Expanding Understandings of Race in Postsecondary Language Classrooms

Abstract

While issues of race in relation to teacher identity have been addressed in language education research, they have often been confined to special issues. Factors contributing to the “absent-present” nature of race include an imbalanced focus on intersectionality which tends to prioritize the teacher's linguistic identity over other social categories, such as race and the persistent dichotomy between the idealized native speaker and non-native speaker. To broaden the understandings of race in teacher identity research within postsecondary language classrooms, this chapter advocates for considering the notion of multiraciality. To support these arguments, results from a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of four empirical studies are presented. The analysis demonstrates that race is often perceived as fixed and singular. The findings suggest that language educators and researchers should engage in critical thinking about how they describe and racially classify students and participants.