Here Ghost Nothing: A Novice EFL Teacher's Letter to the Ghosts That Haunt Them

• In Event: Learning and Linguistics: Teachers' Identities and Beliefs in Language Spaces

Abstract

Using Derrida’s theories of hauntology and hospitality as a theoretical lens and Brummett’s close reading analytic approach, this session examines a letter Lesley—a novice English as a foreign language teacher in South Korea—wrote to a perceived presence in their classroom. Hauntology frames Lesley’s feelings of insecurity and self-doubt as ghosts, but it is hospitality that points to these specters’ influence on Lesley’s enacted teacher identity. Rather than choosing to disregard their feelings of insecurity, Lesley engaged with their ghosts, asking: What do you have to teach me? This lean-in approach to teacher identity negotiation may serve as a model for teacher educators looking to foster resiliency among novice teachers.

Author

• Laura M Kennedy, Northern Michigan University