“We have to focus on improving our and our next generation’s rights!” Exploring critical literacy in a third space for Korean female high school students

ABSTRACT

This study provides a situated account of a native English-speaking teacher who implements critical literacy in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom at a Korean high school. Teacher interview data and student presentations are analyzed to depict how a third space created by the EFL teacher and his students allowed meaningful and relevant critical literacy activities for the female high school students. Mutual trust between the teacher and students as well as support from co-teachers and school administration emerge as central themes in the third space in which students conduct research on and present social topics, such as gender equality in Korea and beyond. Findings reveal that EFL learners are capable of enacting critical literacy despite the assumptions about the instructional challenges due to their linguistic and cultural backgrounds if they are given opportunities for critical conversations about controversial topics.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We acknowledge that the term “native English-speaking teachers (NEST)” should be problematized as pointed out by one of the reviewers. As Howard (2019) noted, the expatriate language educators’ “ostensible privilege in the English language teaching (ELT) industry has provoked academic critique excoriating their complicity in furthering an agenda of cultural and political hegemony (e.g., Bright & Phan, 2011)” (p. 1478). Further, it simplifies the complexity of language teacher identity and reifies the power imbalance between native and non-native English-speaking teachers in the ELT field (see also Rudolph et al., 2015). However, we decided to use the term here as it is widely used in the Korean EFL context for recruiting and instructional purposes, particularly at this school, as one of the ways to promote school reputations as “a leader in international education” (Jingsung Girls’ High School brochure, 2019).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Kansas, School of Education Research Support Program.