Editorial mobilities, immobilities and inequalities interrogating travelling ideas in english language education and english medium instruction in world contexts

Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration Volume Number © 2019 Intellect Ltd Editorial English language doi: 10.1386/tjtm_00001_2 Editorial Dat Bao Monash University Phan Le Universiti Brunei darussalam and University of Hawaii at Manoa osman Barnawi royal Commission Colleges and institutes at Yanbu mobilities, immobilities and inequalities: interrogating ‘travelling’ ideas in english language education and english medium instruction in world contexts This special issue interrogates the mobility and mobilization of major ideas that have been driving policy, pedagogy and practice of English language education (ELE) and English medium instruction (EMI) in varied world contexts since the 1980s These travelling ideas include ‘on-going professional development’, 101 ‘English as an international language’, ‘English as a lingua franca’, ‘shared ownership of English’, ‘teacher as facilitator’, ‘learner-centered education’ and ‘communicative approach’, to name a few Indeed, these constructs not always travel freely or at the same speed They often bear very different meanings across different contexts and settings Most often, they not possess any ‘intrinsic power’ to enable desirable changes and/or to bridge perceived gaps between ‘global’ and ‘local’ standards at all levels of policy, pedagogy and practice regarding ELE and EMI They, nevertheless, carry many aspirations for change Such aspirations, in many ways, could also bring about and generate inequalities, immobilities and unequal access to social mobilities and educational opportunities In the same vein, not all forms of mobilities and immobilities are equal, either All these observations have implications for ELE and EMI In today’s world where many teachers, including English-language teachers, are increasingly living their profession transnationally and globally, researchers in applied linguistics, international education and education more broadly find themselves responding to such experiences through reinforming and (re)constructing theoretical discourses As we are becoming more mobile, or less so, within and across geographical, cultural spaces, we find ourselves submerging within a greater, or more restricting, whole This dynamic, in a dominos effect, creates new travels and interactions that question and reshape the ways in which we understand equity, identity and (trans)national policies and practices This Special Issue captures specific realities in various educational contexts with respect to the questions of transnationality, (im)mobility, equity and equality Instead of attempting to draw conclusions on current trends and confirm prevalent realities, the Special Issue stretches beyond that and seizes deviating thoughts from well-known evolvements In doing so, we hope to be able to contribute towards the understanding of less recognized nuances surrounding these intertwined phenomena and processes Sara Hillman’s article in this issue is a case in point While very often English has been identified as a universal tool of soft power and advantage, Hillman demonstrates that English in Qatar’s ecological context has generated deeply rooted inequalities and disadvantages rather than empowerment Drawing on empirical data, Hillman argues that by neglecting the power of linguistic diversity in the country and giving in to English, educators find themselves in situations whereby the cultivation of Qatar’s past and future legacies seems to be facing tremendous constraints The work stimulates our thinking about language issues that are further complicated by globalization and by many accompanying language policies and practices that often uncritically embrace and celebrate the assumed universal power of English, as Barnawi also argues in his work (2018) Indeed, English coupled with globalization has marginalized other languages, but Hillman’s work also invites us to consider seriously how the international role of English could also function more as an amiable language that thrives equitably and in harmony with our multilingual worlds Examining the experiences of international and local teachers teaching at a Sino-international school in China, the article by Alex Kostogriz and Gary Bonar in this collection approaches mobilities, transnationality and teacher identity formation from a unique angle, which is centred on the kind of relational tensions occurring as both sides try to fit in and make sense of so-called varied international school cultures International teachers are not the only ones who are mobile, as often assumed and highlighted in the existing literature and scholarship on international schools and expatriates Local 102 transitions: Journal of transient Migration teachers are constantly on the move across China in response to the increasing demand of bilingual and bicurricular international schools in the country The authors show how all these teachers, in their attempts to adapt to a new school context in China, care more about local adaptation than global fulfilment in the profession Arising from such dynamics is the need for all to navigate differences and build a sense of belonging At the same time, in the midst of these teachers’ relational tensions at work and after work are also language issues that Kostogriz and Bonar unpack, again, from an interactive vantage point These language issues not only stem from the teachers’ own perceptions and pedagogies but are also caused by particular educational aspirations from students and parents Kostogriz’s and Bonar’s article offers productive space for thinking more about how teacher mobilities and internationalization could enable meaningful conversations about all kinds of professional tensions that teachers, whether international, transnational or local, all share, although they may express such tensions differently and via different means All in all, this article has moved beyond addressing business as usual dichotomous characteristics between ‘international’ and ‘local’ teachers in international school settings It corresponds with new scholarship such as Collins and Ho (2018), Hickey (2018), Phan (2018), Poole (2019), Xu and Montgomery (2018) and Yang (2018) in urging more in-depth studies to better understand nuanced relational dynamics of academic mobilities that are born out of and/ or imposed by internationalization and local and individual desires for international education Sulaiman Jenkins’s essay offers another case that forces us to think and question many deeply entrenched practices and ideologies that we encounter or even participate in everyday readings, writings and doings in our professional lives On the one hand, it is common in our knowledge that non-native English teachers tend to be marginalized and discriminated against in many educational contexts and settings around the globe (Ling and Braine 2007; Llurda 2005; Pae 2017; Park 2015) On the other, under the category of ‘native English teachers’, factors particularly race, ethnicity and skin colour have also been used for within-group discrimination among teachers, by administrators, students, parents and employers (Kubota and Lin 2009; Motha 2014) Informed by his qualitative research conducted with African American Muslim teachers teaching English in Saudi Arabia, Jenkins brings fresh insights and analysis into this very phenomenon The author’s rich analysis of the multilayered intersections of religion, ethnicity, language (English and Arabic) and the politics of transnationality is powerful While native-speakership is presented elsewhere as a source of dominance and privilege that marks the ideal model of language practice (Rahman 2005; Ruecker and Ives 2015), Jenkins gathered data about native-speaker teachers of English as being, atypically, marginalized practitioners The discussion of the data alerts readers to a range of identity factors that govern the native-speaker concept, among which religion, skin colour, race and sociocultural capital speak the loudest All of these are inherent components of social equity or inequity, and they travel and are mobile These expanses, which are less commonly discussed in the discourse in relation to native-speakership and that happen to downplay teachers’ English competency and self-esteem, deserve more scholarly attention particularly through the lens of raciolinguistics, as argued by Jenkins in his article The essay reminds readers of the importance to identify both power and the illusion of it when discussing the role of English and its associated identity of teachers of English across multiple contexts and domains www.intellectbooks.com 103 Following up on the theme of equity versus inequity, Giang Le’s article shifts perspectives, not from the shoes of a scholar anymore, and looks at the privation of equity through the lens of a practitioner who feels powerless for having little say in the context of Vietnam’s internationalization of higher education The discussion draws from the author’s more-bitter-than-sweet reminiscence as a disadvantaged student who grew into a disadvantaged teacher: the author’s two roles over the years signify different bottles that hold the same flow of inequity and inequality With self-driven data from memory and journal logs, Le signifies the reality that unfairness does not cease if we not choose to address it in the everyday deed within the education system From a sociocultural-imagination point of view, the article with its quotes from journal entries tells a story that represents a personal view on a larger social, educational problem In a broad picture of internationalized/internationalizing education in Vietnam, integration means more than simply looking out and competing with the external world, but more importantly it requires more efforts in assisting individuals within the national system to integrate internally with due respect of their contributions Readers are encouraged to think about the extended meaning of equity: educational development means more than just to push as a system to growth, but also implies the urge to care for every individual who helps build that system Global discourses around EMI represent another area of controversy over the past many years One distinctive example is Nigeria, where national policy and practices in medium of instruction (MOI) have been experiencing discrepancies Babatunji Hazekiah Adepoju’s research article, which is based on observation of child play and documentation of parents’ aspirations for their children’s education, highlights the complexities and contradictions that occur within language choice in schooling and education Against the vast literature that critiques EMI and the neglection of mother-tongue education in many postcolonial countries including those in Africa, Adepoju justifies the advocacy of EMI in Nigeria by gathering evidence from parents’ views on their children’s communication experience and by recognizing EMI as an operative factor in social mobility Adepoju’s research takes into account Nigerian parents’ attitudes towards both English and the mother tongue It offers a well-balanced picture in which the everyday living environment plays a role in preserving the mother tongue while formal education will take care of students’ English development This project makes a contribution towards the increasing scholarship on EMI and MOI by drawing together various opposing perspectives about the role of EMI in Nigeria: some scholars advocate the implementation of mother-tongue formal education while others choose to support English The article eases this tension by arguing that language choices not have to be mutually exclusive but the promotion of both languages can be co-existent in two relevant settings The discussion implies how ideas might travel from the voices of local communities to educational policy and the everyday classroom It also invites our reflection on the reality that language adoption is not the sole task of educational leadership but it would be more equitably rewarding to consider the views of teachers, parents, students, scholars and policy-makers in context Having addressed (im)mobility, transnationality, identity and equity in English language teaching (ELT), EMI and TESOL, the Special Issue would not be complete without venturing into the domain of pedagogy (without the fear of finding nothing new) Over half a century’s debate in pedagogy has given us a plethora of diversity, tensions, dilemmas and widely promoted approaches, 104 transitions: Journal of transient Migration to the extent that it becomes a challenge to identify what is original anymore In Canagarajah’s words, teachers are now free to choose any from the ‘supermarket of ideas and practices’ (2006: 28) for their own use To take this further, we would like to encourage more playfulness than pure selection and complacency Instead of selecting tools from a menu, one might wish to experience a roller-coaster ride by trying out new spaces and fill them with innovative nuances as they derive from personal experiences Along this line, Dat Bao’s article views pedagogical domain not as a choice but rather as reconstruction, not as out-there resources from competent teachers or knowledgeable scholars but rather as the work of creative learners themselves Approaching the theme from a learner perspective, the article argues that new ways of revising pedagogy could be initiated by learners as they choose to liberate themselves from classroom structure and academic counselling It narrates the real experiences of eight Japanese learners of English who decided to abandon the classroom and move into the real world to contest their own adventurous learning aptitudes Drawing on his longitudinal research data, Dat Bao followed the footpath of creative learners of English and in the end demonstrated how the vibrant experiences of these individuals offer lessons for teachers to consider in improving classroom practices The work provokes our thoughts of how ideas travel: classroom dynamic in many cases might restraint learning, and one way to free oneself from that space would be to summon ideas from realworld experiences in a new context to bring out individualized ways of teaching oneself What stands out amidst all this is learners’ nerve to play with the unpredictable and to cope with the unknown: for a change, these individuals decided to give their teachers a break and acted in the dual roles of selfteaching and self-learning What seems new here is that this experience looks more like the practice of sovereignty than conventional autonomy: while the latter is subject to control, the former is not We also take this opportunity to recommend two recent books from the guest editors: Creativity and Innovations in ELT Materials Development: Looking beyond the Current Design by Dat Bao (published in the New Perspectives on Language and Education book series, Multilingual Matters, 2018), as reviewed by Mayyer Ling, and Neoliberalism and English Language Education Policies in the Arabian Gulf by Osman Z Barnawi (published by Routledge, 2018), as reviewed by Mirza Muhammad Zubair Baig These works go well with this Special Issue in many ways In Barnawi’s book, global mobility is deeply influenced by factors such as neo-liberalism, the flow of human capital and the liberalized economy, among others All of these exert an impact on English education policies around the globe including the Arabian Gulf region Dat Bao’s book, which looks at creativity in TESOL from a curriculum perspective, makes an effort in enhancing the learning experience of students and the teaching repertoire of teachers in novel ways It does so by recommending less commonly employed resources that would inspire pedagogy, learning engagement and coursebook innovation Both works are rich in their theoretical understanding and practical implications, which very much reflect the nature of the Special Issue Overall, the strength of all the contributions rests well on a range of empirical research that is also rich in reflection and practical pedagogical offering, all of which provokes scholarly curiosity, and taps into practitioners’ and students’ voices and the authors’ intellectual engagement The theoretical debates and the fresh and painstaking reflections and provocation presented in this Special Issue are informed by the amazing diversity of the editorial team and contributing www.intellectbooks.com 105 authors, whose educational backgrounds, theoretical and methodological orientations, work experience, life journeys, resilience, dedication and commitment are to be celebrated We would like to acknowledge the importance of encouraging, nurturing and supporting new voices, new works, new research and new insights, irrespective of how labour-intensive the process could be For the advancement of knowledge, for the joy of learning and engaging mobility, transnationality, identity and equity in fruitful manners, the role of editors and guest editors in practising this sense of support and community building is key These voices of students, parents, teachers and scholars hopefully will inspire practitioners, policy-makers, administrators and scholars who would be more open to multiple possibilities of practising and adding more nuances to education and everyday schooling and theorization reFerenCes Barnawi, O Z (2018), Neoliberalism and English Language Education Policies in the Arabian Gulf, Abingdon and New York: Routledge Canagarajah, A S (2006), ‘TESOL at forty: What are the issues?’, TESOL Quarterly, 40:1, pp 9–34 Collins, F and Ho, K C (2018), ‘Discrepant knowledge and interAsian mobilities: Unlikely movements, uncertain futures’, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 39:5, pp 679–93 Hickey, M (2018), ‘Thailand’s “English fever”, migrant teachers and cosmopolitan aspirations in an interconnected Asia’, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 39:5, pp 738–51 Kubota, R and Lin, A (eds) (2009), Race, Culture, and Identities in Second Language Education: Exploring Critically Engaged Practice, Abingdon and New York: Routledge Ling, C Y and Braine, G (2007), ‘The attitudes of university students towards non-native speakers English teachers in Hong Kong’, RELC Journal, 38:3, pp 257–77 Llurda, E (2005), Non-Native Language Teachers: Perceptions, Challenges and Contributions to the Profession, New York: Springer Motha, S (2014), Race, Empire, and English Language Teaching: Creating Responsible and Ethical Anti-Racist Practice, New York: Teachers College Press Pae, T (2017), ‘Effects of the differences between native and non-native English-speaking teachers on students’ attitudes and motivation toward learning English’, Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 37:2, pp 163–78 Park, G (2015), ‘Situating the discourses of privilege and marginalization in the lives of two East Asian women teachers of English’, Race Ethnicity and Education, 18:1, pp 108–33 Phan, L H (2018), ‘Higher education, English, and the idea of “the West”: Globalizing and encountering a global south regional university’, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 39:5, pp 782–97 Poole, A (2019), ‘International education teachers’ experiences as an educational precariat in China’, Journal of Research in International Education, 18:1, pp 60–76 Rahman, T (2005), ‘Passports to privilege: The English-medium schools in Pakistan’, Peace and Democracy in Southeast Asia, 1:1, pp 24–44 Ruecker, T and Ives, L (2015), ‘White native English speakers needed: The rhetorical construction of privilege in online teacher recruitment spaces’ TESOL Quarterly, 49:4, pp 733–56 106 transitions: Journal of transient Migration Xu, C L and Montgomery, C (2018), ‘Education China on the move: A typology of contemporary Chinese higher education mobilities’, Review of Education, October, https://doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3139 Accessed October 2019 Yang, P (2018), ‘Compromise and complicity in international student mobility: The ethnographic case of Indian medical students at a Chinese university’, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 39:5, pp 694–708 Dat Bao, Phan Le Ha and Osman Barnawi has asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd www.intellectbooks.com 107 intellect www.intellectbooks.com publishers of original thinking Hospitality & Society ISSN 20427913 | Online ISSN 20427921 issues per volume | First published in 2011 Aims and Scope Hospitality & Society is an international multidisciplinary social sciences journal exploring hospitality’s connections with wider social and cultural processes and structures This international journal aims to provide a unique publication ‘meeting point’ for those communities of scholars who use hospitality as a lens of analysis and/or focus of investigation Call for Papers Hospitality & Society welcomes submissions from various disciplines and aims to be an interactive forum expanding frontiers of knowledge and contributing to the social scientific literature on hospitality It strives for a balance of theory and application However, it is ultimately concerned with developing theoretical perspectives/insights related to hospitality For submission guidelines please contact the editors Email: hospitalityandsociety@googlemail.com Co-editors Paul Lynch Edinburgh Napier University Alison McIntosh Auckland University of Technology Jennie Germann Molz College of the Holy Cross jmolz@holycross.edu Editor Emeritus Conrad Lashley Stenden University of Applied Sciences conradlashley@aol.com Controversies and Reviews Editor Peter Lugosi Oxford Brookes University plugosi@plugosi@brookes.ac.uk Intellect is an independent academic publisher of books and journals To view our catalogue or order our titles, visit www.intellectbooks.com / @intellectbooks  ... is common in our knowledge that non-native English teachers tend to be marginalized and discriminated against in many educational contexts and settings around the globe (Ling and Braine 2007;... transnationally and globally, researchers in applied linguistics, international education and education more broadly find themselves responding to such experiences through reinforming and (re)constructing... mobilities and immobilities are equal, either All these observations have implications for ELE and EMI In today’s world where many teachers, including English- language teachers, are increasingly living