Duty and Service: Life and Career of a Tamil Teacher of English in Sri Lanka

Abstract

This article discusses the life and career of a Tamil teacher of English working in the government education system in northern Sri Lanka. Based on data gathered in an extended life history interview, the article explores the teacher's own experiences of schooling, his reasons for entering teaching as a profession, his professional training, and aspects of his working life in areas fought over by government and LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) forces. The teacher's narrative is contextualized within the history of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils and aims to shed some light on how an individual finds the motivation to continue to work in a situation of extreme personal danger and, further, how he positions himself within his community as a teacher of a foreign language which might be seen as an irrelevance to students in his context. Though the limitations of case studies are recognized, as well as the particularly distressing conditions of life and work for this teacher, the article nevertheless contends that his story will contribute to extending the knowledge base of TESOL as a discipline by providing space for a voice from a peripheral community to be heard.