This book presents the career narratives of an under-researched group of teachers: immigrant Filipino teachers of English working mainly with young and very young learners in Japan. It provides a nuanced and revealing critique of poststructuralist views of identity and proposes recognition theories as an alternative perspective. It explores the role of the community found in language teacher associations in the formation and strengthening of language teacher identity and reveals new insights into morality and social justice in language teacher identity. The narratives of the teachers and the communities of which they are part demonstrate how prejudice affects these teachers' lives, and how speaking about and celebrating success can affirm individual and group identity.
Stewart’s book goes where previous language teacher identity books have not gone, focusing on an under-researched group, Filipino English teachers in Japan, while adopting an identity politics perspective which draws on the work of scholars such as Alex Honneth and Charles Taylor. Extremely well written, it is a must-read for anyone interested in language teacher identity.
- David Block, ICREA and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, SpainIn this important book Alison Stewart makes a wonderful job of using Filipino teachers’ narratives to provide an insightful and nuanced critique of key ideas about language teacher identity. The reader is given a thought-provoking and highly readable account of the ways in which recognition theories can illuminate the phenomenon of identity in applied linguistics.
- Siân Preece, UCL Institute of Education, UKStewart’s use of recognition theories and the Filipino English Teachers in Japan association as the contextual backdrop reinvigorates the field of language teacher identity, thus depicting the career narratives of seven Filipino English teachers in Japan. Ultimately, Stewart’s work is an empowering and moral portrayal of those from a poor country teaching in a prosperous one, hence capturing the ideologies embedded in where privilege meets marginalization.
- Gloria Park, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, USA
Alison Stewart is Professor of English Education at Gakushuin University, Japan. Her research interests include language teaching and identity and language teacher associations.
