Serbian EFL Teachers in the Middle East: Three Cases of Intercultural Learning and Teaching

Abstract

The globalizing processes of the last fifty years, also manifested in the rise of global economies and sociopolitical inequalities, contributed to increased migrations. As currently one of the top three countries in the world in the so-called “brain drain,” Serbia experiences tremendous emigration of its most educated persons and professionals (Lanvin & Monteiro, 2019). Teachers of English also participate in these migrations. Since 2015, many Serbian teachers of English have received employment in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, the Middle Eastern countries which have been experiencing rapid economic growth and seeking to develop English education for a more efficient leadership in the global market. Nowadays, English proficiency and intercultural competences are essential for all participants in the global market. Considering that intercultural education is rarely central in language teacher education (Smolcic & Katunich, 2017), including that in Serbia, questions arise as to how Serbian teachers of English in the Middle East make sense of their experiences as international sojourners and practitioners. Specifically, this dissertation answers the following research questions:1. How do the teachers perceive their experiences in the country (Kuwait and UAE) as having shaped their positions as intercultural sojourners and teachers of English as a foreign language? 2. What experiences, sources of knowledge and discourses do they draw upon in their understanding of culture/interculturality - both in terms of something they are living and something they are teaching? Drawing from newer poststructuralist models, that treat interculturality as a process of positioning, whereby social actors draw upon various semiotic resources in making sense of themselves and others (e.g., Dervin, 2016; Kramsch, 2018), this dissertation involves narrative analysis of the interviews, with a focus on CDA (e.g., Fairclough, 1992, 2013) and positioning (e.g., Davies and Harrè, 1990). Findings highlight the constitutive role of emotions in language teachers’ intercultural experiences and outlines some complex ways emotions intersected with the teachers’ understandings of culture, their positions as international sojourners and their language teacher possible selves (Kubanyiova, 2012). These intersections sometimes yielded new positions in the language classroom, with teachers variously taking up their new positions as teachers of culture. This dissertation concludes by calling for more holistic investigations of language teachers’ experiences abroad, which look at teachers not just as professionals, but also as emotional, social and political beings. Additionally, it highlights the need for teacher education rooted in hyper-reflexivity (Byrd-Clark & Dervin, 2014), which encourages a heightened reflection on various meaning making strategies and representations, including emotions and cultural discourses.