This study examines the testimonios of Mexican language teachers who experienced the violent and institutional imposition of neoliberal policies at the main university at the state of Puebla. Through the analysis of "testimonios," language teachers narrated their own trajectories to resist the implementation of the neoliberal policies,…

The authors share how their Arabyyat and Chicana feminist pedagogies and methodologies, haki/pláticas ~ testimonios/shahadat, contribute to a decolonial praxis. We center haki/pláticas ~ testimonios/shahadat and introduce what we term as "Arabyya feminista decolonial praxis" in education as an act of linguistic and epistemic…

This article emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and considering teachers' funds of knowledge in the domain of language teacher learning. The study explores the concept of funds of knowledge in teacher learning by collecting data from a group of language teachers through written life stories, focus interviews, and individual interviews. The…

The problem addressed in this critical autoethnographic study concerns the lack of higher education opportunities for musicians in the state of Sonora, Mexico and the ways in which that impacts music educators from the region. In particular, I look at the different paths music teachers take to follow their vocation by critically examining my…

The aim of this study was to examine the characteristics of teacher education that were more likely, or less likely, to influence teachers' beliefs. The participants were five university English teachers in Mexico, and the study adopted a qualitative "life history" approach in order to elicit a wide range of experiences from each…

This article examines the recent tradition of decorating and re-fashioning graduation caps, also known as mortarboards, by Chicanx/Latinx graduates. We describe this practice as StoryBoarding, a form of micro-storytelling tales of Chicana/Latina agency and resistance that counter, expose, and challenge institutionalized forms of racism. Many…

This study examined the educational life histories of 13 students at a Mexican university in order to gather their perspectives of effective language teaching. Most previous studies on students' perspectives of language teaching have used quantitative and deductive methods, whereas this study employed qualitative and inductive methods. The main…

Using auto-ethnography, I write my story as Mexican international student in the role of pre-service teacher in Australia. I focus on exploring my socio-political status and its relationship to assuming a position to respond to education policies about working with students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, and teaching…

This study is an exploration of the life-changing decisions and changes which the participants underwent, and which led them to pursue an education in English language teaching (or languages). The foremost objective of this study was to highlight the critical incidents from the past, present, and teaching practice of transnational students in a BA…

We write from a public university in Mexico's interior, as 2 language professors from countries with fraught, yet intertwined, sets of histories--Mexico and the United States. Having lived in 2 countries with dramatic increases in nationalist policies, we reflect on having lived abroad through the increases in nationalism in our lived experiences.…

This paper explores the different factors that appear to affect the on-going construction of second language authorial identity in a professional academic environment in Mexico. Through narrative research methodology from a qualitative paradigm, the everyday struggles of two university professors to maintain their professional status in second…

Using the principles of positive psychology and the tools of narrative research, this article focuses on the psychology of five language learners who crossed cultural and linguistic borders. All five were university students learning Chinese in Mexico, and two of them also studied Chinese in China. The grounded theory approach was used to analyze…

This paper provides an analysis of the intersection between education and immigration policies within a transnational context and explores the extent to which U.S. immigration law has caused a forced return migration to Mexico of the U.S. DREAMer population. My analysis includes a discussion of the social conditions and lack of policies in Mexico…

The present article reports on a study that explores the effects of the emotional experiences of Mexican language learners on their motivation to learn English. In this qualitative research we present how emotions impact the motivation of university language learners in south Mexico. Results suggest that emotions, both negative and positive,…

This article has at its core the unraveling of factors that have influenced the identity of those who have been caught in between two worlds (Mexico and The United States) and whom will be called pre- and in-service returnees from now on. A qualitative approach was chosen in order to delve deep into the participants' lived experiences through…