Navigating morality in neoliberal spaces of English language education

Abstract

Abstract Neoliberal policies in education have created a focus on profits and competition, systemically casualized teachers as workers, and commodified language and race in ways that impact teachers and how they navigate the morality of their work under these conditions. This article investigates teachers as they construct moral selves in the neoliberal context of private English language institutes in South Korea. Drawing on data from a two-year longitudinal study, it offers new insights on teacher morality construction using positioning analysis of narratives. Narrative analysis allows for situated, interactive, layered examinations of how teachers create moral selves. In their stories, explanations, justifications, and other linguistic devices mark positions in which teachers disagree with, yet align to neoliberal policies. These tensions illustrate how neoliberalism comes to be viewed as immutable, and how teachers adopt an individualized sense of justice in response, while also facing pressure to maintain privileges they gain through the system.