Case 3: Navigating the Politics of Language in Clinically Based Teacher Education

Why did this situation bother me so much? I (Elizabeth) realized that what the mentor teacher was really saying was that it was unacceptable for a teacher to speak English with a “foreign” accent. Nadia was from an Arabic-speaking country, but her English was understandable. At that moment I wanted to both affirm Nadia’s native language and criticize the mentor teacher’s lack of cultural competence. It is possible that the mentor teacher intended to give Nadia kindly, practical advice to prevent future complaints from students and parents in a society in which teachers are expected to model formal academic English. No matter what the mentor teacher’s intentions, however, her advice to Nadia further reified the imbalance of power and prestige between majority and minority languages and their speakers.