Telling China’s story in English: teachers navigating the decolonial turn

Within the current global reimagining of English language education through a decolonial lens, China represents a unique example of a top-down reform agenda. Unlike grassroots decolonial initiatives in many Global South contexts, China’s approach is embedded in state policy that reframes English to promote national culture and enhance international discourse power – captured in the ideological call to ‘tell China’s story well’. Adopting an ecological perspective, this study examines how secondary school English teachers in China perceive and negotiate this ideological repositioning in their classrooms. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 12 teachers from diverse school contexts and one teacher educator, the analysis reveals a complex interplay between ideological alignment and practical constraint. Many participants viewed the policy as a meaningful reform to strengthen students’ cultural identity, reduce cultural barriers in language learning, and enhance China’s global voice. However, implementation was hindered by challenges including difficulties integrating cultural content into exam-driven curricula and teachers’ perceived gaps in cultural knowledge and pedagogical resources. These findings illuminate how decolonial goals can be simultaneously supported and constrained by intersecting ideologies – native-speakerism, neoliberalism, and neo-nationalism – within China’s educational ecology. While top-down policy creates enabling conditions, decolonisation ultimately remains pedagogical work requiring reflective, adaptive, and context-responsive practice.