Navigating Taiwan's Bilingual 2030 Policy: Unveiling Teachers' Glocalization Efforts and Agency

As a strategic initiative aimed to enhance English communication skills and bolster the global competitiveness of the general population, Taiwan’s Bilingual 2030 Policy takes place at the intersection of neoliberalism, globalization, and the global spread of the English language. The neoliberal framing of Taiwan’s language education policy has exerted powerful influences on teacher education, teacher hiring practices, curricular design, assessment, and other school practices. While the neoliberalist influences are prevalent among countries in the Global South, responses and resistance may take many forms embedded in specific sociocultural contexts. The reflection discussed here examines the challenges faced by teachers in Taiwan as they navigate globalization and explores the strategies they develop to balance global and local elements. We describe the perspectives of six Taiwanese teachers who strive for agency and voice, particularly in integrating global and local factors into their practices. Thematic analysis suggested teachers’ practices as a dynamic and adaptive process, while demonstrating their agency, creativity and multilingual awareness within the complexities of language teaching in a culturally and linguistically diverse world.