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The Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School Department of Curriculum and Instruction FOREIGN ENGLISH TEACHERS IN SOUTH KOREA: NEGOTIATING BODIES, DRESS, TEACHER SELVES, AND PROFESSIONALISM A Dissertation in Curriculum & Instruction by Michael Chesnut 2016 Michael Chesnut Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2016 The dissertation of Michael Chesnut was reviewed and approved* by the following: Kimberly A. Powell Associate Professor of Education (Language & Literacy Education) and Art Education Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Gail L. Boldt Special Signatory Professor of Education (Language & Literacy Education) Suresh Canagarajah Edwin Erle Sparks Professor in Applied Linguistics, English, and Asian Studies Gerald K. LeTendre Department Head, Education Policy Studies Jamie M. Myers Professor of Education (Language & Literacy Education) Rose Mary Zbiek Head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT This study examines the identities of individuals from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland who travel to South Korea and teach English as a foreign language. These “foreign English teachers” work in widely varying contexts ranging from private language academies, to public schools, to universities and teach a similarly wide variety of students and English language classes. As these teachers go about their daily lives and teach English, they construct stories of who they are as teachers, develop understandings of their roles within educational institutions, and shape and are shaped by various “teacher selves”. Additionally, these teachers, both initially when they arrive in Korea and later as they develop common daily routines, negotiate new experiences of gender and develop new understandings of gender as part of their larger social worlds and within educational institutions. This ethnographic interview study examines the teacher selves and gendered selves of 27 foreign English teachers through ethnographic interviews, but also draws upon other sources of data and my own experiences as a foreign English teacher in Korea. This study highlights the different possible stories these teachers tell about being English language teachers in Korea, and how constructing oneself as a “professional” teacher can shape teacher careers and practices within educational institutions in counter-intuitive ways. Further, this study examines the disruptions in gendered selves some foreign women initially experience after arriving in Korea, and their subsequent renegotiations of gendered selves. This study contributes to a growing discussion concerning language teacher identity, opening new areas of discussion regarding professionalism, gender, and teacher development. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ......................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................ viii Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2 Literature Review .................................................................................................... 17 Language Teacher Identity Issues Relevant to this Study ................................................ 17 Foreign English Teacher Identity Studies in East Asia: Desire, Gender, Sexuality, and Race ................................................................................................................... 23 Foreign English Teacher Identity Research Critiques and Challenges ............................ 30 Theorizing Identity and Development within this Study ................................................. 32 Figured Worlds ......................................................................................................... 33 Mediation and Development .................................................................................... 33 Space of Authoring................................................................................................... 35 Positional Identity .................................................................................................... 37 Holland et al. in Use ................................................................................................. 38 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 38 Chapter 3 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 39 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 39 Ethnography Guiding this Study ...................................................................................... 40 The Ethnographic Interview ..................................................................................... 42 Fieldnotes and Participant Journals .......................................................................... 44 Reflexivity, Subjectivity, and the Self in Ethnography and Ethnographic Interview Studies .............................................................................................. 45 Multi-sited Ethnography .......................................................................................... 49 Drawing on Ethnographic Scholarship..................................................................... 50 The Beginnings of Fieldwork........................................................................................... 50 Participant Recruitment Goals ......................................................................................... 51 Participant Recruitment in Practice, Initial Interviews, and Wandering Methods ........... 53 Moving Beyond the Beginning ........................................................................................ 56 Bringing in Participant Observation ................................................................................. 57 Analysis and Writing as a Halting and Iterative Process ................................................. 64 Researcher as Participant and the Mingling of Researcher-Participant Selves ................ 71 The Importance of Time within this Study ...................................................................... 73 Reflections on this Study’s Methodology ........................................................................ 74 Key Participant Descriptions............................................................................................ 74 My Identity as a Researcher and a Foreign English Teacher in Korea .................... 75 Key Participants who joined this Study as New-to-Korea Teachers ........................ 75 Chapter 4 Teacher Selves ......................................................................................................... 83 v The Figured World of Foreign English Teacher Jobs in Korea ....................................... 84 Foreign English Teacher Selves in Practice ..................................................................... 90 Desirable, Sometimes Masculine, Teaching Selves: Figured Success in Prestige Teaching ........................................................................................................... 91 The Figured World and Positional Identities of Career and “Professional” Teaching ........................................................................................................... 105 Taking a Break, Going Abroad, and Not-a-Teacher Selves ..................................... 110 Alternative Selves and Teaching as Required Work ................................................ 116 The Importance of Teacher Selves ........................................................................... 119 The Constriction of Teaching Narratives and the Freedom of Departing Korea ............. 124 David and Narratives of Teacher Authority in Times of Crisis ............................... 125 Jerri-Lee and Teacher Narratives of Career Transition and Leaving Korea ............ 139 My Experiences Teaching and Emotional Management through a Researcher Narrative ........................................................................................................... 149 Narratives as Mediation and Conflicts between Reality and Figured Worlds ......... 151 Conflicting Discourses in Figured Worlds ....................................................................... 156 Teacher Selves and Desired Bodies ......................................................................... 157 Conflicts between Idealized Teaching and a Sense of Profit ................................... 166 Gendered Positioning in Educational Institutions ............................................................ 170 A Discussion of Teacher Selves and More ...................................................................... 180 Concluding this Exploration of Teacher Selves ............................................................... 181 Chapter 5 Dress, Bodies, and Remaking Gendered Selves ...................................................... 183 The Figured World of Foreign English Teachers’ Bodies and Clothes ........................... 188 A Geography and Understanding
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