In this duoethnography, two educators and doctoral students with dissimilar linguistic and cultural backgrounds interrogate their transnational teacher-researcher trajectories. Through this equitable partnership we juxtapose our experiences to transcend the research-practice divide, unpack the importance of a community of practice, and promote social justice in research and teaching spaces.
Acknowledging the inherent value of transnational practitioner identity expression and participatory responsive inquiry in TESOL, in this duoethnography, two educators and doctoral students with dissimilar linguistic and cultural backgrounds interrogate their transnational teacher-researcher trajectories. Through this equitable partnership we juxtapose our experiences to transcend the research-practice divide, unpack the importance of a community of practice, and promote social justice in research and teaching spaces. We draw on our adult ESL/EFL teaching experiences in the US, Romania, and Indonesia to tackle challenges integrating collaborative methods in diverse training contexts and articulate instructional approaches that shift the position of the language learner and teacher to expert, author, or global change agent. Informed by the notions of communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and praxis (Freire, 1972), we offer examples of transnational literacy projects that include multimedia storytelling and literacy web applications to (1) simulate real-world tasks, independent learning, and a sense of belonging; (2) validate the experiences of learners on the periphery; and (3) prepare English language learners to be agents of change. As critical friends, we are aware of the symbiosis among our identities, power, and knowledge and recognize that meaning-making is shaped by evolving identity negotiations within global networks (Canagarajah, 2012). To map our student-researcher-practitioner selves, we perform thematic analysis of our life stories indexed in dialogic texts that include recorded discussions, emails, and annotations. Findings include tensions related to institutional and instructional constraints, ethics, the difficulty with conceptualizing equity-oriented research and teaching, and the possibilities inherent in building relationships with students when enacting these practices. For (in)visible and minority scholars, our experiences may provide a lens on how a reflective-critical-emotional-dialogic framework can expand ongoing professional development, interrelatedness, and identity negotiation.
