1st Edition
Autoethnographies in ELT Transnational Identities, Pedagogies, and Practices
This innovative volume showcases the possibilities of autoethnography as a means of exploring the complexities of transnational identity construction for learners, teachers, and practitioners in English language teaching (ELT). // The book unpacks the dynamics of today’s landscape of language education which sees practitioners and students with nuanced personal and professional histories inhabit liminal spaces as they traverse national, cultural, linguistic, ideological, and political borders, thereby impacting their identity construction and engagement with pedagogies and practices across different educational domains. The volume draws on solo and collaborative autoethnographies of transnational language practitioners to question such well-established ELT binaries such as ‘center’/’periphery’ and ‘native’/non-native’ and issues of identity-related concepts such as ideologies, discourses, agency, and self-reflexibility. In so doing, the book also underscores the unique affordances of autoethnography as a methodological tool for better understanding transnational identity construction in ELT and bringing to the fore key perspectives in emerging areas of study within applied linguistics. // This dynamic collection will appeal to students, scholars, and practitioners in English language teaching, applied linguistics, TESOL education, educational linguistics, and sociolinguistics.
Autoethnographies in ELT: Transnational Identities, Pedagogies, and Practices
Editors: Bedrettin Yazan, Suresh Canagarajah, & Rashi Jain
Table of Contents
Introduction: Autoethnography as research in ELT: Methodological challenges and affordances in the exploration of transnational identities, pedagogies, and practices *
Bedrettin Yazan, Suresh Canagarajah, & Rashi Jain
Part 1: Traversing liminal spaces in communities, cultures, and languages *
Chapter 1: Challenges and Successes in Negotiating Identity and Asserting Agency as an Irish, Transcultural, Boundary-spanning, ELT Academic *
Margaret M. Lieb
Chapter 2. Across the Atlantic and Back again: A TESOL Practitioner’s Journey from the Monolingual, through the Bilingual, to the Multilingual *
Anna Krulatz
Chapter 3. When My Professor Tells Me to Write Poetry in My Second Language: A Poetic Autoethnography *
Fang-Yu Liao
Chapter 4. Invisible Borders: On Being a Ghanaian Immigrant in the United States *
Amoako Kayser
Chapter 5. Dear Eric: An Autoethnodrama of Exploring Professional Legitimacy as a Transnational EFL Instructor *
Eric K. Ku
Part 2: Traversing liminal spaces in academic research *
Chapter 6. (Re)Imagining Myself as a Translingual, a Transnational, and a Pracademic: A Critical Autoethnographic Account *
Rashi Jain
Chapter 7. Floating on English in a Rising Sea of Globalization: Liminality, Liability, Transformation *
Adnan Ajšić
Chapter 8. Bridge Building through a Duoethnography: Stories of Nepantleras in a Land of Liberation *
Ethan Trinh & Leonardo Javier Merino Méndez
Chapter 9. Identities of European-based Transnational Researchers in TESOL: An Ecological Perspective *
Jun Jin, Sarah Mercer, Sonja Babic, & Astrid Mairitsch
Part 3: Traversing liminal spaces of pedagogies *
Chapter 10. I’m From Foreign: Transnational Identity Construction in the Journey of Being and Becoming an ESOL Educator *
Sarina Chugani Molina
Chapter 11. Towards Glocally Situated TESOL Practices: Collaborative Autoethnography *
Soyoung Sarah Han, Mari Haneda, & Magda Madany-Saa
Chapter 12. Uncovering Transnational Practitioner-Researchers’ Identity and Equity-oriented Practices: A Critical Lens *
Andrea Lypka & Imelda Bangun
Chapter 13. What do we bring to "THE TABLE"? - A Visual Autoethnography of Underrepresented Asian TESOL Practitioners in the US *
Suriati Abas, Suparna Bose, Yeoeun Park & Jun Takahashi
Biography
Bedrettin Yazan is an Associate Professor of TESL Teacher Education/Applied Linguistics at the University of Texas, San Antonio.
Suresh Canagarajah is the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English, Applied Linguistics, and Asian Studies, and Director of the Migration Studies Project at Pennsylvania State University.
Rashi Jain is an associate professor in the English Language for Academic Purposes Program at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland.
"This volume, an enjoyable read, lays out appealing stories of individuals engaged in the labor of destabilizing and negotiating their transnational and transcultural identities. The chapter narrators shine a light on ways that questions of belonging, community, connection, and identity are constituted and thrown into question against a backdrop of their own pedagogies, disciplines, and practices. Curling up with this book left me hopeful about the promise held by the proposed concept identity-as-methodology in the hands of reflective, agentive practitioners such as this group of authors."- Suhanthie Motha, University of Washington
"The editors of this book have curated a stunning collection of autoethnographies, which capture the emotional, social and psychological twists and turns of living and working in transnational spaces. The narrative content is immensely readable and interesting, as well as being theoretically informed. Anyone interested in innovative methodological approaches to exploring identity should read this book." - Gary Barkhuizen, University of Auckland
"In ELT, there is a growing desire for communities and methodologies of inquiry capable of traversing national, ideological and disciplinary boundaries. The potential for autoethnography to address such concerns is fully explored in this insightful book. With its rich diversity of perspectives and settings, and its attention to emotion and identity work, this inspiring collection is a most welcome resource for those seeking to transform old habits of thought and practice in second/additional language learning settings." - Brian Morgan, Glendon College, Toronto
