Deconstructing Social Class Identity and Teacher Privilege in the Second Language Classroom

Through a pedagogical lens, this literature review highlights how social class, as a primary analytical construct for understanding identity in English language learner instruction, interacts with teacher class identity while creating implications for teaching and learning. In the past two decades, race, class, and gender have been the foci in TESOL identity research, yet race and gender have often been privileged as primary constructs of analysis while class is relegated to tertiary status. The article reviews poststructuralist identity theories in linguistics/TESOL to analyze the concept of multiple subjectivities as dynamic, shifting, conflicting, and situated in particular sociohistorical contexts. Then, through a multidisciplinary approach, the author discusses teacher identity conceptualization and draws from TESOL research on race/racial privilege to illustrate ways in which teacher privilege may result from student positionality based on social class for English language learners in primary and secondary public schools. Concluding with implications for the field, the author suggests future avenues of research on social class in the second language classroom.