The document explores the professional subjectivities of English teachers in Colombia who are non-native English speakers (NNESTs) and their relation to language policies. It highlights the challenges faced by these teachers, such as bias towards native speakers and inadequate recognition of their qualifications, as reflected in narratives gathered from interviews and surveys. The study aims to analyze the narratives of NNESTs in the context of Colombian educational policies to better understand their experiences and perceptions.

1. Configuration of Subjectivities
of NNESTs and Colombian Language Policies:
A Narrative Study.
Leidy Yisel Gómez Vásquez
MA in Applied Linguistics
Advised by:
Carmen Helena Guerrero PhD

2. What is configuration?
To shape
something using
different
elements.

3. SUBJECTIVITIES
MY INTERPRETATION
The particular way a person
sees, senses and experiences
the world. It is a way of being
and acting in concordance to
what is believed at a certain
moment.
Weedon (1987) as cited in Calhoun
(2012)
“the conscious and unconscious
thoughts and emotions of the
individual, her sense of herself, and
her ways of understanding her relation
to the world” (p. 32).
Huergo (2004)
“the condensation of travels and
memories, voices and aspirations in
certain collective senses; it happens
and is established with the burden of
stories and biographies of other words
and thoughts” (p.129).

4. Configuration of Subjectivities of
Professional Teachers and Colombian
Educational Policies
English
Teachers and
Inclusion
Policies
English
Teachers as
NNESTs and
Language
Policies
Professional
Teachers,
Working
Conditions and
Educational
Policies
Narratives Narratives
Narratives
Professional
Teachers,
ICTs and
Educational
Policies

5. The creation and implementation of educational
policies in Colombia has been a process carried out
without taking into account the particular needs of the
Colombian context and the expectations of the
stakeholders, particularly the teachers, although their
experiences could be a useful input to be taken into
account.
General Problematic Situation

6. What about this study?

7. EVIDENCES
SURVEY
• 10 teachers
• Questions from
the literature.
LITERATURE
• In Colombia there is
little research on
teacher’s subjectivities
and English teachers as
NNESTs.
• Few studies about
language policies and
NNESTs are narrative.
TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES
• My experience
• Informal talks with some
colleagues.
“I just say, I have travelled to
The United States.”
“I have to be very funny, so my
students prefer my classes over
the native’s.”

8. SURVEY
100% consider
inappropriate
the
idealization
of the NESTs
as fully
competent.
20% state
they were
treated
equally when
applying for a
teaching job.
40% affirm that they have been
evaluated by their first
language, rather than
their teaching experiences,
professional preparation and
linguistic expertise.

9. There is a need to document the configuration of
subjectivities of EL teachers as NNESTs in relation to
language policies in Colombia using a narrative
approach.
Research Problem

10. Research Question
How do NNESTs configure their professional
subjectivities in the frame of Colombian
language policies?

11. General Objective
To analyze the configuration of professional subjectivities of EL
teachers as NNESTs in the frame of Colombian language policies
Specific Objectives
• To identify NNESTS self-reported practices which reflect their
subjectivities.
• To trace the process of the configuration of their
subjectivities.
• To trace back the language policies which were in effect at
the time of the stories in the narratives.

12. Language
Policies
NESTs/
NNESTs
Dichotomy
Teachers’
Subjectivities
Narratives
Theoretical Framework

13. Subjectivities
Moje (2014) “subjectivities are the
stories we tell to ourselves, about
ourselves” (p. 595).
Wrigth, Cranny and Windsor (1992) “Subjectivities
take the individual, as located at the intersection of
a multiplicity of historically and culturally specific
texts. The individual is first and foremost social,
able to reconstitute, transform and reproduce
already circulating systems of meaning and social
relations rather than the creator of totally new
meaning and values.” (p. 8).

14. NESTs /NNESTs Dichotomy
It could be defined as the preference
given to NESTs since they are
“considered to be the best model and
type of language teacher for non-native
speakers to follow” Shibata (2010, p. 125)
Ma (2012) claims that the idealization
of the NESTs as “fully competent users
of their language” (p.2) is problematic.
Phillipson’s (1992) native speaker fallacy

15. Language Policies
Carson (1990) “A set of nationally agreed
principles which enable decisions makers
to make choices about language issues in
a rational, comprehensive and balanced
way” (p.150).
Djite (1994) in Kucukoglu (2013) “language
polices are the deliberate choices made by
governments or other authorities with regard to
the relation between language and social life”
(p. 63).

16. Narratives
Guerrero (2011) “Narrative is a system of
understanding that we use to construct and
express meaning in our daily lives” (p. 89).
Barkhuizen and Wette’s (2008) “Stories of
experience” (p. 373).
Elliot (2005) “A narrative conveys
the meaning of events” (p.3).

17. • Qualitative interpretative research.
• Narrative study.
• 4 professional EL teachers from public and
private schools and universities in Bogotá and
Tunja in Colombia.
Written narratives Narrative
interviews
Focus Groups
Research Design

18. Data Analysis
Short Story Analysis (SSA)
DATA
(Complete small
stories which
account for who,
when and where)
THEME POLICY /
PROGRAM /
PROJECT /
EDUCATIONAL
PLAN
THEORY
(Which support the
relation between 1,
2 and 3)
MEMOS
(Researcher’
s reflections)

19. Findings

20. Re-creating the self: an entangled,
changeable and enduring process.

21. Later, I worked in an English company and several of my colleagues were
native speakers. At first, I found it an enriching experience because I knew it
was an opportunity to improve my level, although I was teaching English to
Colombian students, I still felt like a student when I found them in a hall of the
company. However, things changed when they stopped being chance
encounters and I was asked to training them. That stopped being fun. Being
the person in charge of training the incoming foreign teachers (who, in fact,
were not teachers but professionals in any other area, or in the worst case,
simple tourists) I felt a great responsibility, on the one hand to do my job well,
and on the other hand, for the image that these strangers would make of my
level of proficiency and therefore of my professionalism. At first, I remember
my hands getting sweat and trying to speak strictly what I needed, I even got
to practice at home everything related to pronunciation. It was more than 5
years doing that exercise and in that time my vision for the native teacher
began to disfigure. That fear of being judged was transformed into disbelief
when, for example, I asked them questions of their native language and they
did not know how to respond. Little by little, I began to realize that I was a
teacher, a professional who even knew better than them how English worked.
And yes... I started to gain trust and lose respect.
(Written narrative. Natalia. Lines 13 – 34)

22. I remember that a well-known Colombian company had acquired the services
of the company where I worked and we were all very excited about the
business. However, it was disappointing when I learned that one of the
requirements of that company was that all of its teachers must be native
speakers of the language or, if not, foreigners […] but one of the teachers
resigned so I was sent to that course. I will never forget the face of
disappointment of those students when they saw me enter and the challenge
in which that class became to me. Although I did not have perfect
pronunciation and did not know all the idiomatic expressions of my
predecessor, I knew that I was a teacher and that I could respond to their
concerns. At that moment my disrespect turned into rage towards them and
into a personal challenge with myself.
(Written narrative. Natalia. Lines 35 – 47)
Today I do not have any contact with native speakers of English. His legacy in
my professional life became more a personal challenge to survive in the labor
market. I am y sure there must be excellent native teachers who studied an
undergraduate program before entering a classroom […] If one day I meet
one of them, I hope to resume that desire to learn as I felt when I started to
work. I know that I have much more to learn.
(Written narrative. Natalia. Lines 77 – 85)

23. The significance of others in the
configuration of my subjectivity
Institutions Teachers
Partners

24. “During my undergraduate studies I didn´t have a lot of interaction with native
speakers, except for some assistants that came to some of the classes as a
contribution to the alliances established by the university with entities such as
(mentions three foreign entities). To speak with these natives in English meant
for a me a sense of scrutiny, and I always worked hard trying to maintain a self-
monitoring , to verify what and how I was saying something, even more than in
front of the teacher. During that time I notice that many of my partners who
travelled to the United States, with programs such as (mentions two programs)
returned with much better communicative skills, however they didn´t show any
significant improvement in the subjects that were taught in English. In that
moment, I came to the conclusion that going out of the country and living in an
English speaking country can enhance English proficiency (at least spoken) but
not necessarily the academic skills, subsequently it doesn´t necessarily mean that
this person is a good teacher or good at teaching.”
(Written narrative. Amarok. Lines 6 – 18)

25. Leidy: Did the school ever tell you or explain why they were going to
hire native instead of Colombian teachers for the bilingualism process?
Margie: No, let's say that an explanation in depth, not just an
explanation, the school was certified, the quality system, which is also
an issue. One of the strategic goals or imperatives –as they are called -
is that the school becomes bilingual in a certain period of time, then
they simply told us that they were going to bring teachers, they told
us "teachers" who were English speakers to teach those subjects but
they did not give us..., and we were told that the teachers who did not
know English had to study because the idea was to get them into that.
(Narrative interview. Margie. Lines 222 – 238)

26. Molding my subjectivity between
acceptance and rejection

27. Leidy: You had a native teacher who once wrote to you that you had the
potential and that was very meaningful for you. Why was it significant being
him the one that told you that you had potential.
Amelia: For several things. I think the cultural part because I think
Colombians are a little "down on their knees" when interacting with
foreigners, then of course as he was a foreign teacher telling me that I spoke
good English, that I had potential and that I was smart, well, before I was not
secure, but then when he told me so I was filled with motivation, I was filled
with joy and it was also significant because he was like this kind of teacher
that students fear, that students respect, because he knew a lot and his
subject was quite difficult, then that’s why it was significant.
(Narrative Interview. Amelia. Lines 114 – 124)

28. Leidy: When you worked with native teachers in XXXX, the practitioners,
were there any differences in the working conditions or salary, or was it the
same?
Margie: No, those teachers earned two million more than us, and they were
only going to give their class for 45 minutes, they did not grade, they did not
check attendance, they did not do management reports, nothing. The heavy
work, apart from the classes, was done by us, they did not do it. But, well,
some of them were good, because I shared with three of them, they did
prepare their intervention very well, their class [had] full materials, slides,
yet, they earned two or two and a half million more than us. That is why one
has to improve every day.
(Narrative Interview. Margie. Lines 279 – 288)

29. Leidy: And how do you feel about it? Being a professional teacher and as you
mentioned a moment ago these foreigners are paid the double than you
earn in a month, how do you feel about your professional or labor life or as a
person witnessing these situations?
Amarok: …at that moment I felt angry, I felt sad, because I felt also that, as I
had lost, like, what’s with what I studied? but then I realized that people who
do this, people who are in charge of assigning or to request and manage and
administer the resources to create these spaces often are not teachers, have
never taught in their lives, they do not understand the details and neither get
any counsel, so, say that I understand why it happens as it happens although
still bothers me, that still happens this way, but it's like, there's not much
you can do about it.”
(Narrative Interview. Amarok. Lines 335 – 356)

30. I’ve wanted to travel, I have never lived in a English speaking country, I've
been to an English speaking country and was on vacation, it wasn’t an
academic event or anything, I’ve been meaning to travel, but now that I think
about it, I’d like to travel, maybe to live there but not to learn, I mean not
language as a topic, perhaps in terms of culture, to get informed first-hand
about it.
(Narrative Interview. Amarok. Lines 116 – 124)
In terms of pedagogy I feel that I learned a lot because I feel that foreigners
who came here to work in that company took the job as a temporary
situation, so, but only because of being foreigners Colombian students were
already happy with the teacher. I remember an American teacher who I
trained, and then we heard of companies that complained because he would
go and didn’t perform the class but made people chat and he would check his
mobile or would do something else, waiting for the time of class to pass
swiftly.
(Narrative interview. Amelia. Lines 205 – 214)

31. Shaping my subjectivity through
knowledge and reflection

32. “When I went to college I had some foreign teachers, yet I feel that with
Colombian teachers the learning process was more significant, first because
being Spanish speakers themselves and the fact that they learned English as a
second language the same way we were learning it, it is like they understand
the process one has to go through and comprehend the mental process that
one does to finally learn another language, then they guide you. Teachers,
being native, foreign, did not go through that process or perhaps they went
through it to the Spanish and anyway are two different languages, they come
from a different culture, they learn in a different way, they have a different
educational level, share a different culture, so I feel that Colombians best
know the process the student who speaks Spanish is living, natives don’t.”
(Narrative Interview. Martina. Lines 19 – 38)

33. I do believe it can be changed and I have faith that we can change, in fact in
the last year’s (university´s name) magazine, this article we did with a
colleague on tools of decolonization, because I think it is possible to focus
on the problematic aspects of other societies, […] and in that article we
talked about it, about checking, for example textbooks, textbooks always
have certain things that are already standardized and that only cover
positive aspects of culture, to analyze the textbook with students, other
teachers, I think it's a good way to raise awareness about it […] to talk for
example about the implications of the policy that is immersed in any
discourse, discourse analysis, all I think they are tools we have at our
disposal to change this ideology.
(Narrative interview. Amarok. Lines 225 – 258)

34. Conclusions
How do NNESTs configure their professional
subjectivities in the frame of Colombian
language policies?
Complexity
Flexibility
Continuity

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36. leidy.gomez1@unisabana.edu.co
Thank You