Locating the Farang Teacher Within and Across West-Thai Encounter(s): From the King and I to Contemporary TEFL

Taking the contemporary idealization of NESTs as a starting point, this research draws on critical Thai studies (i.e., Harrison & Jackson, 2010; Jackson, 2008; Kitiarsa, 2010; Winichakul, 1994; 2000) to conceptualize the farang teacher and attempt to "locate" this figure across 150 years of Thailand's relationship with the 'West'. Guided by the assertion that "… contemporary modes of proximity reopen prior histories of encounter.” (Ahmed, 2000, p. 13), I use Systemic-Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) to analyze both the 1956 film The King and I and the popular travel website gooverseas.com, asking how the farang teacher emerges both historically and today. I then consider my findings through the lens of my own experience, asking how the cultural meanings surrounding the farang teacher manifest within the face-to-face encounters facilitated by contemporary English language teaching. I conclude my work with a reflection on the possibility of a "pedagogy of encounter".