Teaching English as a (White) right: Transnational Whiteness in Korean elementary education

This critical ethnographic study examines how transnational Whiteness is institutionalised in South Korean elementary English education through policy, curriculum, and teacher beliefs. Drawing on Critical Whiteness Studies and raciolinguistics, it conceptualises Whiteness as a glocalised apparatus of power that privileges White Western varieties of English in English Language Teaching (ELT). Data include classroom observations at two public schools, interviews with seven Korean elementary teachers, and policy document. Findings reveal that transnational Whiteness operates through belonging, qualification, and authority, shaping who English is imagined to belong to, who is qualified to teach it, and who can define legitimate linguistic standards. Rather than being externally imposed, these hierarchies are translated into local educational practices and normalised through everyday pedagogical decisions. This recursive processglocalises global hierarchies of linguistic legitimacy and reproduces them as educational common sense. The study demonstrates how Whiteness can be sustained without White bodies, as non-White actors reproduce dominant forms of linguistic legitimacy.