Centering Marginalized Voices: Ethnographic Insights into the Glocal Realities of NNESTs in Asia

This presentation shares findings from an ethnographic book project titled Ethnographies
in Search of Equity: Exploring NNESTs in ELT, which documents the lived experiences of non-native English-speaking teachers (NNESTs) across Tokyo, Taipei, and Seoul. Despite the global turn in applied linguistics and growing recognition of English as a lingua franca, the ideology of native speakerism continues to shape local hiring practices, institutional norms, and classroom perceptions, reproducing systemic inequities in English Language Teaching (ELT). Drawing on over 40 interviews, reflective writing, and document analysis, the project highlights how NNESTs navigate discrimination, assert agency, and mobilize their linguistic capital within constrained systems. By examining how global discourses around multilingualism and equity are resisted, negotiated, or enacted in local ELT contexts, the study advances a GloCal understanding of teacher legitimacy and professional inclusion. This talk will preview the book's findings, which combines theoretical framing with practitioner narratives, and explores actionable insights for teacher training, institutional policy, and classroom practice. It argues for a paradigm shift that repositions NNESTs as central actors in ELT, not peripheral ones. Their multilingual repertoires, pedagogical expertise, and sociocultural knowledge are vital assets, not deficiencies. In foregrounding NNEST voices and advocating for systemic reform, this project contributes to the broader applied linguistics goal of transforming ELT into a more equitable, inclusive, and contextually responsive field, one attuned to both global realities and local struggles.