Renegotiating pronunciation pedagogy through Global Englishes-informed teacher education

Purpose Pronunciation remains a contested area in English language teacher education (ELTE), particularly in contexts where standardized native-speaker norms continue to shape teaching expectations, even as English is used by speakers from diverse linguistic backgrounds. This study aims to explore how Turkish pre-service English language teachers (PELTs) engage with pronunciation pedagogy during a Global Englishes (GE)-informed teacher education module. In particular, it examines how they negotiate pronunciation norms, linguistic legitimacy and intelligibility as future teachers. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a qualitative case study design, situated within a critical language teacher education (CLTE) framework, and was conducted over a seven-week pronunciation module. Data were collected through pre- and post-module reflective journal entries, microteaching sessions, focus group discussions and instructor observation notes. To support in-depth interpretation, a two-stage thematic analysis was carried out, focusing on the developmental trajectories of three focal participants to explore how they responded to emerging ideological tensions. Findings The findings revealed four interconnected dimensions of teacher learning. Participants questioned deeply internalized native-speakerist ideologies, gradually shifted their pedagogical focus toward intelligibility, navigated complex emotional tensions, renegotiated their professional identities and demonstrated emerging pedagogical agency by experimenting with GE-informed practices. Originality/value This study contributes to ELTE by showing how GE-informed pronunciation pedagogy can support PELTs in reclaiming their linguistic voices, moving beyond reproducing standardized norms to become confident and intelligible educators. It also highlights GE-informed pronunciation pedagogy as an important ideological space within ELTE, where language ideologies can be critically examined, and more inclusive approaches to English teaching can be developed.