“I Want a Beautiful Life”: Divergent Chronotopes in English language Teacher Education

Abstract

Research on second language teacher education (SLTE) has focused on the processes, practices, and contexts of teachers’ learning to teach. The interaction between SLTE and the broader sociopolitical processes has received less attention. To address this gap, the author explores how SLTE programs in Russia have become positioned at the intersections of transnational educational reforms, such as the Bologna Process, and global cultural flows of migration. Drawing on a multisited critical ethnography, the author analyzes how faculty members and students appropriate SLTE spaces based on their divergent chronotopes (Bakhtin, 1981) and orientations toward English. Although faculty adhere to an aesthetic orientation of taking trips to the imaginary West, many SLTE students follow an instrumental approach of using SLTE spaces to gain linguistic capital for professional and geographic mobility. These contradictory orientations and divergent chronotopes create frictions within programs. As a result of students’ pursuit of a better life elsewhere, SLTE programs fail to fulfill their primary mission of preparing English teachers for schools. The significance of this study lies in expanding the focus of inquiry on SLTE and introducing new lens through which to examine the contradictions that emerge in language learning spaces.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Debra Friedman, Chantal Tetreault, and Bevin Roue as well as anonymous reviewers for thoughtful and helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article.

Funding

This research was supported by funding from a Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Abroad Fellowship and the College of Education at Michigan State University.

Notes

1. Many second language research studies on motivation examine instrumental orientation through the lens of individual and social psychology (e.g., Gardner, 2007). Bakhtin’s work in sociocultural theory provides an alternative lens for exploring instrumental orientation by focusing on its social dimensions, sociohistorical connections, and sociopolitical contexts.

2. Although Bakhtin emphasized multiplicity of others, I focus on conception of the West as the other because of its dominance in participants’ narratives, aspirations, and struggles.

3. It is important to note that fieldwork research for this article was completed before economic sanctions against Russia took their full effect.

4. All geographic and personal names used in this article are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by funding from a Fulbright Hays Doctoral Dissertation Abroad Fellowship and the College of Education at Michigan State University.