerations of test
validity and reliability.
There are consequences to assessment illiteracy and restricting teachers’
PD opportunities. This study implies that ELCs should put simple mea-
sures in place to support teachers’ PD, in general, and AL, in particular.
PD should not be a privilege but, rather, a professional right. Teachers

who move countries to teach should be familiarised with the context in
which they are going to teach, and work should be undertaken to
empower them to become assessment literate. Teachers on short-term
contracts should also not be treated as commuter teachers, who transition
in and out of the system for certain roles. All teachers should be sup-
ported and cherished, not only that they may develop their skills but also
that they may share what they have to offer from their accumulated expe-
riences. This will result in an improved student experience.
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Professional Development for Chinese
EFL Teachers in Australia: Perspectives,
Challenges, and Research Potentials
Dat Bao
This chapter discusses the experience of Chinese in-service teachers of

English who participated in a professional development program in
Australia. The program reflects an increasing trend in English language
education in today’s context of globalisation and transnationalism where
it is common to see practitioners from one context seek interaction with
colleagues and senior experts in another context. The chapter presents,
first of all, an overview of the current discourse on EFL teacher develop-
ment in China. Instead of focusing on a Western view, the discourse takes
on a Chinese perspective which is a less-commonly discussed positioning
on this theme. In doing so, the review looks at both the need and the
challenge in teacher development in context.
Secondly, the discussion reports an empirical study based on the pro-
gram as offered by Monash University which annually hosts Chinese
teachers in ten weeks’ course in the city of Melbourne. The aim of the
study is to examine the teachers’ experience with the program in terms of
D. Bao (*)
Monash University, Clayton, VIC, Australia
e-mail: dat.bao@monash.edu
108 D. Bao
satisfaction, need, difficulty, criticism, and aspiration. Data will highlight

both strengths and existing challenges to Chinese in-service teachers’ pro-
fessionalism, that is, where the program has performed well and has failed
to meet the teacher expectations.
Thirdly, it highlights what can be further taken into consideration so
that the program would reach out better to such needs. These recommen-
dations not only serve the teachers’ efficient development but also assist
Australian institutions in developing new strategies for teachers to
improve English pedagogy in schools or institutions.
Due to the limited scope of the chapter, the discussion will not com-
pare the Australian program in this project with other teacher develop-
ment programs in the world. Instead, it reveals the teachers’ reflection on
the design, components, and implementation which will be concretely
described in the chapter. Readers can benefit from this discussion by
looking at how the range of activities offered by the program are received
and evaluated by the teachers.
Current Discourse: Needs and Challenges

The Need of Professional Training Overseas
This section captures the relevant literature from academic and public-
debate sources published in the Chinese language. It touches on the need
of professional training overseas and research on the impacts of such
overseas training on teacher development. The discussion then identifies
a number of existing challenges to Chinese in-service teachers’ profes-
sionalism and proposes recommendations with regard to areas to be
addressed for future improvements in overseas development courses.
In scholarly discourse in China, it has been unanimously agreed that
teachers’ pedagogical skills and research competence are two areas that
need to be improved and updated (Han, Wang, & Li, 2011; Xu, 2009;
Zhang, 2012). This is true in in the educational system generally and in
English language teaching specifically. These dimensions are like two
sides of the same coin whereby research-based outcome should
Professional Development for Chinese EFL Teachers in Australia... 109
constantly inform instruction decision and quality. To elevate such capa-

bilities, educators need interaction and updated input with advanced
expertise on an international basis; and thus, teacher development
requires more professional work in overseas programs.
When it comes to such activities, research on positive impacts of over-
seas training and development has demonstrated the fact that many
Chinese teachers who have participated in such programs have reported
positive learning experiences. For instance, a study by Ju Kao la (2018)
has found that out of 18 teacher participants who attended training at
Pennsylvania State University, 17 (94.4%) have greatly benefited from
what they perceived as high professionalism and responsibility of
American lecturers. As far as the impact of such experience on educa-
tional practices at home is concerned, the same project has documented
that professional training overseas has resulted in teachers’ advanced
teaching performance. In particular, the communicative approach and
task-based pedagogy have boosted dynamic learning atmosphere in class-
room and enhanced students’ learning interest.
As self-evaluation is included towards the end of the program, teacher
reflection shows that most teachers could feel improvement in their
everyday teaching quality. Many overseas programs have led to teachers’
integrative competence in essential areas such as language skills, digital
skills (including wiki, podcasting, blog, and so on), culture knowledge
and understanding, and research skills (Ju Kao la, 2018). By the same
token, documentation from international experiences has shown that
most participants hold the opinion that overseas training is ideal for their
professional development (Xu, Zhang, & Xu, 2010).
Existing Challenges
Having recognised the above advantages, scholars do share concerns

regarding various problems with ELT development programs both in
China and overseas. In particular, Chinese researchers have realised that
more problems occur when training takes place domestically rather than
in an overseas setting. Many teachers who have participated in domestic
programs hold negative opinions toward teacher development programs.
110 D. Bao
In many cases, such programs often involve experts invited from overseas
to assist Chinese teachers in updated ELT knowledge and skills. Below
are some challenges arising from teacher development programs being
offered in mainland China.
Sustainability Issues There is hardly any post-program support to sus-

tain development. Such lack of attempts towards specialised continua-
tion results in low sustainability. In other words, trainees’ confidence has
limited time and experience to grow due to the short-term nature of the
course (Xu et al., 2010).
Unresolved Workplace Constraints In addition to their participating in

the program, teachers find themselves confronted by heavy teaching load
(Zhang, 2012). It remains a dilemma when teachers are expected to
spend time and energy on skill-upgrading workshops without ever being
given relief support from the everyday responsibility at their schools.
A Lack of Professional Readiness Some participants are selected against

their will to join in the training program (Sun, 2004). In every school,
some teachers are prone to furthering their practice while others do not
feel the need for change in their instruction quality. When their motiva-
tion in professional development seems low, attending the program
becomes a routine and teachers would not wish to invest all their effort in
improving their pedagogy.
More Pedagogical Input Than Hands-On Teaching Rehearsal Insufficient

practical experience during the development program. Although training
and practice should go hand in hand, the programs do not create instant
conditions for practice to demonstrate the updated principles. Without
newly generated evidence to support practice, the program ends up deliver-
ing more knowledge than implementation. Arguably, new pedagogical
theories are often difficult to digest due to the lack of theory combined
with practice.
Low Contextualisation The efficiency of development programs often

suffers when trainers and trainees hold opposite objectives. Much of this
predicament is due to the difference in cultural background between
overseas experts and Chinese teachers. Besides, many experts who con-
duct the program, due to their lack of knowledge about the Chinese ELT
context, are not highly capable of providing responses to all the diverse
needs of participants. This is not mention different understandings of
language teaching due to different sociocultural, political, educational
environments.
Conflict of Values Part of the content obtained from the training pro-
gram in many cases seems contrary to Chinese teachers’ professional
beliefs, perceptions, and understanding (Sun, 2004). This tension, unfor-
tunately, is often downplayed by many program organisers. In many
cases, experts who came from outside of China do not educate themselves
in contextual and cultural knowledge when they designed program con-
tents. Because of this, delivery is sometimes not well catered for local
needs and interests. In many cases, it is hard for participants to put what
they have learned into practice, simply because there is a gap between
lecturers’ contextual knowledge and Chinese teachers’ expertise. While
the experts are good at teaching, they do not understand the Chinese
socio-cultural, political, educational circumstances. On the contrary,
while Chinese teachers know their context well, they do not possess a
wide range of advanced knowledge and skills to select and apply in their
everyday performance.
Unlike the discourse found in the West, which is often enriched and
well-generated, the Chinese literature on the same topic remains mini-
mal. As a result, the number of references in this discussion are few.
However, it is important to make such less known perspective visible so
that both experts and teachers can make sense of potential gaps in the
program and adjust the program content accordingly.
112 D. Bao
Research Design
This qualitative study is contextualised in the real-world setting of a
teacher development program. Every year, one group of approximately
20 Chinese in-service teachers from Mainland China arrive in Australia
to participate in a ten-week teacher development program. The main
component of the program includes workshops on current trends of ped-
agogical input and skills development for teachers, all of which take place
at Monash University. This is coupled by a number of off-campus activi-
ties for providing exposure to social communication in English, organis-
ing visits to schools, museums, and other cultural venues, as well as
interaction with Australian educators. In this scenario, I happened to be
among expert team members who worked directly with the teacher par-
ticipants on a regular basis.
The project follows a case-study approach as it takes on these impor-
tant features:
• It has a authentic scenario;

• It seeks potential of challenging issues for insights into program
improvement;
• It examines an open-ended situation that requires in-depth illumina-
tive investigation;
• The setting has multiple components that requires interaction among
resources, which inspires the need to address the integration of broader
theoretical, social, and contextual contexts in the program.
Data were collected from 17 teachers from Zhejiang Province who

wished to share their views by reflecting on their learning experiences
during these ten weeks in Melbourne, Australia. Data collection tools
comprise focus group interviews, observations of workshop dynamics,
and teacher discussions based on field trip to schools. Monash University
has a well-established TESOL program which provides teacher education
to pre-service teachers at PhD and Masters’ levels as well as to in-service
teachers from around the world. The program is part of the Faculty of
Education, which ranks first in Australia and 12th in the world according
to Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU, 2019).
The content of data collection cover four key areas:
• What the teachers think they have learned and valued from on-campus
workshops;
• What the teachers benefit from field trips outside the university;
• The kind of knowledge and exposure teachers find meaningful; and
• Challenges they identify as noticeable which can be considered as
aspects for improvements in future programs.
Below is a summary of teacher responses to the areas in questions

(Table 1).
F inding 1: Teacher Contentment

with Workshop Quality
Satisfaction was expressed towards the quality of professionalism, interac-
tive experience, and richness of the program components. These range
from academic activities to the interaction with experts and peers;
enhanced input to teaching approaches to practical discussion; support-
ive classroom setups to academic resources; project work to peer presen-
tation; materials evaluation to formative assessment; frequent use of
English to EAL pedagogical tools (e.g. vocabulary development, mind-
mapping, differentiated reading kits, and so on). One cannot single out
any huge component as the major role-player in making the teachers
happy. Instead, it is the dynamic mixture of various factors that bring
success together. Another important comment that stands out in the
focus interview is teachers’ enjoyment thanks to the atmosphere of work-
shops, the collegiality of the delivery team, and the hospitality of pro-
gram staff. Arguably, it is the balance between the intellectual experience
and the sociocultural dimension of professional development program
that effectively shapes the teachers’ approval.
114 D. Bao
Table 1 Chinese teachers’ reflection on experiences with the ELT development

program at Monash University
Field trip and Exposure to
follow-up ways of
outside of educational
Monash practices in Identified
Activities at Monash campus Australia challenges
Interaction with Observation Critical
experts and of teacher- thinking
peers student
interaction
during
school visit
Discussion Frequent use of Making Integrated Limited English
and English comments curriculum proficiency
interaction about (struggle to
teacher- participate in
student discussion and
interaction understand
in Australia advanced
academic
materials)
Project work Collaborative Diverse,
work with flexible
peers materials
outside of instead of
workshop one
hours prescribed
textbook
Exposure to Meeting with Emphasis on
education school skill-based,
methods in leaders all-rounded
Australia development
Hands-on Experience of Taking notes Flexible class Limited prior
practice teaching during arrangement knowledge
approaches classroom (Chinese
visits and teachers’ lack
sharing of preparation;
them later Australian
at educators yet
workshop to learn about
Chinese
educational
context)
(continued)
Table 1 (continued)
Field trip and Exposure to
follow-up ways of
outside of educational
Monash practices in Identified
Activities at Monash campus Australia challenges
Formative Learning Assessment as
assessment activities at guidance
schools instead of
evaluation
Peer Interaction Small class size Insufficient
presentation with Team-teaching interaction
teachers with Australian
during teachers
school visit
Supportive Exposure to Resourceful
classroom school classroom
setups culture
EAL Observations Australian
pedagogical of student teachers’
tools (e.g. activities at expertise
vocabulary museums knowledge
development,
mind-
mapping,
differentiated
reading kits)
Social Diverse Interaction Emerging in Limited mutual
experience learning with Australia understanding
activities at Australian working of the
Monash colleagues relationship Australian and
at schools Chinese
contexts for a
comparative
perspective
Finding 2: Appreciating the Value of Fieldtrips

Professional development for teachers is not just about pedagogy work-
shops. Teachers who fail to see the overall picture of curriculum and con-
text would be considered as teaching in the dark. With this philosophy in
mind, the participants express appreciation towards a range of external
116 D. Bao
activities offered by the program. These include school visits for the expo-
sure to the educational culture of Australia, interaction with colleagues,
observation of teacher-student interaction, meeting with school leaders,
observations of student activities at museums, among others.
First of all, such exposure allows the teachers to see another educational
perspective different from their own and why Australian colleagues employ
a variety of teaching approaches. Secondly, understanding context would
allow insights into why pedagogy is being practised in a certain way.
Thirdly, what comes out of the exposure and observation at the schools
would be incorporated into workshop discussion as follow-up activities.
In other words, there is a clear connection between external activities
and the workshop on campus. The teachers would take notes during
school and classroom visits for sharing them later at workshop for further
discussion of educational culture and context. Understanding the
Australian setting is important for the Chinese teachers because they
need to see the relationship between what Australian teachers do in their
everyday practice and the specific context which they operate within. For
example, social communication often receives a great deal of emphasis in
the Australian society while school knowledge and practical soft skills are
other, equally important, dimensions of student development. The
Chinese educational system, on the contrary, emphasises academic work
most of all. Pedagogical approaches in China often favours knowledge
over social interaction and recreation. Such issues in contextualisation
need to be examined when teachers plan their own professional practices.
F inding 3: Exposure to Ways of Educational

Practices in Australia
Both on-campus workshops and school visits allow exposure to a differ-
ent set of educational practices in Australia. When such ideas are brought
up, the experts and the in-service teachers could identify a range of fac-
tors which shape an educational system. They include, for example, the
practice of critical thinking, the value of integrated curriculum, the need
for diverse, flexible materials instead of one prescribed textbook, the
emphasis on skill-based, all-rounded development, flexible classroom
seating arrangement, formative assessment which guides teaching and

learning, the need for team-teaching, resourcefulness, among others.
Being aware of the presence of all these components gives the teachers a
sense of educational philosophy, which shows the ecological picture of
what teaching and learning looks like as well as how various components
work together to support a whole system.
Finding 4: Ongoing Challenges

The teachers identify a number of difficulties, some of which come
from the Chinese context and others have to do with the program itself.
Firstly, the teachers admit that due to their limited English proficiency,
they struggle to participate in discussion and understand advanced aca-
demic materials. Secondly, due to limited prior knowledge about each
other, the experts and the participants did not yield the optimal
intended outcome for the program. In particular, while the Chinese
teachers were lacking in preparations to fully participate in the program
content, the Australians experts were yet to learn sufficiently about
Chinese educational context.
Thirdly, participants’ interaction with Australian teachers at the visit-
ing locations remains insufficient, that is, the Chinese teachers feel that
the two groups of teachers did not have much opportunity to learn about
each other’s educational practices. This is very hard to achieve due to the
difference in learning motivation. While the Chinese teachers feel the
need to know about Australian education to learn new ideas and bring
home, their Australian counterparts seem too busy with their everyday
teaching to look elsewhere and learn something different.
Recommendations
Based on the above insights and the open discussion with the teachers at
focus-group interviews towards the end of the short course, four areas of
recommendations are offered for the improvement of the program qual-
ity in general, for academic research in the future, for localising program
118 D. Bao
content, and for following up to see how teachers might continue to

develop what they have learned from overseas experience. Below are spe-
cific suggestions so that the program could meet teacher needs more
effectively, not only within the operation of the course but also after the
course when the teachers have returned to their respective schools in
China and carry on their daily teaching responsibilities.
Program Enhancement
Making contextual knowledge and contextualisation of pedagogy is an

important focus of the program. This would include teachers learning
about the host context and program staff learning about the teachers’
own context. It is through such understanding of the setting that every
discussion of pedagogical ideas has a chance to make relevant sense.
Giving more attention to teachers’ English proficiency rather than just
academic knowledge, such as making advanced English competence a
requirement for attending the program and giving guidance on how
teachers can improve English skills. It was realised by both the teachers
and program that the quality of discussion and interaction can be
strengthened or weakened depending on how teachers are comfortable
participating in and engaging with workshop contents.
More dialogues should be created between the host and guest institutes
so that preparations are effectively made and mutual expectations are
explicitly clarified. In many cases, the program experts expect teacher
participants to be responsible for their pedagogical adaptation of the pro-
gram input while teachers assume that it is the expert who should tell
them what adaptations should be made. While the host hopes to learn
from the teachers about their own local context and expect the teachers
to share such knowledge at workshops, the teachers assume that the pro-
gram has already collected such knowledge prior to the program and
expect the content to be catered for that context. These are serious areas
of mutual misinterpretation which have been observed during the pro-
gram implementation. For example, when the expert asks the teachers
during workshop whether they think an approach might work in the
Chinese context, the teachers feel surprised as they assume that the expert
should already know the answer.
Academic Research
Research can be conducted prior to and after the program. For example,
critical incidents in the Chinese classroom can be collected and brought
to the program for discussion. Such problem-solving moments in the
everyday classroom need to be investigated on a regular basis to build
teaching improvement. In this way, both the program and the teachers
can learn from each other to specify the workshop content and strengthen
discussion quality through practical contextualisation efforts.
A second theme for investigation would be to understand cultural
challenges in the Chinese context that would resist methods from the
West. This is an area constantly brought up during workshop discussion
but was not really responded to. It is an often-heard complaint that some
of the tasks and methods may not work in the Chinese setting. The
dilemma is that the program staff and the teachers expect each other to
take more initiative in appropriating pedagogical resources: both teams
never seem to agree whose responsibility it is.
A third research theme would be to investigate the community of prac-
tice, which include, for example, how teachers work together for sharing
good practices, how teams develop collective lesson plans, and how teach-
ers conduct peer observations as mutual learning opportunities.
Localising Program Contents
It might be helpful for international experts to visit China to learn about

the local context as a way of preparing for future development programs.
To facilitate this process, the local education authority might provide
financial support. For effective collaboration, educational institutions in
China could develop websites which inform international expert about
local education information, available resources, and teacher concerns in
professional development.
In addition, there is the need for international experts to understand
Chinese schoolwork culture, recognising constraints and addressing them
in teacher development courses rather than leaving these for teachers to
go home after the training and deal with by themselves. Some examples
120 D. Bao
of such contextual elements might include the fact that Chinese admin-
istrative culture which does not support confrontation: when a teacher
needs help, they might not go to the authority; when the authority does
not agree with some teachers, they change policy to affect them rather
than speaking directly to individuals.
Follow-Up After Overseas Experience
A number of strategies can be employed to explore teachers’ pedagogical

practice after their return to schoolwork after an overseas development
program. Such activities might include requesting teachers’ reflection on
what has changed in their practice as far as self-development is concerned;
conversation with teachers and department leaders for a sense of teacher
needs and school needs (such as new role and responsibility, new free-
dom, existing control, and teacher aspiration); classroom observation for
a glimpse of ongoing challenges and potential solutions as well as how
much of improvement might be inspired by teachers’ overseas profes-
sional experiences. Due to the scope and timing of this study, follow-up
research on the Chinese teachers’ application of program content back in
China cannot be conducted, especially when this chapter was freshly
written after a program was completed. For these reasons, the Chinese
teachers who returned home have not had sufficient time to implement
new knowledge and report back to Monash University.
Conclusion: Contribution from the Study

Overall, both the data from this project and current discourse have iden-
tified these areas for improvement: the need for more teacher readiness,
the need for contextualisation, and the need for understanding educa-
tional values. The discourse, in particular, pays more attention to the
local context back in China and the problems at home rather than issues
during overseas development programs. These include heavy teaching
load at Chinese schools (Zhang, 2012) and the aspiration for sustainable
development (Xu et al., 2010).
Unlike the discourse, findings of this study show teacher concerns

about the ongoing experience, which includes delivery quality, the diver-
sity of activities, the richness of program components, as well as the nov-
elty of updated pedagogy, educational culture, and social interaction.
Although there are follow-up tasks during the program as well, these
tasks stay within the length of the program implementation rather than
after it. Among the most appreciated aspects of the program are well-
designed program components such as diverse, helpful, updated, collab-
orative, and connectable insights; teacher awareness of current
development in the field, which embraces new knowledge, debate,
updated skills, helpful ideas for task design, and up-to-date resources;
diverse activities on and off campus, including the opportunity to work
with schools, collaborative projects, the exposure to the Australian educa-
tional system, teacher familiarisation with a different social networking
culture; and finally, well-guided teacher reflection and follow-up activities.
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The Effect of U.S. Curricular Ideologies
on Mexican Transnational Pre-service
English Language Teachers
David Martínez-Prieto
Introduction
Traditionally, literacy practices have served to maintain elites in power
(i.e., Apple, 1993, 2004; Gee, 2008; Giroux, 1992; Luke, 1994). As elites
are the ones who control the education most people receive, these elites
dictate the “right” characteristics a citizen should have. After being
exposed to academic practices in formal education settings, students will
acquire the discourse, ideas, and behaviors proposed by the groups in
power. Students in the United States, depending on their socio-economic
status, are instructed in certain ways, either to occupy future positions as
cheap labor force, qualified labor force or leaders (Apple, 2004; Giroux,
1992). Although this systematic preparation to indoctrinate individuals
to become “good citizens” can take place at different social levels, Apple
(2004) pointed out that social reproduction (which aims to perpetuate
D. Martínez-Prieto (*)
Independent Scholar, Puebla, Mexico
e-mail: david.martinez@fulbrightmail.org
124 D. Martínez-Prieto
the hegemony of the ideas and status quo of the dominant groups) takes
place, consciously or unconsciously, in school agendas.
As noted by Zentella (2005), Mexican migrant families in the United
States understand that adaptation of their children highly depends on the
school success, for which formal schooling becomes a priority for them.
While living in the United States, Mexican-origin transnationals, or
Mexicans who are educated for at least one year in U.S. institutions,
assimilate to the U.S. mainstream by acquiring the national values and
ideas of U.S. institutions. Although similar in many aspects, U.S. national
perspectives and values are different from the ones promoted in Mexican
education. After the 2008 U.S. economic crisis, with the increase of anti-
Mexican policies and racism, many Mexican-origin transnationals went
(back) to Mexico because of voluntary or forced migration (Ramos
Martínez et al., 2017), which is the case of the participants of this study.
Because of their bilingual skills, many Mexican transnationals decide to
enroll in English teaching programs in the Mexican education system.
While many studies have examined the identity of Mexican transnational
English language in-service and pre-service teachers (i.e., Christiansen,
Trejo Guzmán, & Mora-Pablo, 2017; Mora, Trejo, & Roux, 2016;
Petrón, 2003), the impact of the ideologies embedded in U.S. education
among Mexican transnationals pursuing a degree in Mexico is still an
area of opportunity for research. Using Critical Literacies—which, as
explained below, claim that education should lead to emancipation and
social justice—as a guiding framework, the present chapter analyzes the
influence of embedded ideologies of U.S. curricula in the identities of
Mexican transnational1 pre-service teachers when pursuing a B.A. in
English Language Teaching in a public university in the Mexican state of
Puebla, in central Mexico.
1
In this chapter, I refer to Mexican transnational pre-service teachers to those participants who
studied in the United States for one year or more. Mexican nationals, in contrast, are those who
have mainly studied in Mexico. Although the term “returnee” has been used in academia to refer to
transnationals, many of my participants did not “return” to Mexico but arrived in this country for
the first time.
The Effect of U.S. Curricular Ideologies on Mexican… 125
Theoretical Framework
Critical Social Theories and U.S. Curricula
This chapter utilizes Critical Literacies as a conceptual framework.

Critical Literacies’ scholars, highly influenced by Paulo Freire’s ideas,
claim that education should serve to human liberation and emancipa-
tion. In this regard, several authors have criticized that literacy has served
to reproduce already-existing social differences and to maintain the status
quo of the dominant groups (Apple, 1993; Gallego & Hollingsworth,
2000; Gee, 2008; Giroux, 1992; Levinson et al., 2015; Luke, 1994;
Street, 2003). As literacy practices connect communities with local insti-
tutions (Bloome & Enciso, 2006) to form citizens with determined char-
acteristics favorable for the elites (Gee, 2008), in the United States literacy
practices have served to impose visions of reality through “regimes of
signification”. This means education presents “neutral” information as
unquestionable facts (Gee, 2008; Luke, 1994) in terms of Western and
neocolonial perspectives (Giroux, 1992; Luke 1994), and cultural domi-
nation (Apple, 1993, 2004).
The Attainability American Dream in U.S. Schools
Scholars have analyzed the unreflective promotion of ideologies in

U.S. institutions, such as schools. For example, Hauhart and Birkenstein
(2013) examined how the American Dream, being an imaginary myth of
uniqueness and exceptionalism, “guides, follows and haunts all Americans
everyday” (p. 356). For Hauhart and Birkenstein (2013) the attainability
of the American Dream is promoted constantly in U.S. education. In a
similar way, Johnson (2006) concluded that the American Dream serves
for the legitimization of the U.S. unequal social structure. The idea of
attainment to the American Dream is so deeply rooted in U.S. citizens
that it has also served as an ideological conception for researchers to pro-
mote social success for under-privileged students (Blanchar & Muller,
2015; Hill & Torres, 2010; Sleeter, 2012).
U.S. Hegemonic and Imperialistic Perspectives
U.S. curricula are salient in terms of the way dominant groups have used
patriotic symbols to justify social segregation, colonialism, and imperial-
ism (Ladson-Billings, 2006; Merry, 2009; Stratton, 2016; Wayne &
Vinson, 2014). For example, Stratton (2016) analyzed historical sources,
such as academic journals, speeches, and documents, to exemplify how
imperialist expansion of the United States was justified through formal
education. In a similar vein, Weistheimer (2014) examined some of the
characteristics of U.S. curriculum through time regarding free market,
individualism, and the importance of the U.S. as a hegemonic country in
the world. In a parallel way, Chanterjee and Maira (2014) explained that
U.S. education has served to justify U.S. expansion and imperialism
around the globe.
U.S. Exceptionalism and Western Superiority
For some authors, education in the United States promotes the idea that
that the U.S. is above the rest of the world (U.S. exceptionalism) as justi-
fication for U.S. world leadership. For example, Stratton (2016) pointed
out the U.S. curricula emphasizes the superiority of White inhabitants
and Western tradition over other nations and cultures. Similarly, Merry
(2009) noted how patriotism in U.S. education fosters perspectives in
which others, such indigenous or minorities, can be considered less than
human. In this way, Apple (2004) pointed out that right-wing govern-
ments prioritize Western tradition in U.S. schoolings as a way to deter
other forms of literacy.
U.S. Vs Mexican Curricula

During their academic development in both countries, Mexican-
transnational pre-service English language teachers are exposed to both,
U.S. and Mexican educational systems. This is because Mexican transna-
tionals, either because of forced or volunteer (return) migration from the
United States to Mexico, attend schools and higher education institutions

in both countries. Due to the antagonistic situation of these two countries
during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,2 curricula in Mexico do not
always align with the values and ideologies fostered in U.S. schooling.
Mexican transnationals, in this context, may experience difficulties to
understand the ideologies to which Mexican nationals have been exposed
during their formal educational journey in Mexican schools.
Operating from the idea that preserving a national identity is benefi-
cial for the State as this can promote collaboration and solidarity among
members of the nation, Pérez-Rodriguez (2012) examined how Mexican
curricula have changed throughout the twentieth and twenty-first cen-
tury. Thus, Pérez-Rodriguez (2012) emphasized the ideological orienta-
tion in Mexican schools in which a homogenous and mestizo nation is
idealized. The imposition of a romanticized (and mainly anti-U.S.)
Mexican patriotism was examined by Bahena Mendoza (2015), who ana-
lyzed the role of Secundaria (High school) teachers in the way Mexican
history was presented to students. Bahena Mendoza (2015) stated the
students, through history classes and the introduction of “objective” facts
promoted by the State, have created a romanticized idea of the
Mexican nation.
Identity and Transnational English Teachers

in Mexico
Research about transnational students has mainly developed in Mexico in
the last two decades. Petrón (2003) and Petrón and Greybeck (2014)
constructed from the concept of transnationalism and borderlands to
describe the situation of second-generation Mexican language teachers
(born in the United States) who settled in Mexico to work in rural areas.
Although none of the subjects held a B.A. degree, they were welcomed to
2
The United States army invaded the Mexican territory several times during the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries for which Mexican curricula, especially after the Mexican revolution, presented
a rather negative perspective of U.S. imperialism. However, after the implementation of the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, more positive perspectives of the United States
are presented in Mexican schools.
work in schools in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo León, which was
the original place of their families. During their teaching performances,
transnationals were observed to successfully share their cultural experi-
ences with students despite speaking a less-prestigious variety of English.
In fact, the participants of this research were conscious of their linguistic
capital as they had experienced the “real” U.S. culture and language.
Mora Pablo, Lengeling, and Crawford (2014) presented autobio-
graphic narrations to understand the identity of transnationals pursing a
Bachelor in English Language Teaching in Guanajuato, Mexico. In this
research, transnationals narrated the experiences in which they experi-
ence discrimination and exclusion related to language, as when they used
English in public spaces. In addition, Mora Pablo et al. (2014) identified
some factors that motivate transnationals to enroll in English-language
teaching degree, such as rejection to their Mexican native culture and
language. Transnationals also reported to be aware of their linguistic
advantages over the rest of their classmates in terms of pragmatic aspects.
Mora Pablo, Lengeling, and Basurto Santos (2015) also researched on
transnational students who pursued a B.A. in English Language teaching.
In terms of identity, these pre-service teachers reported some “flexibility”.
That is, depending upon the situation and participants with whom they
interacted, transnationals would decide to perform a more Mexican or a
more U.S. identity. Relevantly, Mora Pablo et al. (2015) highlighted the
importance of transnationals in terms of flexible identities and character-
istics, which oppose to the traditional dichotomy of native and non-
native language teachers.
Identity and Poblano3 Transnationals

Research about the identity of transnational (pre-service) English teach-
ers in the Mexican state of Puebla is not extensive. However, Smith
(2006) noted that, in Puebla, differently from northern Mexico, transna-
tional students enrolled in Mexican highs schools do not possess
linguistic advantages over their Mexican national peers studying in other
3
Poblanos: People born in the Mexican State of Puebla, located in Central Mexico.
Mexican states. This is because, for Mexican nationals residing in Puebla,

the English variation transnationals speak is considered less prestigious
compared to other varieties of English. For example, one of the partici-
pants of Smith’s research, a transnational teacher working in Puebla, even
pointed out that the English of transnationals is seen as “crap” (Smith,
2006, p. 432). Smith (2006) highlighted that transnational students,
who are bilingual and who were rejected for their intercultural identity,
have linguistic and cultural abilities that are not being fully used in
Poblano education, which Smith (2006) categorized “a waste of resources”
(p. 41.).
To summarize, scholars have analyzed the identity of transnational
pre-service teachers in terms of linguistic capital, discrimination, and
rejection of the Mexican culture, especially in northern Mexico. In this
context, the present chapter contributes to existing literature by (1) ana-
lyzing how U.S. schooling impacts Mexican transnational pre-service
English language teachers when pursuing a degree in a Mexican public
university, and (2) examining the case of Mexican transnational pre-
service teachers in central Mexico.
Research Question
To examine the impact of U.S. curricula in Mexican transnational EAL,
or English as an Additional Language, pre-service teachers receiving
training in Mexican public universities, the overarching question that
guided this study is as follows:
1. What is the degree of agreement Mexican transnational English pre-

service teachers have to U.S. ideologies in terms of their length of
exposure to U.S. formal education?
Variables
Independent (or predictor): The length of exposure of Mexican-origin

transnational pre-service teachers had to U.S. curricula.
Dependent (or criterion): The degree of agreement of Mexican trans-

national pre-service teachers in terms of U.S. hegemonic and imperialis-
tic perspectives, U.S. exceptionalism and Western superiority, and the
attainment of the American Dream.
Hypothesis
The ideologies embedded in U.S. education system impacts the degree of

agreement to U.S. ideologies of transnationals when they pursue an
English teaching degree in Mexico. This degree of agreement is relevant
because transnationals face interaction with students and professors that
have been exposed to different (and most likely anti-U.S.) ideologies.
Methodology
Design
The design of this study is based on the Critical-Literacies notion that

claim that U.S. curricula promotes the structural perpetuation of social
disparities in the United States. Based on the idea that statistical analyses
should be used to examine structural changes among populations
(Bryman, 2008), the information in the present chapter was analyzed
quantitatively.
Data was collected through a survey during 2017–2018 in a public
university in Puebla, Mexico. The survey aimed to be explorative and
explanatory. It is exploratory as it provides information about the popula-
tion I analyzed, as there is little quantitative research about transnational
English pre-service teachers in universities in the state of Puebla, in
Mexico. It is explanatory, as it relates the years of exposure to U.S. ideolo-
gies with the ideologies of Mexican transnational pre-service English
teachers.
Instrumentation
To measure the impact that ideologies embedded in U.S. formal educa-

tion have in the perceptions of Mexican transnational students, I con-
ducted a Likert-scale survey. A Likert-scale survey is, according to Johns
(2010), is an instrument that measures attitudes that can “vary along a
dimension from positive from negative” (p. 2). Originally, my Likert-
scale survey had nine items. Based on previous research about U.S. cur-
ricula, I constructed my items with the ultimate goal of measuring the
degree of agreement of Mexican transnationals with U.S. curriculum ide-
ologies in three inter-related areas: U.S. hegemonic and imperialistic per-
spectives, U.S. exceptionalism and Western superiority, and the
attainment of the American Dream. In other words, this survey was cre-
ated based on what current literature has found in terms of the ideologies
embedded in U.S. education and the effects of such ideologies in the
development of U.S. citizenship. In this regard, items related to U.S. hege-
monic and imperialistic perspectives were designed based on the work of
Chanterjee and Maira (2014), Merry (2009), Stratton (2016), and
Weistheimer (2014). Items which aimed to measure U.S. exceptionalism
and Western superiority—or the way U.S. schooling depicts their citizens
as morally superior or other countries’ inhabitants—were constructed in
relationship to the research of Apple (1993, 2004) Gallego and
Hollingsworth (2000), Macedo (2000), and Wayne and Vinson (2014).
Finally, items about the attainment of the American Dream were designed
based on the claims of Blanchar and Muller (2015), Gee (2008), Giroux
(1992), and Sleeter (2012). Table 1 summarizes the relationship between
the work of current Critical Literacy’s authors and the items in the survey.
In my survey, items were statements in which participants had to
choose from 1–5,1 being the least degree of agreement and 5 being the
greatest degree of agreement. Items were written in both languages,
Spanish and English.
As suggested by Carr (2011), I tested the face-validity, or a superficial
analysis to verify the purpose of my instrument, among doctoral candi-
dates (n = 4) of a U.S. public institution whose area of concentration
Table 1 Items in the survey and their relation to current research

Items in the inventory of
Items about: Based on: ideological statements:
U.S. hegemonic Chanterjee and Maira Do you think that the U.S. has
and imperialistic (2014); Merry (2009); the right to overturn other
perspectives Stratton (2016); countries’ governments (such
Weistheimer (2014). as replacing leaders, political
structure)?
Do you think the U.S.
government has the right to
preserve order and security in
other countries?
Do you think the U.S.
government should support
parties and candidates in
other countries’ elections to
protect the interests of U.S.
citizens?
U.S. exceptionalism Apple (2000, 2004); Do you think English
and Western Gallego and communication should be
superiority Hollingsworth, (2000); preferred over
Macedo (2000); Wayne communication in other
and Vinson (2014). languages in international
contexts?
Do you think the term
“America” should be used to
name the country located
between Mexico and
Canada?
Do you think education in the
United States is one of the
best in the world?
The attainment of Blanchar and Muller Do you think that, if people
the American (2015); Gee (2008), work hard in the United
dream Giroux (1992); Sleeter States, they will attain a good
(2012). standard of living regardless
of their ethnic and racial
origin?
Do you think that being
successful is more related to
individual rather than
collective success?
Do you think in the United
States, everyone has the same
rights and opportunities to
have a good standard of
living?
Table 2 Reliability statistics all 9 items analyzed together

Cronbach’s alpha based on
Cronbach’s alpha standardized items No. of items
0.733 0.744 9
related to education and applied linguistics. For reliability, which relates

to the internal consistency of the items of a scale survey as a group (Martin
& Bridgmon, 2012), I ran a Cronbach’s alpha. The results of a Cronbach’s
alpha analysis ranges from zero to one, one indicating high number of
covariance. George and Mallery (2003) proposed that 0.7 level or higher
of Cronbach’s alpha is acceptable, for which I considered this recommen-
dation as a point of reference for the reliability of the items of my survey.
When all of the nine items of my survey were analyzed together, an
acceptable internal consistency reliability (α = 0.733) was found (Table 2).
Although the data of item total statistics’ table (Table 2) suggested that
it was not necessary to delete any item to obtain a higher internal item
reliability, the data of the Inter-Item Correlation Matrix (Table 3) revealed
that items 3 and 8 were problematic, as they had negative correlations
with other items of the survey (George & Mallery, 2003). For this reason,
I decided to delete these two items, which resulted in an acceptable
Cronchbach coefficient (α=. 725) and which, also, eliminated negative
correlations in the Matrix (Table 5).
With items 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 of my survey, I conducted a Content
Validity Index (CVI), which is, according to Rubio, Berg-Weger, Tebb,
Lee, and Rauch (2003), a statistical measure to calculate the representa-
tiveness of the items in terms of content validity. To do so, I asked four
education professionals whose area of specializations are history, educa-
tion and politics, to rate my questionnaire. Rubio et al. (2003) suggested
that, to run a CVI, it is necessary to divide the number of items that were
graded with a 3 or 4 (in 0–4 scale), among the total number of expert
graders. If my CVI is higher than 0.80, then items are valid. This was the
case for all the remaining items of this survey (Table 4).
134
Table 3 Inter-item correlation matrix when deleting items 3 and 8

D. Martínez-Prieto
VAR00001 VAR00002 VAR00004 VAR00005 VAR00006 VAR00007 VAR00009

VAR00001 1.000 0.466 0.364 0.269 0.184 0.126 0.622
VAR00002 0.466 1.000 0.495 0.301 0.301 0.386 0.502
VAR00004 0.364 0.495 1.000 0.048 0.471 0.372 0.363
VAR00005 0.269 0.301 0.048 1.000 0.150 0.224 0.196
VAR00006 0.184 0.301 0.471 0.150 1.000 0.096 0.085
VAR00007 0.126 0.386 0.372 0.224 0.096 1.000 0.217
VAR00009 0.622 0.502 0.363 0.196 0.085 0.217 1.000
Table 4 Content validity index

Item Rater 1 Rater 2 Rater 3 Rater 4 Agreement
1 4 3 4 4 100% (1.0)
2 4 4 4 4 100% (1.0)
4 4 4 4 4 100% (1.0)
5 4 3 3 4 100% (1.0)
6 4 4 4 4 100% (1.0)
7 4 4 4 4 100% (1.0)
9 4 3 4 4 100% (1.0)
Sample
To find participants, I used respondent-driven approach, which is an

approach recommended for hidden populations with unknown sizes and
in which participants may feel stigmatized for their membership to a cer-
tain group (Heckathorn, 1997) who can, nonetheless, be contacted with-
out difficulty (Mantecón, Juan, Calafat, Becoña, & Román, 2008). To do
so, and by recommendation of the school authorities of the site of the
present research, I knocked at the doors of the classrooms, talked about my
research with the professors, and asked permission to briefly talk about my
research in front of students. I gave my survey to transnationals who were
willing to participate in the study and waited outside the classrooms while
they filled it. According to Mantecón, Calafac, Becoña, and Román (2008),
respondent-driven methods provide with a representative sample of the
pseudo-population which, however, is not identical to the real population.
Participants
In total, I found 33 transnationals out of a total population of 1050

students (0.6%) enrolled in the first four semesters of the Licenciatura
en Enseñanza del Inglés (B.A. in English Teaching), which aligns with
the number of transnationals found in previous studies (i.e., Zúñiga,
Hamann, & García, 2016). While 33 transnationals completed the
survey, only 27 stated their length of exposure to U.S. formal education
or reported they studied for a year or more in the United States, which
were the data I used for this chapter. The participants of this research
were pursuing a degree in English Language Teaching in the main pub-
lic university of Puebla, Mexico. They were enrolled in classes that cor-
respond to the first and second year (pre-service teachers usually takes
four to five years to complete their degree). The age of my participants
ranged from 17 to 24 (M=22.4, SD=3.6). The length of exposure of my
participants to U.S. education ranged from 1–11 years (M=7, SD=4.2).
Data Analysis
I first evaluated Content Validity Index (CVI) and the internal consis-
tency of the items of my survey using a Cronbach alpha analysis. Later, in
order to answer my research question, in which my predictor variable is
the length of exposure to U.S. formal education and my criterion variable
is the degree of agreement transnational students have with ideologies
promoted in U.S. curricula, I ran a single linear regression. According to
Morgan, Reichert and Harrison (2016), a linear regression is used to
model the linear relationship between a dependent (or criterion) variable
and one or more independent (or predictor) variables; in other words, a
linear regression serves to analyze the association between the dependent
and the dependent variables. With this purpose, I ran one linear regres-
sion in which I added up the total number of numerical values of the
remaining 7 items and associated this value to the length of exposure to
U.S. formal education. Overall, due to the reduced number of transna-
tionals enrolled in this program, the results of this study only explain the
association of the variables of the specific population of transnationals I
found at this particular English language teacher preparation program.
F ulfillment of Conditions for a Single

Linear Regression
Martin and Bridgmon (2012) suggested to graphically corroborate that,

before running a linear regression, data resembles a linear model (Fig. 1).
The data for this study resembled a linear model and the conditions of (1)
QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS
40
Level of Agreement
30
20
10
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Years of Exposure
Fig. 1 Linear model of predictor and criterion variables
normality, which means my data was normality distributed, (2) homosce-

dasticity, which is way dependent variables show similar levels of vari-
ance, and (3) linearity, which is the way data represents a straight line,
were fulfilled.
Results
A simple linear regression was calculated to predict the level of agree-
ment Mexican-origin transnational English language pre-service teach-
ers had in terms of U.S. curricular ideologies and the time they were
exposed to U.S. hegemonic curricula in formal U.S. education. A signifi-
cant regression equation was found (F (1, 23) = 17.281, p = 0.000) with
a R2 of 0.429. Time of exposure to U.S. curriculums predicted transna-
tional’s ideologies is equal to 18.716+1.049 (length of exposure to
U.S. curriculums) units when length of exposure to U.S. curriculums
the U.S. is measured in years. Perspectives about U.S. hegemonic ideolo-
gies increased 1.049 for each year of exposure to U.S. curricula (Tables
5, 6 and 7).
In simple terms, the results of this investigation show that the more
Mexican transnational pre-service teachers were exposed to U.S. educa-
tion, the higher degree of agreement they had to U.S. curriculum
Table 5 Model summary

Model R R square Adjusted R square Std. Error of the estimate
1 .655 a
0.429 0.404 4.31502
Predictors: (constant), years
a
Table 6 ANOVAa
Model Sum of squares df Mean square F Sig.
1 Regression 321.754 1 321.754 17.281 .000b
Residual 428.246 23 18.619
Total 750.000 24
a
Dependent variable: Degree
b
Predictors: (constant), years
Table 7 Coefficientsa
Unstandardized Standardized
coefficients coefficients
Std.
Model B Error Beta T Sig.
1 (Constant) 18.716 1.867 10.022 0.000
Years 1.049 0.252 0.655 4.157 0.000
a
Dependent variable: Degree
ideologies. Because the p value is lower than 0.05 (p = 0.000), I know the
results have little probability to have been caused due to chance. Although
our R2 of 0.429 seems low, Dörneyi (2007) claimed it is an acceptable
coefficient for human sciences, for which results seem to corroborate my
original hypothesis and suggest, as I will discuss in the following section,
that U.S. schooling impacts the (re)incorporation of Mexican transna-
tional EAL pre-service teachers into Mexican public universities.
Discussion
This study used a Critical Literacies framework as a point of departure.
Specifically, this research aimed to examine the impact of U.S. curricular
ideologies in Mexican transnational pre-service language teachers—who
had been exposed to U.S. education before moving (back) to Mexico to

pursue an English language teaching degree. This chapter is based on cur-
rent literature that claims that U.S. education promotes certain ideolo-
gies among students so they can become future citizens with characteristics
that favor dominant groups in this country—that is, the promotion of
structural indoctrination through education, which motivated the quan-
titative approach of this study. To analyze the degree of agreement of
Mexican transnationals with U.S. curriculum, I constructed a survey
based on research about 3 interrelated areas: U.S. hegemonic and impe-
rialistic perspectives, U.S. exceptionalism and Western superiority, and
the attainment of the American Dream. According to my data analysis,
the longer Mexican transnationals were exposed to U.S. education, the
more they would agree with U.S. ideologies in the aforementioned areas.
Mexican nationals and transnationals might have acquired opposing ide-
ologies during their previous formal educational development before
enrolling in the same English teaching degree in Puebla, which might
cause ideological contentions that could prevent the successful (re)adap-
tation of transnationals.
In terms of Critical Literacies, this chapter supports the notion that
U.S.-educated individuals are impacted by the ideological orientation of
U.S. education. That is, Mexican transnational pre-service language
teachers “carried” some ideologies fostered in U.S. schools even when
facing a new educational context in Mexico. Because public education in
central Mexico has traditionally held an anti-U.S. inclination, the find-
ings of this study can help understand why it is difficult for Mexican
transnationals to (re)adapt into the Mexican public education system. In
other words, this research sheds light on new layers of analysis to under-
stand why Mexican transnational pre-service language teachers tend to
reject their Mexican culture and origin while they are in Mexico (see, for
example, Mora Pablo et al., 2014). Differently from northern regions of
Mexico, in which transnationals English teachers have less difficulties due
to the geographical and ideological proximity to the United States—i.e.,
Petrón’s (2003) participants—, this chapter illuminates on the ideologi-
cal differences that transnationals might face while pursuing an English
teaching degree in central Mexico.
The findings of this study also illuminate on why Mexican transna-

tionals might be rejected by their Mexican national peers (see, Bazán-
Ramirez & Galván-Zariñana, 2015). Mexican transnationals have been
exposed to—and have interiorized, to some degree—ideologies that sup-
port U.S. hegemonic and imperialistic perspectives, U.S. exceptionalism
and Western superiority, and the attainment of the American Dream
which, while useful in a U.S. educational context, might not be so while
interacting with Mexican national pre-service teachers and professors—
who, according to current research, are more aware of the historical and
current negative impact of U.S. policies in Mexico (i.e., Sayer, 2012;
Sayer, Martínez-Prieto, & Carvajal de la Cruz, 2019). In other words, the
results of this study can help understand the isolation of transnationals
(i.e., Christiansen et al., 2017) and the discrimination they experience in
Mexican universities (i.e., Mora Pablo et al., 2014).
While current literature about the identity of language teachers has
focused on discussing the native/non-native dichotomy (i.e., Rudolph,
Selvi, & Yazan, 2015), or in the process of institutional legitimization
(i.e., Martínez-Prieto & Lindahl, 2019), the findings of this research sug-
gest, that the analysis of the language teacher identity should consider
other areas. Whereas the identity of pre-service language teachers has
been described as dynamic (Faez, 2011; Martel, 2015), depending on life
trajectories and even sentimental attachment to English (Kalaja, 2016),
this study examines how the identities of transnational EAL pre-service
teachers extends beyond the arenas of nativism and legitimization. That
is, based on this study, I suggest that curriculum ideologies, which help
in the construction of national citizenship in one country (the United
States), can impact the identities and reincorporation of transnationals
pursuing an English language teaching career during their (return) migra-
tion journey in another (Mexico).
Limitations of Study and Future Research

In terms of data analysis, I assumed ideologies embedded in curricula are
somehow homogenous across U.S. That is, I did not consider the diver-
sity of places in which transnationals lived in the United States (different
states have different curricula). If possible, future studies should collect

data from transnationals who studied in the same state in the United
States. In the case that future studies aim to focus on universities in the
state of Puebla, research should focus on pre-service teachers who had
lived in U.S. states with a large population of Poblanos: New York, New
Jersey, California, and Texas.
The instrument of this study should also be improved for future stud-
ies. To incorporate participants’ voices and opinions, future instrumenta-
tion should include open-ended questions. Future research should
develop a more extensive set of qualitative questions that relate to the
effects of embedded ideologies in the beliefs of transnational pre-service
English language teachers among larger transnational populations
in Mexico.
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Holidays in Mexico: Developing
Transnational Skills in Teaching English
as a Foreign Language
Araceli Salas
Introduction
The educational, economic and social mobility of people around the
world has resulted in the creation of new contexts and communities for
teaching and learning languages. These new teaching contexts have led to
the emergence of new spaces where local and global practices blend and
become part of transnational activities that help learners immerse in the
culture of the target language. However, blending cultural practices may
not be as easy as it sounds.
Mexico, with a population of over 120 million inhabitants, shelters
different groups and communities of people, from ancient, flourishing
cultures to migrants from Central and South American countries who
want to reach the dream of going to the United States of America in order
to find a job and support their families. Besides, speaking English is a
goal for many in order to become part of a bigger community. Ushioda
(2011) claimed that speaking English is important for people nowadays
A. Salas (*)
Benemèrita Universidad Autònoma de Puebla (BUAP), Puebla, Mexico
148 A. Salas
in order to become “self-representations as members of global communi-

ties” (p. 201) and obtain the benefits as speakers of the “global language”
as Crystal (2003) has referred to English. Becoming a member of global
communities involves a deeper understanding of different cultural, social
and economic practices to illustrate local and global practices such as the
dichotomy of the Day of Dead and Halloween as manifestations of the
cultures that blend in an ELT classroom in Mexico, the context of the
study in this chapter.
However, when people get in touch with different practices, they often
need to learn new ways of doing and being as the means to access oppor-
tunities somewhere else. Living in a different country or interacting with
people from other countries or communities might mean to alter or
change the cultural patterns acquired in their early years. Through cul-
ture, communities share their understanding of daily life, their experi-
ences and interactions. Transnationality has been defined as “the sustained
linkages, relationships, and practices of non-state actors across national
borders” by Toukan, Gaztambide-Fernandez and Anwaruddin (2017,
p. 2). Vertovec (2009) has called the practice of these cultural patterns
beyond borders as a transnational paradigm shift and it might involve a
reconstruction of concepts such as identity, multiculturalism, intercultur-
alism and global citizenship in different transnational communities as
they may permeate into aspects of the community’s daily life. In this sce-
nario, Language Teacher Education may take a relevant role in bridging
and making connections between cultures and social practices in order to
facilitate understanding and communication. However, teachers` beliefs
on traditional social and religious practices might affect the transmission
of cultural knowledge. Knowledge and beliefs are inseparable, Pajares
(1992) affirms, however, that knowledge is related to teachers’ factual
cognition and beliefs are more related to attitudes, values and ideologies.
Purpose of the Chapter

This chapter is based on a qualitative small survey which aimed at explor-
ing how a sample of the Community of Practice (CoP) of English teach-
ers in Mexico, including native and non-native teachers, experience two
Holidays in Mexico: Developing Transnational Skills in Teaching… 149
of the most important celebrations in the Mexican and Anglo-Saxon

countries: the Day of the Dead and Halloween. At the same time, the
chapter explores the way EFL teachers in Mexico construct their dis-
course around these holidays and how teacher language education can
help pre-service teachers develop transnational skills through global
awareness.
The Day of the Dead and Halloween celebrations may bring out some
of the core cultural beliefs of EFL teachers and reach their perceptions on
other cultures and beliefs. Even when the shared purpose of the CoP of
English teachers is to teach the language, language teachers do not always
acknowledge the fact that by teaching the language, they also represent
the culture of the target language and have the social responsibility of
presenting the language they teach beyond the linguistic aspects
(Salas, 2014).
The Research Question

In order to guide the study, a research question was developed: How do
English teachers in Mexico live the celebration of the Day of Dead and
Halloween? This research question aimed at looking into the participants’
classroom cultural practices and the perceptions and experiences that the
participants, English teachers, native speakers (NS) and non-native
speakers (NNS), have regarding the celebration of the Day of Dead and
Halloween in Mexico, specifically in their English classroom.
Language and Culture

Language as one of the means for social and cultural transmission is key
for how transnational dynamics shape current and different global con-
texts. These new contexts have made the teaching and learning of foreign
languages a need. This way, language teachers can also have their own role
in the development of transnational skills due to the fact that language
teachers possess at least a dual identity (Croucher, 2004; Vertovec, 2009)
150 A. Salas
that makes them knowledgeable of the implications of transnational

practices to connect the social and cultural practices of both identities.
Language and culture shape social experiences and relationships in the
communities. Language, then, plays a key role in the practice and the
transmission of cultural patterns at the local level; therefore, learning a
foreign language can help in the understanding of other social and cul-
tural practices. The current needs of a global world require well-prepared
citizens for a challenging world. One of the ways to prepare students for
this scenario is through global awareness (Burnouf, 2004; Zhao, 2010) so
that global citizens recognize “the value and viability of worldviews differ-
ent from their own” (Schultheis-Moore & Simon, 2015, p. 2). Language
teachers can contribute from their language classrooms to raising stu-
dents’ global awareness and developing this awareness into transnational
skills that might.
Multiculturalism and Interculturalism

In the current globalized and cross-cultural contexts. Some terms need
clarification and more updated definitions. Multiculturalism has been
defined as “the presence of, or support for the presence of, several distinct
cultural or ethnic groups within a society” (Oxford Dictionaries) while
the concept of interculturalism involves exchanges and dialogues among
different cultures. Nussbaum (1998, p. 82) identifies interculturalism as
the “recognition of common human needs across cultures and of disso-
nance and critical dialogue within cultures”. These terms, multicultural-
ism and interculturalism, have been used in social, political and educational
settings in order to explain the blending of cultures and their relationship
with the contexts in which interactions among cultures take place.
Transnationalism
In a language classroom, students are exposed to transnational and trans-
cultural encounters, which are important in the construction of gender,
ethnicity, race, and nationality (Kummels, 2007). Transnationalism has
emerged in a world where physical and virtual dimensions have trespassed

space and time spreading information, ideas and people (Vertovec, 2009),
changing perceptions and beliefs that individuals have of their own cul-
ture and themselves when exposed to other ways of being and doing at
different times in the world (Gee, 2011).
Having established these conditions, transnational practices are not
only represented by the people who move from one place to another. In
addition, those who come or visit their places or communities may have
an impact on the activities and identities of local people. In this context,
transnational language classrooms turn into spaces where diverse social
and cultural practices blend having the target language as the bridge to
connect culture and prepare students to face a world where transnational-
ism normally occurs in everyday life.
Vertovec (1999, pp. 449–456) has identified six different scenarios
where transnationalism occurs, and these contexts are not limited to
migration alone:
1. Social morphology (diasporas, transnational networks, transnational

public spheres, transnational communities);
2. Type of consciousness (dual or multiple identifications, awareness of
multilocality, transformations of identity);
3. Mode of cultural reproduction (syncretism, creolization, cultural
translation, hybridity, new ethnicities, transnational consumption);
4. Avenue of capital (transnational corporations, transnational transac-
tions, transnational entrepreneurship);
5. Site of political engagement (transnational social movement organiza-
tions, transnational political activities of diasporas);
6. (Re) construction of “place” or locality (translocalities, virtual neigh-
borhoods) (Vertovec, 1999, pp. 449–456).
This chapter focuses on the third and fourth scenarios, the mode of
cultural reproduction and the transnational transactions as it shows how
two different cultural manifestations may represent the shape celebra-
tions take in transnational language classrooms and how teachers per-
ceive these cultural practices. Cohen (1997, p. 516) claims that
“transnational bonds no longer have to be cemented by immigration or
152 A. Salas
by exclusive territorial claims” (1997, p. 516). Then, transnational activ-

ity may be defined by the social construction of common practices which
might involve more than one cultural heritage. Thus, “creating transna-
tional places where knowledge and traditions, such as holidays, can be
performed together” (Gough, 2000, p. 329) by language teachers from
different national backgrounds may provide students with opportunities
to exercise their global and transnational skills.
Holidays
Holidays involve rituals that communicate values and beliefs (Carey,
1989; Rothenbuhler, 1998). In Mexico, holidays are normally centered
on religion. Mexico is mainly a catholic country, 82% of the population
identify themselves as Roman Catholic practitioners according to the
INEGI (2018). Other religions that are becoming popular in the country
are Christian evangelists and Jehovah’s Witnesses among others.
In Mexico, most of the celebrations have religious or historical-political
roots. Some of the most representative are: February 5, Constitution Day,
September 16, Independence Day or December 12 when the Virgin of
Guadalupe is celebrated in all over Mexico, and beyond its borders, espe-
cially in the Sanctuary located in Mexico City. However, November 1st
and 2nd, the celebration of the Day of Dead remains as one of the most
representative festivities of Mexican people.
The Day of the Dead in Mexico

In 2003, UNESCO designated this festival as an Intangible Cultural
Heritage of Mankind. UNESCO noted that:
The Day of the Dead celebration holds great significance in the life of
Mexico’s indigenous communities. The fusion of pre-Hispanic religious
rites and Catholic feasts brings together two universes, one marked by
indigenous belief systems, the other by worldviews introduced by the
Europeans in the sixteenth century (para. 3).
So, the Christian days dedicated to the dead practically merged with
the Mexican or Aztec celebrations of the dead during the colonial era
(Orellana, 2011). The Mexican Day of the Dead is not only a religious
ritual, but also a festivity that promotes the national and cultural identity
(Brandes, 2003), supports local economy (Haley & Fukuda, 2004;
Brandes, 2003), and brings international migrants home (Haley &
Fukuda, 2004; Marchi, 2005). Mexicans abroad celebrate their dead
people in sync with Mexicans in Mexico.
Halloween
Halloween and the Day of the Dead share historical symbolic origins
(Brandes, 1998). Halloween is a part of Scottish and Irish folk customs
of pre-Christian times. The pagan Druid priests believed that souls were
immortal and they passed from one body to another at death. “The earli-
est trace (of Halloween) is the Celtic festival, Samhain, which was the
Celtic New Year. It was the day of the dead, and Celts believed that on
that day the dead people would be available for their living relatives”
(Navarro, 1997, para. 4).
The celebration of Halloween, with pagan roots, takes place on October
31st, right before the Day of the Day. It is associated with the Anglo-
Saxon culture as European immigrants took their traditions into the USA
bringing their Halloween customs with them. Later, Americans began
the “trick-or-treat” last century, when the holiday became more centered
on community and Halloween became a popular secular holiday.
However, Blumberg (2015) affirms that All Saints day and All Souls’ day
were recognized by the Catholic Church since the eight-century to offer
presents and pray for the souls who were in heaven, the two festivities are
celebrated one after the other, from Oct.31st to Nov 2nd.
Celebrating holidays in the language classroom, especially in Teacher-
Education settings, at the local and the global levels raises the awareness
of language teachers and students in relation to what other peoples and
cultures value and what these celebrations mean for them. In an ELT
classroom, global citizens in formation can be taught to not only about
154 A. Salas
festivities but also to celebrate and appreciate the heritage of all students
who form the Community of Practice of a classroom.
A Community of practice (CoP), according to Lave and Wenger
(1991), can be defined as a collective of people who engage on an ongo-
ing basis in some common endeavor. Later, Wenger, McDermott and
Snyder (2002, p. 7) defined CoPs as “groups of people who shares a con-
cern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their
knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis”.
This study explores the cultural practices and perceptions of a group of
English teachers in Mexico regarding the Day of the Dead and Halloween
and how awareness on cultural transnational skills might benefit pro-
grams of language teacher education.
Teachers as members of communities of practice might develop com-
mon knowledge regarding social and cultural practices which may trans-
form the way they teach and approach the target language. Norton
(2000) and Jenkins (1996) suggest that identity is a plural, continuous
and constant process, just as the CoP itself. Therefore, developing aware-
ness on different cultural expressions may expand teachers’ cognition on
local and global festivities and traditions.
Awareness on Global Citizenship

In order to facilitate communication and understanding among human
communities in order to become more aware and respectful of the others,
UNESCO has designed a model of global citizenship based on global
awareness. According to Reysen and Katzarska-Miller (2013), global
awareness is the “knowledge of global issues and one’s interconnectedness
with others” (p. 861) which can lead to a global citizenship identity. The
knowledge that individuals have about their communities’ issues and the
surrounding world may pave their understanding of global awareness and
their place within the global community.
Global Skills
Education can be the means for promoting global identity in students
and it is, as a current topic, a field in the process of research and explora-
tion. Including global awareness as a pedagogical practice will promote
transnational individuals’ skills, which will lead to learning, engagement
and progress with the community.
According to the OECD and the Center for Global Education have
identified four dimensions that students need to develop in order to
interact globally “with people face-to-face as well as virtually in their
communities and in other regions and nations” (2018, p. 5). These global
and transnational skills are also needed to analyze and work towards the
resolution of local and global issues:
1. The capacity to critically examine issues such as poverty, trade, migra-

tion, inequality, environmental justice, conflict, cultural differences
and stereotypes.
2. The capacity to understand and appreciate different perspectives and
world views.
3. The ability to interact positively with people of different national,
social, ethnic and religious backgrounds, as well as those of differ-
ent genders.
4. To be willing to act constructively to address issues of sustainability
and well- being.
Another definition of Global Competence is the one given by the PISA

framework as the combination of four dimensions (examining issues,
understanding perspectives, interacting and acting), which necessitate a
combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values for global under-
standing. At the same time, teachers also need to enhance and help stu-
dents develop intercultural and transnational skills in their classroom.
According to the UNESCO (2006, p. 32), the guidelines for intercul-
tural education:
156 A. Salas
• Principle I- Intercultural Education respects the cultural identity of

the learner through the provision of culturally appropriate and respon-
sive quality education for all.
• Principle II- Intercultural Education provides every learner with the
cultural knowledge, attitudes and skills necessary to achieve active and
full participation in society.
• Principle III- Intercultural Education provides all learners with cul-
tural knowledge, attitudes and skills that enable them to contribute to
respect, understanding and solidarity among individuals, ethnic,
social, cultural and religious groups and nations
These principles will promote empathy in the current scenarios that

the mobility of people around the world and besides raising awareness
will help citizens develop global competence. From this perspective,
transnationalism may create another set of challenges for English lan-
guage education in EFL contexts as these spaces are no longer limited to
geographical borders as Mugford (2001) has claimed.
Language Teacher Education in Mexico

The need for English teachers in Mexico has increased due to its geo-
graphical location, but also because of global requirements in educational
and industrial contexts. Language teacher education in Mexico had its
origins in institutions run by either the American Embassy or the British
Council in the 1960s. These institutions offered their particular views on
language and culture. However, in the 1980s, the first English language
teaching programs were offered by several state universities and a separa-
tion between language and culture occurred, contrary to what Kramsch
(2014) claims for language teaching: a language and culture model in
which local and foreign cultures can be addressed.
Methodology
This case study follows the qualitative paradigm of research as it aims at
enhancing understanding of the diverse cultures, the beliefs and values of
different peoples and how humans experience and face different situa-
tions (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2011; Holloway & Galvin, 2016). The
study can be considered as a survey at a small scale, Fowler (2008) states
that a survey research provides a description of trends, attitudes or opin-
ions of a population by studying a sample of participants. In order to
obtain and explore the participants’ (English teachers in Mexico) views
and attitudes regarding the celebration of the Day of Dead and Halloween
in Mexico a brief questionnaire was designed. The instrument consisted
of only three questions regarding the teachers’ behaviors and beliefs in
relation to both celebrities (See Appendix). Once, the instrument was
piloted, it was turned into a Google document. The questionnaire link
was, then, uploaded to a Facebook page of English Teachers in Mexico.
The answers from the sample of EFL teachers in Mexico to the question-
naire showed the way the CoP of English teachers live and incorporate
Halloween as a sample of the culture of the target language blending it
with the local practices of the Day of Dead in the Latin American country.
Context
The study took place in Mexico where the celebration of the Day of Dead
on the 1st and 2nd of November is a big cultural and social event.
However, as Halloween is celebrated only one day before November 31st
both celebrations tend to merge and syncretize as a big celebration. The
English Language Teaching (ELT) classroom is a place where both cele-
brations represent the cultures that normally blend in the Mexican con-
text. Therefore, these days have become an issue of discussion and debate
in the country at the light of globalization and opposing the nationalism
that these holidays raise in Mexicans given that the Day of the Dead rep-
resents much of the colors, smells and food of the country.
158 A. Salas
Participants
The participants, 39 English teachers, all of them in-service teachers in
Mexico, were the teachers who voluntarily answered the questionnaire
posted on a special page in Facebook for English teachers. The partici-
pants’ teaching experience ranged from one to 20 years of experience and
from different places in the Mexico.
• Twenty-one participants were Mexican teachers working in basic edu-

cation (from kindergarten to junior-high schools).
• Eight participants were Mexican teachers working in public or private
high schools.
• Seven participants were Mexican teachers working in public or private
universities in Mexico.
• Two participants were American teachers working in different institu-
tions, one in a language school and another in a bilingual elemen-
tary school.
• One participant was from Canada, working in a public university.
The participants, then, represented a varied sector of the levels of edu-

cation in Mexico as well as the mix of native teachers and non-native
teachers who teach the language in Mexico in public and private institu-
tions resembling the variety of English teachers who work in the country.
The Results
The questionnaires were uploaded as a link in a Facebook page for English
Teachers in Mexico (See Appendix) and it was kept active for a period of
10 days, 39 teachers answered the questionnaire. The temporality of posts
on FB makes the questionnaire “disappear” soon and after 10 days the
page was not showing the post anymore, therefore, no more answers were
submitted. Then, the data organization began by downloading the results
in an excel document. The answers were then organized in positive,
negative and neutral opinions or views regarding the celebration of the

Day of Dead and Halloween in the English class.
From the 39 answers received, 11 participants said they celebrated
both festivities in their English classroom, 9 answered that they did not
celebrate any of the festivities, and 34 participants gave their reasons and
arguments for their behaviors. The answers from the participants below
are their actual words and have not been edited.
1. In favor of the celebrations
Some participants directly mentioned their preference for one or for

both celebrations as part of their language classroom activities:
Participant 3: We make “calaveritas” which are like funny poems

talking about each other’s cause of death or what we
would as ghosts. I celebrate the day of the dead.
Participant 5: I celebrate the day of dead me and my groups usually
give gifts to our dead people and we settle a table full
of food and drinks and all the food our people used to
like or loved eating.
Participant 6: None, as we’re not allowed to, but if I did, I would
celebrate Halloween.
Participant 7: At school, there are representation of the day of dead
every year, so as an English teacher I explain to my
students that as learners of a second language, they
have to know part of the culture and the similarities
and differences of the day of dead and Halloween.
Participant 9: As a Mexican teacher, in my classroom, we review
both topics but we celebrate the Day of the Dead.
Participant 12: The institution promotes the celebration of the Day of
the Dead.
Participant 14: Halloween...The entire school writes spooky stories
and we make them into a book! Day of the dead we
usually do not have school.
Participant 16: The day of the Dead is near, children ask for orna-
ments for the classroom; we feel happy in a certain
160 A. Salas
way, I prefer to celebrate the day of the dead because it

is a Mexican holiday and with it, we remember our
relatives that passed away and prepare an “offering”
and explain some of the elements that it has. Sometimes
children ask questions about Halloween and I just
made a comparison between these two celebrations.
Participant 22: I like to teach about how Halloween is celebrated in
Canada, I have volunteered at schools as a judge and I
ALWAYS wear a costume. Day of the Dead is a chance
for students to tell me about Mexican traditions and
also to bring a photo for the altar and tell us about the
person whose picture they are posting.
Participant 36: Day of the Dead and Halloween but just for the part
of wearing these cool attires.
Summarizing the positive points collected the participants, all English

teachers, highlighted the festive part of both celebrations. Tradition was
mentioned as one of the most important aspects of the Day of the Dead
while costumes, candies and spooky stories were the most mentioned ele-
ments of celebrating Halloween.
2. Against any of the celebrations
These are some of the identified comments including comments

against the celebration of any of the festivities:
Participant 2: It depends on the school, what the principal prefers. I

don’t know why everybody makes Halloween syn-
onym of English. If we are in Mexico, we should cel-
ebrate The Day of the Dead, but if the school says
Halloween, then Halloween it is.
Participant 9: I like to do Halloween but the school I work is catho-
lic so it’s difficult.
Participant 18: Neither of them. I work in a Methodist school those
days are considered as pagan holidays.
Participant 23: I don’t usually celebrate these days because some stu-
dents do not have the belief about them.
Participant 25: It’s become a bit of a difficult topic to approach at the

public school where I teach because I’ve had so many
students that feel that Halloween is “diabolical” or, in
contrast, is just another symptom of U.S. imperialism.
I’ve had students of a certain religion go so far as to tell
me that if I put up any kind of Halloween decorations
in the classroom they wouldn’t be able to come to
class. I think it’s an interesting topic of cultural conflu-
ence and divergence that, when approached critically,
can lead to fruitful classroom debates, and, in the end,
effective language learning.
Among the cons of celebrating these holidays, the participants men-

tioned the ideological issues related to the cultural aspects of both holi-
days. Against the Day of the Dead, religion was mentioned as well as the
policies of the institutions in which they work. Regarding Halloween, the
participants said that this celebration might have strong cultural and reli-
gious elements that children and parents prefer to avoid. However, the
richness of the discussion can be used for the sake of language learning
was highlighted by one of the participants.
3. Neutral
Some participants did not mention their preference for any of the cel-
ebrations or their opinion on the festivities.
Participant 4: I work in a language school so I’m allowed to work

with both.
Participant 5: I celebrate the day of dead, my groups and I usually
offer gifts to our dead people and we settle a table full
of food and drinks and all the food our people used to
like or loved eating.
Participant 20: Well, in my classroom, we make a convivial together
and we talk about the differences of cultures and cus-
toms. However, I have no problem with celebrating
Halloween in class because it is a way to share customs
with the second language.
162 A. Salas
These were some of the comments that participants replied to the spe-
cific question of which holiday they celebrated in their English classes.
The opinions were divided according to the contexts where participants
were teaching, but their answers also corresponded to the parents’, chil-
dren and their own beliefs as their answers showed. Celebrating either of
these holidays might even depend on the policies or religion of their
institutions.
The answers to the question, do you celebrate any foreign holidays in
your classroom? were very brief and concrete; participants mentioned the
festivities they celebrate in their language classroom in Mexico and there
were three festivities mentioned by teachers:
1. Halloween
2. Christmas
3. Thanksgiving
The mention of Christmas as a foreign holiday in the ELT classroom

was interesting as Christmas is celebrated in many different countries.
However, in the language classroom, the celebration might be a synonym
of Christmas Carols and foreign symbols such as Santa Claus, the rein-
deers or the snow, which are not common in Mexico.
The last question was about the celebration of Mexican holidays in the
English classroom and participants mentioned the most popular and
common religious and historical-political Mexican celebrations:
Independence Day (Sept. 16th), Constitution Day (Feb. 5th) and
Revolution Day (Nov. 20th). They also mentioned Christmas and
Halloween. Interestingly, they mentioned St. Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14th)
as a Mexican celebration when it has its origins in Europe, but it is a very
popular celebration in Mexico.
Discussion
Teaching and learning a language imply more than transmitting the lin-
guistic features of the target language and the production of correct syn-
tactic structures. Learning a language involves an exploration of the
behaviors and ways of doing and being (Gee, 2011) of the others
including holidays and their celebration in the language classroom. The

participants expressed that in their classrooms, the Day of the Dead or
Halloween or both can be important because they know these are mani-
festations of the culture of the language taught and the host culture, but
also how the school culture and the students’ religious beliefs may hinder
the inclusion of these celebrations in their language classroom. The com-
ments from the participants evidenced the blending of these celebrations
in the language classroom as well as their intentions in respecting the host
culture but at the same time trying to honor their own beliefs and cul-
ture. Their dual identity (Croucher, 2004; Vertovec, 2009) encourages
language teachers to respect and appreciate the practices of the cultures
within which they live and teach.
In view of the results obtained, the need to raise awareness on the issue
of cultural manifestations celebrated beyond borders or transnational
practices might be appreciated and enhanced through the development
of transnational skills in communities of teachers and students. This way,
language classrooms may provide “transnational places where knowledge
and traditions, such as holidays, can be performed together” (Gough,
2000, p. 329) with the help of teachers who are able to deal with inter-
cultural and transnational practices.
Conclusion
In a world that fluctuates between globalization and nationalism, devel-
oping transnational skills is important in EFL teacher education as the
English language classroom can become a local space where transnational
cultural and social practices may turn into tools for understanding the
other. It is in this context that the research question – How do English
teachers in Mexico live the Day of the Dead and Halloween? – becomes
relevant and interesting, especially for this community.
The questionnaire used in this chapter has challenged English teachers
to analyze and reflect on the ways in which their own beliefs regarding
their cultural background had been formed and how they affect their
teaching. Awareness on the ways the cultural elements, such as holidays
and celebrations, added to language learning can impact on the creation
of programs for the ELT in the world considering the new contexts that
164 A. Salas
the current mobility of people have created. The chapter has examined
how personal views on transnational cultural practices may affect future
approaches of teacher language education programs and, therefore, shape
more appropriate teachers’ actions in the classroom regarding social and
cultural practices.
The social and cultural responsibility of language teachers is to repre-
sent the culture of the language taught, even when he or she does not
belong to that culture. When a person agrees to teach a language, he/she
becomes the cultural model for learners. Thus, it is relevant for the teacher
to expose students with elements that might connect the learner with
cultural elements. This cultural modeling, without biases, might enhance
their language learning adding cultural elements such as the Day of the
Dead and Halloween, responding in this way to the UNESCO principles
for intercultural education. The answers to the questionnaire showed that
language teachers in Mexico could connect their own culture to the cul-
ture of the language they teach and make transnational connections in
the English classroom.
National holidays can be opportunities to develop transnational skills
in language teachers in order to enhance empathy and appreciation for
the other’s culture. This chapter has shown that even when there seems to
be an openness to multiculturalism and interculturalism, there is still
room for more awareness in language teacher education about different
cultural patterns that may nurture transnational dispositions and prac-
tices in pedagogical contexts with potential implications for social and
political transformations.
Appendix: The Questionnaire

Google Forms
1. As an English teacher in Mexico, how do you live the Day of the Dead
and Halloween in your English class? Which one do you celebrate?
2. Which foreign holidays do you celebrate in your English class?
3. Which Mexican holidays do you celebrate in your English class?
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Transnationalism Contextualized
in Miami: The Proposed Component
of Dialectal Spanish Negotiations
in Undergraduate TESOL Courses
Xuan Jiang, Kyle Perkins, and Jennifer Pena
The purpose of this chapter is to propose the inclusion of Hispanic cul-

tural familiarity and Hispanic culturally relevant knowledge in under-
graduate TESOL pre-service teacher education courses, especially in
teacher education programs offered by Hispanic-Serving Institutions. We
chose the term “Hispanic” over “Latino” or “Latinx” to be consistent
with the word “Hispanic” in Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Hispanic-
Serving Institutions are accredited, degree-granting, U.S. public or pri-
vate institutions of higher education with 25% or more total undergraduate
Hispanic full-time equivalent student enrollment (U.S. Department of
Education, 2016).
X. Jiang (*)
Center for Excellence in Writing, Florida International University,
Miami, FL, USA
K. Perkins • J. Pena
Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA
170 X. Jiang et al.
Cultural familiarity and culturally relevant knowledge are two of nine

indicators discussed in the Culturally Engaging Campus Environments
model (Museus, 2014), the presence or absence of which can signifi-
cantly impact both mainstream and minority students’ success
(Montgomery, 2017; Museus, 2014). Cultural familiarity refers to “the
extent to which college students have opportunities to physically connect
with faculty, staff, and peers with whom they share common backgrounds
on their respective campuses is associated with greater likelihood of suc-
cess” (Museus, 2014, p. 210). Culturally relevant knowledge means
“opportunities for their students to cultivate, sustain, and increase knowl-
edge of their cultures and communities” (Museus, 2014, p. 210).
We advocate the embedding of culturally relevant knowledge and dia-
lectal negotiations of Spanish in TESOL teacher education curricula
offered by Hispanic-Serving Institutions or similar integration of other
local linguistic components. Dialectal negotiations in Hispanic transna-
tionalism should awaken, reshape and transform pre-service teachers’
professional knowledge, identity and mindset.
Our chapter will include an emerging example of the Spanish dialectal
negotiations offered in courses at Florida International University (FIU)
in Miami. FIU and Miami are an ideal locus for such a study for the fol-
lowing reasons. FIU is a Hispanic-Serving Institution, with 68% of its
undergraduate students being Hispanic (National Center for Education
Statistics, n.d.). FIU’s student demographic data closely reflect Miami’s
demographic of 68.6% Hispanic population (U.S. Census Bureau,
2018). Miami is the “most Spanish-speaking metropolitan region” in the
United States (Carter & Callesano, 2018, p. 67), and Miami is reported
as having the most dialectal diversity in the Spanish language in the world
(Carter & Lynch, 2015). An additional reason for choosing FIU as the
particular focus institution is that Hispanic students at FIU perceived
only a slightly stronger sense of belonging to the institution than other
racial and ethnic groups (72% versus 62%–68%), according to the
Culturally Engaging Campus Environments 2018 Four-Year Study
Survey Executive Report (National Institute for Transformation and
Equity, 2018, p. 11). We argue that it should not be taken for granted
that FIU has nurturing Culturally Engaging Campus Environments just
because of its location, nature and undergraduate demographics.
Transnationalism Contextualized in Miami: The Proposed… 171
We will critically examine the descriptions and materials of the existing

TESOL courses and any linguistic level of Spanish dialectal negotiations
in FIU courses, such as Linguistics, Spanish, and other relevant ones, for
possible disciplinary bridging to achieve transnationalism in a local con-
text. Even if Spanish and its dialectal negotiation are exemplified in the
current paper, the concept of transnationalism and translingualism can
be applied to other languages in different local contexts. Similarly, even
though the context of our paper is Miami, it has wider applications to
other areas having large populations of immigrants in the United States
and abroad who are practitioners of transnationalism, which will wit-
ness “the kinds of demographic changes” “in the years to come” (Carter,
2018, p. 248), and to teacher education at large, as a vital part of cross-
cultural communication and transformative education. It also has wider
applications to professional activities aiming for students’ success at their
own institutions, which include “student recruitment, admissions, reten-
tion, program building, curriculum design, and instructional practice”
(Carter, 2018, p. 248).
Literature Review
Dialectal Differences in U.S. Spanish
U.S. Spanish has substantial differences phonetically and lexically (Shi &
Canizales, 2013, p. 74). Historically, there are two general phonological
groups in U.S. Spanish—Highland and Coastal/Caribbean (Caballero,
Moreno, & Nogueiras, 2009). Evolving from the traditional dialectal
groups of Coastal/Caribbean dialects and Highland dialects, which dif-
ferently inherited forms of Castilian Spanish (Shi & Canizales, 2013),
five main dialectal groups come into play in the U.S.: Mexican, Central
American, Caribbean (including Panama as well as coastal areas of
Colombia and Venezuela), Highland (mainly Colombia, Ecuador, Peru,
Bolivia and Chile) and Argentinean (Dalbor, 1997, as cited in Shi &
Canizales, 2013). The groups are generally categorized, because there is
still immense linguistic diversity within each of these groups.
172 X. Jiang et al.
Lexically, U.S. Spanish dialects differ as much as, if not more, than
their phonemes. In some cases, the same words have different meanings
literally and contextually (Shi & Canizales, 2013, p. 75). For instance,
pipa means “pipe” in many Spanish-speaking countries, but it means
“belly fat” in Puerto Rico (Shi & Canizales, 2013, p. 75). Another exam-
ple is the same reference to a “bus”, which is called camión in Mexico,
busito in Central America, guagua in Caribbean areas, micro in Chile, and
colectivo in Argentina (Shi & Canizales, 2013, p. 75).
Besides variation within Spanish dialects, U.S. Spanish has been influ-
enced by its constant exposure to, contact with, and interaction with
American English. Many Spanish speakers in the U.S. “use English more
frequently than Spanish” in their daily lives (Lipski, 2012, p. 556). Most
of the Spanish speakers born in the United States are bilingual, who code-
switch and code-mesh Spanish with English consciously or subcon-
sciously (Fuller, 2013). Code-switching is defined as “the oral use of two
or more languages either within or across sentences … in ways that are
syntactically coherent” (Escamilla et al., 2014; Lee & Handsfield, 2018,
p. 160). Code-meshing is understood as oral and written blending of
other languages with English (Young & Martinez, 2011) or as a writing
practice, in particular within sentences, with languages that are inten-
tionally integrated (Canagarajah, 2011; Lee & Handsfield, 2018, p. 160).
A common example to show the impact of English on U.S. Spanish is the
use of the “apparent loan translation ... of the English verbal particle
back”; “para atrás (usually pronounced patrás)” is used as a way of saying
“‘toward back’ or ‘backwards’” (Lipski, 2012, p. 556). This influence can
be seen in the case of Caribbean American residents, who have consistent
exposure to English from very young ages because of Caribbean coun-
tries’ “geographic and economic ties” with the U.S. (Shi & Canizales,
2013, p. 75). As a result of this exposure, residents who grow up in these
Caribbean areas could have developed an advanced level of English lan-
guage proficiency (Shi & Canizales, 2013).
Spanish in Miami
Miami’s demographics used to be 81% white, 15% African American

and 4% Cuban, according to the 1960 Census. Over the last five decades,
Miami has established itself as the “most Spanish-speaking metropolitan

region” of all the states (Carter & Callesano, 2018, p. 67). Spanish is
spoken by 68.6% of the population in Miami (U.S. Census Bureau,
2018). Among the Spanish-speaking groups in Miami, 66% of the popu-
lation is foreign born, as the highest foreign-born share of the Hispanic
population in the United States (Brown & Lopez, 2013). That is to say,
approximately 45.2% of the population in Miami was born in a pre-
dominantly Spanish-speaking country abroad (i.e. first-generation
Hispanic immigrants) and approximately 23.4% of the population in
Miami was born in the United States and speaks Spanish.
In addition to having the highest percentage of the Spanish-speaking
population, Miami, unlike other parts of the U.S. with large Spanish-
speaking populations, has its uniquely diverse socioeconomic status
among its Latino population (Carter & Lynch, 2015, p. 370). “Spanish
language use is highly valued and is both socially and economically pres-
tigious” in public life in Miami (Carter & Lynch, 2015, p. 370; Eilers,
Kimbrough, Oller, & Cobo-Lewis, 2002, p. 43). Spanish is both often
spoken and heard (Didion, 1987, as cited in Carter & Lynch, 2015,
p. 370); it is spoken by both the people who wash cars and trim trees and
the people who own the cars and the trees (Didion, 1987, as cited in
Carter & Lynch, 2015, p. 371). Spanish is widely used “across all socio-
economic strata” (Carter & Lynch, 2015, p. 372), in areas and neighbor-
hoods with lower, middle and high median household incomes (2010
U.S. Census, as cited in Carter & Lynch, 2015, p. 372).
Miami’s diversity is also reflected in its wide array of Spanish dialects.
Miami seems to have the most dialectal diversity in the Spanish language
in the world (Carter & Lynch, 2015); such Spanish varieties come into
“contact within heterogeneous communities” (Otheguy, Zentella, &
Livert, 2007; Potowski & Matts, 2008; Rivera-Mills, 2012, p. 33). In
terms of national origins, the Miami population consists of 54% from
Cuba, 6% from Puerto Rico, 4% from the Dominican Republic, 3%
from Mexico, and 32% from other Central and South American coun-
tries including Guatemala, Colombia, El Salvador, Venezuela, Nicaragua,
Honduras, and Brazil (Brown & Lopez, 2013). Despite the fact that
Cubans are the predominant Spanish-speaking group in Miami, “fewer
studies have looked at the maintenance of Spanish” among them, in
174 X. Jiang et al.
comparison with studies of Mexican American and Puerto Rican speech

communities elsewhere (Rivera-Mills, 2012, p. 25). The underrepresen-
tation of sociolinguistic and linguistic research in Miami was also men-
tioned in Carter and Lynch’s article (2015, p. 369).
When it comes to the Spanish speaking population in Miami, the two
biggest groups, Cubans and Colombians, manifest distinctive dialectal
differentiations of Caribbean and Highland Spanish (Carter & Lynch,
2015, p. 375; Shi & Canizales, 2013). Such dialectal differentiations in
the linguistics field, as noted, were perceived as social more than linguis-
tic attributes by Miamians, found in Carter and Callesano’s study (2018)
and Callesano and Carter’s study (2019). Participating Spanish-speaking
adolescents in Miami-Dade were asked to listen to voices of three male
residents of Miami, who all had obtained a college’s degree in their respec-
tive home countries (Cuba, Colombia and Spain), had a professional
occupation in Miami, and were asked to read the text using their own
Spanish dialects (Carter & Callesano, 2018, p. 65). Based on each voice
heard, the participants used sociolinguistic differences to make “predic-
tive judgments about nonlinguistic, social attributes related to socioeco-
nomic class, including family wealth, personal income, and profession”
(Carter & Callesano, 2018, p. 66). Peninsular Spanish was rated as high-
est, followed by Columbian Spanish, and then Cuban Spanish. This
experimental study has highlighted the perceived dialectal inequality of
Spanish in Miami. This also reflects “existing language ideologies in rela-
tion to prestige varieties of Spanish” (Rivera-Mills, 2012, p. 33) and
notions including “correct” versus “incorrect”, “standard” versus “non-
standard”, and “pure” versus “broken” Spanish (Rivera-Mills, 2012,
p. 32). The hierarchy in the “regional varieties of Spanish” across Latin
America affects the social perceptions of the speakers based on factors,
such as pronunciation and enunciation of particular letters and sounds;
people from the Caribbean and coastal areas of Central and South
America, for instance, tend to swallow the [s] sound when they speak
Spanish (Carter & Callesano, 2018, pp. 70–71).
In addition to the national origin, ethnicity and class diversity among
Spanish dialects in Miami; Spanish in Miami is, in many cases, referred
to as “Spanglish” by Miamians, under the influence of the English lan-
guage over generations. Some scholars (e.g., Castellanos, 1990, p. 57)
used the term “progressive intergenerational displacement” to show the
transition from Spanish to English in Miami. One of the major compo-

nents of English influence was through education. English monolingual-
ism is still predominant in the Miami-Dade public school system as of
today, despite the fact that bilingual education was pioneered early in the
1960s in the school system (Carter & Lynch, 2015; Carter & Callesano,
2018, p. 86). The message that English monolingualism is tied to educa-
tional and sociocultural success is still strongly perceived and valued by
Miamians (Carter & Callesano, 2018). Accordingly, subordinate to
English within its English-Spanish bilingual sphere in Miami, “the
Spanish language is itself in a dialectal relationship with English, living all
the time under the specter of Anglo White linguistic, political and socio-
cultural interests” (Carter & Callesano, 2018, p. 86). The second-, third-
and further generations of Hispanic immigrants who are bilingual
sometimes “accentuate or de-emphasize different aspects of their group
membership” (identity) through alternations in their language(s) in terms
of code-switching and code-meshing, as well as dialectal negotiations
within Spanish and across Spanish and English (Ferguson, Nguyen, &
Iturbide, 2017, p. 110). Such ethnically aware practices “forge better rela-
tionships” and personal well-being (Ferguson et al., 2017, p. 111).
Florida International University (FIU)
Closely reflecting Miami’s Hispanic demographics (68.6%, U.S. Census

Bureau, 2018), 68% of FIU’s undergraduates are Hispanic (National
Center for Education Statistics, n.d.). FIU currently graduates the most
Hispanic students in the country (Sesin, 2014), as one of the federally
recognized Hispanic-Serving institutions in an urban area. The university
serves first-generation and low-income students, as its tradition, “who
otherwise would not have access to higher education” (Lacayo, 2018).
Around 90% of FIU full-time undergraduates receive some type of need-
based financial aid (Florida International University – Digital
Communications, Florida International University – Digital
Communications, n.d.-a, n.d.-b). It ranked top six in social mobility
among national universities in 2019 (EAB Daily Briefing). With that
being said, it is safe to conclude that FIU has a huge impact on its local
Hispanic community.
176 X. Jiang et al.
Culturally Engaging Campus Environments Indicators
Hispanic students at FIU perceived only a slightly stronger sense of

belonging to the institution than other racial and ethical groups (72% vs.
62%–68%), according to the Culturally Engaging Campus Environments
2018 Four-Year Study Survey Executive Report (National Institute for
Transformation and Equity, 2018, p. 11). There are nine indicators of the
Culturally Engaging Campus Environments Model (Museus, 2014), the
presence and absence of which can significantly impact both mainstream
and minority students’ success (Montgomery, 2017; Museus, 2014).
Among the nine indicators, we chose cultural familiarity and culturally
relevant knowledge as the two conceptual references for our proposed
additions of Spanish dialects into undergraduate TESOL curriculum.
Cultural familiarity refers to “the extent to which college students have
opportunities to physically connect with faculty, staff, and peers with
whom they share common backgrounds on their respective campuses is
associated with greater likelihood of success” (Museus, 2014, p. 210);
such physical connections can send a rhetorical message of exclusivity or
inclusivity (Martinez, 2018). Culturally relevant knowledge means
“opportunities for their students to cultivate, sustain, and increase knowl-
edge of their cultures and communities of origin” (Museus, 2014, p. 210);
such offerings can develop and promote cultural engagement via curricu-
lum and instruction, texts of reading and writing, and conversations in
and after class, both physically and virtually.
We argue that it would take more time to realize culturally relevant
knowledge than provide and reinforce cultural familiarity. Deep down
the cultural familiarity topic of physical connections in the FIU space is
a history of higher education as a series of “majoritarian” stories about,
for, and by European men (Martinez, 2018, p. 212). English-speaking
male European-descendants have privileges and occupy most of the space
and access by “naming these social locations as natural or normative
points of reference” (Martinez, 2018, p. 213). One aspect would be the
faculty’s racial and ethnical demographics at FIU, which do not reflect its
student population (Carter, 2018, pp. 252–253). Spanish-speaking stu-
dents, as a minority in the U.S. in general, are in spaces, ranging from
signage on campus (Ailanjian, 2017) to English-only curricula (Carter,

2018, p. 252), not traditionally constructed for them (Martinez, 2018,
p. 220), even though they make up the majority of the student popula-
tion at FIU. The “oppressive structures present themselves as barriers –
barriers to the access … the bars are figuratively and sometimes literally”
way blockers (Martinez, 2018, p. 215). To reach educational equity,
higher education would have to initiate and implement changes in “the
structure and culture” to avoid “systemic discrimination and micro
inequalities” (Bergman, 2003, pp. 295–296).
We further argue that it should not be taken for granted that FIU nur-
tures the Culturally Engaging Campus Environments, just because of its
location, nature, and undergraduate demographics. One of the sugges-
tions to enhance culturally relevant knowledge is to reform curriculum to
resemble and reflect the students’ languages, dialects and cultures. Faculty
members who “occupy the space of ” their classrooms should see them-
selves as having “responsibility to take on” and have the conversations
about the topics mentioned above (Martinez, 2018, p. 229).
Undergraduate TESOL Courses at FIU
The Department of Teaching and Learning offers four teacher certifica-

tion degree programs and four non-teacher certification programs that
require one or more TESOL methodology-related courses. The degree
programs and the required courses are depicted in the Table 1 as Appendix.
Seen from the table, TESOL undergraduate courses are compulsory for
students majoring in early childhood, elementary, physical, and excep-
tional student education at FIU. There are three TESOL methodology
courses at FIU: TSL 3080 ESOL Principles/Practices I, TSL 4081 ESOL
Principles/Practices II, and TSL 4324 ESOL Content Areas. None of the
courses mentions Spanish components, let alone its dialectal diversity
and negotiation. Such a course design, in our opinions, would perpetuate
English monolingualism and fail to acknowledge, advocate for, and
implement bilingualism. In 2016, the School of Education and Human
Development “prepared approximately 35% of Miami-Dade Country
Public School teachers through their 9 certificate programs and 29 degree
178 X. Jiang et al.
programs” (Florida International University – Digital Communications).

FIU pre-service teachers who have taken one, two, or three TESOL
methodology courses, as required were expected to teach approximately
5% of the population in Miami, that is, 135 thousand out of 2.7 million
(U.S. Census Bureau, 2017). The percentage was calculated based on
35% of Miami-Dade Country Public School teachers from FIU and
approximately 14.5% of the population in Miami who were aged at/
above five years and below 19 years old, as K-12 school age (U.S. Census
Bureau, 2018).
Other Spanish-Relevant Undergraduate Courses at FIU
Other relevant courses (e.g. Linguistics and Spanish) at FIU include, but
are not limited to: SPN 3820 Dialectology and SPN 3733 Introduction
to Spanish Linguistics. With respect to the course description, SPN 3820
Dialectology covers definition and analysis, as well as problem-solving in
dialect classification; in SPN 3733 Introduction to Spanish Linguistics,
students study the sound system, word structure, phrase formation and
the history of the Spanish language and learn about the dialects and soci-
olects in the Spanish-speaking world.
ationale of Contextualizing Translingualism Component

R
into FIU TESOL
Seen from above, there is only one course about Spanish dialects—SPN
3820 as an FIU undergraduate course. Our argument is that at least some
components of SPN 3820 should be introduced to TESOL courses, with
regards to phonological and lexical negotiations in Spanish, its dialect
classification, and Spanish-English negotiation in the form of code-
switching and code-meshing. The rationale behind this includes sugges-
tions from research that “exposure to and knowledge about dialectal
variation can be beneficial for second language (L2) learners’ develop-
ment” (Schoonmaker-Gates, 2017, p. 177). We believe that pre-service
Spanish-speaking teachers should make the linguistic bridges between
their own dialects and other Spanish dialects and further establish another
clear and solid bridge between Spanish dialects and American English.
We also believe that such connections would be transferred to their stu-

dents, for the sake of better knowledge in English and Spanish as well as
translingualism between them and even beyond.
Translingualism and Transnationalism
Translingualism “index[es] movement among contexts, practices, or

meanings [and] treats language difference as a locus of meaning rather
than a problem” (Leonard & Nowacek, 2016, p. 260). Gonzales (2015)
adds that “translingualism gives us a framework for understanding the
fluidity of modalities and languages” (p. 2). Translingual activity is
thought to be “dynamic and interdisciplinary” (Donahue, 2016, p. 149).
One of the key tenets of translingualism is rhetorics of inclusion which
regards difference as “a source of strength (Williams & Condon,
2016, p. 9).
Linguistically, translingualism is a process of negotiation to “decipher
and negotiate the shifting boundaries between acceptable and unaccept-
able linguistic variation” (Williams & Condon, 2016, p. 2). Translingualists
using their works offer “a diverse picture of the ‘multilingual subject’
(Kramsch, 2009) from a variety of perspectives, languages, and cultures”
(Kellman & Lvovich, 2015, p. 4). “Translingualism. .. recognizes that all
communicative acts are socially situated in unique contexts”; it calls on
monolingual speakers’ openness to linguistic variability; and it demands
educator and administrators’ reevaluation of policies that “discriminate
and marginalize students on linguistic grounds” (Canagarajah, 2011;
Williams & Condon, 2016, p. 5).
Transnationalism has been defined as a description and an examina-
tion of how people “maintain connections with their homeland while
learning about and participating in the practice of the receiving con-
text … and how participation in an adopted society’s practices might
coexist with continued engagement with the people and practices in
another space” (Warriner, 2017, p. 50). Warriner (2017) and Warriner
and Wyman (2013) offer additional insights about transnationalism that
TESOL teacher education candidates need to know: Learning and teach-
ing can be influenced by mobility and movement; transnationalism is a
180 X. Jiang et al.
manifestation of globalization; and multiple spaces and timescales exert

an influence on contemporary language learners.
Donahue (2016) offers a collection of transnational insights that have
a rightful place in TESOL teacher training: “Global interconnectedness
affects flows of language, language ability, texts (print and otherwise) and
academic participation in multiple pathways”, and “linguistic negotia-
tion is always part of the construction of meaning” (p. 148). Donahue
also provides a thoughtful coda and a summary for this section of our
paper: “In a transnational and translingual context, how we choose to
encounter international research, grounded in different histories, popula-
tions, or local contexts, is vital to how we can make progress in the world”
(p. 149).
ialectal Negotiations to Undergraduate

D
TESOL Courses
enefits of Dialectal Negotiations to Spanish-Speaking
B
Pre-service Students at FIU
Schoonmaker-Gates (2017) conducted two studies to describe the effects

of exposure to different regional dialects on learners of Spanish as a sec-
ond language. Students in the experimental group in the first study were
extensively exposed to different dialects, with their regions of origin being
emphasized as part of the curriculum. As a result of this learning method,
they “showed improvement in their dialect comprehension”, unlike the
control group (Schoonmaker-Gates, 2017, p. 187). Despite this finding,
textbooks are commonly found to include “oversimplified explanations”
and exclude grammatical forms that are regularly used in some regions
outside of Spain, such as in Latin America (Schoonmaker-Gates, 2017,
p. 179). The comparative analysis led to the conclusion that the incorpo-
ration of dialectal exposure into Spanish language courses, in addition to
the guidance of the instructor, can increase the ability of language learn-
ers to “handle variation” of the language when interacting with native
speakers (Schoonmaker-Gates, 2017, p. 190).
There are five implications from Schoonmaker-Gates (2017)’s study
above to our paper in the field of TESOL: (1) Dialectal negotiations
could enhance Spanish-speaking students’ understanding of their own

dialects; (2) Dialectal negotiation could improve Spanish-speaking stu-
dents’ understanding of other Spanish dialects; (3) Dialectal negotiations
could broaden non-native-Spanish-speaking students’ knowledge and
communicative interactions with native Spanish-speaking speakers; (4)
Dialectal negotiation in TESOL could prepare TESOL undergraduates
to have better knowledge to articulate to their students and to have higher
communicative competence to interact with parents and Spanish-
speaking communities in Miami; and (5) Dialectal negotiation could
help develop pre-service teachers’ critical language awareness and further
that of their students, so as to boost their knowledge about how their
home languages or dialects can negotiate with pre-dominant language
ideologies (Heller & Martin-Jones, 2001). In general, TESOL can and
should “play a strong role by creating additional speech communities and
expanding the active language domains for Spanish heritage speakers”
(Rivera-Mills, 2012, p. 32). In this context, the speech communities refer
to “all US Spanish varieties, including the ever-debated representations of
‘Spanglish’” (Fairclough, 2003; Rivera-Mills, 2012, p. 32).
How to Realize This?
In addition to the research reported by Schoonmaker-Gates (2017), in an

earlier section of this paper, we reviewed Carter and Callesano’s (2018)
research on Spanish-speaking adolescents using sociolinguistic differ-
ences to make judgments about speakers based solely on linguistic stim-
uli, which were different varieties of spoken Spanish. Given these findings,
we suggest that the instructors of FIU’s undergraduate TESOL method-
ology courses consider the following:
Borrowing Modules
Existing courses in the FIU catalogue that address Spanish dialectal issues
for possible (inter)disciplinary bridging could be applied to TESOL to
achieve transnationalism in a local context. Our sampler of courses, with
their corresponding descriptions, includes SPN 3820 Dialectology and
SPN 3733 Introduction to Spanish Linguistics, as mentioned before;
182 X. Jiang et al.
SPN 4822 Hispanic-American Socio-linguistics: Language and society

in Latin America. Sociolinguistic theory followed by consideration of specific
language problems in Spanish and Portuguese speaking areas of the Americas;
SPN 4790 Contrastive Phonology: Contrasts in the sound systems of
English and Spanish; SPN 6825 Hispanic Dialectology: A study of the
principal varieties of the Spanish-speaking world, with special emphasis on
Latin American Spanish; and LIN 5604 Spanish in the U.S.: An exami-
nation of the sociolinguistic research into Spanish in the U.S., varieties of
Spanish, language attitudes, language contact and change, and aspects of lan-
guage use.
Choosing Relevant Textbook and Articles
We suggest the courses consider articles and research studies on the sub-
ject (e.g., Carter from FIU; Castellanos, 1990; Eilers et al., 2002) and
varieties of Spanish dialects, at least those pertaining or relevant to Miami
(e.g. Lipski, 2012; Otheguy et al., 2007; Warriner & Wyman, 2013). We
also suggest choosing textbooks that include plural grammatical forms
that are reflected in both Highland and Coastal/Caribbean Spanish
beyond “oversimplified explanations” (Schoonmaker-Gates, 2017,
p. 179).
Incorporating Other Media
As in the aforementioned study by Schoonmaker-Gates (2017), exposure

to a variety of dialects can improve learners’ “dialect comprehension”
(p. 187). The application of this to “the classroom setting” can promote
understanding of “variable forms in the L2” (Schoonmaker-Gates, 2017,
p. 189), which is particularly relevant to Miami because of its dialectal
diversity. Learners who are exposed to several dialects will be better
equipped to understand and communicate with speakers of various
national origins. This would prevent students from being confused by
“social and stylistic variability present in other dialects” (Schoonmaker-
Gates, 2017, p. 190).
Aside from written text, learners can be introduced to dialects through

digital media, such as documentaries. According to Hertel and Harrington
(2015), learners of Spanish are able to use documentaries to “hear authen-
tic input from different native speaker voices and varieties of Spanish
(from different regions, social class, registers, etc.)”, as well as have expo-
sure to “up-to-date language and cultural content” through largely
“unscripted speech” (p. 550). Hertel and Harrington (2015) recommend
that L2 teachers introduce the dialectal features that are included in the
film (p. 553). In doing this, learners will be able to associate speech pat-
terns with their cultures of origin and make distinctions between dialects.
Conversing with Students’ Input
We suggest the TESOL courses as a sharing forum in the form of wel-

coming and interacting with students’ input. Jones Royster (1996, 2011)
stated that multiple voices and the resulting hybridity keep sources of
originality. Students are encouraged to bring their home literature and
use their home dialects both phonologically and lexically in class. Across
multiple voices and sources (including both traditional and non-
traditional texts, such as multi-media ones), everyone is allowed to adapt
to diverse contexts and, as a result, “generate strong, engaging, and unique
texts” (Williams & Condon, 2016, p. 5).
Recognizing Challenges and Preparing for Resistance
Challenges that may hinder the modification of FIU undergraduate

TESOL curriculum include shrinking TESOL courses in Florida teacher
education, differences in stakeholders’ values when establishing priorities,
and more efforts in (inter)disciplinary bridging from Spanish to TESOL
courses, in order to achieve transnationalism in the Miami context. To
overcome or at least remediate the potential challenges and resistance, we
may train TESOL faculty with necessary background knowledge about
the diversity and variations of Spanish dialects, at least those pertaining
or relevant to Miami; the purpose of such faculty training is to prepare
184 X. Jiang et al.
them for situations in which faculty members do not speak Spanish and
are working with students who speak different versions of Spanish
(Pacheco & Miller, 2015, p. 2). Moreover, we may experiment with add-
ing supplemental workshops to the existing curriculum for FIU pre-
service teachers, which include articles and research studies on the subject
(e.g., Carter from FIU; Castellanos, 1990; Eilers et al., 2002) and variet-
ies of Spanish dialects, at least those pertaining or relevant to Miami (e.g.
Lipski, 2012; Otheguy et al., 2007; Warriner & Wyman, 2013). In this
way, we encourage those students to bring their input from home prior
to integrating students’ voices and workshops into the curriculum. We
may also work with the Office of Global Learning Initiatives, Latin
American and Caribbean Center, and the like at FIU, to introduce plu-
rality and diversity of Spanish dialects and the negotiations between and
across them (Schoonmaker-Gates, 2017).
In summary, we have answered the questions above, with respect to
why and how to realize dialectal negotiations to undergraduate TESOL
courses, by exemplifying FIU undergraduate program. Those approaches –
borrowing modules, choosing relevant textbook and articles, incorporat-
ing other media, conversing with students’ input, and recognizing
challenges and preparing for resistance – can be takeaways to be consid-
ered and replicated in other contexts to contextualize TESOL curriculum
cross languages, cultures and boarders. Although the paper appears
“Miami-centric”, it could be used as a template or a model for building
academic work and teaching material to meet the needs of students in
countries/areas where there are large incoming migrant populations. To
identify these areas, one could list the countries with the most immi-
grants and their source countries for immigrants. According to the
International Organization for Migration (2017), those host countries
would include the following with the source countries shown in paren-
theses: The United States (Mexico, India, China and the Philippines),
Germany (Turkey, Poland, Syria and Italy), Russia (Ukraine, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova), Saudi Arabia (India, Syria, Pakistan
and the Philippines), and the United Kingdom (India, Poland and
Pakistan).
Conclusion
Our paper focuses on the inclusion of Hispanic cultural familiarity and
Hispanic culturally relevant knowledge in undergraduate TESOL teacher
education courses at FIU in Miami. However, given the related discus-
sion of translingualism and transnationalism, the ideas in this paper –
contextualizing TESOL curriculum to reflect local demographics
linguistically-- have wider applications to other areas with large popula-
tions of immigrants in the U.S. and abroad. This paper also has wider
application to teacher education per se because of cross-cultural commu-
nication and transformative education.
Dialectal negotiations between English and Spanish in Miami and
other regions in the U.S., as well as diverse Hispanic populations, lead to
the importance of acknowledging dialectal differences in TESOL and
other Spanish language-related courses. The dialectal level of linguistic
dynamics and fluidity, under the impact of transnationalism – such as,
international migration and global-scale connections, is vital to language
learners and educators. Furthermore, the cultural diversity among
Spanish speakers from different continents and nations– whose uses of
the language also vary by generations of immigrants – makes this topic
relevant to the education of learners whose lack of exposure to dialects
may limit their communicative abilities. For this reason, dialectal expo-
sure for L2 students is important for the facilitation of communication
among people of various nationalities in Miami and beyond.
Acknowledgements We are grateful to Dr. Phillip Carter for his insights about
sociolinguistic perspectives on the Spanish-speaking population in Miami. We
also appreciate Dr. Glenn Hutchinson’s feedback on Transnationalism.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests The authors declared no potential

conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorships, and/or pub-
lication of this chapter.
FundingThe authors received no financial support for the research, authorship,

and/or publication of this chapter.
186 X. Jiang et al.
Appendix
Table 1 FIU Undergraduate degree programs and the required TESOL courses
TSL 4234: ESOL
TSL 3080: TSL 4081: issues and
ESOL issues: ESOL issues: strategies for
Principles & Principles & content
Degree program Practices I Practices II teachers
Bachelor of science in early X X
childhood education:
(prekindergarten/primary
education: Age 3 through
grade 3 & TESOL endorsement)
Bachelor of science in elementary X X
education (grades K-6 with
ESOL and Reading
endorsements)
Bachelor of science in physical X
education
Bachelor of science in X X
exceptional student education
(ESE) with English speakers of
other languages (ESOL)
endorsement and Reading
endorsement
Bachelor of science (B.S.) in early X
childhood education (non-
teacher certification)
Bachelor of science (B.S.) in early X
childhood education. Early
childhood development
track-fully online program
(non-teacher certification)
Bachelor of science in elementary X
education: Career development
track (non-teacher certification)
Bachelor of science in X
exceptional student education
(ESE): Special education,
educational foundations, and
policy track (non-teacher
certification)
Note: X = Required
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Engaging East African Voices
for Teacher Education in the Digital
Age: Exploring Transnational Virtual
Collaboration
Robin L. Rhodes Crowell
Introduction
In the past decade, the U.S. Peace Corps expanded to offer volunteers the
opportunity to obtain English language teaching certification and more
American universities started offering short-term teaching certifications,
indicating growth and profit in the field of English language teaching
abroad. Many students begin a TESOL program passionate and enthusi-
astic but with the naïve assumption that speaking English means they can
effectively teach English. Students may often lack awareness of issues
related to power and identity in English and the process by which meth-
ods and materials should be a reflection of the local classroom culture.
The common English teaching abroad path may perpetuate a colonial
mindset where teachers are at risk of promoting a Eurocentric view of
English (Tyson, 2014) with bias and assumptions resting on a
R. L. Rhodes Crowell (*)

St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY, USA
e-mail: rcrowell@stlawu.edu
192 R. L. Rhodes Crowell
monolingual ideology (Pennycook, 1998, 2001). While second language

acquisition theory, methodology, and linguistics are important in TESOL
certification programs (TESOL International Association, 2015), it is
important to avoid pitfalls of many programs including “nitty gritty of
languages,…[and] one-size-fits all strategies with detailed instructions for
crafting cookie-cutter lesson plans”…as “such knowledge is almost mean-
ingless unless it is embedded in thoughtful, informed, critically conscious
practice” (Motha, Jain, & Tecle, 2012, p. 23). Engaging students in
awareness of teacher agency, issues of cultural and linguistic capital
(Bourdieu, 1986), and cultures of learning is important for developing a
critically conscious practice.
A course component with experienced English teachers abroad can
help students gain awareness of transnational perspectives, which may
build opportunities for partnerships independent of national borders.
Transnationalism is defined in broad terms dependent on discipline, but
for the purpose of this chapter transnationalism includes the intercon-
nectivity and relationships across boundaries, the flow of ideologies, the
transfer of knowledge through interactions of identities, and the pro-
cesses involved in crossing geopolitical boundaries (Vertovec, 1999).
Digital collaboration is a platform to include transnationalist pedagogy
in the teacher education classroom as teachers and students in global
teaching situations become connected and share professional development.
Digital collaboration and inclusion of the voice of teachers abroad seek
to expose student teachers to “the considerable linguistic and pedagogical
resources that translinguistic identity offers English language teachers”
and when translinguistic identities are “used consciously and as a strength
[they] can enable teachers to strategically deploy alternate identities to
counter and contradict these stereotyped images” (Motha et al., 2012,
p. 15). Virtual collaboration with trained multilingual teachers is a valid
and authentic source of information that aligns with the recommenda-
tions TESOL International Association (2015) provides for teacher can-
didates to:
• Understand and apply knowledge about cultural values and beliefs in

the context of teaching and learning.
Engaging East African Voices for Teacher Education… 193
• Understand and apply knowledge of world cultures and how the cul-
tures of ELLs in any specific context affects instruction.
• Understand and apply concepts about the interrelationship of lan-
guage and culture to instruction.
• Demonstrate understanding of collaboration in a variety of settings.
As discussion grows about translingualism, transnational, and decen-

tering/decolonizing pedagogy, the “colonial constructions of English”
(Pennycook, 1998, p. 158), often seen as the only necessary language
with little regard to multilingual identity and methods in the classroom,
should not be perpetuated in teacher education programs. One goal of
teacher education should be to decenter English from Eurocentric
thought and promote pedagogy that does not rest on a White racial habi-
tus (Inoue, 2015). Teacher education programs need to expose novice
teachers to opportunities that help students conceptualize culturally
based teaching methods, conduct a classroom cultural analysis, form
spheres of interculturality in the classroom, and become familiar with
local authentic materials.
A case study of an American TESOL course highlights collaborative
pedagogical design through the use of digital technology to build a vir-
tual collaboration between students in the course and experienced Kenyan
English teachers and to offer opportunities to observe English language
classrooms in Nairobi, Kenya in hopes of taking advantage of a valuable
collaborative opportunity for the classroom (Lenkaitis, 2019).
Certification programs rarely use digital collaboration with trained
English teachers abroad for teacher education even though many
Americans desire to go abroad to teach ESOL/EFL. There is limited
research on virtual collaboration in teacher education programs (Lenkaitis,
2019) for any purpose and almost none of partnerships where experi-
enced teachers abroad assist in training novice teachers to build a trans-
nationalist identity – even though it is important for TESOL professionals
to give “support for multilingual, transnational teachers and teacher edu-
cators developing their pedagogical practice” (Motha et al., 2012, p. 13).
Case Study
The case study takes place at an American university where students
enroll in the TESOL course offered as a language, education, and African
studies course. The first half of the course includes theory and concepts
related to second language acquisition, methodology, and the Kenyan
sessions, while the second half has a short-term teaching practicum with
Rwandan learners and a focus on lesson planning and teaching. The
inclusion of training from Kenyan English teachers and teaching to
Rwandan learners is meant to foster transnational relationships and iden-
tities and to prepare students for teaching positions abroad. Approximately
86% of the students in the course identify as White and have limited
relationships and exposure to global professional teaching situations.
Videoconferencing offers opportunities to build collaborations across
political boundaries and partnerships that are equitable between those
involved in the “virtual co-presence” (Lenkaitis, 2019, p. 4). Students
come to class at 7:30 am in order to coordinate with East African time
zones. The synchronized observation and question and answer training
with a school in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya, connects American student
teachers with Kenyan teachers certified under the Teachers Service
Commission (TSC) with five years minimum teaching experience. In
Kenya, only teachers with TSC Certification are considered legal for
teaching (K. Kitito, personal communication, January 16, 2020).
The Kenyan school has 400 children up to primary grade eight with a
staff of twenty-one, including sixteen trained teachers and five support
staff (J.P. Opuko, personal communication, May 5, 2019). For the sec-
ond half of the semester teaching practicum, students use synchronous
computer-mediated communication to teach women at a sewing coop-
erative in northern Rwanda that is open for visitors and volunteers. For
the purpose of this chapter, the focus will be on collaboration with
English teachers in Kenya for teacher training purposes and not the
short-term teaching practicum with Rwandan EFL learners.
The cross collaboration offered through synchronous digital commu-
nication allows skilled teachers working on the ground in a variety of
linguistic and cultural contexts to share their knowledge and experience
with student teachers in various geographic regions (Lenkaitis, 2019).

One important goal of the project is to form a reciprocal cross-cultural
relationship with the school that is guided by what the school desires
from collaboration with an American university. The relationship must
benefit all parties and not just the student teachers. Teachers at the school
cited the following as immediate benefits from the collaboration
(J.P. Opuko, personal communication, February, 26, 2019):
• Cross cultural exchange

• Time for young Kenyan students to engage in cultural question and
answer with Americans
• Reflection on their own teaching and gaining an understanding of
educational structures in the USA
• Chance to discuss successes and challenges of English teaching and use
of materials
• Share knowledge and skills, which may help teachers to be “comfort-
able with their professional and academic self ” (Aneja, 2016, p. 575).
All collaboration should benefit both parties, and negotiation should

take place prior to the start of the program so each party knows there is
an equal relationship of benefit and compensation.
The course component exposes students to the sociocultural complexi-
ties of teaching abroad and to dispel false narratives; in addition, the
course framework is designed as such because it is difficult for course
readings or discussion to foster respect for already trained teachers in
other countries (Quezada, 2004) or to fully carry out sociocultural analy-
sis of teaching conditions in a foreign country. To promote local knowl-
edge of teaching English in the schools and the realities of language
policies and difficult circumstances, the school provides strong partner-
ship to encourage the growth of novice teachers’ understanding of the
local culture of learning (Quezada, 2004). Kibera is one of the largest
informal settlements in Africa with many residents living in extreme pov-
erty and teaching conditions are generally noted as difficult circumstances
as defined by the lack of textbooks and materials, small spaces for large
classes, limited funding and technology, students and teachers with chal-
lenging life circumstances, and inadequate light and ventilation
(Desgroppes & Taupin, 2019). The school in Nairobi hosts several of

these circumstances; however, a difficult circumstances label “is not
meant to convey a reductionist/deficiency perspective of certain contexts”
but to help educators reflect on the issues faced by many English lan-
guage teachers and the “pedagogical possibilities that emerge” (Kuchah,
2018, p. 4).
It is important for novice teachers to understand many of the world’s
teaching situations have one or more components of what constitutes
difficult teaching circumstances and is critical to acknowledge because:
• English language teaching and learning in the developing world is gen-

erally challenging.
• Teacher educators, teachers, and learners face issues that are inconceiv-
able to their counterparts in more privileged contexts.
• These challenges offer opportunities for enriching our understanding
of the complex terrain of English language education (Kuchah,
2018, p.1).
It is likely if students go abroad to teach they will be teaching in diffi-

cult circumstances requiring additional training and experience to work
effectively and gain an awareness of “conditions which are not often
included in the ELT literature in northern/western journals or books”
(Kuchah, 2018, p. 4).
Cultures of learning involve assumptions and hidden aspects of cur-
riculum (Cortazzi & Jin, 1996) and it may be difficult for novice teachers
to ascertain complexities from a traditional lecture course. In addition,
much of the research and source of information for novice teachers does
not come from the most common sites of ELT and educating teachers
with materials, methods, and favorable conditions that are only oriented
towards the West may set students up for failure once they transition to
global teaching situations (Kuchah, 2018). If students cannot travel or
teach abroad during teacher education courses, a collaboration via digital
technology with trained teachers in the local context may help expose
students to an understanding of local practices appropriate for the con-
textual situation (Kumaravadivelu, 2001). In addition, some American
students desiring teach abroad experience may have a native speaker
fallacy and the Kenyan collaboration fosters an awareness of global

English accents and variations as many Kenyan English teachers have an
accented English different from American English, and this is more rep-
resentative of English teachers abroad than a fluent American accent
(Kembo-Sure & Ogechi, 2016). Exposure to the linguistic identities of
the Kenyan English teachers resists student perceptions of what they may
consider as correct English and counters the discrimination of different
variations, instead exploring “how and why (non)native speakerist cate-
gories are produced, understood, and resisted” (Aneja, 2016, p. 590). The
disparaging view of teachers who are non-native speakers adversely affects
the whole of the TESOL profession and warrants a call for an end to the
polarizing issues facing native/nonnative English-speaking teachers
(Farrell, 2015).
During the session with Kenyan teachers, students are able to ask
about the use of Swahili and English in daily life and educational contexts
(Kembo-Sure & Ogechi, 2016), reflect on teaching English in the Kenyan
classroom, and inquire about post-colonial influences on the language
identity of Kenyans. Sample questions from student teachers to the
Kenyan English teachers include:
• How many students have books at home? What textbooks are used at
the school? What technology do you have? What language are
the books in?
• What is included in Kenyan teacher training? What are the educa-
tional testing policies of Kenya? How do you teach based on Kenya’s
language policies and curricula mandates?
• How is the classroom arranged and what does the classroom look like?
Does the teacher move about the room or stay in one spot and what
are the consequences of this? What resources are available?
• What cultural contexts are examples based on? How is this tailored to
a Kenyan classroom?
• How do the children’s home life contribute to school performance?
What are additional social considerations in curriculum design?
• What language components do the teachers focus on? Grammar?
Speaking? Writing? Fluency? Accuracy?
If educators wish to encourage transnationalism in the teacher educa-

tion curriculum – meaning a perspective that includes the flow of ideolo-
gies, relationships across boundaries (Vertovec, 1999) and the transfer of
knowledge through interactions of culture and identities – the voice of
teachers abroad must be included through meaningful interaction.
ombatting Negative Representations

C
of Africa
Privileged students from the West often feel it is their role to go abroad
to help those they feel are suffering in developing countries. Many teach
abroad programs even perpetuate this myth and stereotype as the
American education system contributes to the negative representation of
Africa (Kiem, 2008; Onyenekwu, 2016; Pires, 2000 as cited in
Onyenekwu, Angeli, Pinto, & Douglas, 2017). The concept of enthusi-
asm being enough [for good teaching] may “prioritize the needs of privi-
leged – predominately white people…..” and even in commonly seen
photos about teaching abroad, local teachers are usually missing
(Onyenekwu et al., 2017, p. 71). Govardhan, Nayar, and Sheorey (1999)
argue that TESOL programs must include means by which to educate
novice teachers about geographical and anthropological literacy as well as
respect for communities and the cultural and educational systems; yet,
this cannot be done if students are not exposed to the depth of cultural
awareness needed to dissolve stereotypes.
Portraying Africa as a conglomerate of negatives is well documented by
scholars studying the representation of Africa in the media. In fact, this
ideology continues to be reinforced through promotional materials of
teach abroad programs (Onyenekwu et al., 2017) and with the current
increase in university supported TESOL certification programs, the ten-
dency to reinforce negative images needs to be resisted in which the con-
tributions of Africans are minimalized or absent, thus reproducing
hegemonic views of who is qualified as a teacher and promoting a colo-
nial mindset in which White teachers are preferred. In promotional
materials, African teachers are rarely portrayed as successful and White
teachers are shown in a room full of Black children, promoting the idea
that East African countries need predominantly White teachers with
“perfect” British or American English. Many of the student teachers
come from a monolingual ideology that may perpetuate colonial and
American world views (Pennycook, 2001) and centering successful
English teaching around Whiteness with a limited view of acceptable
English is a pervasive myth that is false, a disservice to the TESOL teach-
ing profession, and why the inclusion of teachers abroad in teacher train-
ing is so important.
The current understanding of many American students about teaching
in Africa is represented in the common meme about teaching abroad
where Barbie Savior, based on the popular American doll, is portrayed as
a White teacher (with no teacher training) who travels to Africa to teach
English, her only qualification being a native English speaker. As Mackie
(2003) notes, this opportunity includes the “unquestioned privilege of
white womanhood to travel the world and teach a language whose posi-
tion in the world seemed unquestioned” (p. 30). Linguistic colonializa-
tion continues where the domination of American ideals may be pushed
onto smaller and potentially economically weaker countries (Tyson,
2014). Often times, these young teachers promote English as a continu-
ation of colonial power and discourse where the English language per-
petuates power structures. A false understanding of teaching abroad
develops due to myths and the negative representations in media of effec-
tive African teachers in the classroom. In addition, TESOL job advertise-
ments seeking native speaker teachers are common and the hiring of
teachers only because they are American born native English speakers is
practiced in numerous countries (Farrell, 2015). The Kenyan English
teachers exhibit to novice American teachers that there is a range of ETL
professionals globally and that teaching expertise comes with training
and experience. The field of TESOL is changing rapidly as African enti-
ties call for the decentering and decolonizing of English language educa-
tion and bringing African language educators into the American TESOL
classroom becomes essential.
Wainaina paints a colorful picture in his satirical essay How to Write
about Africa (2005) of the centuries old stereotypes and Western colonial
presence still seen in Hollywood movies or how Western students may
think about Africa today. Wainaina (2005) challenges existing stereotypes

of Africa while reminding readers of the common ways in which Africa is
portrayed as waiting for “benevolence of the West” (Wainaina, 2005,
n.p.). Dispelling these myths through a collaborative process with trained
local teachers – skilled working professionals in Kenya – helps combat
the common socialization of American-centered cultural thinking, espe-
cially dangerous for student teachers of TESOL (Firmin, Mackay, &
Firmin, 2007), and shifts the emphasis on transnational identities.
Unfortunately, teacher education students usually learn about, not
from, African teachers and teaching situations with little challenge to
existing assumptions (Onyenekwu et al., 2017), leaving a predominantly
White teaching faculty to transmit information about teaching in coun-
tries like Kenya. A complete picture of the teaching situation abroad can-
not be given without the voice of the local teachers (Onyenekwu et al.,
2017). The pervasive attitude of minimally trained teachers being able to
out-perform experienced local teachers is one of the largest fallacies of
TESOL certification programs. Cole in Onyenekwu et al. (2017) notes
that the “White Savior Complex suggests that Westerners come to African
countries to ‘save’ people and that when minimally trained student teach-
ers supersede local teachers, the implication is that there are no black
qualified local teachers” (p. 79). Never would this situation be found in
the USA, where untrained foreign student teachers are able to teach in
US schools (Onyenekwu et al., 2017). TESOL certification programs are
in the position to create awareness and understanding of the complex
African continent and work to encourage cultural awareness and respect
for local expertise (Andrew & Razoumova, 2017).
Theoretical Frameworks
The TESOL course is based on constructivist learning theory and learner
centered ideology curriculum design where all components of the course
help students construct meaning through experience and reflection and
focuses on situated learning theory where students are facilitated through
learning; learning is experienced in context, not through direct teaching
(Ferris & Hedgcock, 2014). The course is rooted in twenty-first century
skills of thoughtful use of technology, critical thinking, collaboration,
and problem solving. Important in the course is to construct knowledge

from one’s own experiences and interpretations and from a variety of
source material and multiple perspectives (Huang, 2011). Both personal
and social constructivism make learning active with negotiated meaning
between all parties involved (Mvududu & Thiel-Burgess, 2012). If, as
constructivism claims, knowledge is socially constructed, then the course
and the digital collaboration project help students build on knowledge
and scaffold information from theory and text to real-life problem solv-
ing and critical thinking. Building on prior knowledge and using cross
border collaboration structures the pedagogical environment so student
teachers can explore stereotypes and decenter English education and gain
new understanding of praxis that builds on their growing schematic
knowledge (Mvududu & Thiel-Burgess, 2012).
John Dewey in his landmark 1938 book Experience and Education
explained that educators choose experiences that have promise and pres-
ent new dilemmas and [stimulate] “new ways of observation” (p. 24). If
the course only utilized scholar academic ideology, lecture would domi-
nate the classroom by transmitting information about cultural differ-
ences, teaching methods in East Africa and English education abroad,
and the challenges of teaching in difficult circumstances. Students could
be tested on this information and declared competent and knowledge-
able if they do well on the test. Dewey (2015) describes the false assump-
tion educators may make in that when students learn content, they are
prepared for the future. Because it is critical for students to apply content
in authentic contexts and understand the transnational dynamic of teach-
ing English abroad, the course focuses on experiential education with an
underlying foundation of critical theory to shift paradigms and scaffold
new ideas into old ones to make sense of material. When examined
through postcolonial theory the field of teaching English to speakers of
other languages rests on colonialist ideology where Eurocentric expecta-
tions can be seen in how “colonialist discourse [marks] its relationship to
the language in which colonialist thinking [is] expressed, [and] based on
the colonizers’ assumption of their own superiority” (Tyson, 2014,
p. 419). Student teachers in America rarely have the opportunity to expe-
rience the way that English functions in Kenya and in the Kenyan class-
room such as through code switching and other linguistic strategies
(Kembo-Sure & Ogechi, 2016; Zsiga, Boyer, & Kramer, 2015). Zsiga
et al. (2015) note the importance of helping teachers move from mono-
lingual to multilingual ideology and learning from Kenyans about how to
teach through assessing linguistic and cultural contexts in order to limit
the perpetuation of linguistic colonialism.
Multiple representations of reality, avoidance of oversimplification,
mentoring, and scaffolding as deemed by both constructivist design and
Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural approach help students make sense of
new content knowledge and expose them to new paradigms. One critical
aspect of the Kenyan sessions is the mentoring model that is important
for Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. In this case, the less
knowledgeable person is the Western untrained student who wants to
teach and the more experienced trained teachers, as seen by the Kenyan
English teachers (Shabani, 2016), carry knowledge that will help train
novice teachers. In addition, the students in the Kenyan English class, the
children, also play a role to expand awareness and knowledge about
teaching English in Kenya and begin the decentering process for
ELT. Collaboration to construct a Zone of Proximal Development should
find the arrangement mutually beneficial (Lantolf & Pavlenko, 1995).
In addition, accepting one pedagogy or one variation of English as
superior while calling another inferior may lead students to ignore cul-
tural and linguistic identities and make assumptions about which culture
dictates best practice (Mvududu & Thiel-Burgess, 2012), only perpetuat-
ing colonialist practices. Textbooks designed for international use con-
tinue to be Eurocentric and are at high risk of not representing the
majority of learners (McKay, 2002) leaving American students to teach
with methods not viable in other cultural contexts. Many student teach-
ers may erroneously believe methods move across contexts and utilize
materials that only show a Eurocentric world view and it is critical they
understand their own identity and privilege (Liggett, 2009) and how this
shapes pedagogical decision making. Engaging with the Kenyan teachers
provides an opportunity for students to see the type of materials and
examples used within the Kenyan classroom as appropriate for the cul-
ture and these representations foster decolonizing the classroom through
references to matatus (taxi/bus vehicles), Kenyan mammals, Ramadan,
villages, drawing water, ugali, and cooking chapatis – common discus-
sion points in the Kenyan English classroom.
Dewey (2015) reflects on dilemmas of changing perceptions and dis-

covering growth in education by linking the past and present within
experience. There is so much misinformation about teaching English
abroad that students think they can do it because they are a native English
speaker. Students need to experience that there are already trained English
teachers in Kenya and that they themselves, the students, need to have
teacher training before going abroad to teach. The “organic connection
between education and personal experience; or, that the new philosophy
of education is committed to some kind of empirical and experimental
philosophy” (Dewey, 2015, p. 25). The most important idea is to engage
students and change misperceptions and stereotypes, and this requires
students to experience teaching in a practical and authentic way. Teachers
have to select experiences that have the hope of presenting fresh chal-
lenges that will increase understanding and experience through observa-
tion (Dewey, 2015). Transnational collaboration with Kenyan teachers
offers the opportunity to student teachers to start building awareness of
the role of English in a multilingual state.
In addition, the reflection after the Kenyan sessions connects theory to
practice and course readings to what they have learned and observed.
Students reflect on critical questions about the Kenyan observation ses-
sions and ask questions that help them with future design of lesson plans
such as:
• How many students are in the class? What is the size of the classroom?
What language skills do you focus on? Do you see evidence of
negotiation of meaning? Pushed output? How do you manage com-
prehensible input?
• Do you use communicative language teaching? Or another method?
How do you manage student errors? Is grammar taught implicitly or
explicitly?
• In your Kenyan classroom, do students ask questions of the teacher?
How much memorization and recitation do you use? Do students
speak a lot or are they quiet?
Students can then use what they have learned through these sessions to
apply concepts in similar teaching situations and to experience pedagogy
appropriate for the context as seen by how the Kenyan teachers provide
evidence of pedagogies commonly seen in Kenya such as (Ackers &
Hardman, 2001; Kiramba, 2015):
• Teachers and students engaging in L1 and L2 fluidly

• Possible limited student generated questions with an emphasis on
teacher directed questions
• Teacher recitation and elicitation of learner knowledge
• Choral responses exhibiting teacher-learner interaction
• Use of code switching between English and Swahili as an effective
teaching strategy (Corry, 2003).
The teachers teach in conditions that are daunting for many American
educators including small classrooms, minimal supplies, high tempera-
tures with little ventilation, and 40+ students in the classroom. The col-
laboration offers insight into “issues that language practitioners in
low- and middle-income countries face as well as pedagogical possibilities
that emerge…” and these expand and contribute to ELT pedagogy
(Kuchah, 2018) and teacher identity.
The reflective process along with the other components of the course
emphasize reflective teaching (Murphy, 2014), which examines critical
issues from multiple perspectives. Ultimately, teacher identity is at stake
and self-identity as an educator comes from the training received and
through the examination of professional, cultural, political, and individ-
ual identities that stem from experience, exposure, and the ability to
explore theory to practice possibilities. None of these are monolithic
(Peercy, 2012). Transnational collaboration is necessary for teaching
English as an international language as teachers have to design pedago-
gies that rest on local identities. In fact,
Teaching materials have to accommodate the values and needs of diverse

settings, with sufficient complexity granted to local knowledge. Curriculum
change cannot involve the top-down imposition of expertise from outside
the community, but should be a ground-up construction taking into
account indigenous resources and knowledge, with a sense of partnership
between local and outside experts (Canagarajah, 2006b, p. 27).
igital Collaboration for Teaching

D
and Learning
The digital collaboration with the school in Nairobi is only one of several
course components that help make course concepts concrete (Govardhan
et al., 1999) as evidenced by student reflections after the sessions with the
Kenyan teachers have ended. Student teachers noted:
• The teachers spoke first addressing the teaching methods they enjoy
using, some of the struggles that they endure, and if it is difficult to
teach students that are different ages all in one class. I learned that
many Kenyans speak Swahili and sometimes it is difficult for students
to get more practice with English at a young age since some families do
not speak it at home.
• I really enjoyed this educational experience of observing and interact-
ing with teachers in Kenya, and I loved being able to identify both the
similarities and differences between the instructional techniques used
in our respective countries. I also really appreciated hearing the advice
these experienced teachers had to share with us prospective teachers.
• It helped me to apply what we previously learned within the classroom
through observations and more thoroughly with the Q and A with the
teachers. This opportunity has provided me with a guide to how I want
to structure my lessons for the Rwandan lessons.
• Gained a deeper understanding of how language connects to people’s
culture, tradition and experience.
• I am now aware that although teaching in under-resourced situations
may be more challenging, teachers need to be very culturally sensitive
and adapt to student needs.
Offering training and teaching with a digital platform helps provide

access to material with multiple ways of representation as the course seeks
to expose and re-expose students to content material in different ways
through differentiated instruction (Corry, 2003). Emphasizing learner
centered instruction with the school in Nairobi helps students engage
with learning and creating knowledge through scaffolding.
Simulations are commonly used in ESOL/EFL classrooms and can be

utilized in this teacher education course because program goals are to
have students apply concepts and theory to real world experiences. In
short, teacher education programs want to produce successful teachers.
Three essential elements of simulations include elements of reality of
function, simulated environment, and structure (Dragomir & Niculescu,
2011). Although the Kenyan sessions are in essence more than simula-
tions, the digital connection provides the opportunity to create a plat-
form for real-world engagement as it might be challenging for students to
form a partnership with East African English teachers. Integration of lan-
guage teacher training and teaching into the TESOL classroom can offer
“apprenticeship type of a virtual partnership” (Lenkaitis, 2019, p. 3). In
addition, these sessions help student teachers gain awareness of sociocul-
tural and political contexts of teaching English to speakers of other lan-
guages and examine the variations in teaching, learning, and pedagogies
that are influenced by culture and government policies (Dogancay-
Aktuna, 2006).
One of the benefits of collaboration with locally trained teachers in
different geographical locations is expanding teachers’ sociocultural
knowledge and how it shapes a teacher’s practice in context and adds to a
teacher’s training (Dogancay-Aktuna, 2006). Teaching sociocultural
knowledge and how to adapt materials and teaching approaches is a chal-
lenging pedagogical task. When the Kenyan teachers discuss living condi-
tions in Kibera and the challenges of teaching in a more poverty-stricken
area of Nairobi, the sociocultural component of the class is highlighted.
The collaboration pulls students away from ethnocentrism and focuses
attention on different cultures of learning and provides insight into class
content that may otherwise only be presented through text and discus-
sion (Dogancay-Aktuna, 2006). The norms and expectations learners
bring to the classroom will set up a teacher for failure if those are not
challenged and redesigned (Dogancay-Aktuna, 2006). An example of
this includes failure of communicative language teaching in some cul-
tures due to conflicts of underlying assumptions and the target culture
values, limited success of group work in some cultures, use of L1 in the
classroom, and Eurocentric concepts in textbooks. Teacher educators can
use twenty-first century skills to train novice teachers to teach beyond
what is in the textbooks and work collaboratively with local teachers in

hopes of honoring their experience and expertise (Dogancay-
Aktuna, 2006).
Student comments highlight some of the concerns as to inappropriate
Western pedagogy and how some teaching methods may not be utilized
due to lack of training and conditions of teaching in difficult circum-
stances (Kuchah, 2018). Student teachers in the course noted the issue of
resources through the question and answer and observation sessions with
the Kenyan teachers including:
• The teacher described some of the resources they use to teach the lower
primary children, including textbooks, flashcards and paper, crayons,
and clay. In our class, we talk a lot about the importance of making
sure all materials are adapted to you and your students’ specific needs,
for example modifying any textbook exercise that may be culturally
unfamiliar to your students or using authentic materials when-
ever feasible.
• When Western teachers travel to developing countries, they may make
assumptions about materials that the school will have or that the stu-
dents will have access to at home. In order to create a sphere of inter-
culturality, it is so important to recognize what materials you will have
and plan accordingly.
• Overall, I would say that the teachers seem to be doing a great job of
making optimal use of the resources they do have and teachers in the
U.S. could learn from them. They are able to do so many activities that
teachers here may find hard to think of. In the U.S., primary teachers
would look to crayons and books and music and printed out work-
sheets, and I am so impressed with how much the school is able to do
and what they think up for their students.
The digital classroom offers opportunities for a shift in the teacher

education classroom and emphasizes cultural literacy as exhibited by the
relationships which help to exercise problem solving skills (Marsh &
Willis, 2007) and offering instructors opportunities to expand instruc-
tional practices to enhance learning and content delivery in new ways
that meet learning objectives.
Conclusion
Student teachers traveling abroad need to dispel the monolingual ideol-
ogy of English (Zsiga et al., 2015) and be offered the opportunity to
expand their knowledge of the world of ELT. The collaboration between
the American student teachers and the Kenyan English teachers offers a
window into a teaching situation similar to many educational contexts
with difficult circumstances. Student teachers are exposed to multilingual
teachers and their translinguistic identity and pedagogies and are able to
explore questions and considerations such as language policy, linguistic
attitudes, student lived experiences, multilingualism and its effects in the
classroom, and how language and identity are intertwined (Zsiga et al.,
2015). The examination of issues and the conceptualization of identity,
pedagogy, and adaptation of teaching in local contexts (Motha et al.,
2012) encourages student teachers to reflect on pedagogical design and
considerations. Student teachers who believe their education will fully
prepare them for the task of teaching in difficult circumstances or in dif-
ferent geographical situations may be very surprised when entering a
classroom abroad. Collaboration with teachers abroad for teacher train-
ing, where the local teachers are the experts and pedagogical methods are
decided by them, constitutes negotiated knowledge; knowledge not solely
received from the teacher education professor (Motha et al., 2012). The
inclusion of this knowledge brings in the African voice which helps break
down commonly told mistruths of life in Africa and also may limit the
reproduction of colonial ideology within local contexts (Pennycook,
2001). Digital collaboration is about access – access to people and con-
tent that can build to change perceptions and lead to better curriculum
and pedagogy, as evidenced by student teacher work and comments.
Practical applications of how to educate Western teachers to turn over
“decisions regarding teaching goals and approaches…to local educators”
(McKay, 2002, p. 129) must be included in TESOL teacher education.
Educators collaborating with local English teachers, such as those teach-
ers in Kenya, can help heed Slattery’s call for (2013) curriculum design
that is not looking to reform global understandings of policies, ideolo-
gies, curricular issues, and methodology but to transcend and transform
curriculum development. The incorporation of local educational com-

munities and individual practices are important; non-hierarchical design
where multiple representations of stories and reality are given (Slattery,
2013) is beneficial and this is the essence of transnationalism. Teacher
education needs to move beyond the four walls of the university to class-
rooms and teaching life abroad and assist novice teachers with entering a
global community of practice to help form early teacher identity and
through authentic experience exposes them to the act of becoming a
teacher (Andrew & Razoumova, 2017).
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A Transnational Peace-Education
Framework of EFL Material
Development for the Islamic School
Context in Indonesia
Dana Kristiawan and Michelle Picard
Introduction
English is the primary international language used in Indonesia, but daily
use tends to be limited to people working in the tourist industry and
international business (Setiyadi & Sukirlan, 2016). It is a mandatory sub-
ject from Junior High School onwards, but primarily taught as a foreign
language (EFL). The literature suggested that it is important to contextu-
alise English teaching within the students’ local context. Risager (2007,
p. 114) used the term “linguaculture” to reflect the importance of
D. Kristiawan (*)
University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia
Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Banyuwangi, Banyuwangi, Indonesia
e-mail: Dana.Kristiawan@uon.edu.au
M. Picard
University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia
Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, Australia
214 D. Kristiawan and M. Picard
connecting with the learner’s own past experiences, cultural knowledge

and local content as a bridge to the new language and culture rather than
just focusing on the teaching of vocabulary and grammar. However, as
teachers of an international foreign language, Indonesian English teach-
ers, like those in EFL contexts around the world, need to focus on the
values of more than just their local national context. They also need to
explore “sustained linkages”, “relationships and practices across national
borders” (Toukan, Gaztambide-Fernández, & Anwaruddin, 2017, p. 2).
Hence, Risager (2007, p. 114) argued for a more inclusive approach to
English teaching that values different language norms and various lan-
guage cultures which is dubbed a “transnational paradigm” or approach.
Teaching with a transnational approach becomes even more complex
within an extremely diverse country like Indonesia. Indonesia has 300
ethnic groups, each having a different identity, culture, and customs, 700
local languages (albeit with a national lingua franca, Bahasa Indonesia)
and multiple religious groups. The biggest religious group is Islam, fol-
lowed by Christian (other than Catholic), Catholic, Hindu, and Buddhist.
Since the largest religious population group in Indonesia is Islam, this
religious group is of particular importance in teaching a transnational
approach. Like many other Muslim majority countries that have signifi-
cant non-Muslim populations in Asia (e.g. Malaysia), the Middle East
(e.g. Syria), Africa (e.g. Guinea and Sierra Leone) and Europe (e.g. Turkey
and Kosovo), ethnic, religious and cultural diversity has triggered con-
frontations between the ethnic groups and religions (Lipke & Hackett,
2015). In Indonesia, there have been several violent clashes among its
citizens in recent years (Rusyana, 2017). For example, there has been
ethnic conflict between Madurese migrants and the Indigenous Dayak
people; in some cities in Java, ethnic Chinese have been persecuted; there
is religious conflict in Maluku between Muslims and Christians and a
radical Islamic movement has committed suicide bomb attacks across the
country. We argue that before English teachers can nurture respect for
foreign cultures and positive attitudes towards the learning of English,
they need to address negative intracultural attitudes within the diverse
population.
The Indonesian government has made many efforts over the years to
unify the diverse ethnic and religious communities and prevent violence.
A Transnational Peace-Education Framework of EFL Material… 215
As early as 1945, immediately after independence, the founding fathers

created the Five Principles (Pancasila) of the nation’s philosophy, which
include “humanitarianism” and “social justice” (suggesting a more trans-
national approach) along with religious ideals (“belief in God”) and the
political ideals of “nationalism” and “democracy” to accommodate the
multiple religions and the diversity of Indonesia (Raihani, 2012). The
national motto Bhineka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity) adopted in 1951
aims to bind the nation together in peace and harmony. Since then the
government has attempted to promote Pancasila and Bhineka Tunggal Ika
in laws and policy. The government has also focused its efforts on the
younger generation, particularly in education policy and the secondary
school education system.
The most recent curriculum is the 2013 curriculum (K2013) which
emphasizes the values of Pancasila and Bhineka Tunggal Ika through
explicit character education. Time is allocated specifically to character
education. However, secondary school teachers are also expected to infuse
the values of Pancasila and Bhineka Tunggal Ika into all subjects’ content
and use of external resources to enhance teaching and learning. More
specifically, the K2013 notes that the following core values should be
infused into all subjects: religiosity, honesty, tolerance, self-discipline,
hard work, creativity, independence, democracy, curiosity, patriotism,
nationalism, supportiveness, love of reading, peace making, friendliness
and communicativeness, environmental awareness, social awareness, and
responsibility (Pusat Kurikulum dan Perbukuan [Center for Curriculum
and Textbook Development]. Pedoman pelaksanaan pendidikan berkarakter
[Guidelines for character education implementation], 2011, p. 8). Like
other subjects, English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers are expected
to infuse their curriculum with character and values education. English is
a common course across the Indonesian secondary education system as
mandated by the Indonesian government (The Constitution of the
Republic of Indonesia of 1945, 2002). Therefore, it is particularly impor-
tant to meet the character and values education goals as identified in the
General Curriculum and as described above in this subject in the
Indonesian Islamic school context. We argue that building on existing
policies and curriculum goals is yet another way to bridge the new lan-
guage and culture in a transnational approach since it provides the
teachers with official validation and support for their activities and hence
increases their confidence in developing students’ “linguaculture”
(Risager, 2007, p. 114).
Issues in Teaching EFL and Culture/s

in Indonesian Islamic Schools
The General Curriculum in Indonesia mandates the infusion of character
and values education to reconcile the various language, religious and cul-
tural groups and ensure a peaceful national culture. Equally, character
and values education including values such as tolerance and respect,
friendliness and communicativeness with other cultures are important
aspects of English teaching. This is because it is argued that English teach-
ing, like that of any language, is inseparable from the teaching of culture
and values are a key component of culture. However, this issue becomes
more complex in the Indonesian secondary school context.
Indonesian government secondary school education is divided into
two main groups of schools. The first falls under the Ministry of Education
and Culture (MOEC) and these are known as public schools. The second
group of schools is religion based including Islamic schools, Catholic
schools or Christian schools, which are supervised by the Ministry of
Religious Affairs (MORA) (Setiyadi & Sukirlan, 2016). In the Islamic
Madrassas, students not only study academic content but also learn
Islamic values and philosophy based on the Qur’an (an Islamic scripture,
the central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revela-
tion from God (Allah)). Although the Madrassas are managed by the
Department of Religious Affairs, students in the Madrassas are still
required to take English as a Foreign Language as a subject at a secondary
school level and to follow the K2013. The Ministry of Education and
Culture (MOEC) has designed a curriculum and material to be imple-
mented in both general public and religious schools. This has triggered
concerns from the Madrassa stakeholders who believe that the teaching
and English materials are not necessarily appropriate for the distinct
Madrassa culture (Rohmah, 2012). Madrassas are strongly influenced by
Islamic culture, which is believed to have a significant impact on stu-

dents’ identity as Muslims. We along with Lovat (2010, 2016), Abu-
Nimer and Nasser (2017; Abu-Nimer, Nasser, & Ouboulahcen, 2016),
Rohmah, Ismail, Kholish and Novita (2018) and many others argued
that drawing on this preference for Islamic religious values, but linking
them with the existing curriculum, materials and resources may be a way
to promote respect for diversity and peace making. We argue that it is
important to draw on students and teachers’ religious identity to develop
“linguaculture” (Risager, 2007, p. 114) and a transnational approach to
teaching English.
In the Indonesian context, like many others, the curriculum is driven
by the textbook, and as noted by Qoyyimah (2015), the national curricu-
lum tended to emphasise secular values, whereas teachers in Indonesian
Islamic schools tended to emphasise “religiosity” (p. 160). However,
research suggested that the English textbooks and materials provided by
the MOEC are particularly problematic in the Madrassa classrooms con-
text. Islamic culture is rarely represented in the textbooks, which focus on
broader nationalistic topics, making a bridge to the students’ culture
more complex. No reference is made to Islamic topics or relevant reli-
gious practices and visual images, texts, and tasks related to local and
Islamic culture are extremely limited. This is as problematic since stu-
dents are more likely to pay attention to the learning material if it is
contextualised in local culture (Dinh & Sharifian, 2017; Forman, 2014).
Moreover, Islamic culture or character education is not the focus of the
national examination and teachers are concerned only with providing
students with the lexical and linguistic resources to succeed in the exami-
nations (Lubis, 2016).
Misdi (2017) in his study on Madrassa empowerment, recommended
that teachers in Madrassas explore the use of authentic material from the
national and international media in their teaching practice. Using authen-
tic material allows students to be exposed to the language in a meaningful
way (Tomlinson, 2012). Frisancho and Delagado (2018) added that pre-
senting authentic up-to-date material gives students opportunities to
engage in active discussion on relevant controversial topics and develop
critical analysis skills and find peaceful solutions to social issues. However,
teachers require support in selecting material and designing lessons that
build these skills and values and can effectively supplement the textbook.
These materials also need to be grounded in values education, be relevant
to the Islamic local culture, yet at the same time support the more global
or ‘transnational’ approach needed to fulfil the English curriculum goals.
Transnational Education Approach in English

A
Language Teaching for the Islamic Context
The most common approach in English language teaching is to teach the
cultures of what is described in the World English literature as “inner
circle cultures”, namely those countries where English originally took
shape such as the UK, the USA and Australia (Kachru, 1996). The reason
underlying this approach is that knowledge of the target culture helps
students apply the English language in the relevant context (Piątkowska,
2015). However, focusing only on an “inner circle” target culture in
English can result in students feeling alienated (Matsuda, 2005; McKay,
2004). In fact, community leaders in Islamic contexts have even expressed
concerns that the teaching of English culture will harm students’ morals
and even result in them moving away from Islamic values (Sahragard,
Rakhshandehroo, & Izadpanah, 2014). They suggested that English in
Islamic contexts can become a tool for evangelism as Christian missionar-
ies can use the language to spread their values (Mahboob, 2009;
Pennycook & Coutand-Marin, 2003). Research (e.g., Frederick, 2007;
Kirkpatrick, 2006; Seidlhofer, 2001) suggested that Muslim students are
more likely to be interested in learning English if the pedagogical materi-
als presented to them reflect or are in harmony with their Islamic culture.
Due to the concerns raised above, scholars have suggested that English
language teaching should be separated as much as possible from “inner
circle” cultures and instead “stress the consolidation of mother-tongue
teaching and a localised and learner-relevant content” along with a focus
on accessing “modern-day knowledge” (Zughoul, 2003, p. 145 cited in
Mahboob & Elyas, 2014, p. 132). The strength of this approach is that
students utilise their prior knowledge and learn the new language in har-
mony with their cultural identity and values. However, according to
Zacharias (2014), this approach did not provide opportunities for learn-
ers to engage in intercultural dialogue, which is vital for language learn-
ing (Zacharias, 2014).
Instead of attempting to separate language learning from culture, sec-
ond language acquisition needs to be facilitated through real social and
cultural interaction. This intercultural dialogue, characteristic of a ‘trans-
national approach’ will lead students to become aware of the other cul-
ture and this makes them understand how language works in a certain
culture. Zacharias (2014) suggests that learners need to appreciate other
cultures to learn a language effectively, but also to understand and shape
their own cultural identity—both elements important for students to
meet the goals of the English and General K 2013. This reconciliation of
cultures occurs through intercultural teaching and learning, “which helps
an individual learner to come to and develop their awareness of the self
in relation to the other” (Le & Chen, 2018, p. 131). Therefore, local
cultures including the character and values education that underpin these
cultures need to be understood and infused into the teaching materials to
help the students likewise understand and build a bridge to the cultures
and values embedded in the English language. However, understanding
one’s own culture and that of ‘the other’ does not necessarily and auto-
matically lead to the values education goals of tolerance, peace making,
friendliness and communicativeness, social awareness, and responsibility
which are viewed as important in the Indonesian and many other EFL
contexts.
The goals of the Indonesian curriculum lie in what Le and Chen (2018,
p. 136) dub the “psychological and attitudinal domain” and need to be
actively taught as part of the secondary school and teacher-training cur-
riculum. Besides being an integral element in Le and Chen’s (2018)
“political model” (p. 121) of English as an International Language teach-
ing, these goals resonate with the global movement towards peace educa-
tion. Therefore, we posit peace education as a possible guiding framework
along with the transnational approach within which Islamic teachers in
Indonesia and other Muslim majority countries can interact with each
other and with international teacher educators to engage in productive
English materials development. The emphasis is on how material devel-
opment is grounded for the Islamic local identity and engages indigenous
stakeholders but draws upon peace education as the basis of a “psycho-

logical and attitudinal domain” (p. 136) that is transnational in its
approach.
he Missing ‘Piece’ of Peace Education

T
in Indonesian EFL Curriculum
The transnational approach or paradigm aims at developing a feeling of
collective welfare and unity (Şenyürekli & Detzner, 2008). Students
learning or teachers engaging in professional development within this
paradigm should interact in a way that they can overcome prejudice,
manage conflicts and achieve mutual understanding (Chen & Le, 2019).
However, this is not always easy when there are numerous points of trans-
national conflict or even, as described above in the context of Indonesia,
national conflict. Peace education provides a way of understanding the
complexities of intra and intercultural communication towards building
a sustainable peace culture. A peace-education curriculum is one where
both the “philosophy” and “practice” of peace are embodied (Kruger,
2012, p. 17). Kruger (2012, p. 20) notes that “[t]he aims of the process”
are to empower people with the necessary skills, attitudes, and knowledge
to “create a safe world and build a sustainable environment”, whereas the
philosophy is concerned with “non-violence, compassion, love, and rev-
erence for all life”.
Before we can achieve the philosophy and practice of peace in a school
or professional education context, we should be aware of how a culture of
violence is built. Greener and Ware (2006) argued that it is natural for
human beings to have enemies since we need enemies to shape our iden-
tities. However, the sense of identity can create a strong sense of “differ-
ence” that can lead to extreme “exclusivity” (p. 29), which triggers the
blaming of other groups. Once this blaming culture emerges, a culture of
violence develops. Instead, there is a need to build peace as an integral
part of an individual’s identity. Indeed, Oxford (2017) argued that the
engagement with a second or foreign language culture, without directly
teaching peace topics and engaging students in activities where peace
making is actively developed, is not enough to build understanding of

peace among teachers and students. Instead, she suggested that explicit
and direct peace education should be fostered, and stakeholders directly
involved in curriculum and materials development to integrate peace
education sustainably into an education environment.
Oxford (2017) described a six-level model to illustrate the role of the
English teacher educator in peace making. At an individual level, the
teacher educator has the desire to foster peace, the results in peace activi-
ties collaboratively developed with student teachers as part of the teacher
education programme. The inspired teachers then infuse peace-making
activities into their own classrooms, collaboratively developing materials
that meet their own students’ needs and interests, students and the
broader community are then influenced and, finally, humanity at large.
The challenge is how to build this inner sense of peace and desire to
foster peace in contexts with a Muslim majority where there might be
resistance to western constructs of peace. To address this problem, schol-
ars such as Lovat (2010, 2016), Abu-Nimr (Abu-Nimer & Nasser, 2017;
Abu-Nimer et al., 2016) and Rohma, Ismail, Kholish and Novita (2018)
suggested a peace-education approach that draws on the students’ and
teachers’ local religious background, knowledges and context in a way
similar to the transnational approach in teaching English in order to
bridge between transnational and local perspectives of peace. This
approach draws on the participants’ own mono-religious context (in this
case Islam) and identifies elements of a philosophy and practice of peace
that are in harmony with their understanding. This approach avoids engag-
ing in political or religious debate with teachers and trying to change
their perspectives on religion or politics or discussing the intricacies of
other cultures and religions. Instead the teachers are viewed as experts in
the local context and their religion and engaged in professional develop-
ment activity that is “adaptive and participatory” (Rohmah et al., 2018,
p. 199). For example, participants might be asked to brainstorm stories,
examples, cultural sayings and so on that support peace-education values
of pluralism, non-violence and equality (Abu-Nimer & Nasser, 2017;
Abu-Nimer et al., 2016).
We believe that there is potential to develop such “adaptive and par-
ticipatory” (Rohmah et al., 2018, p. 199) approaches in the Indonesian
context since, to date, there has been no educational or professional

development programme that “explicitly develops values of peace”
(Setiadi, Sunaryo, & Ilfiandra,, & Nakaya, A., 2017, p. 183). Therefore,
teachers are not provided with any guidance to promote peace making
and respect for diversity in their classrooms and consequently lack the
skills to develop and use peace-making activities in their classrooms and
inspire other teachers as emphasised by Oxford (2016).
In response to these challenges, we therefore suggest the explicit sup-
port of Islamic school teachers in the creation of English language materi-
als to supplement the textbook and promote peace values. We focus on
the professional development of the English as a second or foreign lan-
guage teacher in an Islamic school context as a leader promoting peace in
their classroom activities, materials and practices. Although Setiadi et al.
(2017) attempted to develop a peace pedagogy model for Indonesia, they
were unable to find any significant improvement in these values, which
they attributed to a lack of stakeholder (teacher, student and leadership).
Therefore, we also address the issue of stakeholder buy-in—one of the
weaknesses in the model identified by Setiadi et al. (2017) by involving
the teachers in co-creation of materials and leadership in future materials
development in participatory action learning and action research.
Transnational Peace Education Framework

A
for Developing English Language Teaching
Materials in Indonesian Islamic Schools
Infusing peace-education values in the context of learning English is not
an instant process. Stakeholders (teachers, school administrators) need to
first draw upon their own knowledge of peace making in the local context
and then both develop materials for the local context and embed the
process for creating the materials into classroom practices and the school
environment. The teacher needs to be supported in identifying the needs
of the students and then engaging with the local content and context in
order to develop locally grounded materials which integrate the values of
peace making and respect for diversity and meet students’ learning needs.
In this process, there also needs to be strong leadership, so that teachers

are supported not only to develop one set of materials but also to develop
materials in future. Thus, the collaborative process becomes a sustainable
embedded part of the school environment.
Participatory Action Learning and Action Research (PALAR), as
defined by Zuber-Skerritt (2002, 2018), has been used effectively in vari-
ous contexts as a process of project design and management involving
various stakeholders. PALAR is appropriate as it involves school stake-
holders to engage in action learning under leadership of a workshop
leader to develop locally appropriate materials. Action research is used to
develop sustainable principles for future materials development and sus-
tainable leadership and policy enactment. PALAR, as is typical in action
research, involves a series of cycles with each cycle including the steps of
planning, action, observation, and reflection in a dynamic and integrated
spiral (Kemmis & McTaggart, 1988).
To address conflict arising out of diversity and feelings of difference
and exclusivity in cultural identity, we propose an overarching framework
for peace-based ELT materials development for Islamic schools in
Indonesia. At the heart of the framework lies the transnational emphasis
on developing concern for collective welfare and unity (Şenyürekli &
Detzner, 2008). To address this concern, the framework draws on Rebecca
Oxford’s multiple dimensions of peace described in the sections above.
Oxford (2017) recommends that peace-making dispositions should be
first solidified at (1) inner peace, (2) interpersonal peace, (3)
intergroup/international/intercultural peace and (4) ecological. These
multidimensions of peace are the bases to develop English material.
Oxford gives examples some activities or topics that can be applied for
promoting peace education based on these dimensions. For example, to
develop inner peace, she suggests activities that help the students let go of
negative emotions and develop positive self-talk. To promote interper-
sonal peace, Oxford (2017) suggests activities where students discuss the
values of friendship and develop different types of empathy. These con-
cepts are further strengthened to enhance intergroup or intercultural
peace where students are engaged in activities that help them to develop
empathy for those they do not know as well as cross-cultural
understanding.
This approach focusing on the individual and intragroup identity links

with the Islamic and Indonesian Islamic approaches to peace education
highlighted by scholars such as Lovat (2010, 2016), Abu-Nimer (Abu-
Nimer et al., 2016; Abu-Nimer & Nasser, 2017) and Rohmah et al.
(2018) where the process and content adapts according to the input from
the participants. In addition, as suggested by Oxford (2017), professional
development of teachers is key to the action. This professional develop-
ment is not a one-way communication with teachers taught content (in
this case, content on peace education and material development) by
external experts. Rather, the professional development involves
Participatory Action Learning and Action Research. The teachers learn
about peace, research local concepts of peace, develop materials teaching
peace and evaluate these materials in relation to their local context col-
laboratively with the workshop leader. Then they work together to
develop a framework for future materials development.
In order to prepare for the Islamic school context and potential reli-
gious and cultural sensitivities, we held a trial workshop with a group of
doctoral students studying their PhD in Education in Australia. The
group included seven participants from an Indonesian Islamic back-
ground that had taught in Indonesian secondary schools. At the work-
shop, we trialled some of the activities developed by Rebecca Oxford
(2017) to illustrate her multidimensional model for professional develop-
ment in peace education. The aim was to identify contextually relevant
topics as well as activities or topics that might be negatively received by
teachers and students in the Islamic school context so that we could
engage our potential participants collaboratively in the research study
without undue resistance.
In terms of teaching approach, Ghaith and Shaaban (1994) suggest
that Cooperative Learning (CL) and Task Based Language Teaching
(TLBT) are appropriate approaches for infusing peace activities into EFL
teaching. Thongrin (2018) argues that, other methods such as content-
based instruction, cultural studies, and literature-based instruction and
language teaching with an emphasis on skills such as reading text, journal
writing, and written or oral response to simulations are useful for peace
education in English language teaching (p. 166). However, as with the
themes and topics, the workshop leader should work with the teachers to
select methods for each learning objective or set of objectives that are
appropriate to the learners and the teaching context.
The elements of material and assessment relate to the type and modal-
ity of the materials and how learning related to peace can be evaluated.
Ghaith and Shaaban (1994) suggested that multimodal materials such as
video, simulation and role-play should be included. However, materials
used in other contexts might not always be appropriate to the local stu-
dents’ need and sociocultural backgrounds. Therefore, accommodating
multimodal activities and text (online and printed material) which pro-
mote local identity and global issues through the co-design and develop-
ment processes of PALAR is needed.
Assessment is a crucial element in integrating peace in EFL contexts.
Ghaith and Shaaban (1994) noted that “assessment should move beyond
simplistic measurement of superficial knowledge to valid and reliable
assessment of skill development and attitudinal shifts” (p. 60). Based on
this notion, EFL teachers should consider the students’ skills and atti-
tudes related to peace making and respect for diversity in a dynamic pro-
cess of learning, assessing knowledge not only through scores but also
through locally developed impact indicators as suggested by Lovat (2010).
Widodo (2016) argues that language assessment is not a matter of quan-
titative result but a humanistic endeavour to assess student behaviour and
school culture. The PALAR process should also develop dynamic assess-
ment measures to assess behaviours and cultural interactions that relate to
peace making and respect for diversity, which means it will also assess the
student skill development and attitudes through peace tasks and activities.
As illustrated in Fig. 1, the individual and intragroup elements of the
framework are affected by Indonesian Islamic peace-education principles,
and the professional development for peace is focused around activities
building themes, skills, methods, materials and assessment. The people
and the activity of professional development are linked by PALAR which
ensures that the perspectives of the people are brought to the activity of
professional development and material/activity development. Finally, all
these elements are encapsulated by the transnational approach.
Transnational Approach
Professional
Development for
P peacemaking
Individual & A dispositions:
Intragroup Focus L focus on themes,
(Indonesian Islamic A skills methods,
Peace-education) R materials and
assessment
Fig. 1 A transnational peace-education framework of EFL material development

for the Islamic school context in Indonesia
The Framework in Practice

The transnational peace-education framework of EFL material develop-
ment has recently been put into practice in two contexts: First, as men-
tioned above, we trialled potential activities and content in a workshop of
PhD students to refine the sample material. Later, our framework was
practically implemented by Dana Kristiawan in a series of three work-
shops with 21 Indonesian English teachers from a group of Madrassas in
East Java.
The trial workshop and the first two days of the fieldwork workshops
included the participants brainstorming in groups to respond to the con-
cept of peace and how it was interpreted in their local contexts and to
identify the challenges of implementing peace education. Then, the par-
ticipants took on the role of students and experienced a range of sample
materials, modalities and activities building on the work of Oxford
(2017). Based on the feedback from the trial workshop held in Australia,
these activities were adapted by Dana Kristiawan to include multimodal

resources and activities, adapted to the Indonesian context which were
used with the participants in the Indonesian English teacher workshops.
In order to make the sample materials more practically relevant for the
Indonesian teachers, Kristiawan focused the materials around the first
couple of chapters in the Senior Secondary English textbooks. After expe-
riencing each set of materials in the role of students, the participants
returned to their roles of teachers and participants and gave their responses
to the challenges and affordances of teaching the specific peace content,
materials and activity types in their context.
In the full study in Indonesia, the participants attended a third work-
shop a month after the first two. In this workshop, they were provided
with a full set of the sample materials that had been adapted based on
their feedback. After a final trial activity and feedback session, the partici-
pants then applied what they had learned in the first two workshops.
Then, they developed chapters of the textbook working in groups on a
template and selecting appropriate activities from those in the set of sam-
ple materials. Finally, they applied them to new English and peace con-
tent or developing their own activities. Throughout the process, the
participants completed reflective journals where they responded to their
experiences pre and post workshop.
The full results of the study are the subject of other publications.
However, in the next section, we describe just one activity and how it
evolved as a result of the implementation of the transnational peace-
education framework of EFL material development in order to demon-
strate the framework in action. One example is an activity aimed at
supporting the development of interpersonal peace. This activity, based
on one developed by Oxford (2017), was presented both in the trial
workshop and in the school-based workshops. Oxford’s (2017) activity
was supplemented by a photovoice activity where Dana Kristiawan gave
a personal example (see Fig. 2 for first draft activities). As suggested in our
theoretical description of the transnational approach above, after the trial
where more general English content was addressed, we attempted to
directly link the activities to the English curriculum items and content in
the textbook as well as the general curriculum items related to peace edu-
cation. We used Bahasa Indonesian in the Basic Competence section (see
Interpersonal peace activity

1. Learning outcomes
Peace Curriculum: To be aware of kind of feelings which create peace (such as
love, care, etc)
English Curriculum: To describe relationships using verbs and adjectives.
Approach: Photovoice activity
2. Teaching activities
Task 1: Ask students to describe the pictures in pairs.
Task 2: Discuss these questions with your partner!

1. What aspects of love does this picture imply?
2. Who shows deep affection in this picture: the man, the woman, or both?
3. How can you tell?
4. Based on this picture, do you think this couple is peaceful and happy, and why?
5. In your view, what features are necessary for a contented, close relationship
between two people?
6. How is this type of relationship related to peace?
Fig. 2 Draft sample material
Fig. 3) to ensure that staff and students were aware of what General
Curriculum items were being covered, followed by a description of the
English curriculum goals.
During the trial workshop one individual noted that the picture would
be considered inappropriate in an Islamic context, however, this was not
uniformly raised as an issue by participants. However, in the school-based
workshop participants gave more specific feedback with participants wel-
coming the inclusive elements of a loving relationship that crosses bor-
ders but suggesting the type of picture appropriate to show a loving
relationship in their context as depicted in Fig. 3. The school-based
Interpersonal peace Activity
1. Basic competence
a. Menganalisis fungsi sosial, struktur teks, dan unsur kebahasaan dari teks deskriptif
sederhana tentang orang, tempat wisata, dan bangunan bersejarah terkenal, sesuai dengan
konteks penggunaannya. [Analyzing social functions, text structure, and linguistic elements
from simple descriptive texts about people, tourist attractions, and famous historic buildings
based on a context]
b. Menyusun teks lisan dan tulis untuk menyatakan dan menanyakan tentang
tindakan/kegiatan/kejadian yang dilakukan/terjadi di waktu lampau yang merujuk waktu
terjadinya dengan yang merujuk pada kesudahannya, dengan memperhatikan fungsi sosial,
struktur teks, dan unsur kebahasaan yang benar dan sesuai konteks. [To develop oral and
written texts to state and inquire about actions / activities / events / occurred in the past that
refer to the time of occurrence with those that refer to the end, by paying attention to social
functions, text structures, and correct linguistic elements in context]
2. Learning Goal:
a. English Curriculum: To describe relationships using verbs and adjectives
b. Peace Curriculum: To become aware feelings which create peace (such as love, care, etc)
c. Learning Approach: Photovoice activity
d. Technology used: LCD projector
e. Teacher Tips: Teacher can develop locally relevant issues to add to the cards.
f. Low technology alternatives: printed pictures.
3. Teaching activities
Task 1: Lead in activities
Rationale of the activities : to encourage students to use words and create sentences to
describe the picture.
Ask students to describe the pictures in pairs.
Task 2: Discussing the peace value in the picture

Rationale of the activity: to explore the meaning of peace from the picture by using guided
questions given.
Discuss with your partner!
1. What aspects of love does this picture show?
2. Who shows deep affection in this picture: the man, the woman, or both ?
3. How can you tell ?
Fig. 3 The sample material after PALAR process

4. Based on this picture, do you think this couple is peaceful and happy, and why ? In
your view, what features are necessary for a contented, close relationship between two
people ?
5. How is this type of relationship related to peace ?
Task 3 writing based on photo voice

Rationale of the activity: to write a descriptive paragraph for your own photo.
• Select a photograph from your collection that shows the kind of feelings which create
peace (such as love, care, etc)
• Write 150 – 200 word essay reflecting your idea
• Organize your writing using the following structure:
• Context and reason
• Relationship between photo and argument
• Reflection of peace.
Text example:
This picture is one of my collection on Context
my cell phone folder. I designed the
picture myself. It shows that in 2020
many religious celebrations were on Reasons
the same day - the 25th. The Chinese
New Year was on 25 January. The
Hindu celebration of ‘Nyepi’ was 25
March. Muslims celebrated on 25
Mei, and Christmas for Christians was
on 25 December. This picture shows
that people in Indonesia have ways of
celebrating their religious holidays
and celebrate on different dates.
Indonesian people must preserve
diversity and live in the harmony. In Reflection
their daily practices, Indonesian of peace
people should understand and care for
each other. For example, people from
different religions can help each other
in their neighborhood. Hopefully, the
25th can be a symbol to improve
understanding and respecting other
different religious groups.
Your writing :
Fig. 3 (continued)
Your Photo :
Peace Value:
َ ‫ﻟَ ُﻜ ْﻢ ِﺩﻳﻨُ ُﻜ ْﻢ َﻭ ِﻝ‬
‫ﻯ ِﺩﻳ ِﻦ‬
“You have your religion and I have mine” (Al-Kafirun.6)
Task 4 : Reflection /Assessment

Think about what you have learned. The rationale for the activity: The student can
recognise how they have improved their attitude through reflection.
Peace education 1. Before study: I didn’t know .................................

2. While studying: I had a problem in......................
3. After studying: I understand.................................
I am able to ................................
Language education 1. Before study: I didn’t know………………..
2. While studying: I had a problem in…………
3. After studying: I understand ……………
I am able to ................................
Fig. 3 (continued)
participants also highlighted the value of direct quotations from the Holy
Qur’an in Arabic applicable to each topic since they felt that it was
important to directly reference their source of peace, the Holy Qur’an
itself, rather than an interpretation in English of what a peace-activity
meant. Hence, the quotations were added to the final draft of the activi-
ties (see Fig. 3). Thus, we drew on the staff and student’s Islamic identity
linking the peace values to their religious values. However, we wanted to
move towards more inclusive practices that encouraged respect for diver-
sity. Hence in the second activity and in response to feedback from the
teachers, we drew on local Indonesian culture and a non-confrontational
topic (the date) to encourage students to identify similarities between
Indonesian cultures and promote respect for diversity.
More specific contextual issues related to learning and teaching also
resulted in changes to the activity. For example, although we encouraged
students and staff to make use of multimodal technologies such as photos
on their phones, we also allowed low-tech alternatives. This was due to
the fact that some teacher participants described bans on phones in their
schools and/or occasional Internet access problems. In addition, based on

the feedback received from the teachers, we also added a reinforcing
reflective activity to the end of each set of activities (see Fig. 3).
Challenges in Implementing the Framework

The difficulty in encouraging leadership emerged as a key challenge in the
third workshop with the Islamic secondary school teachers. Although
they were all active participants in the workshops and gave rich feedback
on the sample materials, many of the participants struggled to develop
their own material when they attempted to do this in the third workshop.
Two of the participants created their own materials supplementing topics
in the textbook immediately after the first two workshops and confi-
dently supported other participants in the third workshop, and by the
end of the third workshop, each group of participants had developed a set
of locally relevant multimodal materials and activities. However, at the
time of writing, it is unclear whether the remaining participants have
used the sample materials and developed their own materials and activi-
ties and supported others in this process.
The literature and initial feedback in the workshops suggest that the
main issue preventing independent material development and leadership
amongst Indonesian English teachers is that they are overloaded with
administrative tasks and that the enacted curriculum is driven by high
stakes exams which are based on the textbook framework. Consequently,
Indonesian teachers tend to rely slavishly on the textbook (Ahmad,
2014). However, the sustainability of the framework will be further inter-
rogated in the remainder of the research which focuses on the partici-
pants’ actions following on from the professional development workshops.
Conclusion
Our modern transnational world is one of mobility where there is con-
stant interaction and connection between countries, cultures and indi-
viduals. English as a Lingua Franca can play a pivotal role in transnational
economic, political, social and cultural communication and negotiation.

However, the teaching of English and associated cultures is viewed by
some scholars and local stakeholders as detrimental and even disrespect-
ful of local cultures. Peace-making dispositions and peace actions includ-
ing respect for diversity and peace making taught as part of the EFL
curriculum cannot be fostered if the students or teachers are resisting the
imposition of foreign religious and social beliefs. Instead, a peace-
education approach is needed that draws on the teachers’ and students’
own set of beliefs and bridges these with peace-education philosophy and
practice. To that end, this chapter has proposed a framework grounded in
the transnational education approach, which accommodates the local
and target/other cultures in developing peace education. The framework
is also aligned with recommendations by Islamic peace-education schol-
ars in Indonesia and elsewhere (i.e. Abu-Nimer 2016; Abu-Nimer &
Nasser, 2017; Lovat 2010, 2016; Rohmah et al., 2018), since it first
focuses on the local and then uses it as a bridge to other cultures.
Professional development for peace education around concrete identi-
fication of themes, skills, methods, materials and assessment in harmony
to the local context is the central activity within which the bridging of the
local and transnational occurs. In our work, PALAR methodology com-
pletes the framework engaging the school stakeholders (teachers and
school administrators) to collaborate and negotiate in creating and sus-
tainably implementing the locally transnational peace material and activ-
ity development for teaching English.
As we discussed earlier, Setiadi et al. (2017) found that their imple-
mentation of a peace model had no significant effect on students’ knowl-
edge of peace and peace-making behaviours. However, their model had
limited emphasis on classroom practices and professional development of
teachers to implement such practices. Therefore, it is hoped that this
framework building on Oxford’s (2017) work with its emphasis on pro-
fessional development and the influence of individual teachers that moves
from ‘inner peace’ to ‘intercultural peace’ as described above will have a
greater impact. It is hoped that through this framework teachers can also
become peace leaders in promoting peace through teaching English in an
Islamic context. We believe this framework also can be adopted or adapted
to teaching English and peace education in other religious contexts or
applied in general to values based material design.
Acknowledgments The first author would like to acknowledge financial sup-

port from the Indonesian Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP), Ministry of
Finance, and the Directorate General of Higher Education (DIKTI), Ministry
of Education and Culture, The Republic of Indonesia.
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Promoting Transnational Teaching
in Pre-service Language Teacher
Education Programs in Japan:
An Autoethnographic Approach
Yutaka Fujieda
Professional development has been a significant and critical issue for in-
service language teachers. A body of research on in-service language
teacher education (LTE) has been developed on reflective teaching
(Farrell, 2015, 2017a, 2017b, 2018) and language teacher identity in
second language (L2) education (Barkhuizen, 2017; Duff, 2015). Lately,
a trend has emerged in L2 education of taking a close look at the hidden
truths of language teaching. Such an approach serves as a way of unravel-
ing the complexities of “who language teachers are, what they know and
believe, how they learn to teach, and how they carry out their work in
diverse contexts throughout their careers” (Johnson, 2018, p. 259).
Whereas studies of in-service language teachers in L2 teacher educa-
tion have been widely pursued, LTE inquiries targeting pre-service teach-
ers remain relatively underexplored. In particular, teacher preparation
Y. Fujieda (*)
Department of International Social Studies, Kyoai Gakuen University,
Gunma, Japan
e-mail: fujieda@c.kyoai.ac.jp
240 Y. Fujieda
programs for undergraduate students have been underdeveloped in vari-

ous contexts and in the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other
Languages (TESOL) community (Farrell, 2016, 2017b). For instance, in
Japan, many universities offer teacher certificate programs for both grad-
uate and undergraduate students to train as highly qualified teachers of
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at the secondary school level. The
undergraduate students—aspiring or pre-service English teachers—must
complete particular requirements of university programs to obtain a
teacher license or certificate.
Nonetheless, pre-service LTE programs at the undergraduate level in
Japan lack adequate disciplinary courses related to the pedagogy of
English teaching. Trainee English teachers learn only about the method-
ological issues in English teaching methodology (ETM) courses. Through
ETM courses, they are required to consider and demonstrate concrete
classroom language activities for four-skill development, using commu-
nicative approaches that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology (MEXT) has advocated in the curriculum guide-
lines. To do so, the concept of communicative approaches such as com-
municative language teaching (CLT) is adopted, which mostly adheres to
principles of replicating the fluency of English native speakers (Seargeant,
2011). CLT is an appropriate teaching method but has been problematic
and its application to every teaching context is unrealistic, since CLT as a
whole leads to justifying cultural imposition and perpetuating the native
speaker privilege (Canagarajah, 2005; Pennycook, 2009).
The current trajectory of the English language has shifted to embrac-
ing a spectrum of transnational English language teaching (TELT).
Prospective English teachers must understand the significance of critical
pedagogy in teaching English as an international language (EIL) and be
receptive and sensitive to the varieties of English. Thus, pre-service
teacher education programs need to discuss the mobility of current as
well as future ELT (Rose, 2017; Rose, Syrbe, Montakantiwong, &
Funada, 2020). As such, ETM classes in LTE programs should encourage
pre-service teachers to reframe and reshape their pedagogical practices;
using various Englishes is a privilege that users should be able to possess
in transnational, transcultural, and intercultural engagement. They
should also encourage practices that facilitate a better understanding of
Promoting Transnational Teaching in Pre-service Language… 241
transnational English teaching because transnationalism requires “new

ways of theorizing processes of teaching and learning, new ways of view-
ing the multilingualism and multiple literacies that students bring with
them, and new ways of describing people, their practices, their affilia-
tions, and their ways of being” (Warriner, Morelli, & Lee, 2018, p. 3714).
What can teacher educators and teachers do to improve their current
ETM courses that are dedicated to TELT? The growing trend in LTE
research is to adapt to a reflection on teaching experiences and practices.
One methodological approach is to employ autoethnography, which
involves the researcher as research participant and which is identified as
“a part of the broader family of qualitative approaches that includes eth-
nography, self-study, and narrative inquiry” (Hughes & Pennington,
2017, p. 5). The voices of existing teachers accompanied by autoethno-
graphic descriptions contribute to teachers’ positioning themselves as
transnational professionals and consider their array of knowledge and
experience as valuable intellectual resources (Adams, Jones, & Ellis, 2015;
Denzin, 2014). This reflective practice helps design a learning environ-
ment conceptually and theoretically by providing a primary opportunity
to transform and fit the needs of English education to local contexts,
which facilitates an understanding of English language diversity and
inclusion. Thus, an autoethnographic reflective approach to teacher edu-
cation, with its elaborated accounts of teaching, allows for innovating
productive pedagogies, curriculums, and materials for transnational
English teaching and provides pre-service teachers with transna-
tional spaces.
This chapter unpacks the ways in which the autoethnographic approach
intersects with transnationalism in pre-service LTE programs in Japan.
This chapter adopts an autoethnographic approach by elucidating my
personal accounts of teaching an ETM course in the English teacher cer-
tificate program at the undergraduate level of a Japanese university. The
primary purpose of this chapter is to provide pedagogical implications for
ETM courses in LTE programs, mainly in Japanese higher education
contexts, and to promote reflective practice for pre-service teachers in L2
teacher education. In so doing, I first identify the nexus between the
autoethnographic approach and transnationalism in pre-services teacher
education programs by discussing the transformations of English
242 Y. Fujieda
education in Japan over the last several decades and contextualizing the
English education background. In what follows, I illustrate my experi-
ence of teaching an ETM class using an autoethnographic narrative.
Finally, the chapter concludes with several suggestions for LTE programs
in Japan and similar contexts, embracing the concepts of World Englishes,
accelerating materials development, and implementing teacher reflective
practice to promote the concept of TELT in the programs.
Transformations of English Education in Japan

Why is the English proficiency of Japanese students quite low despite
devoting much time and substantial efforts toward learning English for
many years? One of the principal reasons is that school-based English
education is impractical because it is aimed toward studying for entrance
exams. These public criticisms of English education have been expressed
for decades, although not all Japanese share such criticisms.
Worldwide, different methodologies of and approaches toward English
teaching have been implemented; however, most of the proposals have
been introduced in English as a Second Language (ESL) classes in
English-speaking countries and have only been modestly beneficial in the
Japanese English classrooms (Saito, 2019). To address criticisms of
English education in Japan, education researchers, scholars, and even in-
service teachers debated entrance exam-orientated teaching, in which
grammar questions are repeated multiple times, and grammatical forms
and vocabulary are taught through rote-memorization rather than
encouraging students to express themselves in English for different
purposes.
For many years, reforms of English education and curriculum have
been proposed and enacted by MEXT. Looking back on English educa-
tion in Japan, MEXT has undergone several transformations of English
education at the secondary school level, and it has thoroughly revised the
educational guidelines. The goal of the revised EFL guideline is to adapt
to the age of globalization. Under the old guidelines, English education
in junior high and high school emphasized language accuracy by teaching
fundamental linguistic structures to improve students’ literacy skills
rather than seeking to extend their listening and speaking abilities. Such
limited instruction of oral practice hampered the development of stu-
dents’ oral proficiency.
A major change was the introduction of the “Oral Communication”
course in the high school English curriculum in the early 1990s to foster
students’ practical communication abilities based on the use of CLT
(Kikuchi, 2009). The dominant and mainstream approach of these
English classes emphasized reading and writing with grammar-translation
geared toward success on the entrance exam rather than on encouraging
students’ exposure to English. In current English education in Japan,
“communication” has been strengthened and is a key to bolstering the
development of communicative skills. Furthermore, MEXT (2012) sug-
gested a plan—“Promotion of Global Human Resource Development”—
so that the Japanese can participate actively in globalized societies, in
which English education is viewed as essential for helping people adjust
to globalization. This government-designed plan contains key educa-
tional points, supports schools in promoting a practical English curricu-
lum and study abroad programs for students, and endorses abilities for
English teachers (MEXT, 2012; Rose & McKinley, 2018). Such language
policy initiatives have been built on the pursuit of a globalization strategy
in which citizens possess interpersonal communicative skills and confi-
dence in using English.
Furthermore, the buzzwords “global” and “internationalization (koku-
saika)” have propelled English education in higher education as well. The
Japanese government proposed a national project to nurture a citizenry
that can flourish and play an active role in internationalized societies. To
achieve this overarching goal, the government stressed the importance of
a drastic overhaul of English education at the university level to facilitate
the flexibility to adapt to globalization. The government executed a new
policy—the “Top Global University Project”—which “prioritized sup-
port for the world-class and innovative universities that lead the interna-
tionalization of Japanese universities” (MEXT, 2014, as cited in Rose &
McKinley, 2018, p. 112). To do so, the selected universities established
special English programs that offer English-medium classes.
To facilitate Japan’s internationalization, MEXT (2017) has addressed
the improvement of English education by nurturing better English
244 Y. Fujieda
teachers and reviewing teacher-training courses for secondary schools. To

modify English education in Japanese secondary schools, pre-service
teachers of English must create alternative practices beyond traditional
approaches (e.g., the grammar-translation method). Therefore, I seek to
demonstrate that the educators responsible for LTE programs urgently
need to improve ETM courses. To do so, I use an autoethnographic
approach by positioning myself as a teacher and a researcher to illustrate
actual lived experiences of teaching an ETM class in my university.
Methodological Framework
An Autoethnographic Account of the LTE Program
This reflective study employs personal accounts of teaching as an autoeth-

nographic narrative. The goal of sharing my narrative is to guide pre-
service and in-service English teachers to explore flexible ways that
promote the concepts of transnational English teaching and to suggest
curriculum reform that stresses the importance of reflective practice as
teacher development for the LTE program. Although employing a teacher
narrative is a vital tool of teacher education (Golombek & Johnson,
2004), teachers’ autoethnographic approach is not widely implemented
in the TESOL profession. Teachers’ autoethnographic narratives can
“interpret and change the conditions under which lives are lived” (Denzin,
2014, p. xi) and carry transformative power to “expose how teachers’
understandings of phenomena are infused with interpretation from within
their individual and social world” (Johnson & Golombek, 2011, p. 487).
The autoethnographic approach in the area of teacher education has
been considered as a precise qualitative tool “to engage first-person voice
and to embrace the conflict of writing against oneself as one finds oneself
enriched in the complications of one’s position” (Hughes & Pennington,
2017, p. 10). As Hughes and Pennington (2017) indicate, there are a
wide variety of types of autoethnography (e.g., analytic, collaborative,
and interpretive autoethnography) but each piece is significant to con-
firm that teachers’ narratives reveal their own voices and function as a
powerful platform for displaying their teacher identities.
My narrative accounts illustrate my experiences of teaching an ETM

class to Japanese undergraduate students studying to become English
teachers and the actual events and concerns I confronted while teaching
the ETM course. Looking back on my ETM classes over six years, I pres-
ent some snapshots of the ETM course, how I teach, and the events from
classroom discussions that led me to advance the concepts of TELT in the
LTE program. This approach indicates that personal narratives are a type
of autoethnography, as personal narratives present “stories about authors
who view themselves as the phenomenon” and illustrate “evocative narra-
tives specifically focused on their academic, research, and personal lives”
(Ellis, Adams, & Bochner, 2011, para. 24, as cited in Hughes &
Pennington, 2017, p. 18). As such, my autoethnographic approach for
reflexive practice encourages me to understand how to deal with personal
problems and concerns about my teaching as a researcher and to discuss
the ramifications of using personal narratives for L2 teacher education.
By reflecting on my experiences of teaching an ETM class in the English
teacher license program, I seek to discover how pre-service English teach-
ers approach teaching English and their fundamental views, values, and
assumptions on education and to enrich the visions of TELT in teacher
preparation programs. Then, I provide critical discussions on pedagogy
for future ETM courses in the teacher certificate program in Japan and
similar teaching contexts.
Narrative of English Teaching

A
Methodology Course
This section describes one of the required courses of the teacher training
program for English teachers at the junior high school (JHS) level, English
Teaching Methodology (ETM). This course is a specialized class that pro-
vides prospective English teachers with the theories and approaches for
English language teaching. Many universities in Japan assign an ETM or
similar course for second- or third-year students. The ETM course allows
students to create their own teaching approaches based on traditional
methods and their experiences of language learning.
246 Y. Fujieda
My ETM course is open for third- and fourth-year students who want
to become an English teacher at the JHS level. This course is held once a
week for a 90-minute duration for one semester. The ETM class is a
required course for the English teacher certificate program and includes a
practicum of teaching at a JHS for three weeks. My methodology course
focuses primarily on guiding students to understand traditional and cur-
rent theories and practice of teaching English using Japanese references.
In addition, other educational topics related to assessment, materials
selection, and classroom management are discussed. The ultimate goal of
the course is to encourage students to discuss and consider alternative
approaches for teaching foreign language classes at the JHS level, which
culminates through a demonstration of students’ performance through a
mock class.
My desire is that aspiring English teachers can critically examine and
deconstruct traditional normative approaches for English teaching by
blending their knowledge of theories with their teaching philosophy.
Current EFL teaching in Japan requires teachers to provide more pair or
group work so that students can complete classroom tasks using English.
In the past, English classes in secondary schools highlighted exam-
centered teaching. Despite the introduction of communicative classes
such as “Oral Communication” with assistant language teachers (ALTs),
who support Japanese English teachers in the classroom, these classes
ultimately practiced grammar questions, which rendered such speaking
classes ineffective for their stated purposes. However, the currently revised
teaching guideline stipulates in-class communicative practices by requir-
ing active learning (e.g., pair work and group work). Thus, I would like
prospective teachers to show great resourcefulness in developing collab-
orative classroom activities to promote positive interactions between stu-
dents. In addition, given that teaching philosophy or teacher beliefs are
quite significant for language teachers, many teachers draw influence
from their own teachers, and perhaps their teaching styles and passions;
such influence is often the source of inspiration for becoming teachers.
The observations and perceptions of their own teachers may be condu-
cive to their teacher beliefs and the construction of their teaching
philosophy.
How do I manage my ETM class? I establish several requirements for

successfully passing the course. For instance, I ask students to read one or
two chapters and write a reaction note (one- to two-page paper in
Japanese) as a textbook reading assignment. The purpose of this assign-
ment is for students to examine the chapter critically and consider how to
apply their thoughts toward teaching. Another requirement is that stu-
dents must design a 50-minute English lesson plan intended for teaching
one class at the JHS class level. Then, they try to demonstrate a “microte-
aching” (video recorded) for 15–20 minutes based on their lesson plan.
Thereafter, students observe their recorded microteaching and submit a
reflection/observation paper in English.
At the beginning of the class session, I guide classroom discussions
based on the reading assignment from the course textbook to consider
several teaching approaches. To promote further discussions, I create a
worksheet with a few questions for students to discuss in groups. I some-
times prepare colored “post-it” notes to provide students an opportunity
to jot down their thoughts and ideas about the questions. Then, all post-
it notes are pasted onto large sheets, and students walk around the class-
room to read the large sheets. I have found that the worksheet and post-it
items enabled students to continue to seek creative input from others
during the classroom discussions, not only during general group talks. By
covering the requirements of course textbook readings, in-class discus-
sions, and praxis demonstration, I encourage students to consider how
critical perspectives can transform the paths for language teaching.
I strongly feel that the ETM course is quite significant for aspiring
English teachers because it provides an opportunity for them to construct
specialized knowledge of English language teaching and to create their
own alternative ways of teaching based on their praxis and teacher beliefs.
However, several questions have emerged through my teaching of this
course: In positioning myself as a teacher and a researcher, what should I
do to help my students innovate their own approaches for English teach-
ing? What should I do to encourage them to bridge theory and practice
into teaching and gain confidence in teaching? How should I guide them
to construct their teacher identities?
These questions have emerged because many Japanese English teachers
have realized that English education should be radically reformed, and
248 Y. Fujieda
students have expressed a desire to use English within and outside of the
classroom. However, I sometimes feel that Japanese books on English
teaching methodology present traditional language methods proposed in
L2 teaching settings (e.g., the Audio-lingual method, the Direct method).
Of course, the books help my ETM students develop a disciplinary
knowledge and include beneficial information for prospective teachers as
well as tips for instructions, the evaluation process, and classroom man-
agement. In addition, because the key to English education is “commu-
nicative,” the primary English goal for secondary school students is the
development of their speaking skills with fluency. Simply put, students
should learn English to “speak” it, rather than to use it or be exposed to
it for another purpose. That is why I want my ETM students to think
about ways of teaching and classroom activities beyond the classroom
textbook, blending theories and practice with teaching to fit the local
context.
My EMT students are creative about their teaching, consider unique
approaches in their original materials, and require students to use English
substantially in their teaching demonstrations. Given the “communica-
tive” goal, my aspiring teachers created multiple collaborative activities
and tasks to promote communicative practice. However, these communi-
cative approaches often emphasized the fluency of speaking “like an
English native speaker” and contained purposeless communication prac-
tice, just for the sake of having fun while speaking. In my discussions
with students, I often heard that “students should speak well,” “in order
to have students speak…,” and “teachers have to speak English naturally
and fluently.” I asked clarifying questions such as “What do you mean,
‘speak naturally or fluently,’” and “Should teachers give a lot of speaking
practice in class?” Students responded, “because students have few
chances to speak English” and “teachers should help students’ speaking
by giving more practice.” In terms of teachers’ spoken English, they men-
tioned that “if teachers’ speaking is bad, students will feel uncomfortable”
and “teachers’ English pronunciation should be clear so that students can
understand.”
After hearing these opinions, I wondered, “Why did the aspiring
teachers stick to only the terms of pronunciation, natural fluency, and
speaking?” It is probably because many Japanese have the mentality of
akogare (desire), which is “the individual’s infatuation with something or

someone” (Nonaka, 2018, p. 1). As Nonaka (2018) indicates, in the case
of speaking English, the model of English speech styles and fluency is
white people. It is a misconception that speaking English fluently requires
being an English native speaker with natural intonation and clear pro-
nunciation. This akogare is deeply ingrained in the Japanese and is of an
inexorable nature, but it has a negative impact on teaching English. The
other factor may be that English education needs to be strengthened so
that Japanese people can speak and communicate well in English in light
of increasing leverage of globalization.
Through my ETM class, what do I want the prospective teachers of
English to keep in mind about teaching English? I want them to use
English without hesitation to promote the expression of their English
more openly and confidently. As mentioned previously, many prospective
teachers may have unfounded fears about presenting their English due to
their “bad” English pronunciation and insecurity about their teaching
skills. Indeed, new in-service teachers feel the same. Thus, teachers should
consider teaching collaboratively with ALTs if they become concerned
about their pronunciation. Current ALTs at junior high and senior high
schools come from English- and non-English speaking countries. Non-
native English ALTs can teach English by presenting their own English.
Japanese English teachers can practice their English pronunciation and
read English textbooks, while receiving assistance from ALTs. Such inter-
dependence between the teachers will promote a broad and constructive
mindset. As Hino (2017) reveals, one of his former graduate students
recommended that for future ELT teachers, “the primary model of
English in class should be their own English” (p. 96). The graduate stu-
dent’s response reflects a very profound opinion, and my hope is that
future Japanese English teachers will have unwavering support for ELT.
uggesting Future ETM Courses in the LTE Program

S
Based on My Narrative
As previously noticed, English education in Japan has accelerated reforms,

which move towards internationalization. To achieve transnational
250 Y. Fujieda
English teaching in a global context, aspiring English teachers need to

(re)construct flexible and alternative teaching methods (Matsuda, 2012,
2017). However, these methods have not yet thoroughly penetrated
Japan’s secondary school or even EFL contexts (Fang & Widodo, 2019;
Fujieda, 2012; Lee, 2012). In this section, I propose three recommenda-
tions to promote TELT in future English teaching methodology courses
in the LTE program: adapting to World Englishes, generating material
development, and reviewing the dominance of CLT method.
First and foremost, being aware of the concept of World Englishes is
urgently needed for prospective English teachers to understand the prev-
alence of English variations used in the globalized society. The pedagogi-
cal purpose of teaching English at the Japanese secondary school level
should promote feasibility, intelligibility, and practicality of English
embedded in a local learning setting (Kumaravadivelu, 2001) by over-
turning the value of “positioning the native speaker as the future inter-
locutor for English learners and assuming that learners will use English in
Inner Circle cultures” (Rose, 2017, p. 169).
Previously, Japan provided guidance about ELT, which promoted the
consciousness of language fluency by emulating the models of pronuncia-
tion and natural speaking of English native speakers, mainly American
English, because of social expectation and acceptance. A host of concerns
about incorporating World Englishes into English classes in junior high
and high school will emerge (see Lee, 2012). However, English trainee
teachers need to learn about how English has been diffused and how
people express their own English and to incorporate the concept of World
Englishes in methodology classes.
One of the advantages of applying World Englishes in pedagogical
practice in the secondary school classroom is that it contributes to an
understanding of intercultural communication among English users by
discovering the intersection between the existence of English diversity
and multicultural perspectives. By so doing, the various exposures of
English are valuable and showcase accommodation and negotiation of
meaning. To be compatible with multilingualism, acceptance of students’
language variations is equally important; it encourages students by expos-
ing them to diverse types of English and imparting an understanding of
the interplay of language use rather than continuing to privilege
conventional patterns of native English speakers. This application of

World Englishes proposes the challenge of a paradigm shift but leads to
explicit language instruction to contextualize intelligibility of communi-
cation in EIL (Kubota, 2012, 2019). At a minimum, future English
teachers should be aware of the concepts associated with a diversity of
English and recognize how people around the world use their English in
a confident and unapologetic manner.
Another idea for transforming ETM courses is to explore the ramifica-
tions of teaching English for material development, including the use of
supplemental materials. The School Education Act in Japan requires that
teachers use government-approved textbooks. In Japanese English classes,
a major concern is that the content of textbooks marginalizes EIL. Many
approved textbooks contain some culture-specific cases, which “deal with
well-known holidays, customs and literature of English-speaking coun-
tries” (McKay, 2012, p. 72). Although it is true that students can learn
cultural differences as basic knowledge, these textbooks promote only the
values of inner circle cultures and may disseminate misleading informa-
tion concerning the target culture, for instance, the customs of meals,
appearance and fashion, gender, and race. Thus, aspiring English teachers
should guide students to discuss or express cultural values by identifying
the differences between students’ local contextual conditions and the
context presented in the textbook rather than simply have students learn
the cultural topics illustrated in the textbook. It is also important for pre-
service teachers to think about how to transcend the use of a textbook by
deepening the practice and performance (e.g., searching for events, festi-
vals, and traditions in the local context and presenting them in class).
Furthermore, another challenge that must be addressed concerns the
pronunciation promoted in the textbook. Many in-service English teach-
ers use and heavily rely upon the CD from the publisher for listening and
reading aloud activities in the classroom. Since the speakers of the char-
acters in the textbooks are mainly English native speakers, students may
find it appropriate to listen to the natural fluency. However, if teachers
hesitate to read the texts with their own pronunciation, students will
perceive the English language as the right and power of English native
speakers. Japanese English teachers tend to feel stigmatized for speaking
English with a Japanese accent. Instead, English teachers should provide
252 Y. Fujieda
students with an awareness of the varieties of English, even if they speak

foreign-accented English. Although engaging with accented English is
challenging, it is key if teachers are to serve as agents of legitimate varia-
tions of EIL, disrupting the native-privileged ideology (Fang & Widodo,
2019). If teachers feel resistance exposing students to accented English, a
better solution is to collaborate with a non-native English ALT, to dem-
onstrate “dialogues that depict L2-L2 interactions among speakers from
a variety of countries” (McKay, 2012, p. 77). Thus, it is crucial that teach-
ers provide English instruction in their own voice.
Although the concepts of World Englishes have been diffused in ELT,
many English materials retain the prescriptive forms, including the con-
tent of the English-speaking countries (McKay, 2012). In Japanese
government-approved textbooks for secondary schools, there are more
characters from different countries than before, but there is still room for
improvement. Using the several principles for EIL materials identified by
McKay (2012), Japanese-English textbooks should illustrate the way
English is used in distinct learning settings and include more examples of
the English varieties being used today by providing the actual English
spoken by various linguistic backgrounds. Thus, materials complying
with these principles contribute to learning English in local contexts.
Finally, communicative approaches to teaching such as CLT, which
have been preferred for ELT in Japan, must adopt inclusive methods to
transcend the fundamental paradigm of CLT due to “the constraints
faced by an individual teacher without understanding what exactly the
CLT approach means” (Farrell & Jacobs, 2010, p. 13). As I elucidated in
my narrative, many trainee teachers and even in-service teachers miscon-
strue CLT as the development of communication proficiency with clear
pronunciation by modeling English native speakers’ forms of speaking.
Such a fallacy widens the gap of curriculum policies that MEXT pro-
posed and hinders teaching towards EIL.
To revisit the CLT approach, Farrell and Jacobs (2010) articulate eight
principles, of which three apply to English classes in secondary schools in
the revised course of study: (1) the social nature of learning, (2) focus on
meaning, and (3) celebration of diversity. The social nature of learning
promotes learning with others within and outside of the classroom. In
the classroom, active learning using pair and group work is now preferred
over unilateral instruction. Teachers can offer more interaction with

classmates to accelerate learning in class and give some activities to
observe and present the events and customs of the local area. The second
principle, focus on meaning, requires a clear purpose for students. English
education was previously criticized because it valued learning for the pur-
pose of passing exams, but that is no longer the case. The system of
entrance exams for high school and universities has been reviewed, and
the curriculum guideline has been reformed. For example, in the near
future, university exams will be a comprehensive assessment rather than
merely evaluating the amount of pure knowledge measured via test scores.
As an English test, students will complete a general written test as well as
deliver a short speech or presentation to demonstrate self-expression.
Thus, teachers should establish a specific goal for each lesson and evaluate
students by asking them to reflect on their achievement. The final ele-
ment, celebration of diversity, guides students to be accepting of differ-
ences in learners’ use and cultural backgrounds. In Japan or EFL settings,
the notion that learners’ backgrounds are similar seems to be presumed,
but this should be deconstructed. Teachers should incorporate multiple
characteristic differences of language use into the classroom so that stu-
dents can maintain a non-judgmental stance (Gebhard, 2017), by culti-
vating the attitude of acceptance rather than promoting a “good-bad” or
“correct-incorrect” dichotomy.
To promote teacher development through reflective practice, student
teachers should have an opportunity to learn how to cope effectively with
the problems encountered in actual classrooms. Pre-service teachers can-
not fully grasp true teaching concerns and uncomfortable teaching expe-
riences because they do not navigate the classroom except through a
teaching practicum. By observing real experiences, “teachers can examine
the values and beliefs that underpin their perceptions about teaching”
(Farrell & Baecher, 2017, p. 3). For example, Farrell and Baecher (2017)
show 40 dilemmas or “critical incidents” by sharing real stories of dilem-
mas faced by novice teachers, such as challenges related to teaching, class-
room management, and the working environments. These challenges will
likely arise when teachers begin their career, but they can be overcome by
consulting with experienced teachers and colleagues or by listening to
actual experiences of in-service teachers from different schools. Through
254 Y. Fujieda
the reflective practice of tackling teaching incidents in LTE programs,

prospective teachers can develop into proactive decision makers with an
attitude toward solving problems.
Closing Statements
A new set of teaching guidelines for the English language in secondary
schools provides that the target language must be learned in depth
through proactive and interactive activities such as the introduction of
active learning (MEXT, 2017). To promote further English education
reforms, teacher educators who support aspiring teachers should stay
abreast of the latest trends in EIL and TELT and discuss teachers’ role in
developing the concepts of transnational teaching in their educational
contexts. To do so, teacher educators and researchers should reflect on
themselves and their past and current language teaching using an auto-
ethnographic approach. By so doing, ETM courses can promote a trans-
national approach to teacher education to help aspiring English teachers
raise awareness of contemporary language varieties, mobility, and embodi-
ment of EIL; negotiate and construct teacher identities; and stimulate
implementation and enrich their visions of TELT.
Throughout this chapter, I reexamined my ETM class, elaborating
how I teach the class and what problems I faced in the class using an
autobiographical narrative to integrate the concept of transnational
teaching into the methodology course. In Japan, MEXT acknowledged
the need to reform English education, which had been criticized fre-
quently in the past as an isolated subject in the curriculum or preparation
for entrance exams. To break through the deadlock of traditional teach-
ing approaches like grammar-translations, a shift to the communicative
approach appeared in the teaching guideline, through the introduction of
the course of Oral Communication in the early 1990s. However, little
oral practice was actually provided in this course, and grammar still dom-
inated, such that this course became known as “Oral Grammar”.
Eventually, English education reforms fell flat and remained unchanged
for a decade or so.
To drive full-fledged reform of education and teachers, MEXT (2017)

floated a plan to review the teaching certificate program offered in uni-
versities and colleges. All universities that delivered the teacher-training
programs had to be re-accredited by MEXT if they wanted to maintain
their programs, requiring the evaluation of the revised curriculum and
publications by the professors in charge of the teacher certificate pro-
grams. In my university, the teacher-training program successfully
received re-accreditation and began a new curriculum for pre-service
teachers. For the certificate program for English teachers, several special-
ized courses dedicated to skill development have been added, such as
English Speaking for Teachers, English Writing for Teachers, and Global
Issues in English for Teachers.
I have been teaching a semester-long ETM course for many years and
guiding prospective English teachers to think about ELT as a global pro-
fession and to demonstrate alternative ways for teaching based on their
own exposure to English. In this chapter, I have argued that future ELT
in Japan needs to be far more advanced than the traditional one. As men-
tioned, previous English classes underlined the rote-memorization-
centered practice to garner knowledge of grammar and vocabulary for
exams, but this has changed. Although entrance exams are still required
to enter schools, they now require that students express themselves clearly
in English. Thus, my ETM course goals include encouraging students to
design alternative lesson plans that consider the following: what the pri-
mary goal of the class is, what approach the teacher will demonstrate,
what supplemental materials will be introduced and how they will be
used, and how the teacher will assess the students’ performance in the
class. Additionally, I want to encourage aspiring English teachers to think
about exploring their teaching as a reflective practice. Many novice teach-
ers will encounter difficulties in managing the classroom and conflicts
based on the differences between the idea of teaching and reality. To deal
with such difficulties, pre-service teachers should practice extracting illu-
minating ways to champion their learning, experiences, beliefs, and prac-
tical knowledge as intellectual resources, using their autoethnographic
narratives.
Through teaching this ETM course, I have reflected upon my posi-
tioning and role. I sometimes feel like I am a student because I have
256 Y. Fujieda
learned a lot from my students by discussing educational topics, both

about what I need to do as an English teacher and as a teacher educator.
I often feel that my positioning is a teacher-researcher of L2 education
because one of my goals for the ETM course is to help students become
English teachers who are receptive and sensitive to EIL and TELT. My
teacher identity is discursive, but I would like to become capable of shift-
ing my identity flexibly. I am not sure how English education in Japan
will change, but I must consider how education should be modified to fit
the circumstances of the time. My work is to develop aspiring English
teachers who are enthusiastic about generating teaching approaches
appropriate for the era by confronting the social world and to contribute
to preparing the next generation of transnational English educators with
a global and local mind.
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TESOL Teacher Education Programs
and Transnational Perspectives: Critical
Reconstruction of Experiences Via
Duoethnography and Autoethnography
Salim Almashani, Mahmood Alhosni,
and Bryan Meadows
Introduction
In our reflective essay, we critically examine the transnational perspectives
we developed as a result of our individual experiences in a TESOL teacher
education program in the United States. Two of us attended the program
as international graduate students, and one as a faculty member. Prior to
joining the TESOL program, Salim was an ELF (English as a Lingua
S. Almashani
University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Muscat, Oman
M. Alhosni
Global College of Engineering and Technology, Muscat, Oman
B. Meadows (*)
Department of Educational Studies, Seton Hall University,
South Orange, NJ, USA
e-mail: bryan.meadows@shu.edu
262 S. Almashani et al.
Franca) teacher for more than seven years in Oman. He speaks two lan-
guages in addition to English. The second author, Mahmood, had been
teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) for 6 years at private
higher-education institutions in Oman. The third author, Bryan, was a
faculty member in the program from the United States. Bryan had expe-
rience teaching English as an additional language in Japan and in the US
states of Texas and Arizona prior to joining the TESOL program as fac-
ulty. He had been teaching in the TESOL program for one year when
Mahmood joined and two years when Salim joined.
The TESOL Program was attached to a private university located in
the United States. The program required 30+ semester credit hours to
complete and hosted roughly 15 continuing students during any given
semester. Graduates of the TESOL Program took up positions teaching
adult English learners in postsecondary schools inside and outside the
United States. The program actively recruited international students from
locations like Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China, and Oman. A product
of its context, the TESOL Program is structurally entrenched in British,
Australian, and North American (BANA) perspectives (Holliday, 1996).
Theoretical Background
We begin by defining the key terms we are to use. We first follow Duff
(2015) in defining transnationalism as the “crossing of cultural, ideologi-
cal, linguistic, and geopolitical borders and boundaries of all types but
especially those of nation-states” (p. 57). Following Vertovec (2009, p. 2),
international student enrollment in the program allowed for the forma-
tion of “cross-border relationships, patterns of exchange, and affiliations.”
Examples may include sustained cultural and political ties, family and
other interpersonal relationships and shared religious activities (Toukan,
Gaztamblde-Fernandez, & Anwaruddin, 2017, p. 2). In our case, profes-
sional relationships may have started in the program, but those relation-
ships continue as graduating students and faculty maintain contact via
social media networks and enter into collaborative TESOL projects
together. The three of us in particular have had an influence on one
another in our continued professional relationships. That is,
TESOL Teacher Education Programs and Transnational… 263
transnational practices have an impact on all participants involved, the

mobile and immobile (Toukan et al., 2017, p. 2).
In this study, we explore our memories to critically reflect on how our
experiences in the TESOL program helped us to develop transnational
perspectives, something we define as a professional orientation to look
beyond one’s immediate context for alternatives to current practices; to
critically reflect on the viability of current practices given the alternatives;
and to create something new that transcends conventional boundaries
tied to nation. We believe when educators adopt transnational perspec-
tives, they view their own teaching practice as both specific to the local
context and at the same time connected with a global community of
educators. From this orientation, educators are then able to interpret
their own teaching practice in ways that transcend conventional limita-
tions and norms tied to nationalized spaces.
We tie our recollections of transnationalism to the professional knowl-
edge development we experienced during our time with the TESOL pro-
gram. We approach professional knowledge as the conceptual (i.e.,
know-about) and procedural (i.e., know-how) knowledge specific to the
field of English Language Teaching (ELT) (Meadows, 2013). For exam-
ple, the conceptual includes knowledge about typical factors affecting
language development in formal classroom settings. The procedural
includes knowledge of how to lead a group of students through a listen-
ing task exercise. Our experiences with professional knowledge develop-
ment in the TESOL program take place, of course, against a backdrop of
evolving power relationships within the wider field of English language
education. Perspectives in the field that challenge white supremacy
(e.g., Kubota, 2002; Liggett, 2014), European colonization (e.g.,
Kumaravadivelu, 2003; Lin & Luke, 2006), and native-speakerism (e.g.,
Holliday, Aboshiha, & Swan, 2015; Mahboob, 2010) have increasingly
gained voice in shaping how professionals think about what to teach in
English language classrooms, how to teach, and how to prepare future
teachers. The context of the TESOL program provided us the opportu-
nity to engage in these discipline-wide conversations as we defined for
ourselves what professional knowledge was for us. We interpret our
mutual dialogue—which continues into the present—as a transnational
space where we “reframe and decenter our own knowledge traditions and
negotiate trust in one another’s contribution to our collective work”

(Gough, 2003 as cited in Anwaruddin, 2013, p. 52).
The decentering of knowledge traditions that Gough (2003) offers is
frequently treated as cognitive dissonance in the general literature on
teacher education. For example, Macalister (2016) argues that interna-
tional teacher candidates can accomplish meaningful self-reflections as an
outgrowth of the cognitive dissonance they experience outside their
home national environment. As international teacher candidates enter
unfamiliar academic settings, they encounter new ways of thinking about
teaching. At the same time, international pre-service teacher candidates
bring valuable opportunities for all participants in a TESOL program to
re-think accepted norms and commonsense knowledge (Singh & Han,
2010; Toukan et al., 2017). Teacher education dialogues in transnational
spaces can spur constructive growth in all program participants, whether
they are attending as local or as international students. And, under ideal
conditions, program faculty are also sensitive to the cognitive dissonance
they encounter and reflect on what the implications could be for program
objectives and curricular materials.
One productive way in which international teacher candidates can
experience cognitive dissonance is in the practicum experience, a vital
component of any TESOL teacher preparation program (Faez & Valeo,
2012). The transnational experience can add to the benefit of the practi-
cum for teacher candidate development. Hepple (2012) in a study of
Hong Kong pre-service teachers participating in a short-term school
placement in Australia found that dialogic reflective activities supported
the pre-service teachers to make sense of professional discourses unfamil-
iar to them (e.g., student-centered pedagogy). In a related study, Dooly
and Villanueva (2006) report on a two-month practicum pilot program
for teacher candidates to take place outside of their home country. They
found that teacher trainees showed “more renegotiation of their catego-
ries” and gained awareness of the role intercultural awareness will serve in
their future teaching (p. 237).
Still, there can be drawbacks of TESOL programs operating in BANA
countries (Holliday, 1996) and serving international teacher candidates.
As Singh and Han (2010, p. 1307) found, international “pre-service
teachers are not only structurally disadvantaged by teamwork practices
that privilege local knowledge, they are also challenged by teacher educa-
tors’ assessment procedures”. Their conclusions underscore that introduc-
ing transnationality into a teacher education program alone does not
necessarily rectify sociopolitical relationships that privilege linguistic and
cultural practices associated with the Global North and West, or in
Kachru’s terms, the English-Center Countries (Kachru, 1992;
Morgan, 2016).
The TESOL program we were associated with is not unlike similar
TESOL programs that serve NNESTs (Non-Native English Speaking
Teachers). Although NNEST teacher candidates may attend partially
with the intent to improve their English language proficiency, many
TESOL programs in English-medium academic settings do not provide
explicit language development programming. As Faez and Karas (2019)
remark, this leaves NNESTs to absorb what they can from the English
immersion environment. Another potential issue is when the program
lacks explicit attention to contextualization. Stapleton and Shao (2018)
explain this as a mismatch between the teaching context a program pre-
pares candidates for and the actual contexts they enter following gradua-
tion. For instance, Johnson and Golombek (2018) illustrate one example
in their study of international TESOL teacher candidates in North
America. The students found it difficult to “teach more communicatively
when they return[ed] to the test-oriented educational system that domi-
nates English education in China” (p. 6).
Method
Our process for reflecting on our experiences in the program was the fol-
lowing. We approached the project inspired by the reflection techniques
of duoethnography (Sawyer & Norris, 2012) and critical autoethnogra-
phy (Yazan, 2019). We situate our own procedures between these two
methods while drawing on their general aims. For example, we embrace
duoethnography’s power to “construct dialogue transactions that illumi-
nate and problematize [our] topics and thinking” (Sawyer & Norris,
2012, p. 2). From critical autoethnography, we aspire to “construct and
reconstruct [our] fluid understanding of connections between [our]
personal lived experiences and the social cultural structures” (Yazan,

2019, p. 5). In addition, as a critical endeavor, we also attend to oppor-
tunities to challenge “normative assumptions that permeate teaching set-
tings” (Yazan, 2019, p. 4).
With these basic principles guiding us, we launched into the procedure
in multiple conversations using social media applications. In these initial
conversations, we shared reflections on the TESOL Program and how we
carry those experiences with us to the present day. From those initial
conversations, we shifted to a collaborative document online which
allowed us to begin constructing our reflections. We questioned one
another and commented on one another’s narratives. We also reviewed
scholarship related to the topics and themes we raised. After completing
a rough draft and submitting to this volume, we received constructive
feedback from the editor reviewers. This initiated additional rounds of
conversation and writing, all conducted over social media digital tech-
nologies across significant time zone differences. The reviewer-initiated
round of revisions took us even deeper into our (re)constructed narratives
and our critical viewpoints (Yazan, 2019). Three themes emerged as we
shared our recollections with one another: (a) transnational and interna-
tional exchange within the program; (b) power relationships between stu-
dent and faculty; and (c) ownership of knowledge post-exchange.
The chapter is organized in the following way. The three of us in turn
present a narrative reflection on our involvement in the program and
how our transnational perspectives took shape in the course of develop-
ing TESOL professional knowledge. We organize each of our narratives
according to the three themes stated above. In the closing section, the
three of us come together to share our concluding thoughts and to make
suggestions for similar TESOL programs.
Narrative Findings
SALIM
Views on Transnational and International Exchanges in the

Program Pursuing an MA degree in the TESOL Program was a great
decision. I was exposed to new teaching techniques and methodologies. I

could not agree more with Faez and Karas (2019) that TESOL programs
can help non-native learners improve their language proficiency. During
my two-year stay in the U.S., when I was enrolled in the TESOL pro-
gram, I noticed that my language skills tremendously improved due to
the informative assignments and effective classroom communication. I
learnt new teaching strategies, attended ESL/EFL teaching zones in the
U.S. learning base, and worked with expert teachers and students. As the
education system in the U.S. is different from that in the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) region, I had to conduct extensive research on the cur-
riculum and ask previous students whom I taught about the learning
system. Therefore, I designed questionnaires and interviews to know the
students’ feedback about the curriculum and teaching process. This
method gave me more knowledge on what should be modified and
applied in the curriculum.
Moreover, one of my courses gave me the chance to visit a school in the

US, observe the teachers, and write a feedback paper about it. I had the
honor to observe wonderful teachers teaching at different levels. I was
astonished at the amount of differentiation that those teachers used with
their students. It was a great opportunity for me to explore and witness
the education system in the US in real life. On the other hand, in Oman,
some of the teachers do not integrate different tasks to address novice
learners in their classes. Most tend to work with the best students and
leave the rest out, and this is something that I am working on now with
the administration.
Power Relationships Between Student and Teacher One more thing

that I really appreciated was that one faculty member brought 5–6 books
to each class to share with the TESOL students. They were on different
topics. This encouraged the students to read more. It is really an excellent
technique to build students’ knowledge and develop their reading habits.
Another thing practiced was the bingo game, where we had to go in the
class and find the answers. It was enjoyable and very interactive. Before
the beginning of the program, I thought the teaching method would be
more teacher-centered, but it turned out to be something great as I men-
tioned in the examples above. We do not have such activities in our col-
lege in Oman, which is likely because of the cultural barrier. This is
because boys and girls would sit in one classroom for the first time. They
were in separate schools for boys and girls, but when they enter college,
they will be together, which makes them less effective in-class activities.
However, I have now learned many different activities that help teachers
to make all the students engaged.
Views of Ownership of Post-exchange Knowledge
Different Teaching Standards The first homework assigned to me was

designing a lesson plan, which I completed within almost an hour. It was
easy but it lacked learning/teaching standards. So I was told to choose
between two standards—WIDA (World-Class Instructional Design and
Assessment) and ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages)—but I was clueless about both, until the teacher gave us
handouts and website links that provided useful information on them.
This proved to be a turning point in my experience of pursuing this pro-
gram. These were easy to follow when making my future lessons. Selecting
the teaching standard clears the path for the teacher to address their stu-
dents easily. In the college where I currently work the learning outcomes
are benchmarked with the Common European Framework of Reference
for Languages (CEFR). These learning outcomes are mapped with the
Oman Academic Standards (OAS). However, it does not give you the
opportunity to address two students’ levels in one class. For example, if
one student is a high achiever and the other one is a lower learner, the
lesson plan should assist the teacher to address both students, using the
same task but with different approaches. All the courses that I took in the
TESOL Program were involved in designing lesson plans such as Effective
Reading Instruction, Applied Linguistics, Literacy Development for 2nd
Language Learners, Computer as a Teachers’ Aid, etc. guided me enough for
my future career.
Differentiation of Tasks Differentiating tasks for any lesson plan is very

crucial. It helps to address all students in the classroom and to meet their
needs. Again, I was introduced to differentiation in a similar manner as

learning/teaching standards; when I was asked to design another lesson
plan, differentiation was not included. I had to ask the teacher about the
role of differentiation in the lesson plan. Although I was given the answer,
I kept asking myself: how can I design a different task since all the stu-
dents are in the same level class? At the end, I figured that through task
differentiation, all the students in the class with different abilities can be
reached. Some teachers who were teaching K-12 public schools told me
about the usefulness of this strategy.
After seeing the great benefits of class differentiation, I would urge all
teachers worldwide to include it in their lesson plans. Tomlinson (2001,
p.1) explains this in the following way: “In a differentiated classroom,
commonalities are acknowledged and built upon, and student differences
become important elements in teaching and learning as well”.
Furthermore, differentiating activities makes the lesson easier and more
approachable to all learners and it gives the best results. Now, after com-
pleting my MA degree and returning to Oman, I am working with the
head of the English Language Center to consider this wonderful strategy
and implement it there. The plan is to have fewer failing students each
semester. This is because we will be able to reach them through task
differentiation.
A Propensity for Leading Group and Collaborative Activities Another use-

ful thing that I learned from the TESOL program is collaborative activi-
ties. I was involved in many different activities, and most of those exercises
were new to me. Actually, it gives the learner the chance to be exposed to
many different ideas and views. For example, I remember one of the tasks
where we had to choose a language and speak it for 30 seconds (i.e., Speak
a New Language assignment). It was a big challenge. We had many stu-
dents who spoke different languages such as Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese,
etc. I chose a Spanish speaker. Her responsibility was to teach me Spanish
and I had to teach her Arabic. It was such a great experience to work col-
laboratively and to experience a new language and its culture first hand.
Learning a new language could be hard for the learners, but it becomes
easy when it’s associated with values and culture. We exchanged food
from both cultures. When I spoke for 30 seconds in Spanish, I felt very
confident about using the language. I liked that assignment very much
because it was totally new and different from anything I had done before.
In addition, I was frustrated when I joined the TESOL program because
I had many questions in mind about many things such as culture, the
program and residence. Thankfully, I had a wonderful supervisor who
had already taught abroad and understood how new students felt. He
offered me help with all my problems. Also, he invited three students
from different nationalities for a meeting to tell us about their experience
so far with the program. This, in turn, helped clarify my expectations of
the program.
Salim’s Conclusion In a nutshell, the TESOL program I attended honed

both my learning and teaching skills. I am so grateful to all the staff in the
TESOL program. I feel like a leader that has many things to share and to
do. I am confident that I will be a benefit to the teachers in my college
and Oman in general, by participating in many conferences. During the
two-year program in the U.S., I attended as many conferences as I could
and learned effective ways that would help me to become more produc-
tive. For example, I have started conducting workshops during the staff
development week in different universities in Oman and Dubai. I share
my experiences applying successful teaching strategies that I gained
during my studies in the U.S. I am delighted to see a positive outcome,
and it encourages me to do even more. From my perspective, I can say
that the two-year TESOL program was very informative and well
designed.
MAHMOOD

Program Coming to do my master’s after working in a private college
for about 6 years, I think I was ready to venture into a new experience
learning something new. I remember thinking that I could benefit the
most from a master’s program after having worked for a while in the field.
I thought I had something to share with my language teaching fellows

wherever they may be from. I had in mind a few questions about how to
best assess students, how to approach language teaching and learning,
and help students overcome obstacles in their learning journey. Along
that line, I also thought that I wanted to explore a new place. I’m not sure
why I chose the US for that matter. Many people in my region may think
the US is quite a far destination and may not think it’s a good idea to
venture that far for a master’s degree. For me, I think I was immensely
appreciative of what I came to know about program flexibility, university
electives, metropolitan cities, and valuable intercultural opportunities.
Throughout the program, there were many valuable opportunities to
have intellectual conversations about language education and assessments.
In many of my classes, I had students from Saudi Arabia, China, Japan,

and Korea. I think this served as an incentive to engage in discussions on
various topics in education. On a parallel level, taking a class on American
culture with North American students (e.g., pre and in-service teachers)
helped me get more focused discussions centered around educational
issues in the American classroom context. That inspired me to think
about my own context and attempt to formulate ingenious solutions to
educational issues in my teaching context. For example, one of the issues
in the American classrooms was on the topic of diversity and inclusion.
We discussed that addressing minority groups from different backgrounds
or languages in the classroom can enrich students in many meaningful
ways. This made me think of similar issues that I am facing in my con-
text. In Oman, we also have minorities that speak a different language at
home than in school and might be slightly different culturally from the
dominant culture in the country. Discussions like these helped me
broaden my perspective on educational issues and how context plays a
role in shaping the profile of a classroom.
One of the assignments that I found particularly intuitive and interest-
ing is the language exchange project in the Comparative Phonology for
Language Teachers course (i.e., Speak a New Language assignment), where,
due to a good number of international students in class, we were asked to
partner with somebody in class who does not have experience with my
first language and I do not have experience with theirs. This entailed that
we need to teach each other the different sounds of the language and get
each other to say a few lines in that language. I really liked this idea and
thought it was a great practical application of how to teach basic language
functions to a beginner. It also got me to think about how languages have
a lot in common and that we all could use the help of each other to learn
how to best approach different language learning scenarios in and outside
of class.
Power Relationships Between Student and Teacher Although I was

quite familiar with American culture, typically portrayed by Hollywood
movies, coming to the US was still full of surprises. In addition, as a
Fulbright scholar, I attended an orientation week where I got to know
about living and studying in the USA. Still, though, there were some
aspects of American culture of which I was not aware. One of those
instances is the fact that teachers in the US can be called by their first or
last names, instead of their title (Mr./Dr., ..etc). This was evident on my
very first class in the TESOL’s program. Back in my home country (and
perhaps throughout the Arab world), titles are very important. They sig-
nify status and superiority. We sometimes call a person “doctor,” without
the need to mention his first or last names. My second surprise was when
my Greek-American teaching methods professor declared on her first
class that she prefers that we attach the title to her name whenever we
would like to address her. I had to adjust to that as well. Although I don’t
think this was as hard as adjusting to calling my professor by his first or
last name. Actually, I have problems with that up until today. I wonder
why. Although I often communicate with my professor after I graduated,
I cannot help but attach a “professor”, or “sir” when I address him. I
think I might be very appreciative of the person’s knowledge and intelli-
gibility that I think it’s my duty to address him with a title--at the very
least--to express gratitude. It could also be that I’m quite used to calling
people by titles. I just want to be fair in how I treat people, perhaps.
Whatever the case may be, I think I became much more aware of the
cultural context shortly after I joined the program (and for that matter,
arriving in the country).
Traditionally, Arabs tend to look highly at teachers and educators

socially. There are even well-known old sayings such as: “whomever
taught me a letter, this person I shall worship.” This idea is therefore dis-
tinctly different from the US experience. Although I think I also, proba-
bly unconsciously, agree to a great degree, to the fallibility of any teacher
in the world, and so we should always question and contemplate on
whatever information we receive from others. Being a Muslim, I think I
was also influenced by some of the ideas portrayed by the Quran like
reflection, studying, and employing the senses to try to understand the
world around me. I think those things shaped my perspective on who a
real educator is and what role education plays in society.
Views of Ownership of Post-Exchange Knowledge Outside of the class-

room, I got interested in furthering my newly learned Chinese language
from the language exchange project and decided to actively learn it with
the help of some of my Chinese friends whenever I could find the time to
meet with them off or on campus. I think being in an international con-
text helped me tap into such valuable opportunities to learn a new lan-
guage and make conscious decisions to interact with other cultures and/
or languages not familiar to me. This experience also motivated me to
look up learning resources available online on my own and then use this
international context as a “linguistic canvas” to apply my newly learned
language knowledge. I was able to receive immediate feedback on how I
was doing as well as have the opportunity to observe other speakers of the
language actively engaged in authentic contexts. Having said that,
though, I think there could have been more emphasis, from the TESOL
program, on navigating our local teaching realities and contexts in a for-
mal assignment so that we could be better prepared and equipped to
address issues of this nature when we go back to our local contexts
(Stapleton & Shao, 2018).
I think the program overall had many genuine opportunities for

teacher education and I think that was mainly because, to me, it allowed
for a space of international exchange of ideas on education and language
learning. I remember in particular the passionate discussions on K-12
Common Core Standards promoted by the US Department of Education,
and how some of my American classmates were not necessarily content

with the system and thought it was a waste of time and that it does not
yield real results in schools across the US. I was not necessarily aware of
what they were talking about, but I sure would relate to how people in
my country would sometimes criticize how the Ministry of Education,
for instance, handles issues of assessments and standards at local public or
private schools. I think I learned that discussions on these issues can be
important to make sure stakeholders are engaged in what’s happening in
their context and that it’s not necessarily a bad thing to disagree with
certain views pertaining to student learning and achievement.
A great addition to my knowledge was the approach of reading evalu-
ation and assessment and the practical approach to creating standards-
aligned lesson plans and rubrics for lesson outcomes. I also had substantial
experience working on reading placements through interviews (e.g., run-
ning records). This had a great influence on how I approach reading and
fluency, especially in a second/foreign language context. Back at the pri-
vate college where I started working after finishing the program, I started
informally evaluating the level of my students and later worked to devise
college-wide English graded readers and articles so that students are given
reading texts that are not too challenging or too easy for their proficiency
level. Soon after, I had a unique opportunity to work on revising and
incorporating rubrics for all productive assessments in the foundation
program--with the help and feedback of colleagues from the program.
This effort became much more useful with the mandate of the Oman
Accreditation Authority (OAAA) for colleges and university programs
across the country. The Common European Framework of Reference
(CEFR) was informally incorporated in those programs (probably for the
lack of local, ready-to-use set of standards, and because it’s incorporated
in almost all the popular commercial textbooks used in the foundation
programs around). This alignment of standards streamlined our efforts
and helped us to be more systematic about preparing students for the
next language proficiency level. IELTS (International English Language
Testing System), on the other hand, became more or less the preferred
benchmarking tool for student language ability as they exit the founda-
tion program. In my view, however, Academic IELTS, on its own, may
not be a reliable tool for assessing students’ academic and communicative
language abilities, as they shift from a first language learning context into
an EFL learning context. More discussion on localizing international
standards may be needed to ensure student levels are assessed using a mix
of authentic assessments (e.g., working on projects and real-life commu-
nication activities) and academic standardized tests (e.g., IELTS or
TOEFL, or a national exam). There may also be a need to incorporate an
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) module/course to bridge the gap
between the communication and academic needs of those students.
In the same vein, on a note raised by Stapleton and Shao (2018) on
teacher identity development and readiness to come up with relevant
pedagogical practices, I think the inclusion of international frameworks
(i.e. CEFR) in the program could have potentially benefited the interna-
tional pre-service teachers in the TESOL program.
Mahmood Conclusion Overall, as an international student joining an

American TESOL program, I think I participated in some valuable inter-
national exchanges of professional knowledge, and gained a transnational
perspective on teaching and learning that I think I still enjoy years after
my graduation from the program. These experiences will continue to
enrich my journey of professional self-learning and development. I think
venturing out into the unfamiliar territory of another country and having
the privilege of establishing a medium of communication, that might not
always be comfortable, might be just what I needed to experience to
broaden my professional and personal perspective.
BRYAN

Program The individual classes making up the TESOL Program served
multiple language teacher education programs simultaneously. As a
result, the classes were mixed between local students seeking K-12 public
school credentials and international students seeking MA credentials to
work with adult learners in global locations. This arrangement brought
an exciting diversity to the classroom. Local students learned about the
English teaching field outside of their immediate area, and international
students gained insights into educational practices in the local area. It

became clear on my arrival that the design of the coursework (e.g., course
content and assignments) was anchored in the ESL setting in the United
States. The trademarks of conventional TESOL teacher education were
not hard to identify in the syllabi. They included an exclusive attention to
Western language pedagogies, to the native speaker model, and to stan-
dard variety of American English. In this way, the program was consistent
with the BANA model (Holliday, 1996) which privileges white, Western
European perspectives.
After spending some time working with the TESOL students, both
local and international, I realized that there were things to do if the pro-
gram were to serve all students with equity and with professionalism. It
was in the domain of professional knowledge where I first realized oppor-
tunities to do something different. As originally designed, the course-
work prepared teacher candidates with deep knowledge of WIDA (World
Class Instructional Design and Assessment), a two-part system establish-
ing content standards for language teaching and proficiency levels for
describing student language attainment. The system has been adopted by
the New Jersey Department of Education for use in primary and second-
ary public schools within the state. Since I had prior language teaching
experience outside the state of New Jersey, I immediately recognized that
the WIDA content standards and the proficiency levels would function
for international students as little more than a classroom exercise since
their future teaching contexts outside of New Jersey would use some
other kind of system. This is the contextualization problem discussed in
the literature (Johnson & Golombek, 2018; Stapleton & Shao, 2018).
It was in discussions with international students that I inserted into
the syllabus systems alternative to WIDA. I began with the ACTFL stan-
dards, designed for K-12 foreign language instruction in the United
States. In subsequent semesters, I invited students to select the standards
system they would like to use, especially those used in contexts outside
the United States. So, my work with the students helped me as a faculty
member to see beyond the professional knowledge in our shared physical
context in New Jersey and to instill flexibility in the syllabus for students
to contribute directly to the body of legitimate knowledge covered in
class. What is more, these new pockets of student input eventually led to
my opening spaces during class time to engage students in conceptual
conversations around content standards and proficiency levels: What is
appropriate in which context and why? These were illuminating and
exciting conversations because they invited all participants into the con-
versation on equal footing to one another.
The contextualization problem extended to how we as a faculty pre-
pared international students for their future jobs in education. As a fac-
ulty, we simply did not have enough information on the job markets
outside of our limited area of New Jersey and the New York City metro-
politan area. I was committed to all teacher candidates in the program,
and so I soon realized that I was missing fundamental knowledge to sup-
port them post-graduation: What does it take to become a university
professor in Oman, for example? What does it take to start a language
school in China? One response was to hold teacher panels once a year
during class time to allow current teacher candidates a chance to hear
advice from recent graduates currently teaching. In these panels, practic-
ing teachers representing different teaching contexts spoke to the stu-
dents local/international about the job market and the daily realities of
their job. These conversations broadened my perspective on the TESOL
job market globally. From the comments of former students now teach-
ing in China, Oman, Thailand, and Saudi Arabia, I became cognizant of
the domineering influence of the native speaker concept. As former stu-
dents recounted on the panel, the native speaker standard is factored into
the hiring process: What you look like and what variety of English you
use absolutely matters. For faculty members like myself who have faced
little pushback in the field of TESOL, this was truly valuable knowledge
for me. Over time, I learned to figure in more opportunities in the pro-
gram coursework to discuss teacher identity (e.g., NNEST lens; Mahboob,
2010) and alternatives to the monolingual, native speaker model (e.g., L2
User; Cook, 2016).
Power Relationships Between Student and Teacher My views on the

TESOL profession and the kinds of professional knowledge required of
new teachers have of course expanded due to my interactions with Salim
and Mahmood both during the program and beyond their graduation.
While I had limited experience leading English language instruction

overseas, the bulk of my awareness has been largely limited to what is
going on in the United States. In our conversations during class time,
students like Salim and Mahmood shared interesting insights into class-
room discussions of cultural and linguistic diversity in their home con-
text. For example, I knew very little about cultural and linguistic
complexities that characterize the Omani national context. I recall Salim
and Mahmood helping me to understand the multilingual landscape of
Oman and how multilingualism impacts the teaching of English in the
university setting. When I learn new insights into cultural and linguistic
diversities – conventionally erased from my immediate context in New
Jersey – I broaden and deepen my professional knowledge base and in
turn enrich my transnational perspectives. Also, in the applied linguistics
TESOL course, I benefited from the connections that international
teacher candidates could make between one linguistic phenomenon in
English as compared to other languages they were proficient in. They also
highlighted common difficulties for learners of English based on their
own prior experiences teaching in their home context. One very generous
student purchased a textbook from her home context of Saudi Arabia for
me to use as a resource in future courses.
Two realizations these classroom experiences have led me to are the

following. First, these interactions underscored for me how limited my
understanding of English language teaching was as a global, transnational
practice. I knew well the demands on teachers in the context of the
United States. However, outside of the United States, I was limited. My
work with international students in the TESOL program was a huge
opportunity for me and in turn for the program as I took notice of knowl-
edge gaps and updated the syllabi and assignments accordingly. Second,
I acknowledged that there is a power relationship between the teacher
and student in academic settings which discourages students from adding
to or questioning the course agenda set by the teacher. So, I commend all
of my students for feeling the courage and safety in the classroom setting
to speak up and to assert their perspectives into the classwork. A smaller
role in making this happen may also have been my interest in the
contexts of the students and my willingness to open classroom spaces for

student input.
Views of Ownership of Post-Exchange Knowledge I have further ben-

efited from the transnational perspectives Salim and Mahmood have
helped me to develop. Of course, there are many things about the profes-
sion globally that I lack knowledge of or I am mis-informed about.
However, through the relationships I have been lucky to form with stu-
dents, I now understand the field of TESOL in deeper and broader terms
as well as the responsibility that I carry as teacher educator. I continually
apply my transnational perspectives to my ongoing professional relation-
ships with Salim, Mahmood, and the many fellow students who made up
their peer cohorts. In addition, I carry those perspectives with me to my
work with TESOL colleagues in Colombia. In my work there, I have
been introduced to the TESOL literature on decolonization and on
indigenous pedagogies. As it was in the TESOL program classroom, I
view these professional exchanges as valuable opportunities to reflect,
question, and to expand how I interpret the field of TESOL.
I no longer have a role in the TESOL program due to a change in uni-

versity affiliation. At my current location, I am working exclusively with
local students pursuing K-12 educator credentials to teach ESL in public
schools in the US. This results in a narrowing of course focus in that the
future teaching contexts for these teacher candidates are defined.
However, where I can engage my students in transnational perspectives
and challenge their views of ESL teaching is in the course topics of com-
munity engagement and applied linguistics. These are excellent chances
for me to lead students through perspective taking activities so that they
can meet parents and families half-way in a forum of mutual respect.
Additionally, I can challenge teacher candidate views on standard lan-
guage ideology, native speakerism, and appropriateness in pedagogical
technique. In these conversations, I feel the direct influence of my TESOL
colleagues Salim and Mahmood and the positive effect they have had on
me as a teacher educator.
Bryan Conclusion To conclude my section, the TESOL program pro-

vided a unique setting for mutual engagement between local faculty and
international teacher candidates. During the TESOL program, we were
able to reflect on the professional knowledge base necessary to succeed in
the TESOL profession. The key function here, I believe, was the class-
room environment centered on open-mindedness and critical reflection.
On my part, I recognized a growth towards transnational perspectives
and made an effort to apply these perspectives in my work with teacher
candidates. The dialogue exchange that started in the TESOL program
continues today. Because of my continued professional relationships with
Salim and Mahmood, I am a more effective teacher educator.
Discussion
By design, TESOL is a profession with a global reach. TESOL as a disci-
pline would not be possible without transnational exchange. The TESOL
program provided each of us with the opportunity to participate in a
shared transnational space, and this participation had a lasting impact on
each of us as TESOL professionals. In particular, the professional rela-
tionships we have formed as a result of the TESOL program have bene-
fited our transnational perspectives. In each of our narratives, we detail
experiences of professional growth towards a wider and more expansive
view of the TESOL profession and our positioning within it. At the same
time, we also recognize that our personal experiences with the TESOL
program took place within a wider context of evolving power structures
within the field. Upon reflection, it is clear that the program carried for-
ward older regimes of power. In our narratives, we noted the contextual-
ization issue (Johnson & Golombek, 2018; Stapleton & Shao, 2018), for
example. Thinking about this, Salim and Mahmood accept that the
coursework they tackled in New Jersey was not entirely applicable to
other contexts. True, it would have been helpful, for example, to have
been exposed to language standards more widely used outside of the
US. But, what they valued was the understanding of standards as a prin-
cipled concept, because it is the principle they can now apply to their
current teaching context as well as to any additional context beyond that.
As we compare notes, what we feel made the transnational relation-

ships successful was the open-minded disposition that each of us brought
to the transnational spaces we inhabited during the TESOL program. As
international students, Salim and Mahmood joined the program expect-
ing to absorb as many new ideas and practices related to English language
teaching. In return, Bryan entered the program with an earnest interest
to serve the needs of the teacher candidates (local/international) that he
was so privileged to work with.
We continue with our professional relationships in the transnational
spaces that we share together. We keep in touch and communicate on a
regular basis. One example is this critical narrative study which we wrote
together from our respective geographic locations: Salim and Mahmood
in different regions of Oman and Bryan in New Jersey. The dialogic
(Sawyer & Norris, 2012) and the autoethnographic (Yazan, 2019) aspects
of our study led us to valuable insights into our own growth as TESOL
professionals as well as the power relationships that define the field. The
sustained dialogue we share is important because it affords each of us
access to multiple solutions to the issues we face in our specific contexts
of language teaching. Our professional knowledge is always growing, and
we are doing this with one another’s support.
Recommendations We offer some general recommendations for TESOL

programs, based on our firsthand experiences as students and faculty:
1. The opportunity for transnational TESOL students to complete part of

their coursework and field placements in their home setting. This will
require TESOL programs to actively cultivate partnerships with field
locations in the home contexts of the students they serve. The field
placements may take place during the semester break or, in some cir-
cumstances, during the regular semester. We agree with Faez and
Valeo (2012) that the field experience is an essential component of
any effective TESOL preparation program. We further believe that
transnational placements help TESOL programs to address the con-
textualization problem. It is important for TESOL programs to pro-
vide teacher candidates with meaningful and practical fieldwork

experiences in settings that more or less reflect the candidates’ intended
teaching setting (Hepple, 2012), whether that is in the United States,
Oman, Saudi Arabia, or elsewhere. For TESOL programs that adopt
transnational placements, we foresee added benefits borne of the
transnational exchange of knowledge between faculty instructors and
program candidates. Following Macalister (2016), the reflection task
can help students to work through their cognitive dissonance so that
they can most effectively relate the TESOL coursework to their antici-
pated future teaching settings. In reverse, the TESOL faculty dialogue
with the candidate during home field placement will help to broaden
their understanding of TESOL globally and improve their ability to
serve the needs of international candidates more generally.
2. A system of program-level support to help transnational students success-
fully transition into the new academic setting. Program-level supports
should, at a minimum, include an international student orientation.
As much as possible, current TESOL students, both local and interna-
tional, should be involved in the orientation sessions to provide useful
information to the incoming students. Once classes have started, a
systematic approach to language support is advisable (Faez & Karas,
2019). This will on the one hand provide sustained support across
classrooms that the international students can come to rely on. It also
allows the instructor to model the kinds of techniques the candidates
will be expected to adopt as language teachers. In addition, break-out
groups during the semester would allow international students to
gather in small groups to practice professional conversations they will
eventually join in the ELT field post-graduation.
3. Inclusion of a wider range of course readings that address varied ELT set-
tings and in multiple language media. For international teacher candi-
dates, TESOL textbooks can be difficult to connect with when they
relate teaching practices to contexts with which they are unfamiliar
(i.e., the contextualization problem). Diversity in readings further
applies to the languages of the assigned readings. A class of students
should be reading texts in the multiple languages they know. If not
assigned reading, one could imagine a class assignment in which the
candidates read something on a shared topic in their preferred lan-

guage and report back to the class.
4. Capitalize on transnational dialogue in/outside of classroom. As we know
from research, just bringing individuals together alone does not neces-
sarily cultivate transnational perspectives. Classroom assignments
must draw teacher candidates into a shared intellectual space where
they can collaborate to address issues of professional importance. One
successful example from our experience was the Speak a New Language
project, but there are countless additional tasks that build on the cen-
tral principle of transnational dialogue. In short, program designers
should aim to develop a TESOL community that is global first and
local second.
Conclusion
We close by remembering that individual people are at the center of the
transnational exchange of teacher knowledge. One example for us is
Jokha Al-Harthi, an Omani woman who won the Man Booker prize in
2019. She completed her PhD studies in literature as an international
student at the University of Edinburgh. Sharing on her university’s
alumni page, she credits her motivation to engage in her program to
instances where she was invited to different classrooms, where she
observed literature classes, and enjoyed the community of teaching and
learning on campus (University of Edinburgh, 2019). Dr. Al-Harthi’s
story also reminds us that the overall campus environment—beyond the
coursework and assignments that make up a TESOL program—is an
important part of international students successfully navigating their
TESOL program. We believe that the experiences of international stu-
dents in and around campus have a direct impact on how successful their
journey ultimately will be. It is important for program directors/univer-
sity faculty to understand this. It will help the students get the most out
of their studies.
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The Reflective Journal: A Transnational
Networking Tool for (TESOL) Teachers
Dana Di Pardo Léon-Henri
Introduction
I recently read an article (Mindtech Research, 2012) dealing with lan-
guage learning in the near future. Instead of learning language by means
of traditional methods, a process which could take months for some and
many years for others, you simply accept that a microchip be implanted
into your brain, just like that little GPS microchip your veterinarian
placed in your little puppy or kitten. Instead of learning a foreign lan-
guage the traditional way with books, videos or cassettes and DVDs, are
you intellectually and physically ready to accept that nanochip language
translator brain implant? The Nano Second Language (NSL) product
from Mindtech Research (2012) exists and has already been used in mili-
tary settings to accelerate the learning of the Arabic and Chinese lan-
guages. However incredibly futuristic this may seem, it is in full practice,
notwithstanding it is not quite yet a perfected science. There are some
zones for improvement for example, in terms of oral comprehension,
D. D. P. Léon-Henri (*)
UFR SLHS (ELLIADD and the Polyglotte Department, Besançon), University
of Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
288 D. D. P. Léon-Henri
dialects, and accents or pronunciation to be more precise. The fact still

remains that even though it has a few shortcomings, it is already being
used in our society.
In my lifetime, I know that I personally will always prefer to steer clear
of nanochip implantations, even if I did succumb to nanochipping my
Pitou, when he was merely a tiny ball of fur some years ago. Arthroscopic
surgery or not, I believe that the traditional methods of language learning
will always suit me just fine. There is something about learning grammar
in a foreign language that always fascinated me. I must admit that I much
rather preferred French verb conjugations to math problems. In retro-
spect, it is no wonder I became a language teacher. Over the years, I have
had the pleasure and good fortune of meeting many wonderfully inspir-
ing and ethnically diverse language teachers who came from all over the
world. They had a positive impact on my language learning experience
and inevitably my professional career. They were like mentors even before
I fully grasped the meaning of the word. And yet, in looking at the past,
I am compelled to also wonder about the future of the language teaching
vocation. Imagine for a moment, the impact this revolutionary nanochip
could potentially have. As early as 2040, Johnson (2018) states that lan-
guage teachers could be replaced by sophisticated brain-computer inter-
faces. It would appear that we skipped the robot-as-a-teacher phase and
went directly to nanochip implants to save time, energy, and per-
haps money.
On the other hand, we still have twenty years ahead of us. Although,
as I write this, I suddenly realize that twenty years can pass in the blink of
an eye. In thinking about the future, I cannot help but return to the past
and reflect on how much language teaching methods have evolved and
changed over the decades and especially with the effects of globalization,
technology and international mobility. My humble beginnings in the
field were characterized by many exciting moments of discovery, chal-
lenge and sometimes, dread. From the first time my hand (and the chalk)
trembled as I tried to explain basic English grammar on a blackboard in
front of a small group of very inquisitive foreign language learners during
a night class with the Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada
(LINC) program in Southern Ontario, I could hear myself speaking (and
my voice fluctuating) while I watched the transformations in their
The Reflective Journal: A Transnational Networking Tool… 289
progressively confused faces. As I gallantly tried to explain my ideas, their

polite questioning increased and the chalk became smaller in size, as did
I. For some unknown reason, I knew in that eternal, yet very brief
moment that I had hit a wall. In addition, I knew exactly what I wanted
to say, but it just was not coming across very clearly. Fortunately as the
youngest of three sisters, I have always possessed a keen sense of observa-
tion and analysis. By way of their non-verbal communication, I immedi-
ately discerned two very fundamental points: both what I was saying and
how I was going about it were just not up to muster. No panicking, I told
myself as a part of me held it together and reflected on the situation, there
is always a solution. I would simply need to reassure them and somehow
find another way to explain what I was trying to communicate.
Regardless of the setting, a teacher must not only recognize the needs
of their students, but also possess the skills and knowledge needed to
adopt and adapt the appropriate teaching strategies or methods to facili-
tate learning in the best conditions. As generations come and go, our
highly mobile societies continue to change, as do our technology filled
classrooms and homes. As such, students’ needs and interests have also
radically changed over the last few decades and in particular these last few
pandemic months. Huntley (2009, p. 32) points out that education is no
longer enough since learners expect to be engaged, entertained and
exposed to a variety of motivating on-demand media sources. Times and
language teaching methods have certainly changed over the years. In
addition, the job market and thus professional demands have radically
changed as well. Nevertheless, I find myself wondering how in-service
(language) teachers are managing the early stages of their careers as they
learn about the art of teaching both in-class and at a distance. I wonder if
anything has changed since I began my teaching career, over thirty years
ago. Is it possible for aspiring language teachers to develop insight and
skills or acquire professional experience, while simultaneously expanding
their knowledge base related to language pedagogy and assimilating the
vast plethora of theoretical teaching approaches? To whom do inexperi-
enced teachers turn when they are confronted with questions about their
methods and pedagogy? Do they tend to remain isolated; like I did, or
have we since progressed? For instance, are there modern solutions for
transnational networking communities and sharing through the use of

social media and the Internet?
This chapter provides insight into reflective teaching methods and the
pedagogical challenges which many aspiring language teachers face. In
addition, it provides a rationale that supports analytical reflection along
with effective approaches, management strategies and an opportunity for
transnational networking support. This network and thus the sharing of
global perspectives in foreign language teaching (or any other subject for
that matter) can only serve to reinforce or improve strategies and peda-
gogical practises, while helping to minimize the challenges that some col-
leagues may encounter during their careers. At times, this chapter may
take on the appearance of life writing and read like a lengthy but insight-
ful journal entry, not unlike a diary entry for instance. Well, in fact, in
many ways it is, since this reflective essay presents a few major milestones
that I encountered over the last three decades of my foreign language
teaching experience.
Retrospection and Introspection

for Prospection and Projection
Looking back at that first ESL teaching experience with the LINC pro-
gram, I recognize now that my international students offered me so much
more than I could have ever imagined as a young inexperienced language
teacher at that time. Their interests and needs became my interests and
needs. Their questions and difficulties became my questions and difficul-
ties. When I asked them to use a learning journal (sometimes referred to
as a learning diary) to chart their progress and challenges, they complied
contentedly, often writing passages that became longer and more per-
sonal as they advanced in their language skills acquisition. At the same
time, I adopted the use of a teaching journal (often referred to elsewhere
as a teaching diary) to note not only my progress and challenges in terms
of pedagogy, but also the overall feedback from students and my overall
feelings and sentiments at the end of the day. Some of my journals are
long gone and have been lost over the years as I moved away to acquire
more professional experience. However, very recently, I did manage to

find a few that filled me with very fond memories as I read some of the
entries.
In a few of the journals, I discovered some unique items that I had
safely tucked away. They contained greeting cards and postcards or sou-
venirs from the students who had timidly ventured across that profes-
sional line that I had established but to which I discovered was often
difficult or impossible to adhere in this adult teaching context. Since lan-
guage teaching is all about culture and culture is all about identity, it was
very likely that these student newcomers would come to me with more
than just language problems. Their questions were varied, but many were
in relation to “the contradictions of in-betweenness and hybridity” (De
Fina and Perrino, 2013: 512), administrative or socio-cultural issues and
their social integration. As they searched to construct and negotiate their
social identity in a new community, the class support and my assistance
were of welcoming reassurance to them. It was also very reassuring for
them to comprehend that they were not alone. As a token of gratitude
and appreciation for my advice, assistance or support, they often brought
me unique cultural objects from their countries. My personal family his-
tory and ethnic background had subconsciously assisted me in under-
standing and appreciating the struggles they faced with learning English
and their overall integration experience in a new and foreign country. It
was after World War II, that my maternal grandfather left the Abruzzo
region of Italy to settle his young wife and five children in Southern
Ontario, Canada. Around the same time, my father left his family behind
in the Campobasso region of Italy to start a new life in the Niagara region.
By some divine intervention, my parents managed to meet and the rest is
history. One of the reasons I became a language teacher was simply
because I was Canadian born into such a sociolinguistically and cultur-
ally rich learning environment. But I digress…
My professional journals and documents provided both a veritable
window into my life and a pragmatic archive of my first encounter with
pedagogy and journaling. The documented internal dialogue was a way
of coping with and expressing my thoughts. I saw that for many students,
this self-expression was also a means to an end, not only in terms of lan-
guage learning, but also in terms of sharing their cultural identity, beliefs
and heritage. Unlike our American neighbours to the south, in the

Canadian multicultural context, cultural heritage is encouraged, cele-
brated and cherished. With family in both countries, I saw this first hand
in terms of how language and culture were passed down in my family
from generation to generation. A central and unifying part of the learn-
ing process, this sharing of culture and identity was also a motivating
source of empowerment and teaching. In a rather inconspicuous manner,
I understood that my role as a teacher was also to facilitate and mediate
the students’ knowledge and acceptance of both language and cultural
diversity, to allow for intercultural education, as Byram (2008) states.
Since all of the students came from very different countries (Korea,
China, Argentina, Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Israel, Egypt, etc…), their
language issues were unique and sometimes quite complicated. I remem-
ber my hilarious Asian students who laughed about all of the trouble they
had with the “th” and “thr” words in English (ironically my French stu-
dents still encounter this problem). Their international perspectives and
personal or professional experiences brought so much insight and inter-
cultural knowledge to our classroom. With the goal of going beyond
national and international borders1 and discovering new cultures, tradi-
tions, and languages, I encouraged the students to share their anecdotes.
They told stories about multilingual challenges and using or losing their
native languages at home, when their children would insist on and explain
they were learning English at school. I immediately thought of my child-
hood and all the funny conversations that were sprinkled with a mix of
the diverse foreign languages and Italian dialects we used (and still use to
this day). This code-switching or translanguaging (see Duff, 2015: 60) is
an integral part of our identities and the cultural or linguistic practices of
daily life. In fact, I still use translanguaging practices in and out of my
classroom. This has become common practice thoughout the world, even
in France on television and radio programming or advertisements.
Those three hours we shared each Tuesday evening were a little chaotic,
in particular when my class grew to include 32 mixed-level students
during the month of October. It was an intense experience for all of us,
1
See Skerrett and Bomer (2015) for suggestions on teaching transnational students (culturally
diverse students who have immigrated to new countries).
but it was also a very cheerful and supportive moment and special time
together. Looking back, I realize now that it was more of a language
learning support group for newcomers to Canada and perhaps a little less
about the teaching of English and grammar. For most of them, the high-
light of the week was that class, a real moment of conviviality, sharing and
encouragement. Keep in mind that thirty years ago, the social media we
know today did not exist and the Internet was just being developed. It
may be very hard to believe but at that time, email was merely an innova-
tive and exciting form of communication. Today, if left unchecked, email
messages appear to multiply faster than rabbits! However, email is now the
preferred medium for advertisers and social media. And as we have wit-
nessed in many developed societies, social media has really taken over and
today, it is often used as everything else but a positive communication
tool. Getting back to the social dimension of the LINC classes, they were
a significant means for newcomers to be directly in touch with other new
immigrants, who were in exactly the same predicament and facing similar
challenges. They became their own network of support, and I was their
language practitioner who adopted differing roles to facilitate and encour-
age communication (sometimes, non-verbal in the absence of the appro-
priate English word[s]).
Rereading my journal entries permitted me to relive my doubts, fears,
frustrations and joys as a novice language teacher. I quickly saw that
introspection and the reflective process assisted me in dealing with those
frustrations and brought me the reassurance and serenity I needed at a
time when I felt that I could not burden my colleague with my questions
and uncertainties. It was also a means to discreetly admit and eventually
auto-correct my errors and shortcomings. In noting the past, I was able
to reflect on what had happened (positive or negative) so that I could
map and plan the future, while adopting the appropriate method. I
noticed that the majority of the earlier entries were a hodgepodge of emo-
tions, disappointments and doubts. Generally speaking, they were much
longer than the subsequent entries. My pedagogy, daily patterns and
activities appeared to become more regular and well thought-out. I had
changed my journaling format over the years to reflect an ergonomic
checklist and grid, which allowed me to fill in my ideas more efficiently
and above all, more rapidly. I was able to structure my thoughts more
clearly and in keeping a pre-defined format, not only able to analyze and
assess my progress, but also research a specific point. I observed that my
personal feedback was noted alongside the student’s. Now and then, I
took note that there was a considerable gap between the two. For exam-
ple, on one particular evening, I appeared to feel overwhelmed and
doubtful about the difficulty and success associated with a particular
written activity. One week later, I read that the student’s oral feedback
was very positive and supportive for that particular session. Clearly they
had enjoyed it. So, in fact, their positive reactions were proof that there
was no need for alarm. This certainly must have encouraged me back
then. Taking this all into account, I realize now that in reflecting on my
teaching practice I was not only documenting and archiving my teaching
experience, but I was also simultaneously learning about my skills as a
language teacher and assuming responsibility for my pedagogical meth-
ods, choices and actions or reactions.
For many decades, journaling has been part of English teaching and in
particular a program of action research (Lowe, 1984), whereby individual
teachers undertake self-reflection to develop and improve their personal
awareness. This approach could be applied to many different language
teaching contexts beyond national and international borders. On a global
scale, language needs are based on local settings, but also the future pro-
fessional needs and demands of students, as well as employers. It is highly
probable that common ground and similar challenges could be discov-
ered if we were to compare the journals of different language teachers
who teach different languages across the span of a nation (Canada or the
USA) or across the world to another continent (Africa, Russia, Australia
and Malta, for instance). Self-analysis through journaling is a practical
means for teachers world-wide, however some may argue that note-taking
is time-consuming and passé. In that case, it should be noted that alterna-
tive methods do exist, such as voice or video recordings of language les-
sons, or the use of pre-defined grids where points are merely checked off
to save time. In addition, it may also be beneficial to simply read and
study journals that have already been published. This certainly would
have been of great assistance to me back then. In a more modern context,
Windle and O’Brien (2019) explain that the classroom has been repeat-
edly enlarged “to capture and respond to [a] complex web of intersecting
experiences and expectations” in which “language teachers, in particular,

must face the consequences that their students are bound to encounter in
a globalized, multilingual world”. This was exactly my experience in that
LINC classroom setting. I would imagine the same happened in the
English classes my father followed as a young immigrant to Canada in the
60s and all similar situations affected by transnational population flows
(Windle and O’Brien, 2019).
Reflective Journaling and Teaching Methods

In 1996, Karen Johnson challenged TESOL teacher education programs
to “find ways to situate learning about teaching within authentic con-
texts” which would certainly ameliorate and perhaps accelerate the inte-
gration of novice language instructors, who are otherwise lacking in the
knowledge and skills required to instruct and manage a language class.
Since then, the global context for TESOL has changed substantially. As
language teachers we have modified our methods to stay in line with the
changing needs of students in a highly mobile society, influenced by rap-
idly evolving technologies and now, we can also add the corona virus
(COVID-19) pandemic to this growing challenges list. This international
mobility, whether virtual or not, provides language teachers with a great
opportunity to exchange methods in an increasingly culturally diverse
and globalized world. I do not recall if the idea for the teaching journal
was purely mine or perhaps inspired by Norma F., a wonderful colleague
who befriended me and took me under her wing at the very beginning of
my TESOL career. Either way, I kept a language teaching journal for
about the first ten years of my teaching experience, while I was teaching
night classes in English for newcomers and then both Italian and French
for beginners who wished to travel abroad. My students were very mobile
adults who had either traveled extensively to come to Canada as immi-
grants or planned on traveling in the future for tourism purposes. Both
contexts demanded that I prepare pragmatic lessons based on authentic
situations or documents, in order to successfully provide my students
with the specialized language skills they required.
In 2000, I decided to follow the applied linguistics courses and

Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language (CERTESL) pro-
gram with the University of Saskatchewan. The program was offered
exclusively by postal service back then. Having already acquired extensive
experience as a language teacher, I was so eager to venture into a transna-
tional learning experience. I would finally be exchanging with profession-
als in the field of foreign language teaching. Upon receiving the first
book, A Course in Language Teaching (Ur, 1996), I was so excited to delve
in and begin learning more about pedagogical theory, practices and per-
spectives. I decided that I would put my journaling aside and focus on
the literature, reflective teaching and analytical practices of the time. It is
noteworthy to indicate that since then, technology has infiltrated and
changed our society profoundly. Language teaching pedagogy has thus
drastically changed and evolved over the last three decades. The first edi-
tion of that publication has since been revised and upgraded. The second
edition is entitled A Course in English Language Teaching (Ur, 2012),
which takes into consideration more modern trends and methods in
English language pedagogy. I would also like to include one more impor-
tant point before going further: the CERTESL program still exists; how-
ever, it is now a 23-credit undergraduate certificate program offered
online by the University of Saskatchewan. No more voluminous packages
of books and reading material delivered to your door by the postman, but
rather an electronic communication network of courses and support
from knowledgeable professionals and acclaimed researchers. Personally,
I must say that I am a traditionalist and greatly enjoyed receiving those
packages of reading material; however, today, I am not certain as to which
method is truly the most environmentally friendly.
It was during this course that I first officially discovered the academic
use for reflective journals and the theoretical foundations of the notion of
reflection according to Dewey (1933), who states that reflection is the
“active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed
form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the
further conclusions to which it tends” (p. 9). In this way, reflection can
be beneficial since it serves to actively assist one in contemplating obsta-
cles with the objective of discerning solutions, which assist in better con-
trolling and placing value on experience. Dewey (1938: 13) also expresses
that “an experience arouses curiosity, strengthens initiative, and sets up

desires and purposes that are sufficiently intense to carry a person.” He
goes on to express that “every experience is a moving force.” Imagine for
a moment if worldwide, teachers took a moment to share their experi-
ences. Knowledge, wisdom and insight are but an accumulation of life-
time experience. Sharing insights into the teaching experience (not just in
terms of language and culture, but also all the other scientific domains, as
well) is a way to bridge the distance and stamp out the isolation teachers
sometimes feel. Whether it is positive or negative, personal or profes-
sional, there is something to be learned in every experience we may
encounter in our lifetime. On global scale, as teachers and lifelong learn-
ers constantly search to develop and share professional skills or knowl-
edge, we assist others in building their level of self-confidence, whilst
empowering them in front of classrooms filled with often demanding
learners.
Today, there is much debate and discussion with regard to which cre-
dentials are required when one wishes to become a TESOL teacher.
Looking back, I realize that I had not followed the “traditional path” of a
novice teacher who generally acquires a teaching certificate after majoring
in English. I simultaneously majored in two foreign languages (French
and Italian) and chose not to go to Teacher’s College when the time came,
but rather to pursue a professional career, while teaching foreign language
and LINC for adults during night classes. In fact, as I contemplate the
path I followed, I realize now that successfully completing the CERTESL
program was an important milestone that provided me with so much
insight into foreign language teaching. For once in my life, I felt and
knew that I was going through the actual process of becoming a foreign
language teaching specialist. I waited anxiously as every month I received
a rather large package of reading material that was sent to compliment
the exercises. I discovered Pierce (1994) and was thrilled to read about
her research with journaling and in particular the language learning expe-
riences of adult immigrants to Canada. I immediately reflected on my
previous professional experience with my LINC students and began to
compare her findings to mine. There were some similarities in terms of
questions regarding the authenticity of the in-class social interactions and
in particular the desired feedback and correction of their journaling work.
However, some researchers advocate that journals should remain uncor-

rected and ungraded (Spack and Sadow, 1983), in this context for the
purpose of, in my opinion, providing insights and perspectives into the
metacognitive process of foreign language acquisition.
Transnationalism and the Mobility

of Knowledge, Practice and Pedagogy
Life has a funny way of preparing us for the future. Whilst studying with
the CERTESL program, the idea of teaching in a foreign country seemed
so far off and unfamiliar to me. And yet, my international students had
literally brought the notion of mobility into my classroom: the mobility
of culture, language, personal experience and knowledge. Their wide-
ranging social, political and economic backgrounds reminded me of my
parent’s pioneering arrival in Canada and their struggles to rebuild and
reconstruct new identities in a foreign country. My classroom had become
a social stage for the construction and spread of linguistic and cultural
knowledge, and so much more, on so many levels. My teaching experi-
ence with the LINC program had opened my eyes and I truly began to
understand the practice and pedagogy of teaching. The CERTESL expe-
rience also assisted me in negotiating and re-constructing my teacher
education and professional identity, so that I could better adapt to the
needs and complexities of my students in their new local context.
Furthermore, my experience as a language teacher, my education and
research in France and even that CERTESL program have all shown me
that applied linguistics is a vast and multifaceted interdisciplinary field.
As Duff (2015: 57) illustrates: it is “an international, multilingual field
concerned with issues pertaining to languages and literacies in the real
world and with the people who learn, speak, write, process, translate,
tests, teach, use, and lose languages in myriad ways”. She goes on to
explain that “it is fundamentally concerned with transnationalism” and
explains that the first definition for this term, “a process by which immi-
grants forge and sustain multistranded social relations that link together
their societies of origin and settlement was proposed by anthropologists
Basch, Glick Schiller, and Blanc-Szanton (1994: 6). She then cites
(Vertovec, 2004, 2009) who posits that transnationalism is “the crossing
of cultural, ideological, linguistic, and geopolitical borders and boundar-
ies of all types but especially those of nation-states”. However, Duff
(2015, pp. 58-62) also shows that the notion has since been expanded
and developed through research studies on mobility and ethnographic
observations or case-studies. In those LINC classes, our collective knowl-
edge, ethnicity and sociolinguistic behaviours were the direct results of
our own personal experience with transnationalism.
Two decades later and a PhD from the University of La Sorbonne –
Paris IV, I am now using what I learned in Canada to mentor and teach
future foreign language teachers in France. While the vast majority are of
French or European origin, a few of my students are Asian (from China
and Malaysia). With my Master-level students (some of whom partici-
pate in the ERASMUS program2), it is always a pleasure to share anec-
dotes about my past teaching experience both in Canada and my humble
beginnings here in France. As Numrich (1996) states, as teacher educa-
tors, our job is to facilitate the process of becoming a language teacher. In
the early stages of my teaching career, I wish this had been true. It was my
self-analysis, reflective practices and my journaling that got me through
at the beginning. I followed a unique path, while listening and discover-
ing as I progressed. I was also reading as much as I could on the subject
of language teaching, while asking more experienced fellow language
teachers about their methods in the classroom. In their preface, Burton
and Carroll (2001, p. v) articulate that “practitioners who are able to
portray real experience by […sharing or documenting…] their teaching
practice” bring credibility and meaning to the vocation. They also bring
a sense of alliance and most importantly transparency to the profession.
This alliance reaches far beyond the classroom since today, many of my
students reach out to me for advice and counsel via social media. Loughran
(2002) posits that “if learning through practice matters, then reflection
on practice is crucial, and teacher preparation is the obvious place for it
to be initiated and nurtured” (p. 42).
2
Refer to https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/node_en
The Reflective Analysis Framework

According to the European Commission (2013: 7), teacher educators are
“all those who actively facilitate the (formal) learning of student teachers
and teachers.” As explained in the Executive Summary (European
Commission (2013: 4), they can have a significant impact upon main-
taining and improving the quality of teaching and learning in schools and
universities. While language didactics and pedagogy may have evolved,3
that teacher educators must facilitate the process of becoming a language
teacher for neophytes remains constant. To achieve high-quality profes-
sional development, this process includes providing solutions to assist
novice teachers in becoming self-directed and autonomous over the long-
term, while stimulating curiosity and inquisitiveness. In searching for
answers, perhaps in collaborative4 or network settings, the drive for learn-
ing and improvement as well as the quest for answers will continue long
after the initial apprenticeship comes to term.
Adopting a reflective analysis framework could assist novice language
teachers in dealing with the unexpected challenges they may encounter
early on in their careers. Within this framework, the teacher would be
encouraged to ask themselves various questions before, during and after
the language lessons. Some of the questions a neophyte could contem-
plate are as follows:
• What are the lesson objectives?

• Are there any foreseeable challenges?
• What previous knowledge (if any) is required?
• What happens (step by step) during the learning process?
• Was there any observable student behaviour?
3
For instance, refer to some of the methods I currently adopt, based on Communicative
Competence: Hymes (1972); Canale and Swain (1980); Canale (1983); Celce-Murcia et al. (1995),
Bachman and Palmer (2010), or Dörnyei (2020) on boosting student motivation.
4
Collaborative or network settings such as, conferences or colloquium and subsequent publica-
tions. For instance, see Di Pardo Léon-Henri and Jain (2020), for an international collection on
research integrated foreign language teaching methods, based on a one-day colloquium held
in Paris.
• What can be done to facilitate, improve or accelerate the learn-

ing process?
• What have I learned from this teaching experience?
• What should I have done differently?
• Was this lesson a success for the students? Why or why not?
• Was this lesson a success for the teacher? Why or why not?
• Which modifications can be made to improve this lesson?
The form of the reflective teaching journal may have changed and
evolved over the years; however, the fundamental underlying questions
used to analyze teaching efficiency remain the same. The above list of
questions is neither complete nor exhaustive. It is simply meant as a start-
ing point for a journey into reflection, insight, awareness and the analysis
of teaching methods. Although it is far from being completely thorough,
the aforementioned line of questioning was the basis for my initial teach-
ing journal. The language teaching journal has “become increasingly sig-
nificant both as a reflective genre in itself, and as one of a battery of
interpretive micro-ethnographic research techniques” (McDonough and
McDonough, 1997: 121–136).
It was during my CERTESL courses that I gradually discovered more
complete and explicit lists of questions. For example, Barry and King
(1998: 409) propose as a reflective journal checklist process. Their ques-
tions require further contemplation and responses that are much more
detailed and comprehensive in nature:
• What went well about the lesson? Identify several positive features.
• Why did these positive features go well?
• What have you learned about your teaching? To what extent are these
features strengths in your teaching?
• What did not go so well about the lesson? Identify several features.
• Why did these features not go so well?
• What have you learned about your teaching? To what extent are these
features shortcomings in your teaching?
• How can you capitalize on your strengths and change your shortcom-
ings in your next lesson?
For Barry and King (1998: 409), reflection is considered to be an

essential skill for the teacher, who not only takes the time to “ponder
about how well the skill, strategy, lesson, etc… is going or has gone”, but
also acquires the necessary skills to develop into a “more professional
evaluator … who systematically reflects on a lesson.” This may be done
consciously through recording written, vocal or video journals or subcon-
sciously through informal student feedback and self-reflection. Barry and
King (1998: 410-413) also recommend an eight-step cycle for self-
improvement based on the analysis of professional strengths and short-
comings, as well as research to develop innovative solutions. As a teacher
gains professional experience, the need for journaling may diminish (as it
did in my case); however in order to better respond to the needs of stu-
dents in a constantly changing society, it is essential for teachers to stay
informed of the various trends in teaching methods.
In the early days of my career as a foreign language teacher, I spent
many a sleepless night wondering about how I could improve my peda-
gogy to improve the students’ language acquisition, but I was also look-
ing for different methods to vary my approach and make my classes much
more exciting. For example, I remember using the Lado (1964) method
and, while it was useful for new learners, I considered it (with all due
respect) rather boring and repetitive, in particular for the language prac-
titioner. However, at that time, I was far from being a specialist on the
subject and deep down inside of me, I felt that if Lado (1964) had pub-
lished his theories and methods, then I was not to question his approach.
If I had been given the opportunity to exchange with my peers or col-
leagues, perhaps I would have discovered that it was perfectly normal to
question the implementation of different teaching theories and methods.
In addition, it was likely that through networking, I would have also
certainly discovered additional and innovative forms of pedagogy. Day
(1999) argues that a professional knowledge base could be valuable to
increasing understanding of the ways in which people effectively learn. In
addition, Snow (2001) suggests that “teachers must [learn to] operate in
a system that allows them to treat ideas for teaching as objects that can be
shared and examined publicly, that can be stored and accumulated and
passed along to the next generation.” Although Hiebert et al. (2002) sur-
prisingly express that certain “teachers rarely draw from a shared
knowledge base to improve their practice.” They demonstrate that not

only is practitioner knowledge linked with practice, but it is also very
important that this professional knowledge be storable and shareable to
foster an educational system that strives for progressive steps towards
improvement. This professional knowledge is also an important source of
elucidation when the initial in-service training has subsided and teachers
are in the field and alone. They are at their most vulnerable when they
feel isolated and are increasingly faced with the various classroom chal-
lenges and realities.
Goodson and Sikes (2001) postulate that teachers when they share
their life histories and professional practices in fact offer their profes-
sional experience as a focus of study. This can be beneficial in that it
inspires other teachers to benefit from self-reflection to create or improve
knowledge, while leaving room for reflection, which is not rocket science
but easily demystified and very versatile (see Spalding & Wilson, 2002).
Additionally, teachers can relate to their peers in comparing their experi-
ence and perhaps considering new or innovative theories. Across
domains and disciplines, teachers often share the same obstacles and
issues, such as challenges in terms of syllabus creation or in the context of
the classroom, a lack of motivation or interest on behalf of their students,
etc… For instance, a recent illustration of this was the abrupt shift to
distance teaching due to the ongoing pandemic. It revealed that many of
my current colleagues in the social sciences have never used platforms
such as Moodle, Teams or Zoom for teaching purposes. Some had never
learned to ‘click, drag, and drop’ or ‘double click’. By reflecting on their
teaching practices and having access to a forum based on pedagogy, teach-
ers could readily find solutions to their classroom (managment) prob-
lems. For more on journaling in this context, Taggert and Wilson (2005:
80-87) provide practical suggestions on formatting a reflective journal
entry. In addition, a well-planned self-observation checklist for teachers
(of ESL, language, or insert any other subject here) from Khaleel (2014)
may also be of use to assist in the reflection on professional practices for
development and improvement.
A website offering advice and suggestions on the topic of language
pedagogy, One Stop English (http://www.onestopenglish.com/commu-
nity/teacher-talk/teachers-diaries/), recently integrated an innovative
approach to feature the teacher journals of several international teachers.

This initiative provides insight into language teaching experience from
differing global contexts. As indicated on the homepage of One Stop
English, the prime objective of this initiative is “to open the door to class-
rooms, so that you can share other teachers’ experiences of teaching
English […while… sharing] a series of thoughts and ideas that will allow
you to reflect on [your foreign language] teaching practice.” This method
could also offer a novice the opportunity to become more aware of cer-
tain pitfalls in the process of language teaching5 and learning.
And finally, the analysis of and re-examination of daily in-class experi-
ence in the form of journals, could serve as action research providing
transnational insights to disclose not only pedagogical issues, but also
innovative methods for further research (Di Pardo Léon-Henri, 2019). It
was during the 47th Annual TESL Ontario Conference that this point
became crystal clear to me. In exchanging with colleagues and profession-
als, as well as stakeholders in upper management positions, I realized that
there was a real need for change and support in terms of in-service teach-
ers, right across the country and beyond. This is particularly true when
we contemplate that teaching is said to be “the profession that eats its
young” (Halford, 1998: 34). What a frightening and unsettling notion!
According to Joiner and Edwards (2008), “24% drop out of teaching
within the first year, 33% leave after three years and between 40% and
50% leave within the first five years”. Those are extremely startling statis-
tics, when we consider how important and precious the vocation of
teaching is to society as a whole.
Concluding Remarks and Future Directions

In terms of TESOL teacher education, or any teacher education research
for that matter, the reflective teaching journal can function as a transna-
tional knowledge base in the form of a centralized corpus of teaching
5
Although it hasn’t yet branched out into teacher journals, another practical website I have discov-
ered is Lingua House (https://www.linguahouse.com/), which promotes innovative resources and
tools for English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers, students and language schools.
methods and perspectives for teachers across Canada, but also on a global
scale. In addition to a reference for teacher education curricula, it can
serve as a pragmatic resource for independent consultation on behalf of
inquisitive and concerned educators or stakeholders. The Reflective
Teaching Journal (2020) website (https://reflectiveteachingjournal.com/)
has recently been launched as a new pedagogy-inspired network database
to serve this very purpose. In terms of TESOL teacher education research,
the reflective teaching journal serves as a knowledge base for the forma-
tion of a centralized corpus, providing an overview of the profession from
a large picture perspective, if it is shared as a transnational networking
instrument. While providing an overview of the teaching profession from
differing perspectives and vantage points, it will offer insight into various
didactic approaches and methodologies, as well as forums, questions,
answers, problems, issues, challenges and successes. On an international
scale, it will be shared as an equitable networking instrument and open
educational resource to solve local issues, but not only. Promoting the
mobility of knowledge and practise, it is also a diachronic transnational
instrument offering a large-picture perspective on pedagogy and didactics
in language classrooms, as well as other subjects (science, technology,
math…) in the future. Ultimately, it will share synchronic snapshots of
teaching methods and valuable pedagogical insights across nations.
Furthermore, through the use of reflective teaching practices, it will serve
as a persistently evolving knowledge base, offering an improved under-
standing of the needs and interests of students, as well as the achieve-
ments and shortcomings of teachers (in general), both at the novice and
experienced stage. In addition, resources and support or assistance will be
integrated through recordings, video or blog-type articles. In the future,
this network may also be accessible by social media (applications or net-
works) which would further expand the networking and collaborative
possibilities throughout the world.
The future of the teaching profession may be uncertain due to techno-
logical advances (those aforementioned microchips) and reduced bud-
gets, but also in terms of the updated precautions we are obliged to
assume and adopt due to sanitary measures protecting us against the
widespread corona virus (COVID-19). However much the profession
will inevitably change and evolve, teachers will always brilliantly soldier
on while reflecting on and adapting their pedagogy to continue their

vocation of inspiring and educating future generations. Perhaps by shar-
ing the key fundamentals of teaching on a worldwide and transnational
basis, we will one day consider teaching as the profession that truly strives
to encourage the mentoring of its young (and not-so-young) across
nations at the local, national, and international level, through the gener-
ous support of a global community of dedicated educators.
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teachers-diaries/
Developing Teaching Expertise Through
Transnational Experience: Implications
for TESOL Teacher Education
Zhenjie Weng and Mark A. McGuire
Move to China!-Learn Chinese!

Experience The World!-Make Money!
Teach English in China!
F.A.Q.
Q1: Who can teach in China?
Any native English speaker (a college degree is required by the Chinese government).
…
Q3: Do you need previous teaching experience, or special teacher training?
No. I will show you how to teach. I was the head foreign English teacher at my last job
before I worked at my own school full-time. It was my responsibility to help all of the other
foreign teachers develop professionally. Trust me. You can do it.
…
Introduction
This chapter began with excerpts from an advertisement posted for over
a year on the wall of a university’s school of education, intended to draw
the attention of undergraduates between their classes. As TESOL teacher
Z. Weng (*) • M. A. McGuire

The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
e-mail: weng.151@buckeyemail.osu.edu
312 Z. Weng and M. A. McGuire
educators, it was awkward because while it encouraged local education

students, we knew this advertisement, mollifying anxiety by advertising a
modicum of job training, was thoroughly dependent on and actively per-
petuating what Phillipson (1992) called the “native speaker fallacy” by
simplifying professional skill and training in language teaching to the
“native” or “native-like” nature of a teacher’s linguistic ability. Yet one
cannot deny that around 2 billion people will be using or learning to use
English by 2020 (British Council, 2013), leading to this extraordinarily
global job market demand for “native” English teachers, particularly in
what Kachru (1985) called the “expanding circles”. In turn, that demand
has opened an opportunity for individuals, with or without appropriate
training, to work overseas through diverse connections with those who
have already taught abroad, private agents, and professional organizations
or institutions. Not only has this ongoing desire for English learning pro-
vided jobs to individual teachers, but it has also propelled the develop-
ment of teacher training in numerous forms, from private training, like
in this advertisement, to university-based teacher education programs
emerging around the world.
Under these circumstances, the transnational mobility of English
teachers manifests in predominantly two ways: “native” English speakers
moving to Kachru’s (1985) expanding circles in search of job opportuni-
ties, and at the same time increasing numbers of international student
teachers entering TESOL higher education programs in the U.S. and
other countries in Kachru’s (1985) “inner circle”. Nevertheless, American
TESOL teacher education curricula are mostly designed with typical
American ESL contexts in mind, which does not prepare transnational
teachers to teach in diverse contexts overseas (Stapleton & Shao, 2018).
Toward this, Stapleton and Shao (2018) proposed that more context-
specific elective courses should be provided for increasingly diverse
teacher populations. Their suggestion provides direction for better
TESOL teacher preparation in the globalized world, but it is still undeni-
able that more research on transnational TESOL teachers is needed to
further uncover their learning and enactment of teaching through nego-
tiation of practices in different educational and cultural contexts. In
response to the increasing number of teachers traveling between EFL and
ESL contexts in the globalized world, this qualitative case study
Developing Teaching Expertise Through Transnational… 313
investigated one American’s teaching experiences across different geo-

graphical and cultural contexts in China and the U.S.
This study drew upon two major bodies of literature: that on teaching
expertise, including its acquisition and connection with context, and on
transnationalism. More specifically, this study was grounded in the belief
that teaching expertise is a process (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1993; Tsui,
2003), that the development of teachers’ expert knowledge relies on their
participation in social practices of teaching (Tsui, 2005), and that contex-
tual events might constrain or facilitate teacher development (Bullough
& Baughman, 1995). Additionally, that process is interpreted through a
lens of transnationalism, since that theory allows national and cultural
identity to be negotiated over time and could be greatly beneficial to
research not only of the ESL and EFL classroom generally, but specifi-
cally of this development of transnational identity as a facet of the devel-
opment of language teaching expertise and professionalism. In order to
draw effectively on the distinct literature pertaining to expertise in ESL
and EFL teaching and on the literature related to transnationalism, it is
necessary to briefly review each body of literature and relate them to each
other insofar as they relate to the present study.
Literature Review
Teacher Knowledge
In the discussion of teaching expertise (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1993),

frequent references have been made by researchers to “teacher knowl-
edge”. Teachers’ knowledge in different aspects is a defining component
in the study of teaching expertise with the underlying perspective that
teacher knowledge contributes to effective teaching. Following the influ-
ential work by Shulman (1986, 1987) on teacher knowledge categories,
different types of teacher knowledge have been discussed in literature,
including subject content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge,
and pedagogical content knowledge. Subject content knowledge refers to
the knowledge of a specific subject; general pedagogical knowledge refers
to knowledge of classroom management, organization, student learning,
assessment and institutional contexts. Last, pedagogical content knowl-

edge especially refers to knowledge of effective teaching of subject matter
(König et al., 2016). In Tsui’s (2003) study, she proposed a dialectical
relationship between teacher knowledge and context, explaining that “the
knowledge that teachers develop is jointly constituted by the acting
teacher and the context in which they operate….Teachers’ knowledge
therefore must be understood in terms of the way teachers respond to
their contexts of work, which shape the contexts in which their knowl-
edge is developed” (p. 64). That is, the development of teacher knowl-
edge is context-sensitive, which may be accelerated or impeded by the
affordances or constraints in a context.
Teacher Expertise and Context
Continuing from the preceding section on the relationship between

teacher knowledge and expertise, this section further discusses the rela-
tionship between teacher expertise and the context of teaching. Reviewing
extant literature on teaching expertise, little attention has been paid to
the impact of context on the development of teaching expertise (Bullough
& Baughman, 1995; Tsui, 2003; Tsui & Ng, 2010). In Bullough and
Baughman’s (1995) study, they found that contextual events might con-
strain teacher development when it was too overwhelming rather than
inviting teachers to work at the edge of their competence. Berliner (2001)
further reaffirmed the impact of context on teacher expertise: “[p]olicies
from the principals, superintendents, and school board, along with the
expectations of the community” will “subtly, but powerfully affect teach-
ers’ attitudes, beliefs, enthusiasm, sense of efficacy, conception of their
responsibilities, and teaching practices” (p. 466). That is, specific expecta-
tions situated in a given context might hinder or stimulate certain aspects
of a teacher’s developing expertise.
Transnationalism and Teacher Expertise
In this globalized world, it is valuable to bring transnationalism into the

discussion of teacher expertise. Transnationalism has been defined in the
past as a “space”—contextual, rather than necessarily geographic—in
which national boundaries, and in turn, assumed national expectations,

have been penetrated and forged with new expectations that are capable
of interfacing with the perceived expectations and boundaries of nations
or cultures (see Solano-Campos, 2014, p. 419). This means that “trans-
nationalism” is inherently complex and reactionary, because while a per-
son may be called “transnational” by crossing national boundaries, that
person is obviously not the same as a person from each nation added
together as one—rather, a transnational person, and likewise a transna-
tional space, is one who has created their own hybrid of national and
cultural expectations which cannot be neatly categorized as belonging to
one “nationality” or another. In keeping with the nature of complex phe-
nomena (Larsen-Freeman, 2017), it cannot be assumed that transna-
tional people coming from and going to the same countries will negotiate
their expectations, expertise, lifestyle, or identity in the same way.
Much prior research involving geographic or cultural context uses
nationalistic demarcations of people and cultures (Schiller & Faist, 2009),
defining them according to apparently “essentially foreign” qualities,
qualities which have been assumed must be assimilated to avoid the
unhappiness of those feeling trapped in a “foreign” culture (Schiller,
2009). For example, if a nation is associated with a particular religion,
language, or physical appearance, aspects of a person which are less likely
to change over their lives, people from another nation who do not already
share these “essential” qualities may be regarded as “foreigners”, and in
turn, these “foreigners” may be treated with suspicion according to the
nationalistic prejudices of political and cultural leaders in their countries
of destination or of origin (Schiller, 2009; Schiller & Faist, 2009).
However, embracing a more transnational perspective, “home” does not
have a simple or static meaning, nor do the identities of transnational
students or teachers themselves have a consistent, or necessarily easily
labeled, nature (Santos, McClelland, & Handley, 2011). Learning
English, for example, may involve adopting not only general expressions,
but regionalisms as well, and some transnational teachers coming to an
English-speaking workplace environment have found themselves feeling
like they were “acting” by speaking the type of English expected there,
but at the same time feeling pressed by perceived professional standards
(Solano-Campos, 2014). They did not reject their new identity, but did
not consistently feel capable of adopting it and as a result were torn about
their actual ability to “acquire” the language or culture. Rather than sug-
gesting a total transformation or assimilation from one culture into
another, a transnational interpretation would suggest that the difficulty
was not one of change, but one of negotiating different cultural expecta-
tions into a single identity (Santos et al., 2011). This is a task of develop-
ing agency over one’s own identity, and over the attributes that make up
that identity, such as language or expertise. That agency allows them to
interpret, judge, and incorporate or reject aspects of their new lifestyle
that might be beneficial or hazardous to their well-being (Santos et al.,
2011), and ultimately challenges nationalistic perspectives that would
otherwise denigrate their identity and the process that created it (Schiller,
2009). As mentioned previously, agency on this level may arguably be
associated with the development of expertise for transnational teachers,
as represented in the present study.
Unfortunately, there is relatively little mention of the EFL or ESL
classroom in existing transnational research (Santos et al., 2011; Solano-
Campos, 2014; Song, 2011). For that matter, demarcating between
“EFL” and “ESL” is labeling more according to nationalistic rather than
transnationalistic assumptions, as “ESL” and “EFL” are less valuable
terms to describe someone who may move between ESL and EFL con-
texts (Schiller, 2009; Song, 2011). Moreover, research has often been
about students rather than teachers, and often limited to particular areas,
with a focus on the dramatic changes associated with first arriving in a
foreign setting (Solano-Campos, 2014) rather than with the long-term
transition and negotiation of identity, which might require observing
participants over time ethnographically rather than in a single semester or
place (e.g., Solano-Campos, 2014).
Applying these considerations to teaching expertise, it is difficult to
provide a uniform definition for what teaching expertise is, and challeng-
ing to claim what knowledge teachers must have to be competent in
transnational contexts, mainly because expertise in teaching takes differ-
ent forms across regions, cultures, domains and skills. For example, active
student participation is highly valued in the teaching-learning process in
U.S. classrooms; while the opposite is praised in Indian classrooms
(Berliner, 2001), consistent with Alexander’s (2000) finding. In Japan, it
has been reported that emotional commitment to students is an essential

quality of elementary teachers; while in China, commitment to both stu-
dents and the subject of teaching is of paramount importance to teachers
(Tsui, 2005). These differences complicate the training of transnational
teachers as the target teaching context may be dissimilar from the teacher
training context. For example, communicative language teaching encour-
aged by American training may conflict with teacher-centric imitation-
based expectations of some educational contexts. It could be argued that
for a transnational teacher, developing expertise includes learning to
effectively negotiate between the expectations of teacher training and the
teaching-learning process in different national and transnational (as stu-
dents may also be transnational) contexts.
To better understand these complexities, the present study sought to
look at the progression of an American teacher, Julius (pseudonym), over
time to answer three research questions: (1) What were the contextual
factors that influenced Julius’ development of transnational teaching
expertise across EFL and ESL contexts? (2) How did Julius respond to
contextual factors in his teaching practices? And (3) what therefore are
the implications for the design of TESOL teacher education?
Methodology
To answer these research questions, this study used a qualitative case
study approach (Creswell, 2013) to trace Julius’ teaching experiences in
both China and the U.S. Julius was an American who had studied mainly
in the U.S. and then finished his bachelor’s degree in the U.K. After
receiving his undergraduate degree, he went to China directly. He came
back to the U.S. after five years of teaching in China to get his master’s
and doctoral degrees. This research started when Julius was a first-year
PhD student and lasted into his second year of study, across roughly four
semesters. The students in his classes had generally been Chinese, both in
EFL and ESL contexts. Despite being an American taught in American
and British schools, he developed unique transnational teaching skills
which were not consistent with either the expectations of American or
Chinese classrooms. Additionally, his teaching had been in universities in
China as well as universities in America, EFL and ESL contexts, with dif-
ferent motivations and agency among the students, other teachers, and
the administrations as a result. At no point was he simply present in those
contexts with those students: there was interaction and negotiation of
what was expected and what was to be accomplished, and that negotia-
tion was a part of his developing expertise as a transnational teacher.
Contexts: China and U.S.
With China opening its door to the world, more and more foreign teach-
ers, mainly “native” English speakers, have come to China to teach
(Weng, 2018). Julius’ identity as a Western-looking, American, “native”
speaker of English allowed him to easily secure a position, mainly in uni-
versities in central China. According to what Julius described of the
teaching contexts, he was loosely supervised at the universities. He
received textbooks to teach his undergraduate EFL courses, but little fur-
ther support was provided. In this sense, he was given much agency in
terms of what to teach and how to teach. Julius reported that the students
in this context were generally not motivated to learn the course materials.
Although a few students were attentive in class, many students were inat-
tentive and attending irregularly. After Julius came back from China, he
taught in an undergraduate ESL program at a private university on the
American East Coast while studying for his master’s degree related to
language teaching. During this program, Julius taught composition and
some other ESL courses, e.g. speaking. As Julius recalled, most students
in his class were from China, similar to the ESL program in the American
Midwest where Julius would later work during his PhD. In that later
context, Julius was assigned to teach ESL composition to international
undergraduate students.
Data Collection
Data collection and data analysis were conducted mainly by the first
author who was the main researcher of the study. This research, as part of
a larger study, collected different types of data, including semi-structured
interviews, informal conversations with Julius and his students, nonpar-

ticipant classroom observation, and various artifacts (e.g., syllabi and
writing samples). However, the focus of this chapter is on Julius’ self-
reporting, particularly regarding his teaching experience in China and
the U.S., seeking to understand changes that took place in the new teach-
ing context and the transnational influence of prior teaching contexts.
The interviews with the students and the observations of the classrooms
across the semesters mainly served to triangulate the data and corroborate
the conclusions of the analysis.
Data Analysis
The whole data analysis process was recursive and iterative, conducted by
the first author, who looked for patterns and themes to emerge. Both top-
down and bottom-up coding processes were used to code the data. In the
initial data analysis, the codes were derived from key concepts in the
research questions and literature, and then, during the process of coding,
the codes were compared with the actual data. The first author went back
and forth to constantly compare different pieces of data, revise the codes
or use in-vivo codes (Corbin & Strauss, 2008), and categorize the codes
to better reflect major themes. The analyses were also given back to Julius
for his verification.
Findings and Discussion

Contextual Factors in China
“I knew how to play the game in China.” Julius reported that he expe-
rienced dramatic culture shock during his time in China, best highlighted
in four major events. First, while he was teaching a university literature
class, the textbook given to him was written by the dean of the depart-
ment; however, Julius noticed the content of the textbook was identical
to what he has read in the U.S. in another, outdated book published
several decades earlier than the textbook he had been given to. Although
he was suspicious, when he asked the dean where this book was from he
chose not to make it a confrontation. The second event was when he
found more than half of the students in his class plagiarized in their final
paper and he failed them; however, later on, he was invited to the dean’s
office and asked by the dean to change his grading so that it was not too
embarrassing to the students and the school. Julius said, “this was shock-
ing to me, and it actually added my workload because I had to go back to
give the students another chance to revise their paper and change their
grades” (02/18/2018, Teacher Interview). The third event was when he
found the history textbooks were fraught with biased narration of
European and American histories and a tendency to glorify China, and,
as Julius suspected, his talking to the dean about this ultimately resulted
in his dismissal. “They did not tell me why I was fired. I just did not get
the chance to renew my contract for the following semester,” Julius
recalled. The last event happened when he was looking for a new job
in China.
W1: After you were fired, how did you get a position?
J: I got a chance for interview. During the interview, all of sudden,
they told me I need to teach a class. They gave me a textbook and
allowed me to see the class before the teaching demonstration.
However, when I first talked to the students in the class, I found
they had more advanced English than the student target this text-
book was written for, so I decided to adjust my teaching to the
students’ English level. After the teaching demonstration, the per-
son who observed my class told me I was hired but she insisted I
should follow the textbook exactly.
W: What did you do then?
J: Just do what they told me. Throughout the time, I became more
realistic and knew how to play the game in China. (02/18/2018,
Teacher Interview)
From the first three events during the first two years in China and to
the last event in his later years in China, Julius shifted from a person who
1
W: Weng (the first author); J: Julius
thought what was right in teaching based upon his experience in the
U.S. to adapting his teaching to what was expected in China. His realiza-
tion of “how to play the game in China” demonstrated his response to the
challenge he encountered at that time and reflected his socialization into
Chinese culture, particularly in school contexts. Julius further revealed
that “foreign teachers in China were just their face. Schools did not really
care if they were qualified or not in teaching. They used foreign teachers
for increasing the school’s reputation. They were like ‘We have so many
foreign teachers! We are international! Come to our school!’ [Laugh]”
(04/18/2018, Teacher Interview). This is aligned with the incident of
students’ plagiarism and the department’s priority to save face, rather
than to discipline those students. These incidents, reflecting cultural and
political differences from Julius’ own experience as a student, provoked
his awareness of the importance of context in which teaching was played
out. This reflected the conclusion in Tsui’s (2003) study that “the devel-
opment of knowledge is very much related to experience” (p. 251). The
expert teacher in her study was more experienced than the other three
teachers. Further, another essential point is that after Julius decided to
come to China to teach, he reflected that he read several books about
Chinese culture and history; he also received cultural training from the
agent who sent him there; however, that knowledge was not transferred
to the actual teaching context and little support specifically related to
teaching was provided while he was in China. Julius navigated in the
local context using the immediate knowledge he learned from his social
practice, which confirmed that teacher knowledge is socially constituted
(Tsui, 2003).
“It was super devastating.” In the first semester, Julius considered his
teaching of a class about business writing as devastating:
W: What were some difficulties you encountered in teaching while

you were in China?
J: I was just landed in China and they asked me to teach a class about
how to write business letter. They gave me a textbook. It was such
a devastating experience. I mean how could you talk about busi-
ness letters for a whole semester? We did some writing exercise for
the first couple of weeks and students were bored to death. And
each class was almost three hours long. It almost killed me [laugh].
You cannot ask students to write business letters for THREE hours
every week.
W: Did you do anything to change the situation?
J: I looked for some supplementary materials for the students, but
the resources in China were limited and it was super expensive for
students to buy Western books. So I created my own material,
using what I have been working on with a professor back in my
undergraduate study.
W: What else did you do?
G: I kind of added some other content in the class, like dress code for
attending business events. I showed them the appropriate attire for
formal events and students were very interested in that. We also
did cultural comparisons between China and the U.S.
W: Did you have colleagues or supervisors to rely on for support?
G: I had a so-called co-teacher who was Chinese, but she never came
to my class. It was just a thing. I had to rely on myself. (03/21/2018,
Teacher Interview)
In the above interview excerpt, Julius’ frustration was from three

sources. First was his own struggling in lesson planning. One reason for
this frustration was his lack of knowledge specifically about pedagogical
content, namely, how to teach the subject content effectively to students,
a common problem among novice teachers. Other reasons were related to
the lack of supplementary materials for teaching and the dearth of sup-
port from colleagues and the department for foreign teachers in China.
Julius mentioned the co-teacher, but the co-teacher was not directly help-
ful. This source-lacking context pushed Julius to draw upon the resources
he had from the U.S. and to adapt those sources for the purpose of the
class he was teaching. This context constraint polished his skill in lesson
planning and adapting resources from outside to his own classroom. In
addition, he was trying to make the class interesting to the students by
incorporating other related topics into the course content. The con-
strained context stimulated Julius’ creativity and his control and
management of the class as he had to rely on what ideas and materials he

could come up with to appeal to students. Instead of following exactly
what the textbooks asked them to do, Julius paid attention to lesson plan-
ning by taking students’ needs, motivation, and psychology into consid-
eration. These challenges were above Julius’ competence in teaching;
however, they were not overwhelming and so he was able to react in the
situation (Bullough & Baughman, 1995).
“Because you were an American, you were a Christian.” When
Julius was in China and taught culturally related classes, he noticed stu-
dents had strong stereotypes about Americans and liked to make essen-
tializing comments about American culture, e.g. “all Americans were
rich”, “because you were an American, you were a Christian”, as well as
more severe and offensive comments, such as “you don’t have a girlfriend
and you are an American, so you must be a gay” (05/12/2018, Teacher
Interview). Hearing those essentialized, stereotypical and sometimes
xenophobic statements, Julius decided not to disclose his own sexual ori-
entation for fear of reinforcing their negative impression of Americans
but still tried to deconstruct the students’ understanding of American
culture through other ways. Julius reported, “I showed them a picture of
my used car…and I explained to them not all Americans are religious”
(05/12/2018, Teacher Interview). Facing the challenge of rectifying stu-
dents’ entrenched stereotypes toward Americans, Julius strategically
revealed his identity to the students while still considering the larger
sociopolitical context in which sexual orientation was not publicly dis-
cussed and homophobia was in the air. This strategic deployment of fea-
tures of his own identity for education and deconstruction of stereotypes
according to what his students could accept became a part of his transna-
tional identity and his teaching expertise.
“I have to distinguish myself from other foreign teachers.” In one
interview, Julius brought his pictures taken in China. In one picture, he
was standing in front of the class, wearing a suit and red tie. This was
unfamiliar to the first author, who was Chinese and had had foreign
teachers before in China. Out of curiosity, she asked Julius, “Did you
always dress up like this to the class?” Below were Julius’ response to the
question and more following interactions.
J: Yes. I dressed up very formally.

W: Were there special reasons for that?
J: Yes. At that time, I was not much older than the students, so suits
and ties can add some age. Also, I have to distinguish myself from
other foreign teachers.
W: Could you tell me more? Do you mean you do not want to be
considered as a foreign teacher?
J: What I meant is I do not want to be identified as those foreign
teachers who were drunk the night before and came to the next
day’s class with lousy shirts. There were lots of gossip among stu-
dents about those foreign teachers who had relationships with
their students. I definitely did not want to be part of their gossip
and identified as one of them. Presenting myself professionally is
one of the ways to distinguish myself from other foreign teachers.
W: What if you do not have those concerns, would you still dress up
like that?
J: If that’s not the concern, I may still dress up like that, but I may
not take extra attention to my appearance. (05/12/2018, Teacher
Interview)
In this interview excerpt, Julius depicted the situation he encountered

in China, involving other foreign teachers in that context and the neces-
sity for him to distinguish himself from irresponsible foreign colleagues,
making him attentive to his appearance and the image he wanted to
establish among the students. He was trying to get away from the ideol-
ogy and generalization that students and the school imposed on all the
foreign teachers by distancing himself from other foreign teachers. This
special environment with a xenophobic complex pushed Julius to think
about ways to enhance his professionalism, which never occurred to him
while he was in the U.S., where he did not feel it was a pressing concern.
Based upon what Julius reported on his teaching experience in China,
his frustration as an American and a foreign teacher was from the larger
context and students’ prescribed understanding of Americans and foreign
teachers. However, within the constraints, Julius was still enacting his
agency because those challenges were not too much beyond his compe-
tence. The contextual constraints were salient upon Julius’ reflection and
enabled him to acquire knowledge of the specific expectations of the

school and the student population (including students’ learning habits
and disposition), lesson planning in resource-restricted contexts, as well
as his awareness of his agency as a foreign teacher. More significantly, his
increased awareness of the context and the kind of image he was trying to
build up for himself as a foreign teacher and an American came into
shape during this earlier career stage in China. However, it should be
noted that Julius’ reflection on how he taught classes was more general
than specific and limited the investigation of the development of his
knowledge base in other aspects. Another essential point to mention was
that Julius’ awareness of his lack of linguistic and pedagogical knowledge
was the reason for Julius coming back to pursue his master’s degree, as
more and more students came to ask him questions about grammar, pro-
nunciation, and other language-related issues. His transnational immer-
sion in the Chinese context made him realize what aspects of teacher
knowledge he was lacking and prompted his desire to know more about
language, ultimately making a great contribution to the development of
his teaching expertise.
Contextual Factors in the U.S.
“This is the correct way to teach.” After Julius returned to the U.S. from
China, he taught ESL writing classes while he was taking graduate courses
on linguistics and pedagogy. Combined with his teaching experience in
China, he began utilizing the theories he learned in this pedagogy course.
J: It was little funny because here we had pedagogy class. They were
saying like this is the correct way to teach. I [thought] they do not
know Chinese students.
W: Who provided those suggestions to you?
J: [The instructor] was the one who had the pedagogical aspect of the
program. And one of the assignments was to create lesson plans.
She told me, your lesson plan needs this and this, but I [rejected
that strict design]. (03/21/2018, Teacher Interview)
This interview excerpt illustrated that Julius was using his actual teach-
ing experience in China to criticize and question the applicability of the
theories to the teaching of a particular student population. The theories
Julius was introduced to in the pedagogy course were mostly based upon
European and Western countries; however, those were not as effective
when applied to the teaching of students from China. This incident reso-
nated with another report from Julius. While in the program, a common
issue that was faced by the teachers was the international Chinese stu-
dents’ silence in class. Julius recalled that his colleagues suggested him to
use videos or just wait long enough for the students to respond to his
questions: “those suggestions would never work because I know Chinese
students” (02/18/18, Teacher Interview). Here Julius was criticizing his
colleagues who were not familiar with Chinese students. The conflict
between Julius’ teaching experience in China and his colleagues’ sugges-
tions provoked his reflection on teaching practices and theories for teach-
ing his specific group of students. In other words, the change of contexts
in teaching and the related conflicts automatically provoked his reflection
on teaching in the past and led him to problematize his current teaching
(Tsui, 2003).
“[They] expected you to provide all the answers in the next slide.”
During classroom observation in the U.S., the first author noticed that
Julius rarely used PowerPoint. Although it could be individual teachers’
preference, using PowerPoint was a very common practice of teaching in
the program as PowerPoint could provide visual aids to the students. In
interviews with him, Julius reflected that he chose not to use PowerPoint
on purpose. When he was teaching in China, he tried out PowerPoint
before, but he thought it was a very ineffective way of teaching with the
majority of Chinese students in the class: “Most Chinese students
expected you to provide all the answers in the next slide, and they did not
talk in class. I do not like this way of teaching and I want my students to
have more conversations in class. I want to change their way of participa-
tion” (02/18/2018, Teacher Interview). Julius wanted to encourage stu-
dents to participate more by relying more on their involvement to move
the lesson forward in a way that they would notice and be more inclined
to respond to. His justification of not using PowerPoint was confirmed
by classroom observation and one of the students the first author
interviewed. In the second semester, Julius used PowerPoint for talking

about writing tips, which caught the first author’s attention. In an inter-
view with a student, the student said that “When the teacher used the
PowerPoint in class, there was not much interaction between him and us.
We just sit there listening” (10/09/2018, Student Interview). Later on,
the first author posed further question to the student:
W: Why did you think there was less interaction?

S: Because the teacher was just talking.
W: You can still ask questions. The teacher still asked questions while
showing the PowerPoint.
S: Maybe it is because in China, teachers used PowerPoint and we
used to listening. (10/09/2018, Student Interview)
The interviews from both the teacher and the student as well as class-
room observation showed that Julius understood the student population
very well and his understanding of the student learning habits informed
his teaching method for his dual purposes of not only teaching but also
of changing students’ learning habits, as he thought that more active par-
ticipation was important in an American classroom. Julius’ knowledge of
the student population originated from his teaching experience in China
and due to that knowledge, he was able to better work on changing his
transnational students’ habits from their home country to the desired
learning habits in the American contexts they had arrived in. Tsui (2003)
claimed that “teacher knowledge functions as an integrated and coherent
whole,” however, in Julius’ case, his knowledge of student learners stood
out from his other knowledge and affected his teaching in specific and
profound ways.
A similar example was that while teaching Chinese students in the
U.S., at the beginning of each course, Julius surveyed the students about
topics they preferred and made changes to the syllabus to focus on topics
of students’ interest, knowing that different transnational students nego-
tiated their identities and interests differently, and that it was important
to survey each new class rather than simply assuming that students from
the same country all had the same interests.
Conclusion and Implications

This study investigated Julius, an American-born transnational teacher,
who taught in EFL and ESL contexts in China and the U.S. Many con-
textual factors affected his development of teaching expertise, including
school curriculum expectations; local ideologies toward foreign teachers
or students; particular students’ learning habits; and most importantly,
Julius’ own motivation in providing effective teaching and maintaining
professionalism, which was the driving force for his development of
expertise over the years. In addition, Julius’ case proved that systematic
and professional training is needed for teachers who are going to teach
abroad, rather than what the advertisement, shown in the beginning of
the chapter, claimed, that “any native English speaker” can teach.
While in China, Julius’ development of expertise was constrained by
the larger institutional expectations and ideologies toward foreign teach-
ers. Because of that, he had to relearn what was teaching and assessment
in the local context, in conflict with his own educational background. He
was not very successful in transferring his expertise from what he learned
as a student in the U.S. to his teaching in China; however, this provided
an opportunity for him to acquire knowledge of the Chinese learners
conducive to his later teaching in the U.S. Also, the conflict between his
learning and teaching in China and the U.S. increased his awareness of
the role, context, playing in the range of agency a teacher can take up in
their teaching, and, in turn, a teacher’s capacity to change the classroom.
He had been fired because he did not fit into the ideology of foreign
teachers the institution created, which spoke to Farrell’s (2011) call for
more studies on the sequence of knowledge learning, particularly for
teachers who go to another country to teach: ideological and cultural dif-
ferences may endanger transnational teachers’ teaching practices in the
target country. For Julius, he finally learned to adapt to what his depart-
ment expected in order to survive in that context; therefore, which aspects
of knowledge are more important for foreign teachers in transnational
contexts should be a topic for further research.
In Julius’ teaching experience in China and the U.S., another essential
point is that expertise is not individual but also can be collaborative
(Bullough & Baughman, 1995). Support from colleagues and the depart-
ment partially influenced Julius’ development of teaching expertise.
While in China, Julius mostly had to rely on himself, during which time
he focused more on figuring out the sociopolitical issues in the local con-
text and not much on investigating his teaching practice in class; but
coming back from China, he was able to find a community of practice
consisting of his colleagues and supervisors collectively working on their
teaching expertise.
Throughout this whole process, transnational identity was a phenom-
enon that ran parallel to the development of Julius’ teaching expertise.
Julius adapted, rather than merely conforming, to the expectations of the
Chinese universities because he had to reconcile with integrity between
his identity as a student of American and British schools, the kind of
identity sought by the Chinese universities in hiring a “foreign expert”,
and his identity in the role of an instructor at the Chinese universities.
That integrity and earnestness in teaching, as noted earlier, was impor-
tant, as it propelled him to further develop his expertise through teaching
and through his later graduate studies about teaching. Julius’ transna-
tional identity continued to guide him as he criticized the American
instructions for teaching the transnational Chinese students and as he
adapted his course to each group of students specifically rather than sim-
ply assuming all the “Chinese” students had negotiated their transna-
tional identities in the same way. In the case of Julius, if he had not
developed a robust transnational identity, he may not have had as much
expertise as a teacher, especially as a teacher of transnational students.
Although this is a single case study and its findings have limitations, it
still provides implications for TESOL teacher education. For example,
Julius’ situated learning experiences in China were invaluable in that the
experience made him realize the shortcomings in his knowledge base,
which inspired him to pursue graduate degrees, and also that the experi-
ence was helpful to his later teaching with Chinese students in the
U.S. This means “personal experiences in local contexts may be the mate-
rial origins of individual professional development” (Feryok, 2012,
p. 98). Therefore, teacher education programs should provide transna-
tional immersion experiences for teachers who will teach abroad or across
cultural contexts. Those student teachers should have “directed
experience” (Hogan, Rabinowitz, & Craven, 2003) in teaching a specific

group of students to get to know their dispositions and culture. At the
same time, they should be supervised by mentors who recognize the
importance of developing a transnational identity as a part of teaching
expertise in different cultural contexts. An example of this was how the
change of contexts in Julius’ teaching and the related conflicts automati-
cally provoked his transnational reflection on past teaching to problema-
tize his current teaching. Student teachers may therefore benefit from
different contexts of teaching for practicum or have the chance to com-
pare and contrast the transnational impact of different contexts on their
way of teaching as a development of expertise. Exposure to case studies,
like this chapter, can also be helpful for them to be aware of potential
problems they may encounter.
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Afterword: Who Controls
the Production of Knowledge? Teacher
Empowerment in TESOL Teacher
Education
Ruanni Tupas
At the end of the day, the chapters in this volume collectively provide us
with a lens through which we can interrogate prevalent assumptions and
practices in TESOL Teacher Education. Much has been said about the
nature of language education and language teacher education today
(Goodwin, 2020; Miller & Slocombe, 2012), but the dominant trajec-
tory has been to ‘prepare students and teachers for globalization’. This
volume unframes this trajectory and locates mobilities of knowledge,
practices and bodies in the field within the dynamic but unequally struc-
tured contexts of transnationalism.
Let us take the notion of ‘Global English’, for example. The discursive
formations which constitute and surround this term circulate in educa-
tional and political contexts around the world, and they are hegemonic
in nature in the sense that they inform official policies, educational
R. Tupas (*)
Department of Culture, Communication, and Media, Institute of Education,
University College London, London, UK
e-mail: r.tupas@ucl.ac.uk
334 R. Tupas
practices as well as popular understandings of the nature of English today.

The neoliberal (market-driven) embrace of English is essentially the
embrace of its so-called status as a global language: how do we open up
educational systems and workplace institutions to ‘Global English’ in
order to produce able bodies which can be competitive in markets of
capital accumulation? Yet, through the critical transnational lens put for-
ward by this volume, the notion of ‘Global English’ automatically impli-
cates its local(ized) nature (Park, 2009). In other words, the globalization
of English entails its localization as well (Sonntag, 2003). Global English
is local English or, better yet, local Englishes.
Nevertheless, a critical transnational lens also pushes us to rethink our
engagement with the pluralities of Englishes in TESOL and TESOL
Teacher Education contexts. Much has been said about world Englishes
(Llamzon, 1969), but locating the contested nature of the phenomena in
transnational contexts forces us to view Englishes as unequal Englishes
(Tupas, 2015): specific linguistic repertoires of English which congregate
around groups of speakers defy national boundaries and demystify the
global, but nevertheless also implicate groups and communities of multi-
lingual speakers within unequal sub-national, national and transnational
spaces. Unequal Englishes points us to inequalities of multilingualism
within which transnational TESOL Teacher Education operates. This
volume, solidly framed by the introduction of Ahmed and Barnawi, situ-
ates teacher education within tensions surrounding language choices and
cultural identities at the intersections of nationalism and globalization.
Thus, this is no longer merely a question of how to prepare ourselves for
‘Global English’, but how to confront, contest and transform inequalities
of ‘Global English’ in TESOL Teacher Education to do with unequal
access to privileged Englishes, symbolically and materially dominant lan-
guages, and technologies of power such as digital communication and
education. ‘Global English’ is a fiction (Phillipson, 2017), hegemonic but
never homogenous and monolingual even in a conceptual sense, yet such
transnationally circulating knowledge helps drive and/or sustain mobili-
ties of knowledge, practices and bodies in TESOL Teacher Education.
The chapters in this volume point to such vexed nature of transna-
tional mobilities (Phan Le Ha & Mohamad, 2020) – for example, the
ideological propagation of native speakerism (knowledge), the
Afterword: Who Controls the Production… 335
perpetuation of monolingualist methodologies of teaching (practices)

and the preferential hiring of ‘native’ speakers (bodies), circulated, con-
sumed and constructed by melded neoliberal and colonial infrastructures
of ‘Global English’. Kumaravadivelu (2006) refers to such infrastructures
in terms of structural conditions which make TESOL complicit with
globalization and empire. The chapters of this volume grapple with mul-
tiple challenges of transnationalism in TESOL Teacher Education, iden-
tifying sites of engagement and contestation – from reflective journals to
assessment literacies, from teacher trainings to materials preparation,
from curricular ideologies to intercultural content and practices -- gener-
ating different ways of understanding teacher education, yet none (thank-
fully) do subscribe to decontextualized models of ‘preparing teachers for
the global world’ without unpacking or at least acknowledging the com-
plexities of the use of ‘preparing’, ‘teachers’, ‘for’, ‘global’ and/or ‘world’.
These words point to power imbalances in mobilities of transnationally
circulating knowledge, practices and bodies (thus the unevenness of
knowledge ‘flows’ in transnational teacher education), and the problem-
atic nature of expertise.
The Challenge
As we move forward with presumably more nuanced understandings of
transnationalism in TESOL Teacher Education, the challenge now is not
simply how to prepare ourselves for the challenges of transnational work
in our field but, more crucially, how to prepare ourselves to be subjected
to the kinds of change or transformation we wish to happen in our field.
In different ways, many scholars have voiced exasperation over the rela-
tive lack of action on supposedly sophisticated transnationally circulating
knowledge we have accumulated through deeper engagements with criti-
cal theory and everyday practices of our profession (Kumaravadivelu,
2016). Too much research, according to Wheeler (2016), but too little
change. Based on issues coming through spaces of dialogue in this vol-
ume, we need to face fundamental questions which challenge our own
place in the mobilization of knowledge, practices and bodies in teacher
education. What this means is that teacher education cannot simply be
336 R. Tupas
about educating teachers but, more crucially, about educating ourselves

as teacher educators in the first place. Fundamental questions which chal-
lenge how we think and work are necessary in critically engaging and
transforming unequal transnational contexts of TESOL Teacher
Education.
Question 1: To what extent do we realize that the core problem in trans-
national TESOL Teacher Education is structural or systemic in nature? We
have endorsed ways to move forward with the challenges of transnation-
alism yet much of it has much to do with changing how we and our
student teachers think about the world we operate in (Barnawi & Phan
Le Ha, 2015). Such needed deconstruction of dominant knowledge in
our field is, of course, an important dimension in our quest for change,
but if epistemic change is viewed as an end in itself – such as a victory of
critical transnational work – then we are celebrating prematurely and
naively. At the core of contested and contesting knowledge is a transna-
tional infrastructure of knowledge production which mobilizes much of
how ideas and ideologies move between institutions and people: e.g., a
global textbook industry which promotes and perpetuates ideologies and
practices of ‘Global English’ (Gray, 2010) and which coalesces with global
assessment (Shohamy, 2007), scholarly publishing institutions
(Canagarajah, 1996), international aid agencies (Tupas & Tabiola, 2017),
and educational policies (Tsui & Tollefson, 2004). Structural change
implicates epistemic change (or alterations in the constitution of field
knowledge), but epistemic change does not guarantee a change in the
system of knowledge production. Thus, if we aim to transform how we
think about ideas and ideologies which circulate transnationally in our
field, we must ask ourselves if new ideas and ideologies alter the way
knowledge is produced and legitimized in our field. As one common
example, we should ask why native speakerism remains deeply rooted in
the everyday practice of our profession despite having been vigorously
critiqued for its discriminatory nature (Swan, Aboshiha, & Holliday,
2015). Could it be that while we have sharpened our critical understand-
ing of the destructive power of native speakerism we have nevertheless
turned a blind eye on “structural or institutional inequalities” (Kubota &
Lin, 2006, p. 472) within which deficit discourses in the field such as
‘non-native’ speakership are deeply embedded?
Question 2: What would transnational TESOL Teacher Education be

like if we refuse to take on the role of experts in the field? In transnational
work, ‘expertise’ is a problematic concept which constructs unequal rela-
tions of power among those involved in such work. It is a part of a hege-
monic deficit discourse which circulates and dominates the related fields
of TESOL and TESOL Teacher Education (Pennycook, 2016). Students
and teachers are mostly ‘non-native’ speakers of English, defined accord-
ing to what they are not – ‘native’ speakers (Llurda, 2016). The same defi-
cit discourse is mobilized when teacher-participants of workshops and
trainings are deemed ‘lacking’ of knowledge of ‘current’ trends in lan-
guage teaching and learning, thus they require the intervention of ‘experts’
in the field in order to know better (Tupas, 2020). Transnational mobili-
ties of knowledge in this sense involve uneven – in fact, hugely unilat-
eral – flows of ‘expert’ knowledge from the north to south (Tupas, 2020),
from native speakers to non-native speakers (Nguyen, 2017), and from
geopolitically-shaped and gendered generators of theory (e.g., ‘the west’,
male academics) to laboratories of data extraction and application of the-
ory (e.g., ‘Asia’, female teachers) (Pennycook, 1989) (see Connell, 2007).
What all this means is that being an ‘expert’ in the field is a hugely ideo-
logically and politically loaded positioning which invalidates the experi-
ences and cultures of people and places that ‘experts’ aim to transform in
the first place through their use of hegemonic knowledge in the field
(Chowdhury, 2003). Thus, are we prepared to lose our privilege as
upholders of expert knowledge in transnational exchanges of ideas and
experiences with TESOL, and if the answer is yes, how does TESOL
Teacher Education look like without the so-called experts? How will
knowledge be produced in the field or, even better, where do we start
producing productive, contextualized and appropriate knowledge in
transnational contexts of TESOL and language teacher education?
Question 3: How can ‘empowering’ teachers truly become empowering?
This question implies that not all acts of ‘empowerment’ are emancipa-
tory in nature because such acts already presuppose unequal relations
between two parties (Gore, 1989) – one party has the knowledge and
authority to ‘empower’ the other party who is deficient in experience,
knowledge and skills. In education, according to Weissberg (1999), peo-
ple seem to be intoxicated with the practice and discourse of
338 R. Tupas
empowerment with little self-reflective understanding of what it means

and what it does in the field. Despite good intentions, the structural flow
of empowerment parallels what we described earlier as transnational
mobilities of knowledge characterized by uneven and unilateral flows of
‘expert’ knowledge. In TESOL Teacher Education, empowerment takes
the form of informing and training teachers on best and current practices
and theories in the field: e.g., teachers must be sensitized into critical
sociolinguistic issues, as well as theories and methods of teaching and
learning. Again teachers here are deemed deficient until such time that
they learn about World Englishes, English as a Lingua Franca,
Communicative Language Teaching, Task-based Language Learning,
translingualism and so on.
Thus, teacher educators should not be deluded into thinking that
introducing students or student teachers the ‘best practices’ and ‘most
current’ theories and methodologies in the profession, automatically
translates into empowerment. In fact, consistent research which has
demonstrated the inappropriacy or incompatibility of the cultural ethos
of language teaching methods and approaches emanating from the cen-
tres of knowledge production such as Europe and the United States
(Chowdhury, 2003; Jaspers, 2018; Kramsch & Sullivan, 1996), reminds
us that presumably liberating initiatives in fact disempower teachers and
students from determining the shape of their own teaching and learning
in the classroom. It seems that the core challenge in teacher empower-
ment is not simply the expansion or broadening of the knowledge base
of teachers, including their ability to evaluate, critique and/or apply
such knowledge in the classroom, but rather the altering of the very
structure of knowledge production. Thus ask Ilieva and Waterstone
(2013): “Is a critique of native speaker ideology and embracing the dis-
course of multi-competence truly a route to disrupt existing power rela-
tions or could these be another iteration of Center [NABA] domination
of TESOL programs?” (p. 34). In other words, we should take owner-
ship over the means and modes of knowledge production, rather than
simply over particular (marginalized) forms and content of knowledge
(Tupas, 2020).
Ways Forward
What we have discussed above are three key questions (but certainly not
the only ones) which we all should be asking ourselves as TESOL educa-
tors and teacher educators if we are to address and transform the unequal
contexts of transnational work in which we operate as TESOL research-
ers, language educators and language teacher educators:
• To what extent do we realize that the core problem in transnational

TESOL Teacher Education is structural or systemic in nature?
• What would transnational TESOL Teacher Education be like if we
refuse to take on the role of experts in the field?
• How can ‘empowering’ teachers truly become empowering?
The next step now is to map out ways to address these questions col-
lectively as if they belong (because they do) to the same network of epis-
temic problematics and material conditions which dictate the workings
of knowledge production in our field. This is a massive endeavour because
radical epistemological change and transformation of material conditions
are pursued within the very same knowledge frames and structures of
unfreedom. Nevertheless, massive does not mean impossible, and there
have been stories of success for the past few decades where ownership
over the processes of knowledge production have been seized by those
who are directly engaged with the everyday struggles of life (Canieso-
Doronila, 1996). Here is one:
Several years ago, I served as one of the co-Project Directors of a three-year

capability-building project in curriculum development for college English
teachers in institutions in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and the
Philippines (for details, see Tupas, 2020, 2014). Unlike most projects
which aim to work with teachers for their professional development, this
Singapore-funded project was conceptualized and operationalized by dis-
pensing with the notion of ‘experts’ and framing it as a collaborative
expertise-building project through which all participants, including me
and my fellow project director, would develop their expertise in the devel-
opment of culturally appropriate and contextualized materials in the teach-
340 R. Tupas
ing of English and professional communication. Prevalent theoretical

frameworks and methodologies in materials development (e.g., communi-
cative language teaching, task-based language teaching) did not occupy any
appointed space in the three-year project because the core approach was
the mapping of problems and strengths of the local contexts of teaching
and learning (for example, through needs analysis, classroom observations,
interviews with students, teachers and administrators), strategic identifica-
tion of ways to address the specific problems, framing of materials writing
within the network of problems and strategies emerging from local educa-
tional contexts, writing of materials, use and testing of materials in the
classroom (using different research methods), revision of materials and
then incorporating these materials into course syllabi and, in some institu-
tions, programme curricula.
This approach to capability- or expertise-building was premised on the

understanding of knowledge production as systemic and disempowering
(but also potentially empowering), and this has been demonstrated many
times over in the duration of the project. Initially, many participants
questioned the ‘absence’ of ‘experts’ in the project, asking questions like
‘Who are the experts in this project?’, but also raising concerns about
their inability to write their own materials because they were not ‘native’
speakers of English. Here, knowledge production depended on looking
to ‘experts’ for guidance, but essentially this meant looking to the ‘west’
or western-trained project facilitators for best theories and practices
(Barnawi & Phan Le Ha, 2015; Nayar, 1989). Native-speakerism (Swan
et al., 2015) in this sense was embedded within geopolitical structures of
knowledge production (Phillipson, 2016) where the practice of materials
design was framed as needing the intervention of ‘experts’ from particular
geopolitical spaces and who are usually ‘native’ speakers who barely know
the local contexts of teaching and learning. Another constraint which was
systemic in nature was the mobilization of the infrastructures of the state
and state institutions in determining the textbooks and learning measure-
ments to be used in school. These would include the unilateral, decontex-
tualized and wholesale imposition of hegemonic assessment matrices
foremost of which is the compulsory use of the Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) for teaching, learning
and assessment.
As the teachers began to approach materials development differently –

for example, by identifying their own problems and proposing innovative
ways to address them – it was soon increasingly becoming clear that
teachers were claiming ownership over their own teaching. Gradually,
they were producing essential knowledge which would help them frame
their approaches to teaching and learning, justifying why they did what
they did based on such knowledge, and not dictated by the idealized or
constructed ‘needs’ of pre-given pedagogical frameworks. It was at this
time of the project when the teachers were drawing on these familiar
frameworks as well, but not so much because they started with these
frameworks but more so because they were pulling together eclectically
different ways of addressing the problems they themselves identified. In
short, the structure of knowledge production was somehow altered in the
sense that it was the local needs which served as the broad framework for
operationalizing teaching and learning (see Thomas, 2017). Of course,
‘local’ here does not mean a myopic, inward view. It means a vantage
point of knowledge production – where does one begin producing
knowledge to inform ones’ practices and bodily mobilities?
In the process, the teachers also began teaching each other, including
me and my co-Project Director, about their respective processes of pro-
ducing knowledge for classroom and school decision-making. Materials
were shared and critiqued through workshops among teachers belonging
to the same institution, but there were also workshops and exchanges
between institutions. This meant travelling within and between countries
for three years. Needs analysis was conducted on the materials, and the
designs of the research were also shared and critiqued before they were
implemented in their respective classrooms. In these conversations, espe-
cially during workshops which they were asked to lead on their own,
structural conditions (e.g., institutional constraints, market-driven lan-
guage ideologies, state social policies) were also discussed in order to
understand why proposed solutions might not work without making
practical adjustments or strategizing ways of engagement with school
management or decision-makers. Overall, the whole process of capability-
building was building expertise from within the spheres of experience of
the teachers themselves who are central to the production of knowledge
necessary in the effective operationalization of their own teaching and
342 R. Tupas
their students’ learning (Call-Cummings, 2018). In capability-building

projects, expertise is assumed to come from the ‘outside’ and those who
‘need’ to build their own capabilities to teach (including write their own
materials for teaching) act as recipients of such expertise. In an arguably
radically different approach to capability-building, especially in contexts
which have indeed been historically viewed as peripheral to the produc-
tion of so-called legitimate knowledge in the field, expertise takes shape
and emerges from within the dynamics of teachers driving the produc-
tion of knowledge for their own use.
Conclusion
In brief, transnational TESOL Teacher Education works within condi-
tions of unfreedom. Hence, we must exercise informed scepticism about
the knowledge we use in our teaching because it is produced by unequal
structures of knowledge production which typically place teachers at the
receiving end of such knowledge. To work against these conditions is to
work within the structural boundaries of such conditions; thus, teacher
empowerment must be interrogated in terms of its ability to ‘truly’
empower teachers to make their own decisions. To make this possible,
empowerment implies we must let go of ‘expertise’ as the driving force of
educating our student teachers and their students. Rather, expertise takes
form in the process of teachers taking control over their own professional
learning and practice.
What all this means is that there is a need to overhaul our understand-
ing of how we should address the existing but uneven workings of mobil-
ities of knowledge, practices and bodies in transnational TESOL Teacher
Education. It does not mean that expanding our repertoire of “types of
knowledges” in teacher education (Kincheloe, 2004, p. 50) from which
alternative knowledges are drawn is not important. What it means essen-
tially is that addressing transnational inequalities within and across which
knowledges, practices and bodies are produced and exchanged, demands
that control over the production of knowledge itself is paramount. If
teachers take control of the knowledge they need to teach well broadly
speaking, this will also translate into their control of classroom practices
and, in fact, also mobilities of their own bodies less shaped by ideologies
and market-driven agenda such as native-speakerism than the knowledge
produced and drawn from their appraisal of their ‘needs’ and that of their
respective communities. It is not just control of knowledge but, more
crucially, control of its production that will alter in a substantial way the
flow of knowledge across practices and bodies in transnational spaces.
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Index1
A 292–294, 300, 303, 305, 316,

Answerability, 27, 28 321, 323, 324, 335–338
Autoethnographic approach, Classroom-based assessment,
9, 239–256 7, 84, 93–95
Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT), 63, 64, 66, 68, 70, 71,
B 203, 206, 240, 243, 250, 252,
Bangladesh, 63–69, 73, 75, 78 317, 338, 340
Constructivist, 200, 202
Content, 4, 10, 28, 40, 41, 65, 67,
C 70, 74, 75, 77, 94, 111, 113,
Challenges, 6–8, 21, 40–41, 43, 45, 117–120, 133, 183, 201, 202,
46, 48, 50, 56–58, 60, 87, 205–208, 214–216, 218, 222,
107–121, 156, 183–184, 195, 224, 226, 227, 251, 252, 274,
196, 200, 201, 203, 206, 221, 276, 277, 313, 314, 319, 322,
222, 226, 227, 232, 251, 253, 335, 338
263, 266, 269, 279, 288, 290, Contextualize curriculum, 184, 185
1
Note: Page numbers followed by ‘n’ refer to notes.
Teacher Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64140-5
348 Index
D Ideologies, 7–9, 13, 14, 19, 22–28,

The Day of the Dead, 8, 148, 149, 31, 32, 85, 148, 174, 181,
152–154, 157, 159–161, 192, 198–202, 208, 252, 279,
163, 164 324, 328, 335, 336, 338,
Decolonial approaches, 14, 27 341, 343
Digital collaboration, 192, 193, 197, International, 4, 5, 15–17, 39, 44,
201, 205–209 48, 49, 51, 54, 57, 67, 72, 87,
89, 109, 119, 153, 180, 185,
202, 204, 213, 214, 217, 219,
E 223, 261, 262, 264–267,
Education, 1–11, 39–60, 63, 84, 270–271, 273, 275–278,
107, 123, 149, 156, 169, 280–283, 288, 290, 292, 294,
191–209, 239–256, 261–283, 295, 298, 300n4, 304, 305,
289, 311–330, 333–343 312, 318, 321, 326, 336
English education, 201, 241–244, Islamic school, 9, 69
247–249, 253, 254, 256, 265
Enhancement, 118
J
Journal, 10, 126, 196, 224, 227,
H 287–306, 335
Halloween, 8, 148, 149, 153–154,
157, 159–164
Holidays, 147–164, 251 K
Kenya, 8, 193, 194, 197,
200–205, 208
I
Identity, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 14–25,
27, 30, 41, 42, 51–52, L
58, 64–66, 71–73, 78, Language, 1, 2, 13, 41, 63–80, 84,
89, 90, 124, 127–129, 107, 147–164, 170, 191, 213,
140, 148–151, 153–156, 239–256, 262, 287, 312, 333
163, 170, 175, 191–194,
197, 198, 200, 202, 204,
208, 209, 214, 217–220, M
223–225, 231, 239, 244, Materials development, 9, 219,
247, 254, 256, 275, 277, 291, 221–224, 242, 340, 341
292, 298, 313, 315, 316, 318, Methodology, 19, 46–48, 90–93,
323, 327, 329, 330, 334 130–137, 157, 177, 178, 181,
Index 349
192, 194, 208, 233, 242, S

245–254, 267, 305, 317–318, Social and linguistic justice, 4
335, 338, 340
Mexican transnationals, 8
Mobility, 2–6, 9, 11, 13–15, 17–19, T
21, 25, 89, 100, 102, 147, Teacher agency, 192
156, 164, 175, 179, 232, 240, Teacher development, 10, 107–110,
254, 288, 295, 298–299, 305, 112, 119, 253, 313, 314
312, 333–335, 337, Teacher education, 1–11, 13–33,
338, 341–343 39–60, 63, 85–86, 112,
153, 154, 156, 163, 164,
169–171, 179, 183, 185,
P 191–209, 221, 239–256,
Peace education, 9 261–283, 295, 298, 304, 305,
Pedagogy, 9–11, 29–31, 45, 89, 311–330, 333–343
108–110, 115, 116, 118, 121, Teacher identity, 65, 140, 204, 209,
192, 193, 202–204, 206–208, 239, 244, 247, 254, 256,
222, 240, 241, 245, 264, 276, 275, 277
279, 289–291, 293, 296, Teacher narrative, 244, 245, 252
298–300, 302, 303, 305, 306, Teaching English to Speakers of
325, 326 Other Languages (TESOL),
Postcolonial, 66, 201 1–11, 13–33, 39–60, 67,
Pre-service language teachers, 8, 138, 84–86, 89, 91, 112, 169–185,
139, 239–256 191–194, 197–201, 206, 208,
Professional development (PD), 6–7, 240, 244, 261–283, 287–306,
39–60, 73, 75, 83, 85, 86, 311–330, 333–343
88–90, 93, 98–103, 107–121, Translinguistic, 192, 208
192, 220–222, 224, 225, 232, Transnational framework, 14, 26
233, 239, 300, 329, 339 Transnationalism, 4–6, 9–11, 13–33,
64, 83, 107, 127, 150–152,
156, 169–185, 192, 198, 209,
R 241, 262, 263, 298–299,
Reflective, 9, 11, 42, 54, 204, 227, 313–317, 333, 335, 336
232, 239, 241, 242, 244,
253–255, 261, 264,
287–306, 335 U
Returnees, 124n1 U.S. curricular, 8

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Mobility of Knowledge,

Practice and Pedagogy in

ISBN 978-3-030-64139-9 ISBN 978-3-030-64140-5 (eBook)

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2021

Charting a New Pathway: Repositioning Toward Research,

Assessment Literacy: Transnational Teachers’ Concepts,

 Transnational Peace-Education Framework of EFL Material

Afterword: Who Controls the Production of Knowledge?

Anwar Ahmed is an assistant professor in the Department of Languages,

Salim Almashani is an English Lecturer at the University of Technology

Kenan Dikilitaş is a professor at the Department of Higher Education

of English at University of Karachi, Pakistan. She has extensive experi-

Didactiques, Discours) she conducts research on the pedagogy and didac-

Jennifer Pena is a graduate student at Florida International University

Araceli Salas is an ELT teacher-educator and researcher at Benemèrita

 Transnational Peace-Education Framework of EFL Material

Table 5 Model summary 138

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 1

skills, and ethical dispositions. After briefly commenting on the notion of

 scillation Between Globalization

national culture and heritage. Thus, when nation-states fluctuate between

terms of content, delivery and measurement. With too much focus on

analytical lens. Transnationalism refers to multiple ties and activities that

In chapter “Transnationalism in TESOL Teacher Education and Applied

Historically, teachers’ professional development has been conceptualized

English Language Teachers’ Use of Transnational Teacher Training”,

Ideology, Culture and Peace

There is no such thing as ideology-free, neutral education. For example,

Morgan & Vandrick, 2009). However, an empirical question that needs

ideological awareness and intercultural competencies enable them to

Turing to Self in a Crowded World

duoethnographic approaches to reconstructing their experiences in

Rethinking Teaching Expertise

Throughout the history of formal teacher education, there have been

us back to the broader question of knowledge generation and dissemina-

Conclusion with an Invitation

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 13

natural. As professionals in teaching and learning of English—the lan-

 istorical Development: Scholarly Discussion

which tends to only emphasize migrants’ social connections unidirection-

Along with perceived importance and desire to learn English, researchers

 ransnational Language and Identity Practices

Problematizing the untenable assumption of universality on the link

more holistic approach to study of language and literacy, focusing on

As discussed above through the concept of speech community, a

complexity of transnational subject positions as constructed and trans-

“ Changing” Realities and Lasting Ideology:

stigmatizing transnational students and teachers. In TESOL teacher edu-

emerged out of the argument for fostering multilingual competence being

 harting a New Pathway: Repositioning

In pursuing a decolonial approach in our research and teacher educa-

Implications for TESOL and Teacher Education

In the classroom context, focusing on answerability can start with a shift

landscape. Yet, in our increasingly transnational and translingual reality,

the form-focused view, while being conscientious of how students’ expe-

In actualizing this reconceptualization, repositioning, and reapproach-

on what students are able to do with languages, beyond just focusing on

Motha, S., Jain, R., & Tecle, T. (2012). Translinguistic identity-as-pedagogy.

TESOL International Association. (n.d.). Mission. Retrieved from https://www.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 39

The literature sees teaching as an important, complex, and equally

Much research in the area of professional development in transnational

universities for effective teaching and learning. Teachers were found to be

Assessment Literacy: Transnational Teachers’ Concepts,

Transnational Peace-Education Framework of EFL Material

Afterword: Who Controls the Production of Knowledge?

Transnational Peace-Education Framework of EFL Material

Table 5 Model summary 138

scillation Between Globalization

Ideology, Culture and Peace

Turing to Self in a Crowded World

Rethinking Teaching Expertise

Conclusion with an Invitation

istorical Development: Scholarly Discussion

ransnational Language and Identity Practices

“ Changing” Realities and Lasting Ideology:

harting a New Pathway: Repositioning

Implications for TESOL and Teacher Education

Reflection and Self-Awareness

Role of Cultural Disposition

Joint Responsibility Practices

se of Proper Technology for Successful e-Teaching

Conceptualizing Transnational Professional Learning

L earning and Development Opportunities

Sense of Privilege, Identity, and Sense of Self-Awareness

Raising Intercultural Awareness and Positive Emotions

xploring Multiple Perspectives and Becoming Open-Minded,

ustainability in Learning, Source of Motivation,

Challenges in Transnational Initiatives

Lack of Interest in Transnational Opportunities

Discussion and Conclusion

Transnational Teacher Training in Bangladesh