Narratives of Participation, Identity, | and Positionality: Two Cases of Saudi Learners of English in the United States

Narratives of Participation, Identity, and Positionality: Two Cases of Saudi Learners of English in the United StatesSHANNON GIROIR The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas, Unite

Narratives of Participation, Identity, and Positionality: Two Cases of Saudi Learners of English in the United States

SHANNON GIROIR

The University of Texas at Austin

Austin, Texas, United States

This article reports a study that investigated how two Saudi Arabianmen negotiated their positionality vis-
a-vis a host community in theUnited States and how they engaged in different discursive practices

in order to achieve fuller participation in the various worlds thatbecame important to them The study takes data from a largerresearch project that looked at the narrated experiences of nineadult learners enrolled in an intensive English program in theUnited States Data were collected over a 6-month period usingethnographic data collection tools such as classroom observations,individual interviews, and student-designed second language (L2)photo narratives The article focuses on the processes by which twolanguage learners of a particularly politicized and racialized culturalgroup (Muslims of Arab descent) were able to renegotiate theirperipherality through their ongoing interactions as “novices” innew L2 “expert” communities (Lave & Wenger, 1991) Although thetwo cases diverge in critical ways, the findings show not only howpost-9/11 discourses served as powerfully marginalizing structures,but also how the learners actively managed those structures in theirbids for fuller participation in L2 communities

doi: 10.1002/tesq.95

The relationship between the language learner and the target guage context is one that has been given increased attention inteaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL), particularly

lan-in light of the ever-growlan-ing lan-interest lan-in second language (L2) identityresearch (Block, 2007; Norton & Toohey, 2011) This body of workhas offered new perspectives on language learning, illustrating howlearners’ multiple identifications (based on categories of gender, race,and sexual orientation, among others) can impact their L2 learningprocesses as well as their access to L2 community resources Despitemore focused attention to these relationships in L2 learning, however,one issue that has been underresearched in the field is that of identity,race, and TESOL in post-9/11 contexts, because little work has honed

in on the experiences of learners who identify as Muslim or on howcurrent exclusionary social and political discourses can create complexconditions for learning and participation Addressing this gap inresearch becomes more pressing when one considers the significantincrease in Saudi Arabians living and studying abroad since the 2005initiation of the Saudi Scholarship Program (from approximately2,500 in 2005 to 50,000 in 2011 in the United States alone) Further-more, because structures of differentiation and exclusion around Islamcan be located across TESOL communities (Dunn, Klocker, & Salabay,2007; Rich & Troudi, 2006), well beyond the U.S context, this remains

an area of needed research with global relevance

This article reports on a study that investigated how two SaudiArabian men negotiated their positionality vis-
a-vis the L2 community inwhich they lived and studied English as a second language (ESL), andhow they each engaged in different discursive practices (Davies & Harre,1999) in order to achieve fuller participation in the various L2 worldsthat became important to them The study takes data from a largerresearch project that looked at nine adult learners enrolled in an inten-sive English program (IEP) in the United States, the focus here being

on the processes by which learners of a particularly politicized and ized cultural group (Muslims of Arab descent) were able to renegotiatetheir peripherality through their ongoing, and often incongruent, inter-actions in the larger L2 community I begin by discussing the conceptualorientations and literature that shaped this investigation, including a dis-cussion that situates the research problem within broader discussions ofrace, Islam, and TESOL in post-9/11 contexts

racial-THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND LITERATURE

REVIEW

Aimed at exploring the complex, and often contentious, relationshipbetween L2 learners and the social worlds in which they participate, thisstudy drew on theoretical orientations that view language learning as par-ticipation in a linguistic community and that regard language learningitself as a situated social practice The communities of practice framework(CoP; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) is often cited by those whoare interested in how L2 learners form identities as they move fromperipheral to full participation in social worlds, and how that participa-tion is or is not sanctioned by those in power within those worlds Intheir original framework, Lave and Wenger (1991) conceptualizedperipherality based on their theoretical concept of legitimate peripheralparticipation (LPP) LPP was seen as a positive and necessary point, aposition of possibility, in which newcomers are situated within a commu-

nity of practice The concept suggested “an opening, a way of gainingaccess to sources for understanding through growing involvement”(Lave & Wenger, 1991, p 37), with the learner’s “novice” status seen pos-itively by the expert community (rather than as a reason for exclusion)

in order for the learner to engage on a path toward full participation.Interestingly, as the CoP framework has been applied to L2 contexts(Leki, 2001; Morita, 2004; Norton, 2000, 2001; Toohey, 2000), it hasbeen found that LPP, as Kanno (1998) argued, “is not how it is” (p 128)and that learners “are often blocked from the very resource that is vital totheir acquisition of the L2: opportunities to interact with native speakers”(p 129) In other words, L2 learners are not always offered LPP, theirpaths toward full participation are not always sanctioned, and L2 learnerscan be denied access to community resources as a result of local biasesaround categories of gender, race, and linguistic ability How learnersnegotiate those structures of marginalization and bid for more powerfulstances remains an important topic of investigation (Lantolf & Pavlenko,2001; Norton & Toohey, 2011) This study aimed at addressing this issue

by looking more closely at the activities and interactions that take place

at the periphery of communities of practice, conceptualizing that space

as a dynamic site of struggle in which learners construct their identitiesthrough their ongoing discursive practices within those communities

IDENTITY AND AGENCY AS DISCURSIVE PRACTICE

Poststructuralist approaches to second language acquisition nize that L2 learners are engaged in a dialogic relationship with soci-ety, one in which context is negotiated rather than presupposed, and

recog-in which speakers must contrecog-inuously negotiate their identity positionsrelative to other speakers (Lantolf & Pavlenko, 2001; Norton &Toohey, 2011) From these perspectives, learners’ identities, both inhow they are socially imposed and how they are self-articulated, can beregarded as discursive practices, that is, social enterprises that involvelearners continuously engaging with a variety of discourses constructedaround their multiple identity positions, including, among manyothers, their racial and cultural identities Weedon (1997) emphasizesthe constitutive role of discourse, discursive referring to “ways of consti-tuting knowledge, together with the social practices, forms of subjectiv-ity and power relations which inhere in such knowledges and therelations between them” (p 108) Complementary to that view, Daviesand Harre (1999) put forth the idea that “to know anything is to know

in terms of one or more discourses” (pp 34–35), with discourse stood not as a property of an individual, but as a “multi-faceted publicprocess through which meanings are progressively and dynamically

under-achieved” (p 35) In the same theoretical vein, a learner’s agency isunderstood as a socially situated, culturally bound process As Butler(2004) characterizes it, agency is action that is, somewhat paradoxi-cally, made available by the discursive parameters within which we allexist; she wrote, “If I have any agency, it is opened up by the fact that

I am constituted by a social world I never chose” (p 3)

A view of identity and agency as situated enterprises gives particularmeaning to the processes by which L2 learners negotiate participation

in L2 communities In many ways, achieving fuller participation is a cess of recognition and belonging, embedded in the dynamic discursiveframeworks of the social worlds in which they desire participation Withrecognition as the goal, learners engage with multiple discourses toachieve what constitutes a “coherent” subject position (Davies & Harre,1999) As Block (2007) puts it, “all actors will position themselves andothers according to their sense of what constitutes a coherent narrativefor the particular activity, time, and place” (p 19) Related to this per-spective are what Butler (2004) characterizes as norms of recognition, orways of being and doing that make individuals intelligible to others,compelling them to engage in self-regulation and take up readable identi-ties as a way of establishing recognition and carving out coherent modes

pro-of belonging For example, Ellwood’s (2009) research illustrates how L2learners (and experts) are pressured to “operate within known dis-courses” (p 113); otherwise they risk “uninhabitable identifications” inthe community The findings of Ellwood’s study show that although Jap-anese ESL learners resisted racialized discourses in order to overcomeobstacles to participation, they also recognized themselves within thosediscourses and took up positions that were aligned with negative stereo-types of Japanese students “in the name of intelligibility” (p 113).Respectively, one might expect that certain identity options are madesalient at the periphery of L2 communities in light of post-9/11 Islamo-phobic discourses that offer undesirable, yet widely recognizable, posi-tions to learners who identify as Arab and Muslim Furthermore,because inequality and discrimination on the basis of religious and cul-tural identification are being seen as increasingly racialized, the topic ofracial identity and TESOL takes on new dimensions

PERIPHERALITY AND RACE IN POST-9/11 CONTEXTS

To diverge from simplistic notions of race as a decontextualized,objective condition, the concept of racialization has been used in theliterature to explain race as a “socially constructed response to socio-cultural, political, and historical conditions at a given point in time”(Rich & Troudi, 2006, p 617) As such, the growing anti-Islamicism of

recent decades is indicative of what some scholars have referred to asthe “new racism” (Cole, 1997), illustrative of how discourses of other-ness and inferiority can be applied to ethnic groups on the grounds ofcultural markers such as shared religion, language, and beliefs In fact,new racism frameworks illuminate the increasingly contested terrain ofdistinctions between categories of race and ethnicity, the particular phe-nomenon of Islamophobia showing how those two constructs canbecome collapsed in real-world contexts Dunn et al (2007) have con-tended that Islamophobia is informed by both “old” and “new” logics,being based not “on some supposed biological grounds, but on reli-gion and culture (including appearance) more generally” (p 567).According to these authors, new racisms still draw heavily from dis-courses of otherness, yet “fundamentally assist with structures of inferi-ority (hierarchies) and differentiation (exclusion)” (p 567).

Rich and Troudi’s (2006) report on Saudi MA TESOL students inthe United Kingdom examines some of the ways in which new racismsoperate in L2 learning communities where Islamophobic discoursesare becoming increasingly evident In their report, the Saudi partici-pants’ accounts of othering did not always reference race directly; how-ever, they foregrounded religion, culture, and ethnicity in ways thatwere understood as “evidence of racialized Othering taking place”(p 623) Further, post-9/11 discourses shaped how these learners sawthemselves in relation to the larger L2 community They had expecta-tions of being treated unequally on the basis of their religious andethnic identity, and as one Saudi learner put it: “What is going onaround the world politically and what is going on in the Middle East isalways looming in the back of my mind” (p 623)

With regard to the social context of this particular study (the ted States), I use the term post-9/11 narrative to represent dominantstorylines that have developed in the media and public discourses onthe topics of Islam, “alien” immigration to the United States, U.S citi-zenship, and terrorism since the violent events of September 11, 2001.Since 9/11, not only have there been remarkable changes in U.S leg-islation and immigration policy that have resulted in exclusionary prac-tices toward immigrants from the Middle East (Sekhon, 2003; Shaw,2009), but reports of discrimination against Arab Americans (Kulwicki,Khalifa, & Moore, 2008) as well as Middle Eastern university studentshave increased (Norris, 2011) Although there has been a considerable(and many say equal) outpouring of support for Arab and Muslimcommunities in the United States, as well as public condemnation ofhate crimes and discrimination, the increased attention placed onMuslims has resulted nonetheless in their transformation from

Uni-“invisible” to “glaringly conspicuous” (Salaita, 2005, p 149) Howelland Shyrock (2003) describe the repercussions of such visibility:

In the aftermath of 9/11, Arab and Muslim Americans have been pelled, time and again, to apologize for acts they did not commit, tocondemn acts they never condoned, and to openly profess loyaltiesthat, for most U.S citizens, are merely assumed (p 444)

com-In some ways, the inauguration of the Saudi Scholarship Programcould be viewed as a powerful public counterstatement to pervasivelynegative post-9/11 sentiments, given that one mission of the program,

as articulated by a joint statement from former President George W.Bush and Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdullaziz Al Saud following theirwell-known 2005 meeting in Crawford, Texas, is to “expand dialogue,understanding, and interactions between our [American and Saudi]citizens” so as to “overcome obstacles facing Saudi businessmen andstudents who wish to enter the United States” (quoted in Shaw, 2009,

p 60) As a result of such initiatives, the Saudi student population hasrisen significantly not only in the United States, but also worldwide.Thus, it is quite surprising that only a few published studies (e.g., Rich

& Troudi, 2006) have examined outcomes of this increased presence inTESOL communities—for both students and TESOL professionals—against the backdrop of an increasingly Islamophobic climate

The choice to theorize at the intersection of peripherality, Islam,and ESL learning was an attempt to address this gap in L2 research

on this particular group of learners by examining (1) how structures

of marginalization shape Saudi learners’ L2 experiences and (2) howlearners manage these structures through their ongoing interactions

in the L2 community Because the second goal involved examininghow learners construct agentive stances in the face of marginalizingcircumstances, the theoretical orientations toward agency discussed,along with Lave and Wenger’s (1999) description of LPP, helped toforeground an understanding of peripherality that was meant to leave

“conceptual room for the actions and investments of human agents”(Norton & Toohey, 2011, p 427) Therefore, peripherality is regardedhere as a space of possibility—rather than entirely a space of exclusion—one in which multiple and divergent discursive options are available

by means of both structures of cultural reproduction as well as by theinterpretive processes of the subjects who engage with them

METHOD

Participants and Setting

This study takes data from a larger study that looked at a group ofnine adult ESL learners studying in an IEP who were diverse incultural and linguistic background, age, and academic and profes-

sional trajectories The larger study was not specifically guided byresearch questions focused on race in L2 learning, but instead by abroader research question: How do L2 learners negotiate the periph-ery in order to achieve fuller participation in L2 communities? Fromthis study, I elaborate here on two of the nine participants’ experi-ences, the two Saudi men of the participant group, Musa and Alim.The salient themes that emerged across these cases provided a strongrationale to further examine how structures of racialization influencedtheir experiences as L2 learners, and are thus analyzed here from thatframework.

Musa Musa (age 18) began learning English as a foreign language(EFL) at a young age in Saudi Arabia, as part of the general schoolcurriculum, and he reported to have had much exposure to Englishthrough American movies, the Internet, and video games available tohim in his home country After completing high school in SaudiArabia, Musa began his study in the United States as part of a SaudiScholarship Program affiliated with a Saudi corporate manufacturerwith U.S subsidiaries The recipients of this scholarship were fundedfor 1 year of study in ESL and prerequisite courses in math andscience, after which they were eligible to apply to a 4-year U.S degreeprogram in engineering

Alim As a graduate student, Alim (age 26) was planning toenter an MBA program following his ESL coursework, and his ESLstudies were also funded by scholarships from the Saudi govern-ment Like Musa, Alim began studying EFL at a young age as part

of his school curriculum; however, being 8 years older than Musaand established in his professional career, Alim had spent consider-able time in other English-speaking countries before coming to theUnited States He travelled internationally with his father as a busi-ness apprentice, his family often vacationed in England, and he hadbeen employed in New Zealand the year before choosing to study

in the United States

Research setting The study took place in the IEP of a large sity in the southern United States in which the participants wereenrolled in ESL classes Townesville (a pseudonym for the city inwhich the study took place) has been characterized as a haven ofcountercultural attitudes and boasted a liberal identity, in contrast tothe general political leanings of the state (conservative) The univer-sity’s large international student population, along with the region’shistorically strong Mexican American presence, contributed greatly tothe city’s racial and linguistic diversity Yet, despite these

univer-characteristics, the city continued to struggle with race relations andshowed signs of geographical segregation.

Data Collection

The project’s focal goal was to contribute to research that examinesemic perspectives on second language learning, particularly by investi-gating “the conditions for learning, and the issues of access of learnersfor appropriation of practices” of the social worlds that become impor-tant to learners (Norton & Toohey, 2011, p 419) In order to meetthese goals, my orientation required an interpretive epistemologicalstance as well as ethnographic methods of data collection

I became acquainted with the study participants in 2009, when I took

on an active membership role (Adler & Adler, 1994) in an advanced-levellistening and speaking course in the IEP As a participant-observer, I par-ticipated in many class activities, assisted the teacher at times, and inter-acted with students as part of class discussions My participation in theclassroom community became a primary means by which to get to knowthe participants and, informed by multiple data collection tools, co-con-struct their narratives of experience Data were collected during a semes-ter-long period, and data sources were (1) classroom observations, (2)interviews, and (3) student-designed oral photo narratives My participa-tion and regular observation in the classroom community was an impor-tant source of data due to the course content and design, whichencouraged students to interact and draw on personal experiences thatrelated to course topics Because I was not allowed to record classsessions (except for students’ oral presentations of their photo narra-tives), I took detailed notes during observations In addition to the obser-vations, I conducted between 1 and 2 hours of formal interviews with theparticipants, which were digitally recorded and transcribed Finally, par-ticipants completed a photo narrative assignment in which they wereinstructed to use photography to document their experiences This pro-ject culminated in a formal class presentation in which they visuallyarranged and discussed photographs that represented their goals, innerthoughts, and views of themselves over time Students’ presentations oftheir photo narratives were digitally recorded and transcribed, as werepostpresentation interviews I conducted with participants

Approach to Analysis

The data were primarily narrative, and I applied a framework foranalysis informed by narrative inquiry (Barkhuizen, 2011; Ochs &

Capps, 1996) Drawing from these perspectives, I viewed the researchactivities as performative, sense-making practices through which theparticipants’ identities were continuously iterated and transformedthrough their telling and retelling of experience; all the while theparticipants were building “novel understandings of themselves-in-the-world” (Ochs & Capps, 1996, p 23).

As a co-constructor with the participants of their stories, myapproach to analysis necessarily involved “narrative knowledging”(Barkhuizen, 2011), because both the participants and I were mutuallyinvolved in “meaning making, learning, and knowledge construction”(Barkhuizen, p 395) at different stages of the research process Onthe participants’ side, this meant that they used a variety of narrativeforms (e.g., creating a photo story), some more interactive than others(e.g., responses to guided interview questions), in order to engage in asense-making activity of their experiences as L2 learners abroad I, asthe researcher, recognizing the interactional nature of their stories aswell as the context in which these were told, approached the data asdiscursive artifacts by which to do continuous comparison of multipledata sources both within and across individual cases Data analysisinvolved initially identifying broad categories of experience across datasources and coding for themes As initial conclusions were drawn, Ithen triangulated across data sources (e.g., photo narrative, interviews)

to clarify and corroborate findings Writing the findings representedanother layer of analysis; the two cohesive stories presented are theproduct of connecting and emplotting salient themes Member checks(in which participants read and commented on the written findings)were conducted with selected available participants, and Musa was one

to specific research strategies (e.g., data triangulation, prolonged field

engagement, member checks, peer debriefing) would enhance thecredibility and trustworthiness of the data presented.

Other limitations were present and should be noted First, all of theresearch activities were conducted in the participants’ L2 of English.Working with advanced speakers and incorporating nonlinguistic datasources (i.e., the photo narrative project) were means to reduce thatlimitation Second, Alim was one of the few participants who was notable to participate in the postpresentation interview, and although par-ticipation in this activity would have enhanced the data, I was able toconfirm what I conjectured in my analysis through triangulation of theremaining data sources

FINDINGS

In the following sections, I present the stories of Musa and Alim,with the goal of illustrating the ways in which these two learners nego-tiated participation outside of the ESL classroom As will becomeapparent, these stories diverge in critical ways, and I aim to highlighthow their different discursive practices were contingent on the multi-ple identity positions that were prioritized in the participants’ ongoing,situated negotiations for participation Musa, at age 18, was embarking

on his first experience outside of his home country, and his narrative

of participation centered on his “opening” to social worlds outside ofhis familiar first language (L1) parameters At age 26, Alim brought atransnational expertise with him, having previously lived and workedabroad, and his narrative of participation centered on how his ethnicand religious identities were contested in the wake of 9/11 In bothcases, the learners constructed a sense of autonomy in managing thedisruptions they encountered, achieving identity positions that wereboth iterative and transformative of their previous positions

Musa

Musa was the youngest member of the ESL class in which I became

a participant observer, but he was one of the most confident in self and his linguistic abilities Before arriving in Townesville the fallsemester prior to my data collection, he had just completed highschool in his hometown, and he had plans to study engineering in theUnited States for 5 years as part of the Saudi scholarship program.One major aspect to participating in the program was that Musa felt astrong attachment to a peer group of fellow Saudi scholarship recipi-ents, because he had become acquainted with them in pre-travel and

him-arrival orientations, shared the same course schedule with them, andlived with them in the same residence.

Upon his arrival in the United States, Musa reported to be siastic and optimistic, familiar with the common myths of “America”

enthu-as representing opportunity and promise “I mean, come on,” he told

me, “it’s the land of opportunity Like, everyone around theworld, believe me, wants to come to America.” He recognized thesymbolic value of participating in the U.S higher education system,and although he had plans to return to Saudi Arabia after 5 years,

he expressed an openness to assimilating to some degree He arrived

in Townesville with short hair, a mustache, and a beard, all of whichwere specific markers of his cultural and ethnic background After

he arrived, he had shaved his facial hair and let the hair on his headgrow long, citing, “I am not in my country I can do whatever Iwant.” Musa was interested in participating in the social world of col-lege undergraduates, he was enthusiastic and talkative in the ESLclass, and his story of his first year abroad centered on his emergingindependence and openness to new social and cultural groups

By the time Musa began his second semester in the ESL program,

he had made several international student friends, yet he consideredthe process of making American friends very different:

The international students are more open, well, not more open, butmore willing to meet But the American, like, you are coming to them,they have their own lives, own friends, own system, and you just bust

in, and, you know, some of them doesn’t like it

Here, Musa recognized himself as an outsider to “expert” nity practices, aligning himself within the imagined community ofinternational students, which, although hardly homogenous in regard

commu-to its members’ national identities, languages, and positionality vis-
a-visthe host community, he understood as bounded by a common new-comer status As we will see, Musa took up this position as a newcomerand outsider to the larger host community, and these identitiesinformed his trajectory of participation

Musa had a strong attachment to the places he considered home

in Townesville, and they represented important sites of belonging forhim that offered different opportunities for participation outside ofhis Saudi group As the study began, Musa was in his second semes-ter in Townesville and had just moved out of the dormitory into aprivate apartment He had much regret over this decision:

In [the apartment], nobody cares about you You just pay and that’s it

So you don’t have some connection to the community I don’t know

my front door neighbors; I never see them