The interesting aspect of the article by Ramjattan (2019) is the strategies adopted by English language teaching (ELT) non-native professionals to resist racist nativists. Racist nativism refers to false perceptions about non-whites being non-native of countries like Canada and the United States because of racial differences. This perception is regardless of citizenship and generates whites’ supremacy over the non-native ELT professionals. Conformist and transformational resistance are the strategies used by ELT experts to cope with racist nativism.
Conformist resistance involves complying with the conception that the white Canadian teachers have a dominant position in ELT. The non-white teachers conform to the whites’ supremacy by changing their names to the white ethnic groups’ ones to cover their racialized identities. Although changing names does not make one’s ethnicity invisible, it allows an individual to conform to the whites’ culture. The main factors that motivate the teachers to adopt the conformist resistance strategy are to show that one is qualified as an English teacher and the need to be seen as more multicultural. Teachers who conform become role models for the students who would like to be part of Canadian culture.
Transformational resistance involves changing the belief that white Canadians are the country’s true inhabitants and automatically have the English language’s instructional expertise. Teachers who adopt this strategy regularly participate in professional development workshops and training to enhance their linguistic knowledge and pedagogical skills. By doing that, they show students that race is not a limiting factor in excelling at ELT. Consequently, they change learners’ racist nativist, thinking that race makes them unqualified instructors. Nevertheless, the two strategies can promote white Canadian supremacy despite helping teachers resist racist nativism.
Reference
Ramjattan, V. A. (2019). Racist nativist microaggressions and the professional resistance of racialized English language teachers in Toronto. Race Ethnicity and Education, 22(3), 374-390. Web.