A South African Language Teacher Educator's Reflective Journey Through Sociocultural Theory and Asset‐Based Mediation

Abstract

This reflective article chronicles a South African English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) university teacher educator's journey from professional disillusionment toward a more intentional, transformative praxis. The catalyst for this journey was the recurring observation of novice teachers abandoning dialogic, asset‐based pedagogies learned in pre‐service preparation and reverting to authoritarian, monolingual transmission under systemic classroom pressures. This “disappearing practice” highlighted the limitations of a transactional teacher education model that transmitted “best practices” without fundamentally reorganizing teachers' internalized reasoning and stance. In response, I engage in a theoretical reorientation, drawing deeply on Vygotskian Sociocultural Theory (VSCT) as applied to second language teacher education, particularly Johnson, Verity, & Childs (2025) tripartite framework of innovation, intentionality, and intervention . This lens reframes teacher resistance and cognitive‐emotional dissonance not as problems, but as vital “drama” and engines of development. The article details the subsequent innovation: the design and implementation of a VSCT‐informed, asset‐based mediation framework. Central to this is the co‐creation of a materialized conceptual tool, the Multilingual Mediator's Wheel (a Schema for a Complete Orienting Basis of Action SCOBA), which embodies the target ideal of teaching as dialogic mediation in multilingual contexts . A praxis‐oriented cycle of narrative reflection, collaborative planning, video‐stimulated recall, and dialogic restorying is described, illustrating how structured mediation can help teachers internalize pedagogical concepts and navigate the contradictions of the South African EMI context. I explicitly examine my own layered positionality as a Black, pan‐African expatriate working in historically white universities as a dynamic mediational tool that enables critical questioning of monolingual norms. The paper argues that the South African context, marked by acute post‐colonial linguistic tensions and vibrant multilingualism, constitutes a critical praxis space where a VSCT‐informed approach transcends technique to become a form of decolonial work. It cultivates teachers who are not merely technicians but agile, critical mediators capable of sustaining transformative pedagogy within oppressive systems. Ultimately, the article contributes a situated, Southern perspective to global conversations on transformative L2 teacher education, advocating for a model that prioritizes the intentional cultivation of teacher reasoning and agentive stance through responsive, theory‐grounded mediation.