Last year, one of my education students (let’s call her Saira) asked to meet with me. Saira was an international student from South Asia who spoke at least three languages other than English and majored in Teaching English as a Second Language. She was musing about leaving the program here in Quebec to pursue instead a postgraduate teaching diploma in the UK. Since it was her plan to teach in Europe, she believed that having British teacher certification might help “cancel out” all negative images associated with her as a non-native English speaker, and that it might also afford her a better chance of getting employment than the certification from Quebec.
My heart sank as I listened to her rationalization.
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