Constructing the Identity of Guknaepa in an English Teachers’ Online Community

Abstract

This study examines how the categories Guknaepa (domestically educated) and Haewaepa (those who studied/lived abroad) are discursively constructed and negotiated among English teachers in South Korea. Employing language ideology–informed qualitative discourse analysis, the study analyzed 292 threads consisting of initial posts and responses from an online community of pre- and in-service public-school English teachers. The results demonstrate that the Guknaepa–Haewaepa boundary is fluid and relational yet often mirrors the familiar NEST–NNEST hierarchy. Teachers who self-identify as Guknaepa frequently expressed linguistic insecurity but also legitimized professional authority by foregrounding pedagogical and metalinguistic strengths and a moralized discourse of diligence. The nationally standardized Teacher Employment Examination functions as an institutional mechanism that converts effort into recognized professional legitimacy, reframing Guknaepa as a marker of fairness and meritocratic achievement rather than deficiency. Boundary work shifts across contexts, intersecting with local ideologies of English, market evaluations of competence, and classroom demands within public schools. This study extends (N)NEST scholarship by illuminating intra-NNEST differentiation and the linguistic, affective, institutional interplays that sustain and reconfigure hierarchies. Although limited to online discourse data, the analysis underscores the need for more nuanced, intersectional accounts of teacher identity amid increasingly transnational and diverse professional trajectories.