Race, Empire, and English Language Teaching

This timely and critical look at the teaching of English shows how language is used to create hierarchies of cultural privilege in public schools across the United States. Drawing on the work of four ESL teachers who pursued anti-racist pedagogical practices during their first year of teaching, the author provides a compelling account of how new teachers might gain agency for culturally responsive teaching in spite of school cultures that often discourage such approaches. She combines current research and original analyses to shed light on real classroom situations faced by teachers of linguistically diverse populations. This book will help pre- and inservice teachers to think about such challenges as differential achievement between language learners and “native-speakers”; hierarchies of languages and language varieties; the difference between an accent identity and an incorrect pronunciation; and the use of students’ first languages in English classes. An important resource for classroom teaching, educational policy, school leadership, and teacher preparation, this volume includes reflection questions at the end of each chapter.

Suhanthie Motha is assistant professor in the Department of English at the University of Washington, Seattle.

"This is an important work made even more important by current

political trends around the world, trends that have threatened to close off borders while racist discourses and actions become more explicit."

—TESOL Quarterly

" Motha’s insightful, powerful writing challenges us to reconceptualize our understandings and practices of teaching, learning, and using English." —Adult Learning

"An important and timely book on how antiracist pedagogical practices and culturally responsive teaching can work to engage all students moving forward.”
—Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, dean, UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies

“A must-read for all ESL professionals.”
—Ryuko Kubota, University of British Columbia