Ali Fuad Selvi

Conceptualizing and Confronting Inequity: Approaches Within and New Directions for the “NNEST Movement”

This article examines inequity as conceptualized and approached within and through the non-native English speakers in TESOL (NNEST) “movement.”1 The authors unpack critical approaches to the NNEST experience, conceptualized via binaries (NS/NNS; NEST/NNEST). The authors then explore postmodern and poststructural approaches to identity and inequity that problematize dichotomies, and the implications such approaches might have for addressing inequity and cultivating inclusivity in English language teaching.

The medium-of-instruction debate in Turkey: oscillating between national ideas and bilingual ideals

Situated at the intersection of sociolinguistic and educational planes, English as a medium-of-instruction debate has always been at the crux of the intense debates, and offers a lens for a systematic investigation of the spread of English in Turkey. As Turkey is moving toward greater integration with the European Union and promoting its competitiveness at the global level, the medium-of-instruction debate is more relevant than ever. Departing from this conceptualization, this state-of-the-art article investigates the medium-of-instruction debate in Turkey by drawing from a wide range of sources including official documents, news articles, and empirical research reports. I contend that the medium-of-instruction pendulum in Turkey is oscillating between national ideas and bilingual ideals, and consequently creates a tremendous influence on social and educational strata of Turkish society. In order to document the swing of the pendulum, the current paper presents a blend of the historical and the sociolinguistic trajectories of the debate and overviews implications in the field of education. The paper concludes with a problematization of existing policies and implementations, and suggests educational policy recommendations that might inform the future of the medium-of-instruction debate and English-language teaching in the formation of twenty-first-century Turkey.

Introduction: Conceptualizing and Approaching “Education for Glocal Interaction”

In this introduction, the volume editors discuss the sociohistorical negotiation of conceptual tensions and shifts within the discursive field of English language education, as stakeholders face the potential reconciliation of theory, research, and practice founded upon static, essentialized, and idealized boundaries of language, culture, place, and identity, with movement, border crossing, and hybridity (Kramsch 2014; Pennycook 2010). The editors then unpack the framework for the edited volume and provide the overview of the chapters therein.

Inclusive and exclusive uses of we in four American textbooks for multicultural teacher education

This study analyses four American multicultural teacher education textbooks for instances of inclusive and exclusive representations through the use of first person plural pronouns (i.e. we, us, our, ours). Positioning theory is used as a theoretical framework to examine the textbook authors’ uses of first person plural pronouns and to understand how these pronouns perform reflexive and interactive positioning and fluidly (re)negotiate and (re)delineate the borders between ‘self’ and ‘other.’ The findings suggest that first person plural pronouns are used extensively in the focal textbooks to refer to such groups as authors, Americans, humans, teachers, and teacher educators. Expressing differing levels of ambiguity in interpretation, these pronouns play significant roles in the discursive representations of inclusivity and exclusivity across topics of multicultural education. This study implicates that language teachers should use criticality and reflexivity when approaching exclusionary discourses and representations that neglect the particularities of individuals from different cultures.

The role of teacher education at a crossroads of tensions and opportunities

The unparalleled demand, use and appropriation of English as the world’s ‘international language’ or ‘lingua franca’ is a high-priority item on educational agendas across the globe. Seen in tandem with the recent patterns of migration, mobility and border-crossing practices in a glocalized world (Appadurai, 2000), transnational and transcultural uses, users and functions of English serve as a powerful catalyst for understanding, reflecting, interrogating, negotiating and reconceptualizing the deeply ingrained values and practices in English language teaching (ELT) (Selvi & Rudolph, in press). Consequently, ELT – as an activity, profession and bona fide area of scholarly inquiry – is characterized by these dynamically changing and inextricably intertwined set of trends and parameters. In this article, I aim to provide a broad overview of some of the critical perspectives which teachers and teacher educators in Asia (and beyond) would find helpful to consider in understanding, evaluating and reconceptualizing their everyday practices. I first provide a synopsis of the transformation occurring in the deeply inherent values and practices in ELT vis-à-vis the present-day sociolinguistic realities of English. Next, I would like to underscore the vital link between language pedagogy and language teacher education in equipping transnational and transcultural users with knowledge, skills and a sociolinguistic repertoire to function in today’s glocalized world. In the final section, I scrutinize affordances and constraints embedded in teacher education practices in two countries (i.e. Turkey and Northern Cyprus) and offer some specific directions and considerations for teacher educators to consider when designing, revising and implementing curricula to prepare teachers of English.