ABSTRACT
Race in language teaching and learning raises important questions for critical research. Along with other identity categories, such as gender, class, language, and sexuality, it can be studied critically in language teacher education. Pennycook argues that although critical applied linguistics must foreground critiques of social injustices and underlying politics, prescribing the definition should be avoided in light of the postmodern skepticism toward epistemological fixity and essentialism. The idea of race impacts learner beliefs or subjectivities. A research study can investigate the processes and consequences of the construction of learners’ beliefs or subjectivities. Language-in-education policies as demonstrated in policy documents, curricula, program/institutional policies, and assessment systems may convey subtle meanings of racialization and racism. These meanings may be reflected in the placement of students in a special class/program, the hiring of teachers and administrators, and the selection of instructional materials and approaches.
