Privilege and Prejudice: Discrepancies in Experiences for Faculty Members With Foreign English Accents

• In Event: 69.057 - Roundtable Session 32
  In Roundtable Session: 69.057-4 - Immigrant Students Engaging With Privilege, Power, and Social Capital

Abstract

This article explores perceptions and pedagogical consequences of actual or perceived linguistic discrimination as experienced by three foreign-born professors currently working in universities across the United States. Building on the literature on linguistic discrimination and through the Latin American literary genre called “Testimonios,” authors exemplify instances of linguistic discrimination resulting from a member of the majority culture asserting his/her native speaker power over the foreign-born speaker with an accent. Through examining their own privilege, they also expose the paradoxical simultaneous positions they occupy as oppressed-privileged beings. In the discussion and implications, we speak to the potential of testimonios to raise consciousness around linguistic discrimination in an effort to transform the educational landscape and opportunities for historically marginalized communities.

Authors

• Sabrina Francesca Sembiante, Florida Atlantic University

• Cristobal Salinas Jr, Florida Atlantic University

• Andres Jaime Ramirez, Florida Atlantic University