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White TESOL Instructors’ Engagement with Social Justice Content in an EAP Program: 

Teacher Neutrality as a Tool of White Supremacy 

 

Leah Mortenson 

Keio Academy of New York 

 

Abstract 

 

This study highlights the teaching practices of three white instructors—who addressed social 

justice issues in the context of their English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classes—to 

contextualize their pedagogy in relation to intersections of Whiteness and English language 

teaching. The study was conducted at a four-year private university on the East Coast in the 

United States, and data were collected over the course of a semester through observations, 

interviews with teachers, and document analysis. Using Social Justice Pedagogy (SJP) and 

Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) as my frameworks for analysis, I suggest that white 

instructors’ remaining neutral on social injustices maintains Whiteness in the context of English 

language teaching. Implications are discussed for white EAP instructors who seek to engage 

emergent bilingual (EB) students in conversations about social justice issues and disrupt existing 

power dynamics of Whiteness and colonial legacies within English language teaching. 

 

Introduction 

 

Historically, English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs have prioritized using inauthentic, 

standardized materials to teach skills-based language instruction over adopting more critical 

positions to English language teaching that recognize the impact of the surrounding sociocultural 

and political histories on classroom contexts and interactions (Flowerdew & Peacock, 2001). 

Rather than addressing ideological issues, or “cultural beliefs that justify social arrangements, 

including patterns of inequality” (Macionis, 2010), discussions of societal inequities—which 

may unveil conflicting views among discussants—are often foregone, withholding opportunities 

for emergent bilingual (EB) students to participate in complex conversations about relevant 

social issues (Benesch, 2010). The outer world impacts EB students’ school-based experiences, 

so bringing in relevant content that deals with historical and contemporary societal issues may 

provide them with opportunities to practise critical reading and research, deducing fact from 

fiction, and participating in civic dialogue: all skills and competencies that are crucial for their 

academic and career success.  

 

This study highlights the teaching practices of three white instructors—who addressed 

social justice issues in the context of their EAP classes—to contextualize their pedagogy in 

relation to intersections of Whiteness and English language teaching. The study was conducted at 

a four-year private university on the East Coast in the United States, and data were collected over 

the course of a semester through observations, interviews with teachers, and document analysis. 

Using Social Justice Pedagogy (SJP) and Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) as my frameworks 

for analysis, I suggest that white instructors’ remaining neutral on social injustices maintains 

Whiteness in the context of English language teaching. Implications are discussed for white EAP 

instructors who seek to engage EB students in conversations about social justice issues and 

disrupt existing power dynamics of Whiteness and colonial legacies within ELT.   

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The study offers implications that echo the call of Gerald (2020) for teacher education 

programs to integrate Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) and Critical Race Theory (CRT) into 

their curricula in order to better prepare the majority white teaching force to work with diverse 

learners and adopt self-reflective, harm-reducing practices. It surfaces the “complicated 

conversation” (Pinar, 2004) about curricula traditionally used in English language teaching and 

showcases it as a site of struggle reflecting the political, institutional, and sociohistorical 

priorities of a given moment. Finally, it prompts journals to provide platforms for 

interdisciplinary investigations that seek to better understand the intersections of language and 

race, which has been minimally researched. 

 

Literature Review 

 

Whiteness and English Language Teaching 

 

The population of North America is rapidly diversifying, and the relative proportion of white 

people is declining (Frey, 2020; Harvey & Houle, 2006). For example, according to Statistics 

Canada (2021), 22.3 percent of the Canadian population belongs to a visible minority group or 

groups, and that number is expected to rise to between 31.2 percent and 35.9 percent by 2036 

(“2021 Census,” 2021). The needs and interests of students are shifting in line with changing 

demographics, and white educators must evolve their practices to meet those needs. 

“Decolonizing” English language teaching necessitates recognizing that the English language has 

been used as a colonizing force around the world to carry out acts of domination and oppression 

(Kumaravadivelu, 2016; Pennycook, 1998). Lin and Luke (2006) have recognized that the 

naming of Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages (TESOL) already establishes a 

dynamic of Self-Other in which the Anglo teacher is “Self,” and the learner is the perpetual 

“Other” found lacking, which upholds a colonial narrative of oppressor and oppressed. Instead of 

ignoring historical wrongdoings committed by Anglo English speakers, an alternative is to 

acknowledge those histories within English language teaching to engage students in critical 

inquiry over social justice issues related to oppression through content-based language 

instruction (Lynn et al., 2002).  

 

English language teaching may be seen as a border site where imperialism, linguicism, 

xenophobia, and racism overlap (Kubota & Lin, 2006; Liggett, 2014; Sterzuk, 2015; Taylor, 

2006). Teaching English and Whiteness—the set of rules, norms, and behaviours that govern 

status quo society and uphold white supremacy (Roediger, 2006)—are intermingled as a majority 

of TESOL instructors and college professors are white (Davis & Frey, 2019; Motha, 2006), the 

idealized Native Speaker is often positioned as white (Ruecker & Ives, 2015), and both being 

white as well as being a native English speaker are identity markers that connote global power 

(Motha, 2006). As the mode of communication for many colonialist acts, English has acted as a 

medium that reproduces and otherizes those of different racial, national, cultural, and linguistic 

backgrounds (Luke, 2004). 

 

The “Anglo” bias of English language teaching has been well documented in the 

literature, and scholars have denounced EAP programs’ willingness to forego critical approaches 

to language teaching (Canagarajah, 2002; Flowerdew & Peacock, 2001), condemning the ways 

that English language teaching tends to herald Whiteness as “both a prize and a goal” (Gerald, 

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2020). A study by Lee (2015) showed how EAP instruction in liberal multicultural Canada uses 

culture as a proxy for race, replicating power dynamics that otherize EB students and position 

English as metonymic with Whiteness. Mackie (2003) addressed the role of patronizing desire 

and white saviourism in her teaching of the “ESL [English as a second language] Other,” who 

she constructed in her mind as “a monolithic community of people, joined by their sameness to 

each other and their difference from [her], and by their dependence on [her] to help them out of 

their difficulties and to provide a model of Canadianness to which they could aspire” (p. 30). The 

task to recognize and disrupt patterns of Whiteness in English language teaching is not an easy 

one as it has deep ties to colonialism. 

 

 To avoid repeating societal patterns of domination and settler colonialism, white English 

language teachers must account for the intersections of Whiteness and the English language to 

disrupt the colonizing power of TESOL (Kubota & Lin, 2006). Scholars have been engaged with 

the question of how to actualize decolonial, anti-racist teaching practices for many years. For 

example, Kouritzin’s (2005) editorial in TESL Canada asked what it means to be a white English 

Language teacher and teacher educator who seeks to adopt anti-racist practices while 

simultaneously acknowledging her own internalized racism. Wihak’s (2004) perspective 

investigated what it means to be white in Canada and offered personal reflections on her own 

racial identity in a society that continues to marginalize Indigenous communities despite 

governmental structures that proclaim to offer freedoms equally to all, writing that “insidious 

blindness to the effects of race is pervasive in white Canadian society” (p. 112). Fleming’s 

(2005) article asked what it means to be an anti-racist educator who resists personal privilege to 

challenge EB students to “seize hold of Canada as their own creation to mold” (p. 90). 

 

 Educators and scholars have developed theory around the intersection of race with 

TESOL (Crump, 2014; Ennser-Kananen, 2020; Lin & Luke, 2006; Kubota, 2002; Kubota & Lin, 

2006; Shin, 2011; Von Esch et al., 2020), investing time and energy into developing curricula 

that merges English language teaching with socially conscious content (Guerrettaz & Zahler, 

2017; Walsh Marr, 2019). However, few studies have asked white English language teachers to 

reveal their own views about using ideological and/or social justice-related content to teach 

English. Since English language teaching is wrapped up with Native Speakerism and Whiteness 

(Motha, 2006; Ruecker & Ives, 2015), this exploration of white English language teachers’ views 

is a critical piece of the puzzle to understand how to manifest decolonial approaches to English 

language teaching, and this lack of research into white English teacher views is the gap this study 

seeks to address.  

 

Uncritical Approaches in EAP Programs 

 

Scholars have long critiqued EAP programs for adopting uncritical and/or pragmatist approaches 

to English language teaching (Allison, 1996; Benesch, 1993; Hyland, 2004; Paltridge, 2001; 

Pennycook, 1994; Santos, 1992). Uncritical and/or pragmatist approaches leave EB students 

unprepared to engage successfully in university-level content-area work, which necessitates 

understanding ideological issues (such as racism, sexism, gender discrimination, and 

ethnocentrism) that result in societal inequities. Benesch (1999; 2001; 2010) has argued for the 

use of critical pedagogy in EAP classrooms and has provided models for intervention and 

mediation in the context of critical conversations wherein teachers can model that critical 

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thinking is “neither an unguided free-for-all nor a didactic lecture but a balance between 

extended student contributions and gentle challenges by the teacher” (1999, p. 578). Haque 

(2008) has argued that employing critical pedagogy in EAP teaching is futile if not undertaken 

with simultaneous critiques of the institutions in which it is occurring. The challenge is 

multiplied when efforts are undertaken in contexts that self-position as “neutral sites” in which 

EAP is seen as a “service industry to provide students with access to a neutral body of 

knowledge” (Haque, 2008, p. 94) rather than an institution that is itself ideologically motivated 

and responsible for perpetuating inequities that otherize EB students. 

 

EAP programs encourage instructors to adopt new genres, technologies, and research-

informed practices into their teaching (Bahrami et al., 2019; Hyland & Shaw, 2016); however, 

the debate about what the larger purpose of EAP programs should be—whether it is to convey a 

practical set of language skills to students, or to develop students’ critical thinking, effective 

communication, and abilities to speak in informed ways about relevant social issues such that 

they can participate in academic communities successfully—remains an active and ongoing one. 

Canagarajah (2002) posited that the “accommodationist” approach so often employed in EAP 

settings ignores students’ cultural backgrounds and neglects opportunities to advance their 

critical thinking skills about subject area content.  

 

More recent scholarship has highlighted potential outcomes of critical approaches to 

English language teaching that merge language and content instruction, reciprocally, to 

encourage learners to make text/context connections, and make the rhetorical and social 

expectations of texts clear (Airey, 2016; Canagarajah, 2006; Schleppegrell 2013). For example, 

Walsh Marr’s (2019) response to Canada’s 2008 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) 

sought to teach students about Canada’s mistreatment of First Nations communities while 

foregrounding critical English language instruction through examining historical texts and 

analyzing the language structures within the texts that construct specific narratives about what 

occurred, such as the use of active vs. passive voice to connote or deny responsibility for the 

harm committed against Indigenous communities by whites in power. In a United States context, 

Guerretaz & Zahler’s (2017) article highlighted possibilities to de-silence race in an academic 

literacy class through using the novel A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines (1993) to 

foreground multiliteracies and African American Vernacular English (AAVE), as well as initiate 

critical conversations about historical injustices experienced by Black Americans in Jim Crow-

era United States—conversations that can set the stage for addressing contemporary injustices 

against Black and Brown communities and societal responses such as the Black Lives Matter 

movement. 

 

Talking to EB students about contemporary societal issues and the impact of culture, 

race, gender, class, and language (among other identity markers) on individuals’ and groups’ 

experiences of opportunity and/or oppression in varying contexts can position EB students to be 

more critical of the authority invested in English as compared to their first language (L1), which 

is a key component of decolonizing English language teaching (Parkinson, 2016). This case 

study contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the practices of three white EAP 

instructors who foregrounded social justice-based content in their EAP instruction. The study 

offers implications for white English language teachers invested in adopting anti-racist, 

decolonial practices and highlights the importance of reflecting on one’s personal beliefs, 

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prejudices, and biases regarding racism, white privilege, and personal responsibility towards 

societal inequities. This study suggests that English language teachers who seek to decolonize 

their teaching cannot do so while remaining neutral on issues of injustice. 

 

Research Questions 

 

Data for this study were collected over a semester, and the questions that guided it were: 

 

1. How do white EAP instructors conceptualize the politics of English language teaching? 

2. What are tensions and/or alignments between how white EAP instructors understand 

themselves and their beliefs about racism, prejudice, white privilege, and colonialism and 

how do those beliefs manifest in classroom conversations about social justice issues? 

3. How do instructors’ conversations about social justice issues maintain or disrupt 

Whiteness in English language teaching? 

 

Methods 

 

Theoretical Framing 

 

Social Justice Pedagogy (SJP) 

 

Social Justice Pedagogy (SJP) represents a sustained commitment to acknowledging that 

systemic injustice is real and that in order to disrupt it, those with more power than other 

communities/groups/individuals must actively subvert their own privilege. Taking inspiration 

from the definition given by Cumming-Potvin (2009), I understand SJP to be ethics in action that 

drive instructors to 1) promote visibility of marginalized persons; 2) speak out against 

oppressions and continually work to destabilize the status quo surrounding race, class, culture, 

and all other marginalized or minoritized identity markers; and 3) accept the above two codes of 

conduct as one’s ethical responsibility. 

 

A social justice agenda in teaching is one that sees the process of teaching as being 

instrumental to creating a fairer and more just society (Zeichner, 2003). In this way, the purpose 

of teaching is to help students to grow into full participants and change agents for greater equity 

in their communities (Parker, 2006). Teaching for social justice is not a simple task, and the 

challenge is doubled when it is undertaken in the context of an educational system entrenched in 

historical inequities and oppressive institutions. For this reason, it is critically important that 

teachers not only engage students in conversations about social justice topics, but that they are 

also continually reflecting on the privileges and prejudices they may bring with them into the 

classroom and to these discussions. 

 

Freire (2010) identified that liberatory and transformative pedagogy only occurs when 

both teacher and student are learning together, co-creating and re-creating knowledge, and when 

hierarchies of Teacher and Student dissolve and all parties are learning Subjects (p. 69). 

Similarly supportive of liberatory classrooms, hooks (1994) argued that in opposition to the 

banking model of education in which students are constructed as passive recipients of 

information, critical inquiry is an important part of learning since the “cozy, good feeling [of 

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being a passive recipient] may at times block the possibility of giving students space to feel that 

there is integrity to be found in grappling with difficult material” (p. 154). DiAngelo and Sensoy 

(2012), Kendi (2019), and Saad (2020) further identifed that personal growth and learning may 

be found through embracing productive discomfort, seeking critical understandings of history, 

and reflecting on one’s positionality in society in relation to others. It is through this 

understanding of Social Justice Pedagogy that I approached my analysis of the data and my 

interpretations of the participants’ words and actions in their classrooms. 

 

Conceptualizing Whiteness 

 

Gillborn (2019) distinguished between “Whiteness” and “white people” as not being one in the 

same; however, they often work in collaboration. “Whiteness” comprises a set of assumptions, 

beliefs, and practices that disproportionately privilege white people and their interests; people 

who identify as white might serve the agenda of Whiteness, but this is not a given, nor is it 

inevitable. Leonardo (2002) delineated that while “white people” refers to an identity category 

typically based on skin colour, “Whiteness” is a social concept that relates to structural inequities 

rooted in white supremacist racial dominance. As a “well-entrenched structure that is manifested 

in and gives shape to institutions” (Castagno, 2013, p. 102), Whiteness serves as a powerful kind 

of “social amnesia” that transcends national boundaries (Leonardo, 2002) and upholds the status 

quo. In the context of education, it undergirds sustained inequities in schools that result in 

achievement gaps, pushes out students of colour, and maintains the school-to-prison pipeline 

(Leonardo, 2013; Morris, 2016; Skiba, et al., 2014). In this study, “Whiteness,” “white 

supremacy,” and “status quo” are used interchangeably to indicate the inextricable connections 

between society, as it has always been and currently is, and the maintenance of a racialized 

hierarchy. 

 

DiAngelo (2018) has provided a set of guidelines for identifying and working against 

white fragility—a state in which even the smallest amount of racial stress becomes unbearable 

for white people, triggering a series of defensive moves such as outward displays of guilt, fear, 

anger, as well as behaviours like silence, defensiveness, or leaving the stressful situation, all of 

which serve to reinstate the white racial equilibrium (p. 2). DiAngelo’s (2018) definition and 

examples of white fragility provided me with a critical framework for understanding statements 

of teachers in my study that relayed their relative levels of race consciousness and the degree to 

which the conversations they had with students about ideological issues maintained or disrupted 

Whiteness in the educational space. 

 

Study Design 

 

Positionality 

 

I am a white, well-educated, Native English-speaking woman. I do not viscerally experience the 

societal injustices with which I am concerned (Kay, 2018). However, given the privileges I have, 

I understand that it is my ethical obligation to listen to those whose lives have been challenged 

by more obstacles than my own, and I must also act out of my awareness of those facts. I seek to 

use my positionality to give voice to issues affecting individuals and communities for whom 

society is not constructed, since remaining silent on issues of injustice maintains the status quo of 

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white supremacy. Milner (2007) identified that studying the self and studying the self in relation 

to others in one’s community can be a powerful means to effect change. Wihak (2004) stated that 

“the meaning of being white is created by my own actions rather than just by the actions of other 

members of the white race” (p. 114). I do not believe it is possible to develop a positive white 

identity, and I agree with DiAngelo (2018) that we may strive to be “less white,” less racially 

oppressive, and more committed to “break[ing] with white silence and white solidarity, to stop 

privileging the comfort of white people over the pain of racism for people of colour, to move 

past guilt and into action” (p. 150). It is my hope that through researching my own community of 

white EAP instructors and through subsequent actions taken in my own teaching and advocacy 

work, I can continue learning, evolve my teaching practice to be more equitable, and work to be 

a better accomplice for social justice work (Kendall, 2021). 

 

I conducted this research in a United States context; however, I have chosen to submit 

this article to a Canadian journal because racism within English language teaching is not limited 

to the United States, and both the U.S. and Canada have similar legacies of racism, colonialism, 

and Indigenous genocide with which to reckon (Veracini, 2015). In U.S. universities, the student 

body is diversifying faster than the university instructors who are educating them, where 70 

percent of university professors continue to be white, with disparities increasing in relation to 

professor status—adjunct, tenure, etc. (Davis & Frey, 2019). Statistics Canada collects data on 

age, rank, and gender of faculty and students in Canadian universities; however, it does not 

collect data on race or ethnic makeup of faculty and students, and neither do provincial 

governments (Wong, 2017). U.S. data may represent the most relevant parallel of information 

that may apply to Canadian contexts. Because the observations and conclusions made in this 

study may be transferable to a Canadian context, I seek to understand, in the spirit of Malcolm 

X’s (1965) call to white allies to get to work across our own communities, how we may 

contribute to building more equitable institutions and disrupt settler colonial, racist, and 

xenophobic patterns within English language teaching. 

 

Case Study 

 

Case study was a suitable research method for this study as it allows for in-depth examination of 

a specific field site and community in which there is a shared culture (Leedy & Ormrod, 2013, p. 

236). The study took place in the context of an EAP program where I also taught at the time of 

the study. Like my participants, I am also a white EAP instructor. Because my goal was to 

understand this group of teachers and gain a better understanding of the impact of white 

teachers’ underlying beliefs on the ways they engage with ideological content in the EAP 

classroom, case study was a fitting research design as it may be utilized to learn more about a 

“little known or poorly understood situation” (p. 231). Historically, EAP programs have not 

adopted ideological approaches to English language instruction, so case study was an appropriate 

research method to allow me to gain insight into an understudied area. Case study may also be 

utilized to highlight changes that occur in individuals or programs in response to specific events 

or circumstances (Leedy et al., 2019), so it was appropriate for my goal of examining white 

teachers’ approaches to ideological content in the wake of social injustices happening in real 

time, such as instances of police brutality happening against Black and Brown people in the U.S. 

and in Canada (Simpson, 2020). 

 

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Research Context 

 

The study was conducted at a private, four-year university on the East Coast of the United States. 

The university has about 14,000 students between both the undergraduate and graduate schools, 

and the EAP program was founded a little over ten years ago. There were about 230 students 

enrolled in classes in the program for Spring 2018, ranging from undergraduate to graduate 

levels and including both credit and non-credit bearing courses. Demographically, students in all 

programs represented over thirty-seven countries; however, the majority of students came from 

China. As of Spring 2018, there were 19 teachers on staff—14 of whom were adjunct and five 

who were full-time. Fourteen of the teachers were women, and five were men. The 

demographics of the instructors were consistent with national trends for both the U.S. and 

Canada in that 15 of the instructors were white, three were Asian, and one was Black.  

 

Participants and Data Collection 

 

To gain access to participants for this study, I first sent out an informational email to all faculty 

in the EAP program to explain my goals—namely, to observe the teaching of EAP instructors 

whose courses addressed social justice issues—to better understand the opportunities and 

challenges in addressing such content with EB students. I received interest from three instructors, 

and after discussing the content they planned to address in their classes as well as working out 

scheduling requirements, since I would be observing their classes throughout the semester, I 

determined their classes to be suitable for the study. One instructor was male, two were female, 

and all three instructors identified as white. Two of the instructors were American and one was 

Canadian. The instructors all had non-tenure track appointments; one had a full-time position 

within the program and the other two taught as adjunct instructors. 

 

While each class within the EAP program had overarching objectives that needed to be 

met, instructors had freedom to determine how they did so and could choose their own curricula 

and materials. The three classes I observed were 1) a graduate course in advanced reading, 2) an 

undergraduate academic writing class, and 3) an undergraduate course on media and culture. 

Some of the ideological, social justice-based content that instructors addressed in their classes 

included police brutality against Black Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC), the Black 

Lives Matter movement, protests, gentrification of the surrounding metropolitan area, and the 

violent legacy of Christopher Columbus. 

 

The classes met three times per week for 55 minutes per class. The teachers as well as the 

students in their classes consented to be observed and have their class participation and words 

documented. Students in the classes came from Vietnam, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, U.A.E., 

Palestine, and Ethiopia; however, a majority of students were from China. I collected the data for 

the study by audio recording each class period, taking detailed fieldnotes, and transcribing the 

period after class for later coding and analysis. I received ethics approval for the study from the 

Institutional Review Board (IRB) committee at the university where I was conducting the 

research as well as the university where I was completing my doctoral work as this comprised 

part of my dissertation research. For the sake of anonymity and in keeping with current reference 

guidelines in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.) (APA, 

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2020), I refer to the participating individual teachers and their students using the third person 

singular “they.” 

 

Data Sources and Materials 

 

Data sources for this study included observations, field notes, artifact review (of syllabi, class 

materials, etc.), and semi-structured interviews with instructors at three points throughout the 

semester (see Table 1 for summary of database). I audio recorded class periods and interviews on 

my computer, I took detailed fieldnotes throughout the classes, and I bracketed my personal 

observations/evaluations in my fieldnotes in an effort to record only that which was observable 

in the classroom (Emerson et al., 1995). My data analysis was ongoing and recursive, involving 

continual de-construction of my initial observations to reach deeper understandings (Stake, 

1995). In my transcription process, I documented interactions between students and teachers as 

“scripts” (Grimm et al., 2014) and referenced students as “S1,” “S2,” etc. to maintain anonymity. 

 

Table 1 

 

Summary of Database 

 

Methods Data collection period (January 

2018- May 2018) 

Data 

Classroom 

observations 

Ongoing - Fieldnotes, audiotape, and 

transcription on 54 lessons in 

three courses totaling 67.5 hours 

of observation 

Fieldnotes Ongoing - Recorded notes in classroom 

observations. Focused on 

observable phenomena and 

bracketed personal thoughts 

Interviews with 

teachers 

Interview 1: Beginning of semester 

Interview 2: Middle of the semester 

Interview 3: End of the semester 

- Audiotaped and transcribed nine 

interviews with an average length 

of 1.5 hours per interview 

Documents Ongoing - Course syllabi, outlines, in-class 

materials, course website 

Codebook Ongoing - Synthesized quotes from classes 

and interviews to develop themes 

using an online qualitative data 

coding software program 

 

To relay participants’ words truthfully, I utilized verbatim coding (Saldaña, 2021), and I 

allowed themes to emerge from the data (Leedy et al., 2019). I employed a web-based coding 

software to help me to categorize, tag, and analyze my data (Salmona et al., 2019), uploading 

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class and interview transcripts to the program and using the software to create a codebook that 

helped identify and organize overarching themes and sub-themes across data sources. Creswell’s 

(2013) data analysis spiral served as a model for me to organize my data, analyze it as a whole, 

identify overarching categories and themes, and delineate findings within those themes. I 

repeated this process to identify outliers and/or allow for more nuanced understandings to 

develop from my initial observations. In line with scholars like Maxwell (2013) and Chang 

(2008), I believe that research is an ongoing process that expands outward to allow for more 

meaningful connections and analyses to be made the longer one sits with the data. 

 

Findings 

 

I have organized my findings into three overlapping categories that relate to the earlier stated 

research questions, with my findings contextualized in relation to the research questions. The 

question related to the impact of instructors’ conversations about social justice issues on 

Whiteness in English language teaching is addressed throughout the findings section and is 

further elaborated on and contextualized in the subsequent discussion. 

 

Teachers’ Beliefs about the Politics of Teaching 

 

“You can’t pretend it’s not political” 

 

In interviews, teachers shared their beliefs about the politics of teaching and showcased varying 

understandings of colonialism, xenophobia, racism, and white privilege. During an interview, a 

participant claimed that “you can’t pretend [teaching] is not political—especially language 

teaching,” and indicated that they valued allowing students’ own opinions and voices to take 

centre stage rather than their own, saying that they “weren’t there to create Mini Mes.” One 

participant shared that there have been moments when they have heard students’ opinions on 

social issues that they have “found repugnant,” which led them to question how they felt about 

helping students acquire language to express views with which they disagreed. A teacher shared 

that, in their opinion, it’s none of their business what students’ personal views are and how they 

may clash with their own. Another teacher shared that they thought it was important to keep their 

feelings “tapped [sic] down” during conversations [about social justice issues].” Another teacher 

shared that they had heard students make homophobic comments in class and asked, “What to do 

about that? If you figure out that answer, I will happily buy your book.”  

 

“I think the teacher should be neutral” 

 

Teachers in the study expressed a desire to be neutral when speaking to students about 

ideological issues related to societal inequities. One teacher identified that they think that in 

order to be an effective facilitator of discussion, the teacher should be neutral on social issues. 

They did not think it was useful to share their own beliefs or “try to convince students of things” 

and said that instead, they wanted to communicate information to students “just the way [it is]”. 

One instructor shared their own experiences attending a seminar-based high school where 

teachers adopted neutral stances when discussing social and political issues, reflecting that these 

experiences shaped their own conceptions of “how things should be” in the classroom. When 

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discussing the process of choosing texts and resources for classes, teachers reported that 

selecting materials for how well they revealed “the reality of things.” 

 

Another teacher shared that early on in their English language teaching career, they 

decided “to try to be as neutral as possible on social issues that come up.” They explained that 

they were raised in a military family where “you never talk politics and you never talk religion 

because military’s the family, and you have people from all sides coming in, and for an army 

officer, you always follow your leader no matter what your personal beliefs are.” Teachers 

shared that they have had students who ask them on the side where they stand and they refuse to 

tell them because they have seen other teachers who do “go there” with students, and they were 

concerned about conflicting views being shared that could result in hurt feelings. When students 

asked what their political views were, one teacher answered, “I’ll tell you the answer my parents 

told me for 40 years—secret voter.” The teachers in this study did not see it as desirable or 

appropriate to share their personal politics with students and instead, insisted it was best to keep 

these separate from their teaching. 

 

All three teachers identified that “preserving the peace” and “minimizing potential 

conflict” were values they held in high esteem in their classrooms. They identified that they saw 

it as important to not “get on a soapbox,” and “yammer on about [their] opinions.” One teacher 

expressed pride when, in class, a student asked for their opinion on a race-related topic and 

another student cut in to say, “don’t ask [them]. [They’re] always neutral!” For the teachers, the 

idea of being seen by students as neutral on ideological issues related to racism, social, and 

political injustice seemed to be an ideal to which they aspired and viewed as a hallmark of 

effective and ethical teaching. Teachers did not see a contradiction in acknowledging the 

political nature of teaching while also remaining silent about social injustices. Scholars like 

DiAngelo (2018) may assess this denial of personal responsibility to address injustices as 

retreating from stress-inducing situations rather than showing beliefs that white people with 

unearned privileges are obligated to speak out on issues of injustice. Many scholars (DiAngelo, 

2018; Kendi, 2019; Saad, 2020) would agree that such denials foreground white fragility and 

reinforce the racial status quo. 

 

Teachers’ Beliefs about Racism, White Privilege, and Personal Responsibility 

 

“I don’t feel that I have the expertise to address these issues” 

 

In interviews, teachers shared their personal beliefs about racism, colonialism, white privilege, 

and personal responsibility to address societal inequities. Common findings were that teachers 

believed a) they were not the appropriate person to speak about racism and other social inequities 

and that education and educating about such issues should be carried out by minoritized 

individuals, b) present-day inequities had nothing to do with them if they were not acting in 

racist ways, and c) any conversations about race, racism, or other injustices should be carried out 

in a “civil” manner in which no one is called a racist or told they are wrong.  

 

 One teacher shared in an interview that because they don’t face racial prejudice 

themselves, they don’t often notice or think about it until/unless it is pointed out. This teacher 

has close family members of colour, and they identified that sometimes these family members 

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will “call [them] out on things with comments like ‘that’s such a white comment.’” I asked the 

teacher if they were bothered by these “call-outs” and they said no—that they found them helpful 

and that they “want[ed] to be educated about these issues so please, tell [them] what to do.”  

 

Teachers shared that they don’t feel like they have the expertise to discuss racism with 

their students, and one participant said that “if [students] had a professor from a minority 

background, that would be very helpful.” Other teachers shared similar views, identifying that 

because they are white, they don’t feel capable of speaking about injustice in an informed way. 

They said they would like to help forward the conversation, but they don’t know how, and one 

participant said, “I would like to be able to hear what the issues are—how can I help forward the 

conversation? How can I hear you? Please stop me and let me know right away—you know—

call me out on it.” They expressed a desire to be educated on racial and social justice issues and 

to be alerted if/when they were not understanding something, and they indicated feeling like it 

was more appropriate to be educated by minoritized people on issues related to injustice rather 

than educating themselves. 

 

“The Confederacy is not my fault… I think we’ve got to drop it” 

 

Teachers did not see themselves as being complicit in present-day inequities if they were not 

participating in individual acts of racism. One teacher shared their view that the alt-right has a 

slogan that “being white is okay” and said that they agree with this statement. They further 

explained their opinion that white Americans “don’t need to bear the burden of the Civil War,” 

elaborating to say, 

 

I think it’s a little absurd to be having these arguments about the Confederacy still. 

Because no one my age is responsible for it. I mean even if you are related to Confederate 

soldiers, even if you know people that protested against the Civil Rights movement—it’s 

not my fault, and I don’t think it’s their fault either. At some point, I think we’ve got to 

drop it because as we’ve seen, it creates a lot of animosity. 

 

This teacher did not see themselves as having benefited from white supremacy, nor did they view 

its historical legacy as something that belonged to them. Their comments highlighted a desire to 

smooth over past injustices and construct a vision of societal harmony rather than prioritize 

accountability. 

 

Another teacher shared their experiences talking about racism while growing up, and said 

that they “were always able to have open dialogue [...] and everyone was allowed to share their 

opinions. And… you know, [these conversations] were conducted in a civil and organized way 

no one was called a racist and no one was told they’re wrong.” Similar to the participant 

comment above, this teacher did not see it as their personal responsibility, as a white person, to 

account for racism’s historical legacy or present-day impact, and indicated valuing “civility and 

organization” in race conversations over accurate historical renderings and justice-oriented 

understandings.  

  

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Manifestations of Teachers’ Beliefs in the Classroom 

 

Teachers’ beliefs regarding racism, white supremacy, the legacy of colonialism, and white 

accountability manifested in the classroom when speaking about social justice-related issues. 

Teachers enacted their preferred stances of remaining neutral on ideological issues of social 

justice while simultaneously revealing their personal beliefs, both of which served to maintain 

Whiteness. 

 

“I’m not saying right or wrong” 

 

Teachers expressed their desire to remain neutral on issues of social justice in the classroom, and 

this value manifested in their approaches to teaching about social justice topics. In one teacher’s 

class on media and culture, students spoke about an excerpt they watched of the show Black-ish 

about an upper middle-class Black family trying not to lose touch with their racial community 

while facing pressure to assimilate to white, middle class norms. The episode is called 

“Juneteenth” and it highlights a school play for Thanksgiving put on by a white teacher whose 

efforts at diversity and inclusion include making students of colour play Columbus and other 

colonizers. During the debrief of the episode, the teacher gauged students’ understandings of 

basic plot points, asking, “So, who’s Christopher Columbus?” A student responded that 

Columbus “invaded North America and got the land and killed people,” to which the teacher 

responded, “OK, ‘Invaded.’ Interesting terminology. I’m not saying right or wrong.” In this case, 

the teacher’s perception of what it meant to be neutral on ideological issues meant that they did 

not confirm a student’s assessment of what Columbus did as an “invasion," which by definition 

means “an unwelcome intrusion into another’s domain.”  

 

When I asked the teacher about this moment in a subsequent interview, they shared the 

following:  

 

T: I felt that it was such a loaded word [L: Invaded?] Yes. So, yes: he [Christopher 

Columbus] came. And yes, there was a lot of destruction. Not true that he was in North 

America [laughs] Ok, but I say all this—I was doing research on it, a day or two 

beforehand doublechecking what we were seeing in the show. ‘Cause I was like, ‘Well, 

I’ve got to see what’s true.’ So, I didn’t have all the research, I wasn’t able to go back and 

make sure: ‘This is absolutely true’ or not. So hence, I said ‘I can’t say true or not’ 

[laughs] ‘I can’t say right or wrong,’ but yet, I know there are some facts that we were 

taught that are incorrect. So, it was the loaded word [that made me respond in the way I 

did] and it would have been useful to say, ‘That’s a loaded word,’ because ‘invasion’ 

means that you are going there to destroy—in my mind, that’s the insinuation, the 

connotation.  

 

In this interaction, the teacher shares that they had been put off by the student’s use of a “loaded” 

term and did not feel adequately informed on the issues to be able to speak to what was true or 

untrue. This response indicates a gap, not only in the teacher’s own education on Christopher 

Columbus’ actions and legacy, but also in their confidence in being able to navigate addressing 

“loaded” terminology in the classroom. Scholars like Hess and McAvoy (2009), Kay (2018), and 

Loewen (2018) have addressed the utility of leaning into conflict in the classroom while also 

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acknowledging that it is an underdeveloped skill in teachers. This contention indicates that there 

is a gap not only in being informed on the issues, but also being equipped to address moments of 

discomfort, disagreement, ambiguity, and conflict so that the teachable moments that could come 

out of such tensions are not sacrificed. 

 

“Riots are uncontrolled, unthinking beasts” 

 

Teachers contradicted their stated desires to be neutral on social justice-related issues in the 

classroom. In the midst of a conversation about major turning points in the Civil Rights 

movement, for example, students discussed an image displayed on a screen showcasing burning 

buildings during civil unrest following the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Students were 

confused about why Black people were burning their own neighbourhoods in protest, and the 

following interaction occurred: 

 

S1: Why are angry people just destroying— 

S2: But when there are riots, you are supposed to fight for some rights… Right? What are 

they doing? 

S3 [In disbelief]: Why did they destroyed their own neighbourhoods?! 

T: Riots are uncontrolled, unthinking beasts. There is no logic. 

S4: Yeah, because it shows they are not thinking. 

S1: That’s like you just go out and destroy something.  

S5: For example, you’re angry and you destroy your TV. Your own TV! [students laugh] 

S2: I read about Attica—do you know Attica riots? Those African American prisoners 

were fighting for their rights because they have miserable lives in the prison. I thought 

that’s right, right? 

S5: They are expressing their anger, but they are not doing it in a proper manner 

S1: I just don’t get it because if I’m fighting for my rights, I don’t burn my own stuff 

[students laugh] 

T: Well, I don’t think an angry crowd is going to take the bus to [wealthy neighbourhood] 

[students laugh]. 

S3: That’s what I say when I saw the Baltimore thing. Like why are you lighting fires in 

police cars and the CVS… 

T: Ok, let’s move on. That’s where we finish. 

 

Instead of prompting students further—for example, asking students what they thought would 

constitute a “proper” manner of protesting and/or providing information about the institutional, 

systematic disenfranchisement and discrimination experienced by BIPOC that could reasonably 

lead to an eruption like the one they had seen in the pictures—this teacher positioned protests as 

unreasonable, illogical, and remained silent while students laughed about the idea of burning 

one’s own neighbourhood and made flippant comments about destroying their TV. Rather than 

foregrounding riots as Martin Luther King Jr. did—as “the language of the unheard” —and 

creating space for debate and informed discussion among students about the efficacy of protests 

in creating societal change—the teacher presented their opinion about riots in a way that left 

little room for debate, research, and discussion that may have expanded students’ conceptions of 

what this historical moment represented for oppressed people around the world. 

 

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Discussion 

 

Social Justice Pedagogy (SJP) requires sustained commitment to the idea that systemic injustice 

is real and that in order to disrupt it, those with more power than others must actively subvert 

their own privilege. The first research question of this study was answered in that the teachers in 

this study claimed to understand teaching to be political, conceptually, but did not act out of this 

understanding—as showcased by their avoidance of discussing social justice issues in 

unambiguous ways and/or approaching this content through critical lenses. Tensions were 

showcased in teachers’ understandings of themselves in relation to racism, prejudice, white 

privilege, and colonialism, as they did not see these legacies as relating to them nor did they feel 

a need to account for them in their life or teaching. 

 

In the instructor’s refusal to address Columbus’ legacy in clear and unambiguous ways, 

they sacrificed an opportunity to provide students with additional context and information about 

what Columbus and other colonizers did, directly, via rape and genocide, and indirectly, to the 

Taino and other Indigenous people, and then ask students what they thought. For example, they 

could have addressed that prior to white contact, Indigenous numbers in the United States and 

Canada are thought to have been around 14 million, and by 1880—due to the disease, 

destruction, and deculturation brought by European settlers—Indigenous numbers had declined 

by 98 percent (Loewen, 2018). The teacher could have leaned into this moment of tension to 

discuss the meaning of the word “invasion,” allowing students to do their own research and 

debate, in relation to evidence discussed, whether Columbus should continue to be celebrated as 

a hero. Instead of doing any of this, their “neutral” response reaffirmed whiteness and revisionist 

history and neglected an opportunity for a critical conversation. 

 

The teacher who claimed riots are “unthinking beasts” that “[have] no logic” similarly 

missed an opportunity to engage students in a critical conversation while simultaneously sharing 

their own prejudiced perspective. This teacher did not follow up with students in this interaction 

during a few critical moments—for example, when the student said I read about Attica—do you 

know Attica riots? Those African American prisoners were fighting for their rights because they 

have miserable lives in the prison. I thought that’s right, right? —this opportunity could have 

been a moment in which the teacher could ask students to pause and reflect over this statement to 

consider why someone might “burn their own stuff” as a form of protest: namely when they 

don’t have any other option. In interviews, this teacher indicated that they thought teachers 

should remain neutral in class conversations about social justice issues; however, in the context 

of this class conversation, they made their personal views about protests apparent, which 

students then mirrored in subsequent responses that such acts show “[people] are not thinking” 

and that “[protestors] are not doing it in a proper manner.” 

 

In contrast to the goals of SJP, the three white EAP instructors in this study showcased 

personal beliefs and classroom practices that upheld Whiteness when discussing social justice-

related content. They forewent opportunities to provide information about complex sociocultural 

phenomena, historical events, and cultural moments for their students, and in so doing, they did 

not serve the goal of disentangling English language teaching from colonial traditions but further 

reinforced dynamics of white supremacy. Rather than minimizing confusion, misunderstandings, 

and stereotypes that were conveyed within these conversations, they sometimes added to the 

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misinformation and/or stereotypes themselves. The instructors operated under the assumptions 

that pedagogical neutrality is both possible and desirable while simultaneously revealing their 

personal beliefs about what is proper and correct. 

 

In interviews, instructor understandings of their own racial identities mirrored the idea 

that “they [BIPOC]—not we [white people]—have race, and thus they are the holders of racial 

knowledge” (DiAngelo, 2018, p. 62), and showcased discomfort in addressing race and social 

justice issues in unambiguous ways. Scholars like DiAngelo (2018) have addressed how white 

people often think they exist outside of the racial hierarchy and so don’t have to speak to it, when 

in fact, these silences are central to the hierarchy’s existence and maintenance. Similar to this, 

the instructors in this study remained silent in conversations about racial and colonial injustice 

and did not approach these conversations from critical lenses (DiAngelo & Sensoy, 2012), 

moving the class along to the next topic when they felt ill-equipped to navigate the challenging 

dialogic terrain. They denied access to white capital (Solomona et al., 2005) and did not claim 

responsibility for dismantling hierarchies of oppression. In their discussion of social justice-

related topics in their classrooms, they re-affirmed Whiteness with both their contributions and 

their omissions. Counter to SJP scholars like Cumming-Potvin (2009) and Zeichner (2003), the 

teachers in this study showed little awareness of teaching as instrumental in creating a fairer and 

more just society. 

 

In her essay “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference,” Audre Lorde 

(1984) reminded readers that, 

 

Whenever the need for some pretense of communication arises, those who profit from 

[Black people’s] oppression call upon us to share our knowledge with them. In other 

words, it is the responsibility of the oppressed to teach the oppressors their mistakes. I am 

responsible for educating teachers who dismiss my children’s culture in school. Black 

and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. (p. 

114) 

 

In the same way Lorde indicated above, instructors in the study desired to be educated by BIPOC 

individuals on societal injustices. Questions they asked such as How can I hear you? Please, stop 

me and tell me right away, demonstrated their thinking that “Black and Third World people . . . 

[must educate] white people as to [their] humanity.” In contrast, white instructors’ personal and 

professional development, reflection, and personal responsibility to educate themselves about 

their own histories and racial identities is a necessary step to decolonizing education. In the 

context of contemporary social justice issues such as ongoing police brutality and 

disproportionate rates of incarceration of Black and Brown communities (Alexander, 2010), 

disparate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on BIPOC individuals, especially women 

(Erickson, 2020), and the lasting impact of worldwide colonialism on Indigenous communities 

(Loewen, 2018), white teachers’ neutrality in conversations about such social injustices serves 

the status quo of injustice (Applebaum, 2009; Nurenberg, 2020).  

 

Love (2019) wrote that social justice pedagogies must call out the ways in which racism, 

sexism, homophobia, and all other forms of prejudice and hate are structural in order to 

consciously commit to building equitable school communities and societies (p. 55). The false 

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presumption that neutrality is possible in the classroom foregoes opportunities to use positions of 

privilege to a) educate oneself about history in accurate and inclusive ways, and b) use that 

knowledge to give voice to the social inequities facing minoritized communities. It sacrifices 

opportunities for rich, nuanced discussions that could help model for students what engaged civic 

dialogue and debate could look like (Hess, 2009; Parker, 2006).  

 

Neutrality also presumes that all perspectives are competing on an equal playing field, 

which is untrue in our present-day contexts of societal injustice (Kay, 2018; Oluo, 2020; 

Wilkerson, 2020). Furthermore, researchers find that neutrality is impossible, and students are 

able to deduce their teachers’ views without them having been explicitly communicated (Hess & 

McAvoy, 2009). Milner (2017) argued that what and how teachers teach is never neutral since 

the questions asked, what information is included in syllabi and materials, and even who is called 

on are all choices that are impacted by one’s personal beliefs, values, and prejudices. If teachers’ 

beliefs already enter into their teaching in ways that are unbeknownst to them, one could argue 

that may be more beneficial to transparently disclose opinions so that these are not presented as 

facts. Such transparency could help to promote open dialogue, debate, and allow students to 

develop their own ideas and critical thinking skills. It could also model for students that working 

through conflict can be an arena for growth and personal development (Kay, 2018). 

 

Research has found that students may perceive information differently depending on the 

racial and gender identity, among other identity markers, of the teacher who is presenting the 

information. For example, a study found that when a white man (who teaches at a prestigious 

U.S. university) taught his students about issues of race and societal injustice, students reported 

him as “objective,” “scholarly,” and “disinterested,” in their course evaluations. Conversely, 

when an African American woman at the same institution taught about issues of race and societal 

injustice, she was perceived as “self-interested,” “bitter,” or “putting forth a particular agenda” 

(Ladson Billings, 1996). Ideas about who can be neutral, when certain topics are allowed to be 

broached, and by whom, are deeply embedded in the racist fabric of our institutions. In order for 

educators to help build a more equitable framework, they must train themselves to see who 

discourses of neutrality serve, and who they marginalize. Educators must further acknowledge 

that neutrality on the part of white teachers and silences on social justice issues are 

manifestations of white fragility that showcase leave-taking of stress-inducing situations 

(DiAngelo, 2018), which maintains a white supremacist framework. 

 

Scholarship has shown that engaging students in conversation and debate in which 

participants may have differing views is essential for the development of requisite skills to 

participate in civic dialogue (Hess & McAvoy, 2009; Kay, 2018). Teacher neutrality obscures 

the political nature of education and hides from view the pillars of prejudice on which neutrality, 

as a concept, rests. Heybach (2014) has traced the etymology of the word “neutrality,” and 

reminds readers that the essence of the word means “no power being transmitted” and “being 

disengaged.” It is worth considering: what are the implications of “no power being transmitted” 

in the context of white English language teachers’ attempting to talk to EB students about social 

justice issues? 

  

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Implications 

 

Implications for MA TESOL Program Development 

 

In light of the disproportionate numbers of white educators as compared to the increasing 

diversity of the student body (Davis & Frey, 2019), there is an urgent need for MA TESOL 

programs to integrate Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) into their curricula to address historic 

inequities, dynamics of white privilege that continue to manifest and duplicate in school settings, 

and the role of teachers in disrupting these patterns (Gerald, 2020). White teachers must better 

understand themselves, the lasting legacy of white supremacy, and the power and privilege they 

bring to classroom interactions to change their behaviours and approaches to teaching English 

accordingly. Teaching is a political act through which social stratification is either reinforced or 

disrupted (Buchanan, 2015), so it is imperative to closely examine the content that is being 

taught in MA TESOL programs to understand the role it plays in disrupting or maintaining 

Whiteness in education. In English language teaching, this demand is all the more pressing 

because of ties between the English language, colonialism, xenophobia, and the relative capital 

afforded based on the languages one speaks and the colour of one’s skin, which have social, 

political, and economic ramifications (Bourdieu, 1986; Guerrettaz & Zahler, 2017; Ruecker & 

Ives, 2015). 

 

There is scant research on white EAP practicing and pre-service teachers’ engagement 

with confronting Whiteness, privilege, and anti-Black racism in the context of their studies 

(Ennser-Kananen, 2020; Motha, 2006). However, CRT scholars such as Boler (1999) and Ohito 

(2016) have suggested the value of practicing a “pedagogy of discomfort” with white pre-service 

teachers to push them to see themselves located within an inequitable system and “make 

meaning of the contours of racial oppression” (p. 455), and similar pedagogies can be practised 

in MA TESOL programs. For example, Faez (2012) showcased the takeaways of teacher 

candidates who engaged in critical reflection over their own linguistic experiences and identities, 

foregrounding race in those reflections. In initiating (white) pre-service teachers’ investigation of 

their own racial identities, teacher educators may help to render visible the “tight yet seemingly 

invisible hold that white supremacy maintains on teacher education” (Ohito, 2016, p. 454), 

allowing such programs to begin addressing and responding to historical inequities in meaningful 

ways rather than being guided by people in power who may be motivated more by interest 

convergence than true changes of heart and/or a desire for racial equity (Bell, 1980; Gillborn, 

2006).  

 

Implications for EAP Programs 

 

There has long been debate in EAP scholarship about the degree to which EAP programs should 

adopt critical or pragmatist approaches to English language teaching (Benesch, 1993; Hyland, 

2004; Paltridge, 2001; Pennycook, 1994; Santos, 1992). Scholarship showcases the importance 

of language learning being integrated with authentic content (Airey, 2016), and scholars have 

criticized EAP programs’ approach to language teaching that teaches the four skills areas 

(reading, writing, listening, and speaking) in isolation, arguing that this approach leaves EB 

students unprepared to participate in university-level content-area work meaningfully, since 

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university coursework tends to engage with ideological issues (Canagarajah, 2002; 2006; 

Parkinson, 2016).  

 

 The work of Benesch (1999; 2001; 2010) has argued for the use of critical pedagogy in 

EAP classrooms and provides models for intervention and mediation in critical conversations, 

demonstrating, for example, how EAP instructors can serve as “conversation facilitator[s] and, 

more judiciously, intervener[s] (1999, p. 578), prompting students to elaborate on their ideas to 

model that critical thinking is “neither an unguided free-for-all nor a didactic lecture but a 

balance between extended student contributions and gentle challenges by the teacher” (p. 578). 

Haque (2008) and Luke (1992) have identified that critical pedagogy in EAP teaching could fall 

short in similar ways as uncritical language teaching if it is not undertaken in tandem with 

critiques of the institutions of which the EAP programs are a part (Haque, 2008, p. 94). This 

issue is exacerbated when EAP programs, and universities more broadly, are constructed in the 

societal imagination as “service industries” allowing students access to a “neutral body of 

knowledge” (p. 94) rather than institutions that are ideologically motivated. In light of this, the 

primary recommendation for EAP programs that comes out of this study is to engage faculty—in 

particular white faculty—in professional development that foregrounds: 

 

1. Explicit education about the historical intersections of TESOL with Whiteness, 

colonialism, racism, and xenophobia 

2. Critical approaches to EAP that promote awareness of the politics of language teaching 

3. Critical reflection about the role that EAP teachers play in upholding or dismantling 

white supremacist thought in the classroom setting 

4. Guidance for undergoing critical dialogues about social justice issues with students, for 

example, the BC TEAL Respectful Interactions Guidelines (RIGs) Framework (“BC 

TEAL,” n.d.) and/or the BC Human Rights Code (“Human Rights,” 2021).  

 

There are many other resources that could aid in this education and professional development, 

including use of and reflection over the Harvard Implicit Association Test (IAT), critical 

readings of texts like White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo (2018), and Not Light, But Fire: How 

to Lead Meaningful Race Conversations in the Classroom by Matthew R. Kay (2018). Authors 

such as Davis (2017) have discussed the benefits of professional book clubs for fostering 

conversations about social justice issues, addressing biases, and reflecting on and critiquing 

one’s background and personal values to better understand the impact of educators’ socialization 

on their teaching practices. Engaging in this kind of dialogic inquiry—in supportive and 

collaborative environments—may be a productive way for white English language teachers to 

hold themselves and each other accountable to understanding the legacy of Whiteness in their 

work and the obligation to take action in their practice to effect change (Kendi, 2019; Oluo, 

2020).  

 

Limitations and Future Research 

 

This study was limited by time, and its findings are limited to three white EAP instructors whose 

teaching I followed over the course of a semester. In spite of these limitations, I believe the 

takeaways from this study are transferable to contexts where similar problems may exist within 

English language teaching related to Whiteness and settler colonialist histories. This study 

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responds to a gap in the literature related to calls to de-silence social justice issues in TESOL—

namely, how these conversations are undertaken, by whom and with what background 

knowledge and underlying beliefs—and showcases that understanding these factors are just as, if 

not more, important than solely the fact of having these conversations integrated into EAP 

teaching.  

 

This study builds on the body of work that has been done regarding intersections of 

Whiteness, racism, and settler colonialism in TESOL (Gerald, 2020; Kubota & Lin, 2006; Lin & 

Luke, 2006; Sterzuk & Hengen, 2019; Von Esch et al., 2020) and provides a cautionary tale to 

those who are interested in integrating social justice-related content into their EAP teaching 

about the ways in which Whiteness may find a home in these conversations—just as a spider 

weaves its web (Lin & Luke, 2006)—if they are not undertaken with simultaneous critical race 

reflection and anti-racist professional development of white instructors. Future research could 

engage in critical inquiry about professional development framed by Critical Whiteness Studies 

(CWS) and Social Justice Pedagogy (SJP) and its impact on white EAP instructors teaching 

about social justice issues. 

 

Conclusion 

 

The teachers in this study showcased contradictory beliefs about the political nature of teaching 

and their perceived obligation to account for historical and contemporary racial inequities, which 

manifested in the classroom conversations they undertook regarding social justice issues. 

Teachers integrated social justice-related content, yet did not see themselves as the appropriate 

person to talk about such inequities. They did not believe they had an obligation to speak to 

historical and present-day racism, and they desired for conversations about such topics to be 

undertaken in an “open, civil manner” in which no one was called a racist or told they were 

wrong. They acknowledged the political nature of teaching more broadly and English language 

teaching, specifically, while simultaneously seeking to remain neutral on ideological issues in 

their classrooms. 

 

This study showcases the tensions in the three participants’ practices that ultimately 

maintained Whiteness. White EAP educators who are invested in decolonizing their teaching 

practices and seek to engage students in meaningful conversations about social justice issues 

must read and engage more with the concept of white fragility to uncover their own blind spots, 

understand and interpret their gut reactions to being called to account for racism in present-day 

society, and be willing to engage in critical conversations about social justice issues within their 

classes in a clear and unambiguous way. Without programmatic development in EAP and MA 

TESOL programs to educate white teachers on the intersections of TESOL with race, settler 

colonialism, and Whiteness, the status quo will continue to reproduce itself through these 

programs, and use of social justice content in EAP programs will reinforce dynamics of white 

supremacy rather than provide opportunities for critical inquiry, debate, and growth. 

 

Acknowledgments 

 

I wish to thank my husband for his support and multiple reads of this manuscript. I would also 

like to thank the anonymous reviewers and editor Scott Douglas for gracious comments, 

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BC TEAL Journal Volume 6 Number 1 (2021): 106–131 

https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422 

constructive feedback, and publication guidance. Thank you, as well, to Dr. Kimberly Brown for 

the encouragement to write and continued mentorship. 

 

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https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.422
https://doi.org/10.2307/40264542
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444820000269
https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.20332
https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v21i2.178
https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/equitable-campuses-but-for-whom/
https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/equitable-campuses-but-for-whom/
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