Disruptions of teachers’ gendered identities through bodies and dress: ‘foreign’ women teaching English in South Korea

Abstract

ABSTRACTWithin studies of education-related identities, the connections between gendered identities, place, and teachers’ bodies and dress have been under-examined. This ethnographic interview study begins discussing these connections by examining the experiences of three women who travelled to South Korea as English language teachers and their initial gendered experiences within this ‘new place’ and its figured worlds of bodies and dress. In these initial encounters with Korean figured worlds, these women experienced unexpected and unfamiliar meanings being given to women’s dress and bodies, and unexpected and unfamiliar spoken interactions regarding women’s dress and bodies. These two distinct phenomena challenged and disrupted long-held feelings and understandings of bodies, dress, and gender, with implications for these teachers’ classes and careers. This study highlights the importance of bodies and dress on teacher identities, and how challenges to gendered identities may contribute to the marginalization of some women within English language teaching in East Asia.