Everyday Racism in Canadian Schools: Ideologies of Language and Culture Among Korean Transnational Migrant Students in Toronto

• In Event: Race and Language Learning in Multicultural Canada

Abstract

Drawing from a 2.4-year sociolinguistic ethnography on language learning experiences of four Korean Early Study Abroad (pre-college-aged study abroad) students in Toronto high schools, this paper examines the intersections between race, culture, and class in the identity construction and language learning of these migrant students. Political economic shifts in the knowledge- and service-based new economy, along with the emergence of “authentic” English as a key source of symbolic capital in South Korean class distinction (cf. Bourdieu, 1991), have produced a huge wave of transnational migration known as Early Study Abroad (ESA) among Korean middle class families.

The discussion underscores how the linguistic and racial stigmatization experienced in the local Toronto context made it difficult for the Korean ESA students to develop the academic English ability recognized at their schools. In doing so, this research conceptualizes racism as systemic and institutionalized rather than mere individual prejudice (Henry & Tator, 2005; Kubota, 2002).

The analysis examines how the ESA students’ linguistic investments are mediated by racializing linguistic ideology which constructs Asian English as “poor” and as an index of non-Canadianness. The students’ study abroad experiences have taught them that the supposed global capital of English carries racialized meaning when spoken by someone with a Korean face in the local context. The ESA students contested processes of social exclusion from “White” Canada as represented in their marginal positions as ‘FOBs (Fresh-Off-the-Boats)’ and ‘Nerds’ in dominant Western racial discourse, and constructed themselves as ‘Cools’ who were wealthy and cosmopolitan, vis-à-vis long-term immigrants in the local Korean diasporic communities as well as White Canadians. In this process, they deployed newly-valued varieties of Korean language and culture as resources in the globalized new economy. I argue that this mobilization of Korean cool is a reaction to dominant linguistic racism, and thus needs to be understood within the context of White racism and the alterity of Asians as “forever foreigners”.

Furthermore, a critical analysis of interviews with the students, teachers, and school board administrators revealed that the linguistic and racial stigmatization attached to “Asian” English in Canadian society, as represented in curriculum and teaching materials, have significant material effects on the students’ English learning. For example, school practices such as assignments which did not reflect their (cultural) background knowledge, racialized linguistic ideology associated with their silence in class, and co-op arrangements involving minimal linguistic interaction resulted in limits to their acquisition of forms of English capital valued in their Canadian schools. In reaction to this, the ESA students chose to invest in acquiring English credentials required for acceptance to universities. Their investment in English credentials undermined, however, their investment in “legitimate” English in their Canadian schools. Subsequently, they were further marginalized as illegitimate speakers of English in their schools.

I argue that in educational settings, racism is often institutionalized as everyday values and normal practices in curriculum, teaching materials, and teaching practices, and that an anti-racist pedagogy for language minority students in multilingual settings will need to adequately reflect the history and experiences of racial minority students.

Author

• Hyunjung Shin, University of Saskatchewan