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CATESOL Event: Exploring NNEST Lived Experience through Narrative Inquiry
11/08/2025
Michelle Skowbo
Description
Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers (NNESTs) often face challenges related to linguistic legitimacy, professional identity, and hiring biases, often being compared against native-speaker norms. However, NNESTs bring unique strengths as multilingual role models, highlighting the need to reframe professional value beyond native-speaker status. This panel session hosts three NNESTs to explore Non-Native Language Educators’ Issues (NNLEIs) and how they navigate their careers and classrooms. Additionally, the panel consists of journal editors and published authors to discuss the importance of personal narratives as a research method, grounded in the idea that lived experience is a legitimate source of knowledge (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). The panel as a whole explores how people construct meaning, identity, and agency through storytelling, often revealing insights that traditional data collection methods might miss, while challenging dominant discourses (Riessman, 2008).
Date and Time
Saturday, November 15, 2025, 2:30-4:30 PM California Time
Cost
Members: Free
Non-members: $5.00
Registration
Panel members
Jonas Vilaire, Henry Nguyen, Aylin B. Atilgan Relyea, Ondine Gage and Hanan Khaled
Co-oordinator
Kara Mac Donald
Michelle Skowbo
Exploring NNEST Lived Experience through Narrative Inquiry
Description
Non-Native English-Speaking Teachers (NNESTs) often face challenges related to linguistic legitimacy, professional identity, and hiring biases, often being compared against native-speaker norms. However, NNESTs bring unique strengths as multilingual role models, highlighting the need to reframe professional value beyond native-speaker status. This panel session hosts three NNESTs to explore Non-Native Language Educators’ Issues (NNLEIs) and how they navigate their careers and classrooms. Additionally, the panel consists of journal editors and published authors to discuss the importance of personal narratives as a research method, grounded in the idea that lived experience is a legitimate source of knowledge (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). The panel as a whole explores how people construct meaning, identity, and agency through storytelling, often revealing insights that traditional data collection methods might miss, while challenging dominant discourses (Riessman, 2008).
Date and Time
Saturday, November 15, 2025, 2:30-4:30 PM California Time
Cost
Members: Free
Non-members: $5.00
Registration
Panel members
Jonas Vilaire, Henry Nguyen, Aylin B. Atilgan Relyea, Ondine Gage and Hanan Khaled
Co-oordinator
Kara Mac Donald