NAVIGATING NATIVE-SPEAKERISM: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY INTO PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY WORK OF PAKISTANI EFL TEACHERS IN ELITE PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

The narrative inquiry aims to explore the ways of how Pakistani English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in high-end private universities manage the native-speakerism in their professional identity work. Based on semi-structured interviews of twelve university teachers in Lahore and Islamabad, the research indicates intricate identity conflicts based on institutionalised preferences of native speakers, student expectations, and policy discourses. Critique shows that participants make strategic identity negotiations on three main processes, which are resisting deficit positioning, appropriating professional legitimacy, and reconstituting expertise via localised pedagogical knowledge. The results disturb the dichotomy between the native and non-native speaker identity, and demonstrate how narrative re-positioning helps Pakistani teachers take ownership. The research has added to the postcolonial criticism of ELT by preempting the South Asian voices and does provide implications of Higher Education Commission (HEC) policy on teacher recruitment criteria, teacher education programmes, and decolonisation movements in Pakistani higher education. The study covers a serious gap in empirical research on the topic of professional identity work of local EFL teachers in the stratified education system of Pakistan.