NEGOTIATING PEDAGOGICAL CULTURES: CLASSROOM PRACTICES OF NATIVE ENGLISH-SPEAKING TEACHERS IN CHINESE UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

Although many studies discuss native English-speaking teachers’ (NEST) identities, most focus on beliefs, narratives, or institutional discourses rather than what teachers actually do in the classroom. To fill this gap, this qualitative multiple-case study examines how NESTs construct and negotiate their professional identities through classroom practices in Chinese universities. Drawing on classroom observations of four NESTs who are from America and Britain and working at two different universities in China, the study employs an integrative framework informed by sociocultural and poststructuralist perspectives to explore three interrelated processes: pedagogical negotiation, cultural mediation, and identity performance. Through inductive thematic analysis based on the classroom observation fieldnotes, the findings reveal that identity construction is a dynamic process enacted through everyday teaching practices, as teachers balance communicative pedagogies with local expectations rooted in exam-oriented traditions and hierarchical norms. Through classroom interaction, humour, and task design, the teachers mediated cultural and pedagogical meanings while performing and reshaping their professional selves. The study extends current understandings of language teacher identity by highlighting classroom practice as a key site of negotiation and identity performance for NESTs working in non-native English contexts.