As foreign English teachers in Japan, we are often seen as cultural and racial ambassadors (Reed, 2015). This means that, whether we teach explicitly about cultural diversity and related issues or not, students often believe that we are typical examples of the racial and cultural make-up of our respective countries. I come from a country that prides itself on its multicultural population and, as a Black English woman, I admit that it irks me when people misrepresent my country as mono-ethnic and mono-racial. To illustrate, I will share an anecdote from early on in my teaching career.
I was enjoying a coffee date with two female friends who were tenured professors at a university near where I lived. One friend was Thai and Asian, and the other was English and Caucasian. At one point in the conversation, the Thai professor started to regale the English professor with compliments on her beautiful white skin. She did not compliment me on having beautiful brown skin, but I understood that, in Asian countries, white skin has historically been seen as a form of social capital (Bourdieu, 1986), which denotes their status of beauty (Franco & Roach, 2023). What irked me most was not the Thai teacher’s admiration for white skin but my English friend’s reply, “You should come to England. Everyone looks like this.” I interjected and said, “No, they don’t,” but the conversation swiftly moved on. I was discomforted by this exchange, especially by the unintentional reinforcing of racial stereotypes by an English person that, frankly, should have known better. I felt invisible in that conversation, as if all the cultural and racial diversity of my country were somehow erased.
Reflecting on this long-ago conversation, I wondered to what extent teachers might perpetuate this kind of “everyone looks like this” stereotype when English speakers teach the culture and people of their homelands. Indeed, in Japan and elsewhere, the English language is associated with the perceived Whiteness of so-called inner circle countries such as the U.S., the U.K., and Australia (Gerald, 2020). Therefore, if we do not disavow such beliefs, we, as educators and cultural and racial representatives, do students a disservice in the classroom.
Having said that, there have been positive inroads into creating awareness about diversification as it relates to English learning. For example, recent university initiatives regarding language acquisition have positioned English as the language of globalization and internationalization (Seargeant, 2013). Indeed, over the past two decades, we have seen a global increase in research on English language teachers (ELTs) who have diverse backgrounds (Canagarajarah, 2012; Curtis & Romney, 2010; Ohri, 2020; Ramjattan, 2019). However, there remains a lack of diversity among teachers in Japanese educational institutions. The fact that, at Japanese universities, ELTs (and, especially, tenured ELTs) are overwhelmingly Caucasian men who are from Western countries is a stark reflection of this (Gough, 2020; Nagatomo & Cook, 2019; Yphantides, 2020). Moreover, a focus on improving students’ English proficiency levels has often overshadowed crucial aspects of diversity (Rakhshandehroo, 2023), including intercultural awareness, race relations, and gender equality. While the socio-political and historical links between the Japanese government and, so-called, White-majority countries like the U.S. and U.K. are one reason for this tendency, the actual multicultural nature of these countries is not reflected on the foreign ELT population.
Many gatekeepers to ELT university jobs are trying to correct this imbalance. Unfortunately, the status quo tends to be maintained partly because of the deeply embedded discourse of native speakerism (Holliday, 2006), which maintains the idea that the best English teachers are naturally from inner-circle countries. Within this discourse, the ideal ELT teacher is racialized as White and gendered as male (Kubota & Lin, 2006; Gerald, 2020). In addition, it is also important to reflect on the systematic inequalities wrought by native speakerism, which act as true barriers to racial and cultural diversity in ELT, and on how cultural expression and representation have become limited in the ELT classroom when all teachers come from similar backgrounds.
Because culture and English language learning are interconnected, how culture is presented shapes students’ motivations and perceptions of the target language (Byram, et al, 2002). As educators, we want to give students opportunities to gain realistic worldviews and perceptions of the people who use English globally, and it behooves us to be aware that our students are likely to accept the cultural information we give without question. For example, if, we only use images or videos of Caucasian English speakers from England, the skewed perception of an England that is devoid of cultural and racial diversity is reinforced. We also need to be aware that students enter the classroom with a certain amount of “cultural baggage” (Fels, 1994 as cited in Stephan, 2010, p. 111), which contains preconceptions and stereotypes around English and English speakers influenced by the media and the ideologies surrounding them.
In our positions as ELTs, we have the power to disavow students of their stereotypes and help them to unpack their cultural baggage in authentic ways, which will foster intercultural understanding and acceptance of cultural diversity. Examples of pedagogical methods that can be used to reverse or prevent racial and cultural stereotypes include using visual teaching materials that portray people of a variety of appearances in a variety of cultural contexts and building culturally expansive assignments, such as researching an unfamiliar foreign country, into an English curriculum (Haye-Matsui, 2022).
It is not uncommon for teachers to teach the culture and people of their countries through the lenses of their own experiences since a teacher’s professional and personal identities are intrinsically linked (Farrell, 2016; Nagatomo, 2016). However, if we only present a mono-ethnic view of our countries and of English speakers in general, it gives students a false worldview. We are not preparing students for the plethora of languages, ethnic groups, and skin tones they will encounter in any major city in the world. We are not preparing them for the new identity markers, such as foreigner, Asian, and minority, that will be added to their own nationalities when they cross borders. Nor are we are aiding them in accepting the growing cultural diversity within Japan (Glasgow, 2023). Therefore, it is imperative that we adopt a more inclusive approach to ELT, which reflects the true diversity of our world and prepares our students for the global society they are part of.
References
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Byram, M., Gribkova, B., & Starkey, H. (2002). Developing the intercultural dimension in language teaching: A practical introduction for teachers. Council of Europe.
Canagarajah, A. S. (2012). Teacher Development in a global profession: An autoethnography. TESOL Quarterly, 46(2), 258–279. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.18
Curtis, A., & Romney, M. (Eds.). (2010). Color, race, and English language teaching: Shades of meaning. Routledge.
Farrell, T. S. C. (2016). “Who I am is how I teach”: Reflecting on language teacher professional role identity. In Barkhuizen, G. (Ed.), Reflections on language teacher identity research (pp. 215–220). Routledge.
Franco, N. A., & Roach, S. S. (2023). Colorism as a catalyst for the skin whitening industry in Thailand Malaysian Journal of Business and Economics, 10(1), 80–94. https://doi.org/10.51200/mjbe.v10i1.3823
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Glasgow, G. P. (Ed.). (2023). Multiculturalism, language, and race in English education in Japan: Agency, pedagogy, and reckoning. Candlin & Mynard.
Gough, W. (2020). Social and professional perceptions of a single career woman working in tertiary education. In D. H. Nagatomo, K. A. Brown, & M. L. Cook (Eds.), Foreign female English teachers in Japanese higher education: Narratives from our quarter (pp. 129–143). Candlin & Mynard.
Haye-Matsui, A. (2022). Exploring issues of race and gender among Black female English language teachers in Japan [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Ochanomizu University.
Holliday, A. (2006). Native-speakerism. ELT Journal, 60(4), 385–387. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccl030
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Nagatomo, D. H., & Cook, M. (2019). “He said, she said”: Female and male dynamics in Japanese universities. In P. Wadden & C. C. Hale (Eds.), Teaching English at Japanese universities (pp. 159–164). Routledge.
Ohri, R. (2020). Above and beyond the single story. In D. H. Nagatomo, K. A. Brown, & M. L. Cook (Eds.), Foreign female English teachers in Japanese higher education: Narratives from our quarter (pp. 223–236). Candling & Mynard.
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Seargeant, P. (2013). Ideologies of nativism and linguistic globalization. In D. J. Rivers & S. A. Houghton (Eds.), Native-speakerism in Japan: Intergroup dynamics in foreign language education (pp. 231–242). Multilingual Matters.
Stephan, M. (2010). Musings of a Black ESL instructor. In A. Curtis & M. Romney (Eds.), Color, race, and English language teaching: Shades of meaning (pp. 107–120). Routledge.
Yphantides, J. (2020). Walking the tightrope: The gendered experiences of contractually employed foreign women teaching EFL in Japan. In D. H. Nagatomo, K. A. Brown, & M. L. Cook (Eds.), Foreign female English teachers in Japanese higher education: Narratives from our quarter (pp. 167–181). Candlin & Mynard.
Avril Haye-Matsui, a lecturer at Aichi Prefectural University, holds a PhD in applied linguistics from Ochanomizu University. Her research focuses on intersectionality, teacher identity, and social justice in English language teaching (ELT). She explored the experiences and identity development of African diaspora women in Japan. Dr. Haye-Matsui co-founded Black Women in Japan and founded the Women’s Empowerment Circle. She resides in central Japan with her family. Her recent publications include: Exploring Issues of Race and Gender Among Black Female English Language Professionals in Japan (her doctoral dissertation); Black, British and Female in the Japanese University English Classroom; and The Narrative of a Female Jamaican ALT in Japan: Status and identity.
Plenary Abstract
We are all Diverse: Celebrating Diversity in English Language Teaching
This journey of embracing diversity in our teaching practice can be a transformative one, offering educators a chance for personal growth and professional development. Moreover, the dichotomy between native and non-native speaker teachers, far from being beneficial, has proven to be outdated and a source of more harm than good to the development of English language teacher identity (Houghton & Rivers, 2013). This dichotomy has resulted in discriminatory practices towards teachers who do not fulfil certain racial, gender and nationality criteria, such as being denied job opportunities or facing unequal treatment in the workplace. As a result, it has limited students’ access to cultural funds of knowledge and diverse teaching methods. It is now time to move beyond such limiting discourses and celebrate the different things teachers from all backgrounds bring to the table. In this talk, I will discuss how teachers can use their diverse identities to create meaningful student learning experiences. Using examples from my teaching career and stories from my research participants, I will illustrate how important it is for students and teachers to increase their awareness of diversity-related issues and the positive impact such awareness has on increasingly diverse student populations. In a world marked by divisions, the act of embracing diversity becomes not only a path to excellence but also a gateway to a multitude of opportunities for all.
Workshop Abstract
Diversity and Teaching Practice
Banegas, Beacon and Berbain (2021) assert that “Diversity needs to inform the construction of the learning environment, syllabi, and curricula…” (p. 5). This assertion underscores the practicality of the strategies discussed in this workshop. Educators will be encouraged to increase their awareness of the importance of diversity in ELT, stimulating the creation of culturally responsive and inclusive activities they can readily use in their classrooms. The workshop will start by examining the concept of diversity in ELT and then progress to the various strategies that can be used to incorporate diversity and issues related to diversity into classroom practice. This interactive workshop will provide educators with practical opportunities to examine their current teaching practices and curricula and devise strategies to teach in inclusive ways that value hidden and visible diversity within student and teacher populations.
Reference
Banegas, D. L., Beacon, G., & Berbain, M. P. (Eds.). (2021). International perspectives on diversity in ELT. Palgrave MacMillan
