Coloniality and Whiteness in Evangelical ESL Classrooms

Abstract

This chapter ethnographically investigates how ideologies of whiteness and missions interact in an evangelical English language school in South Carolina. Using discourse analysis of classroom observations and interviews with five teachers across eleven classes, the chapter explores how whiteness is central to but unmarked in the presentation of American culture that students are socialized into, and how legacies of colonialism and assimilationist strategies are upheld in the presentation of white evangelical culture as equivalent to American culture. The ideologies described here demonstrate how contemporary practices of evangelical ESL programs continue to reflect a lingering history of colonialism and white supremacy in which the field of English teaching has long been implicated (Han & Varghese, 2019; Kim, 2019; Kubota, 2001, 2021; Pennycook, 2002; Vaccino-Salvadore, 2021; Vandrick, 1999). It is important to note where the legacy of these movements remains so that biases and harmful practices can be confronted and ameliorated.