Diverging identities: a ’contextualised’ exploration of the interplay of competing discourses in two Saudi university classrooms.

Abstract

There has been considerable debate in recent years and criticism levelled both from inside and outside sources at the English curriculum in Saudi Arabia (Al-Ahaydib, 1996; Al-Eid, 2000; Al-Hazmi, 2003; Al-Khazim, 2003; Al-Qahatani, 2003; Al-Asmari, 2008; Alamri, 2008; Elyas, 2009a, 2009b). As the future English school teachers, Saudi University students studying English in Saudi higher institutions and the pedagogies employed by their lecturers are of particular interest in this regard. Some work has been done on Arabic students studying English in other Gulf countries (Al-Balushi, 1999; Al-Brashi, 2003; Syed, 2003; Al-Issa, 2005, Clarke, 2006, 2007, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c, 2009, 2010), on the social-cultural aspects of attitudes towards learning English as a language and the effect of English culture(s) on Saudi Arabian students and teachers (Al-Ahaydib, 1996; Al-Jarf, 2004, Al-Hag & Samdi, 1996; Al-Qahatani, 2003; Al-Asmari, 2008, Elyas, 2007, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c). However, a detailed unpacking of the different cultural influences (both Islamic and Western), and how they are evidenced in policy documents, curriculum, textbooks and pedagogy, remains relatively unexplored (Elyas, 2009b). In addition, the effect of the various influences on the teachers‘ professional identities, and the students‘ learning identities has not been dealt with prior to this thesis. The thesis employs a multi-facetted approach drawing on the areas of identity theory, narrative theory, motivation theory and Critical Discourse Analysis in order to obtain a deeper understanding of the target and sensitive topic. The design of this research is based on a case study of two university English classes (including both teachers and students) of a particular university in Saudi Arabia. The data include transcription of focus groups discussions, in-depth interviews with the teachers, policy documents, curriculum and textbooks, surveys of students‘ attitude towards the English language and culture, classroom observations and student‘s written narrative of their ESL stories. Data analysis methods include Critical Discourse Analysis, narrative theory, thematic analysis according to axes of identity and power (Foucault, 1997a, 1997d, 1980, 1983b, 1984, 1997; Gee, 1996, 2002, May, 2005; O‘Leary, 2002), motivation theories, and statistical analysis of the quantitative data. This thesis shows that, although the characterization of English teaching as operating with a "clash of civilization" (Huntington, 1993, 1997, Ratnawati, 2005) is perhaps too simplistic, a clear distinction can be made between opposing cultural forces which cause conflict in the Saudi Arabian University teaching and learning environment. This thesis provides a unique insight into the interplay of competing "Discourses" (Gee, 1999, p.7) within this context.