Although language education should be ideally positioned to help students develop a nuanced understanding of languages, cultures, nations/countries, and identities these concepts have often been conflated in practice (see, e.g. Reagan & Osborn, 2021). This can result in othering in depictions of speakers of the language being learned (e.g. Osborn, 2021; Palfreyman, 2005) and delegitimizing certain language use(r)s. We share preliminary results from a study in which language educators who adopted critical approaches, such as teaching for social justice (Osborn, 2006) or intercultural citizenship (Byram, 2008, have addressed these questions in practice and discuss ways to disrupt harmful practices.