Racial Discrimination and TESOL

Abstract

While the field of TESOL/TEFL claims to be inclusive given that it is composed of a myriad of sociocultural backgrounds and environments, racial discrimination is a common phenomenon, especially in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Nonetheless, this issue has not been given enough attention by researchers, in that particular region at least. This article reports the findings of a small-scale qualitative study conducted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia drawing upon the experiences of six non-Saudi male English as a Foreign Language (EFL) lecturers. Open-ended questionnaires and interviews were used to collect data to explore the relationship between teachers' construction of their ethnic and racial identities and issues of discrimination within their professional environment. The study explored the participants' construction of their ethnic and cultural identity and its possible relation to discriminatory practices in their professional environment. The research showed how certain discriminatory practices affected how the participants projected their ethnic and cultural identity in their professional context.