(Non)native Speakered: Rethinking (Non)nativeness and Teacher Identity in TESOL Teacher Education

Despite its imprecision, the native–nonnative dichotomy has become the dominant paradigm for examining language teacher identity development. The nonnative English speaking teacher ( NNEST ) movement in particular has considered the impact of deficit framings of nonnativeness on “ NNEST ” preservice teachers. Although these efforts have contributed significantly towards increasing awareness of NNEST ‐hood, they also risk reifying the notion that nativeness and nonnativeness are objectively distinct categories. This article adopts a poststructuralist lens to reconceptualize native and nonnative speakers as complex, negotiated social subjectivities that emerge through a discursive process that the author terms (non)native speakering . It then applies this dynamic framework to analyze “narrative portraits” of four different archetypical language teachers, two of whom seem to fit neatly into (non)native speakerist frames of language and culture and two of whom deviate from them. It then reflects on how these preservice teachers negotiate, re‐create, and resist the produced (non)native speaker subjectivities, and considers the complexity, fluidity, and heterogeneity within each archetype. In the conclusion, the author consider implications of (non)native speakering as a theoretical and analytical frame, as well as possible applications of the data for teacher education.