Katherine (Katie) A. Masters, PhD 

 

I am an applied sociolinguist with research interests in language policy and planning, discourse-ideology, and language teacher identity and development in global and mostly rural areas of hardship. Having researched these areas primarily in Nicaragua since 2009, my main ethnographic project over the last decade has involved creating critically-informed and equitable partnerships between Global-North-based teacher educators and the Global-South-based teachers with whom they collaborate. This work involves critiquing language policies (implicit and explicit) from poststructural theories of discourse and power (Bourdieu, Foucault), using methodology from critical discourse studies. It involves creating curriculum, materials, and teacher development with teachers (instead of for them) within a Freirean-based approach in an effort to shift the discourses of Global English away from deficit frames (e.g., the "native speaker" as expert), decolonizing assumptions of what an English teacher should look and sound like, how English itself should sound, how it should be taught and learned, and for what purposes.

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In 2018, the Nicaraguan people attempted a coup against President Daniel Ortega, whose regime has become increasingly brutal and dangerous. In subsequent years, he has dismantled foreign-based NGOs, the Peace Corps, and other international support, making it impossible for me to continue a physical presence with Nicaraguan teachers. However, I continue to work with Nicaraguan teachers online, including on collaborations that have led to co-presentations at conferences and, soon, co-authored papers, inviting imperative voices of Global-South educators, who are too often overlooked in academia's Global North intellectual spaces, into the conversation.

 

While I continue to publish from my 14 years of work in Nicaragua, I now continue my research along similar threads by looking at the U.S.-side of volunteer-teaching in two areas: volunteering abroad to teach English and motivations for student altruism. What makes students want to volunteer in their community and world? From where does their sense of altruism come? Which activities conducted within volunteering help, and which activities unintentionally hurt, the people that volunteers support? 

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EDUCATION

 

Ph. D.    Pennsylvania State University

               Applied Linguistics, 2020

 

               Dissertation: Engaged Language Planning, Policy,

               and Teacher Development in Nicaragua: 

               Partnership at the Interface of  Global English

               Discourse and Emerging Teacher Praxis

 

M.A.      University of California, Davis

               Linguistics, 2010

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               Thesis: The community college English as a Second

               Language classroom: A case study on instructional

               methods and constraints             

 

B.A.      San José State University

              English and Comparative Literature, 2006

              Concentration: Career (Professional and Technical) Writing

 

RESEARCH INTERESTS

 

global English; language policy and planning; second language teacher education; volunteer English teaching abroad; discourse analysis; critical theory and pedagogy, poststructural and decolonial approaches; ethnographic case study methodology

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WHY THIS RESEARCH AND TEACHING?

I collaborate with, learn from, and support those finding their voice in another language because of my own background and identities. Growing up in a rural area, working class, and with a  brother with severe physical and mental special needs, I found myself  noticing the power of voice and powerlessness of having a voice ignored or erased, how easily people are misunderstood, and how often people make assumptions about others based on their language use. Perhaps this is why I am drawn to supporting students and teachers who learn English as a second or other language. I know their voices in English are in development, and that many people don't have the  knowledge, background and experience to hear and support those voices. A significant part of my research and teaching is about listening, and I have found great success in that. 

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