Decentring or deauthoritizing? How centres and non-centres can combine

The concept of ‘decentring’ in ELT is framed around reducing reliance on externally produced ideas and valuing local expertise. However, debates can sometimes slip into binaries: for example, that any centre influence is incompatible with decentring, or that locally initiated ideas are the only legitimate sources of change. Using a teacher development initiative in a Mexican university as an analytic case, we examine how centre and non-centre contributions combined to produce a desirable outcome. We argue that the most important factor is not whether centre contributions are present, but whether they are imposed with authority. We propose a brief analytic distinction and checklist for stakeholders to consider where authority sits across actors, and how different contributions are taken up and adapted. Overall, we recommend a ‘beyond binaries’ stance in which both centre and non-centre contributions can play meaningful roles in ELT teacher development.