Transnational TESOL Practitioners’ Identity Tensions: A Collaborative Autoethnography

Abstract

In this paper, we, as three transnational TESOL practitioners (TTP), engage in a collaborative autoethnography (CAE) to examine our professional identity tensions. Theoretically, we follow the premise that the tensions we experience in our professional life can be productive experiences for identity-oriented reflection and, as we work toward resolving these tensions, we can explore and negotiate new dimensions of our identities. Methodologically, we explore the affordances of CAE in combining internal and community dialogues to make sense of our identities, which are situated at the nexus of the personal and the cultural. Each one of us describes and analyzes one major tension that has been part of our professional identity negotiation as TESOL practitioners in the US. Addressing our research question, we conceptually argued that tensions are inevitable in our identity work and found that border-crossing and in-betweenness predominantly characterized our identities as TTPs. We cross borders and carve out in-between spaces, identities, and voices for ourselves in our professional lives.

The use of Messenger for research collaboration: An auto-ethnographic study

“…Autoethnography is a research method that “entails the scientist or practitioner performing narrative analysis pertaining to himself or herself as intimately related to a particular phenomenon” ( McIlveen, 2008 , p. 15). This research methodology has been applied in various context including transdisciplinary research in collecting and analysing self-reflection from social and natural scientists for transformative change ( Haeffner et al, 2022 ), examining professional identity tensions of transnational teachers ( Yazan et al, 2022 ), exploring the experiences of international students to transitioning to an academic job in the university ( Consoli et al, 2022 ), bringing perspectives of humanities into computer education ( Bernard, 2022 ), leading a whole-school reform ( Alonzo et al, 2021 ), and many others.…”

“Like a piece of wood”: The potential of multimodal translingual storytelling for restoration and peace

“…As a research method, Bell (2002) regards storytelling as “a particularly valuable approach” (p. 207), given its power to examine the “underlying insights and assumptions that the story illustrates” (p. 208). Faced with the recent global crisis, there is a growing trend for scholars to adopt storytelling as a research tool to seek critical self‐reflection, restoration, and peace (e.g., Pentón Herrera et al, 2022; Yazan et al, 2022; Zhang‐Wu, 2022b).…”

“…As a research method, Bell (2002) regards storytelling as "a particularly valuable approach" (p. 207), given its power to examine the "underlying insights and assumptions that the story illustrates" (p. 208). Faced with the recent global crisis, there is a growing trend for scholars to adopt storytelling as a research tool to seek critical self-reflection, restoration, and peace (e.g., Yazan et al, 2022;Zhang-Wu, 2022b). As a pedagogical strategy, researchers have explored many aspects of storytelling, including how it could facilitate English language learning (e.g., Hinkel, 2006;Samuelson et al, 2018), enhance socio-pragmatic skills (Holmes & Marra, 2011), improve intercultural competencies (Deardorff, 2019), explore gender and sexuality identities (Trinh, 2020), and cultivate studentcenteredness in education (Vinogradova et al, 2011).…”

Storytelling as an outlet for restoration and peacebuilding: An introduction to the Special Issue

“…Storytelling, as both a teaching strategy and a research method, has been employed in the TESOL field to explore developments and expansions of intercultural competencies (e.g., Byram, 1997; Deardorff, 2020), multiliteracies (e.g., Angay‐Crowder et al, 2013), funds of knowledge (e.g., Peregoy & Boyle, 2017; Samuelson et al, 2018), counter‐storytelling and counter‐narratives (e.g., Ríos Vega, 2015; Solórzano & Yosso, 2002), student‐centered learning and inclusive pedagogy (e.g., Vinogradova et al, 2011), humanizing scholarship (e.g., Park, 2013a), identity exploration, self‐understanding, and self‐inquiry (e.g., Contreras, 2000; Park, 2011, 2013b, 2021; Trinh & Merino, 2021; Yazan, 2019; Yazan, Pentón Herrera, & Rashed, 2023), social–emotional learning (e.g., Martínez‐Alba & Pentón Herrera, 2023 [this issue]; Pentón Herrera, 2020; Pentón Herrera & Martínez‐Alba, 2021), well‐being (e.g., Mercer & Gregersen, 2020; Pentón Herrera et al, 2023), doctoral students' emotions and identity (e.g., Yazan, Trinh, & Pentón Herrera, 2023), gender and sexuality (e.g., Nelson, 2009; Paíz, 2020; Trinh, 2020b, 2022; Trinh & Behizadeh, 2023; Trinh & Tinker Sachs, 2023), and restorative and socially just practices (e.g., McNair & Pentón Herrera, 2022; Pentón Herrera & McNair, 2021), to name a few. These and other publications report on the advantages of storytelling, some of which include improving the language learning experience, increasing positive attitudes and motivation, contributing to building joyful learning communities (Barkhuizen, 2018), engaging in calm and stillness (Pentón Herrera et al, 2022), and promoting global peacebuilding in English language teaching and learning (Curtis, 2022).…”