Like many EFL teachers of my generation, I side-stepped into the profession. While doing post-graduate research at Oxford in the early 1960s, I took a job one summer vacation teaching English in a local language school. Though I had no idea how to do this, I enjoyed the work, and kept on a few hours' teaching in the next academic year. As time…

The recalling and documenting of "testimonio" "as a conceptual and methodological tool that transforms cultural and personal narratives into critical social analysis" (Fuentes & Pérez, 2016) is not an easy process. Often tears, "coraje" (both courage and rage) and laughter accompany this process--a transformative…

By taking the step to talk openly about his failure, the author stumbled upon one of several important lessons that he learned from this experience. The author recognized that he did not have to pretend anymore. In this article, the author shares his story of developing a "growth mindset" to overcome his own failure and support his…

Purpose: In the UK and countries following similar systems of doctoral assessment, there is little research-based evidence about what goes on in vivas. However, "doctoral assessment 'horror stories'", abound. The purpose of this paper is to report a study focussing on difficult doctoral examining experiences and argue that sharing such…

Hansen states that "FL studies must learn to conceive of culture as an open, multi-voiced and dialogical interaction full of contradictions." One advocated approach to teach transcultural understanding is through the analysis of cultural narratives. Kearney defines cultural narratives as "the multiple (sometimes competing),…

Two high school students Jorisi and Elizabeth, after two weeks stuck at home during the COVID outbreak, wrote these reflections for their English class.

Linguistic and narrative strategies employed in two dyadic interviews of male veterans of the war in Afghanistan were analysed and compared. Each interviewee told chains of connected stories that positioned them in relation to catastrophic events and their effects. These incidents were framed as being linked to decisions that the teller had taken…

In this article, the authors take a reflective, self-study journey that digs into their own embodied literacies as Chicana feminist literacy researchers. Chicana/Latina feminisms offer an/other angle for exploring embodied literacies and are one way to center bodies and knowledge from the margins. The authors emphasize Anzaldúa's concept of…

The purpose of this research paper is to offer/propose a framework/model of specific imaginative practices, classroom engagement ideas, and implementation pathways that can be adapted across various grade levels within the K-12 (preferably language and literacy) classrooms to utilize the inherent diversity (of lived experiences) amongst the…

A novel process--"dialogic cartographic narratives"--is introduced as a method for facilitating faculty members' understanding of their own privilege(s) and their complicity in maintaining systemic injustices in higher education institutions. The process involves critical interrogation of life stories and privileged identities over time…

Memoirs and autobiographical writing on language learning provide perspectives on migration and residence in North America and Europe for the most part, where struggle and loss are some of the recurrent themes (Aneta Pavlenko 2001a; Besemeres 2004; Kinginger 2004a). An unaddressed aspect of foreign language learning remains the 'reverse'…

This paper emerges from the particular field experiences of three "settler" colleagues working in a teacher education program, each of whom found that their personal and professional relationships with First Nations, Metís, and Inuit people had a positive and constructive bearing on how they responded to provincial mandates and the Truth…

This article documents the initial work and encounters of a pedagogista with a group of educators on the west coast of Canada. The article retraces the complexities and vulnerabilities of such encounters, and presents them as generative and rich conversations that were carried along by, and not despite, their difficulty. They followed a practice…

Using personal narratives, in this chapter the authors weave together two distinct perspectives to illuminate the stark reality of many students' experiences as they transition from the foster care system to postsecondary education.

The Moth is a nonprofit performing arts organization dedicated to true stories told live, and its education programs make space for students and educators to tell their stories. In this edited transcript of a panel discussion given by student alumni of Moth storytelling programs, participants discuss the impact of personal narrative performance on…