“Sólo habla inglés”: A phenomenological case study of a multilingual teacher in a Spanish-English bilingual school in Ecuador

Multilingualism is often treated as a defining feature of bilingual education. However, the multilingual repertoires recognized within schools are not always valued equally, with implications for teacher legitimacy, belonging, and professional identity. This qualitative phenomenological case study examines the lived experiences of a multilingual teacher, Arjun, working in a Spanish-English bilingual school in Ecuador, whose broader linguistic repertoire was not shared within the local educational context. Guided by language ideology, raciolinguistics, and teacher identity scholarship, the study explores how Arjun made sense of his professional role, negotiated institutional expectations, and adapted to everyday communication demands in a Spanish-dominant school environment. Findings show that Arjun, who had been educated in English since childhood, was required to obtain a B2 English proficiency certificate during hiring, while his colleagues from the UK and US were reportedly exempt. His limited Spanish proficiency also shaped workplace interactions and professional positioning. Findings also shed light on hiring practices in Latin American bilingual schools, particularly how internationally recruited multilingual teachers may be positioned within narrow institutional expectations surrounding language legitimacy and emphasize the need to account for various linguistic backgrounds to implement dual‑language programs equitably and effectively.