Academic Coloniality in English Language Teaching in Higher Education in Algeria

Abstract

This study investigates, through the lens of ‘Academic Coloniality’, the various ways in which colonial discourses and hegemonies resulting from the global spread of English and English Language Teaching (ELT) unfold in higher education in Algeria. Academic Coloniality refers to the practices and beliefs of people that contribute to the production, manifestation, and reproduction of certain power relations between the ‘native speakers’ of English and its learners (Daffri & Taibi 2023). By looking at the ELT beliefs and practices of teachers and learners in a context that was not directly affected by British or American colonialism, the study aims to explore how Academic Coloniality within ELT in Algerian universities contributes to asymmetries that continue to marginalise people.
The research was carried out using an exploratory sequential design comprising two phases. In the first phase, in order to explore and identify traces of Academic Coloniality in the context, qualitative data were collected from seventeen ELT students and teachers in one Algerian university using in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The data were analysed using critical discourse analysis. Following this, the second phase of the study, quantitative data were collected from 479 student and teacher participants by means of online surveys. In this way the researcher sought to verify and generalise the findings of the first phase across ten Algerian universities.
The findings suggest that Academic Coloniality manifests itself in participants’ continuous quest to achieve ‘native-like’ competence and adopt a ‘native-speaker’ variety of English language and culture. This results from a combination of the colonial history of the context, the imbalanced power interactions between participants, and the idealised representations of ‘native speakers’ often portrayed by the media. These factors, coupled with a resistance to change imposed by some English language teachers who act as gatekeepers, and the lack of open channels of communication between the different parties, contribute to the maintenance and continuity of Academic Coloniality. In that sense, the concept emerges as a useful heuristic tool for conceptualising and contextualising practices and beliefs within ELT which prevent its decolonisation, and which might impede the creation of a future of ELT beyond Academic Coloniality.
Moreover, the study presents significant pedagogical and social implications that call for diversifying the current content of the curriculum in Algerian universities, revisiting some of the dominant classroom approaches to teaching, and moving away from the mindsets that create hierarchies in the ELT educational system by giving advantages to certain teachers and marginalising others. Ultimately, it is hoped that this new approach will contribute to the professional formation of scholars who are able to critically engage with power inequalities and thereby change their social realities.

Date of Award	28 Jun 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath
Supervisor	Trevor Grimshaw (Supervisor) & Santiago Sanchez (Supervisor)