ESOL in Troubled Times:  Learner and Teacher Voice in English for Speakers of Other Languages at a Further Education College in England

Nash, Ann

ESOL in Troubled Times: Learner and Teacher Voice in English for Speakers of Other Languages at a Further Education College in England

Nash, Ann (2025) ESOL in Troubled Times: Learner and Teacher Voice in English for Speakers of Other Languages at a Further Education College in England. Doctoral thesis, Birmingham City University.

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Abstract

My research contributes to the urgency of the calls from professional ESOL organisations, such as the National Association for Teaching English and Other Community Languages to Adults (2025: 236), the Bell Foundation (2025), and DEMOS (Paget and Stevenson, 2014), for a unifying strategy for English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) in further education (FE) in England by highlighting specific challenges in the West Midlands region. Paget and Stevenson (2014) pointed out that of the three nations, England, Scotland, and Wales, England is the only country without a national ESOL strategy. They stated that a “coherent” national strategy for ESOL “would help to unlock migrant capabilities, save costs to public services in the long term and promote a more integrated and socially cohesive society” (2014: 128).

Eleven years later, in 2025, in spite of the recommendations, a unifying strategy for ESOL in England has not materialised. This project aims to contribute to a better understanding of why this is, and how this intransigence is impacting the experience of ESOL learners and practitioners. My overarching research question is: What do we learn about the contemporary environment of ESOL in FE from conversations with the learners and practitioners about their lived experiences in this context?

Following ideas and methods of Shah (2017), Pink and Morgan (2013) and St Pierre (2021), I adopted a short-term participatory ethnographical approach to my methodology which I describe as post structural. The primary research data is unique to one FE college in England and my positionality as an ESOL practitioner with recent experience in FE has given me unique insights and access to the twenty-nine ESOL learners and six ESOL practitioners in my study. I specifically avoided formal interviews or surveys, aiming instead for more informal conversations or self-interviews after the research of Keightly, et al. (2012), so that the contributions of the participants would be led by them as much as possible and my influence kept to a minimum.

The human ecosystem model of Bronfenbrenner (1979) provided an organising framework for my literature review as well as theoretical insights into the dynamics of the ESOL in FE context. The theories of Foucault (1975; 1977; 1978; 1989; 2001) are used to deepen the understanding of deficit discourses and provided concepts helpful in articulating the dynamics within the context of ESOL in FE. The theories of Berry (2001), Gee (2001; 2014) and Burke and Stets (2009) provided insights into the role language plays in identity and how the identities of ESOL learners and practitioners are challenged in their environment in ESOL in FE in England.

Previous studies of Courtney (2017), Elizabeth (2021), and Lacey (2018) offer valuable data on the challenges ESOL practitioners face. My study of ESOL in FE adds to these by encompassing the experiences of both practitioners and learners and should be of interest to everyone involved in the FE sector and ESOL provision.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Dates:	Date Event 10 October 2025 Accepted
Uncontrolled Keywords:	ESOL in FE, ESOL strategy, ESOL policy, literacy, ESOL learners and practitioners, lived experience, identity, immigration, discrimination, racism, participatory ethnography, Bronfenbrenner, ecosystem, spheres, Foucault, Gee
Subjects:	CAH20 - historical, philosophical and religious studies > CAH20-02 - philosophy and religious studies > CAH20-02-01 - philosophy CAH22 - education and teaching > CAH22-01 - education and teaching > CAH22-01-01 - education CAH22 - education and teaching > CAH22-01 - education and teaching > CAH22-01-02 - teacher training
Divisions:	Doctoral Research College > Doctoral Theses Collection Law and Social Sciences > Education
Depositing User:	Louise Muldowney
Date Deposited:	20 Oct 2025 14:43
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2025 14:43
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/16684