LAUSR

This study explores teacher identities of native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) and non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) based on interview data collected from twenty teachers who teach English to young learners in South Korean primary schools. The participants comprised ten NESTs and ten NNESTs. Bourdieu’s concept of three pillars was used to explore hegemonic relations between NESTs and NNESTs. The interview analysis showed that two different types of symbolic capital—one specified as native-speakerism and the other concretized as qualified tenured teacher positions—shape the dynamic nature of hegemonic relations that have constructed an antagonistic collective habitus between NESTs and NNESTs. This study revealed that power fluctuations and lack of institutional cultural capital shaped NESTs and NNESTs’ fragmented teacher identities which increased their dissatisfaction with their current roles. Bourdieu’s concepts provide a sociological vocabulary for understanding NESTs and NNESTs’ teacher identities and social status trajectories. This study provides an important theoretical and policy implication that English education practices and policies based on the ideology of native-speakerism fortify students’ preference for native English and negative attitudes towards localized variants of English which threatens the sustainability of linguistic and cultural diversities of localized variants of English.