From a poststructuralist understanding of TESOL classroom discourse, including oral and written formats, this proposal explored how a group of TESOL teacher candidates’ perception and interpretation of world Englishes, accents, and linguistic privileges and discrimination impact their pre-TESOL teachers’ identity and agency (re)negotiation through the lens of symbolic violence. Symbolic violence imposes hegemonic linguistic ideologies, leads to linguistic subordination, and results in complicity in linguistic discrimination. Data collected from in-class discussions on Canvas, take-home reflections, surveys, and WeChat chats were analyzed repeatedly. Findings show that those TESOL teacher candidates employed the class reading materials, discussions, and reflections as a mechanism to rethink and challenge what they have accepted and internalized as a socially, culturally, ideologically, and politically legitimate and appropriate understanding of the status of English: the English spoken by White people is the standard and authentic variety. They started problematizing the acceptance and internalization, critiquing the root of the acceptance and internalization, and deciding to counteract linguistic imperialism, hegemony, and colonization.

In addition, the discursive practices of re-seeing and re-thinking themselves as both accomplices and victims helped them recognize how their unconscious or sometimes intentional internalization of English superiority has become a form of covert symbolic violence, which has the danger to seep into their professional ideology and pedagogical discourse and further misguide their classroom teaching. Realizing the contradictory identities, the TESOL teacher candidates had complex emotional struggles and dilemmas expressed in anger, a feeling of stupidity, superficiality, regret, and a sense of betrayal. Their emotions became a site for agency negotiation and development. They believed that it is imperative to reflect on and critique their ideological and socio-political perspectives on Englishes for the purpose of transformation as individuals and professionals. This proposal aims for TESOL teachers and teacher candidates to rethink their identities as agents of change.