6 Unpacking Identities and Envisioning TESOL Practices through Translanguaging: A Collective Self-Study

6 Unpacking Identities and Envisioning TESOL Practices through Translanguaging: A Collective Self-Study Christina Ponzio, Elizabeth Robinson, Laura M. Kennedy, Abraham Ceballos, Zhongfeng Tian, Elie Crief and Maíra Lins Prado I feel at home everywhere I go, but I cannot stay. I am seen as a foreigner, or an outsider. It is not until you have a work visa or the sponsorship to stay that you tie yourself to that place. Home goes beyond place. Home, for me, has to be a concept that allows for more than one physical space. Rather than not thinking about place, I think about place even more, in new ways, and with new forms, and new interactions. For many people, land and their space, and their ancestral space are very, very, important. We are the people who are colonizing other peoples’ lands and stealing them. I feel guilty to feel home. I am benefitting from the gentrification that happened before. I cannot stay. The ability to be able to build community and then claim that you are part of that community reflects privilege. It’s a continuous process, resignifying home. Our group is a home. We have a supportive, safe emotional comfort. It is about community and trust. We’re willing to step out of our comfort zones and interrogate ourselves to become a better person during this process. We have multiple conflicted voices that can co-exist in the same space. We are willing to be vulnerable in this space. 92 Jain.indb 92 16-06-2021 22:21:38 Unpacking Identities and Envisioning TESOL Practices through Translanguaging 93 The more I become comfortable in my own skin and believe in my own sense of self-worth, the more at home I feel. We are not talking about the past. We are living in the present and for better future possibilities. Home is not where we sleep, but where we stand. A space felt, not seen. A space within, not amid. A heteroglossic, multi-voiced reflection on home by Maíra, Abe, Laura, Elie, Christina, Elizabeth and Zhongfeng1 The home that we have had the privilege to construct exists in a virtual space where we discuss, explore, theorize, research and challenge our experiences juntos2 /together (García et al., 2017). Our collaboration as seven transnational teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) practitioners – students, teachers, teacher educators and researchers – grew out of our shared interest in translanguaging in TESOL. While we trace the history of our community in greater detail later, the short version of the story is as follows. In the 2017–2018 academic year, some of us from institutions in Massachusetts (Elizabeth and Zhongfeng) and in Michigan (Christina) found ourselves presenting in the same session at an academic conference. We were excited by the similarities in our work and the challenges we face. We also identified a shared commitment to social justice within teaching English. We wanted to talk further. Given that we worked and lived in different states, we began meeting in May 2018 through the online conferencing platform Zoom. In September 2018, our group grew to our current seven members as Abe, Elie, Laura and Maíra were invited to join. We have named our home Transnetworking for TESOL Teachers (TTT). Together, we have written this chapter to explore how we have adopted and adapted the framework of translanguaging to (1) create an inclusive inquiry community, (2) examine our own identity constructions as well as language and teaching/learning practices and (3) disrupt pervasive monolingual ideology and challenge power dynamics for ourselves and society more broadly (De Costa & Norton, 2017). To do this, we took a collective self-study approach (Davey & Ham, 2009; Gallagher et al., 2011; Lighthall, 2004). Theoretical Framework We define translanguaging as a ‘practical theory of language’ (Li, 2017: 3), referring to the dynamic and fluid meaning-making (i.e. linguistic, semiotic, embodied) practices of multilingual speakers (García & Li, 2014; Otheguy et al., 2015). We are drawn to translanguaging as a theory of language because it blurs the perceived boundaries between sociallyconstructed named languages and offers transformative possibilities with respect to leveling linguistic hierarchies and uprooting monolingual ideologies (García & Otheguy, 2019; Poza, 2017). Likewise, we define Jain.indb 93 16-06-2021 22:21:38 94 Transnational Identities and Practices in English Language Teaching translanguaging as a pedagogy of language that amplifies the creative and critical capacity of multilingual learners, who leverage their full linguistic and semiotic repertoires to negotiate meaning within communicative contexts (García et al., 2017). In reflecting on the development of our online community, we were profoundly influenced by Canagarajah’s (2013) discussion of ‘contact zones’ within translingual contexts. The notion of contact zones emphasizes the ‘linguistics of contact’ in ‘social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other’ (Pratt, 1991: 29). Rather than focusing on the ‘linguistics of community’ where a community employs a static set of communicative practices, our opportunities for contact catalyze the development of a shared repertoire of communicative resources. Therefore, when people from diverse language communities are brought together, such as our inquiry group, they often co-construct new meaning-making practices in order to interact across language boundaries. Certainly, contact zones can be conflictual spaces, but they also create authentic contexts and purposes for people to construct new language identities and adapt language practices to negotiate meaning with others. As a community of practice (Wenger, 1998) brought together by our common interest in translanguaging across landscapes of practices (Wenger-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner, 2015), our inquiry group functions as a contact zone where we have developed both a shared purpose and communicative repertoire to advance our inquiry into translanguaging. We also draw upon Canagarajah’s (2013) description of translingual awareness to refer to our capacity (1) to see through the sociallyconstructed boundaries around language and (2) to instead perceive the possibilities to fluidly co-construct meaning across linguistic and semiotic resources. As a part of this awareness, individual speakers demonstrate a ‘cooperative disposition’ (see Table 6.1) to negotiate meaning within an everyday communicative context (Canagarajah, 2013: 180–181). Through our shared negotiation of meaning, as individual speakers we develop ‘synergy’ and ‘serendipity’. The former term, used by Canagarajah (2013: Table 6.1 Canagarajah’s (2013) cooperative disposition of translingual speakers Jain.indb 94 Domain Features Language awareness • Language norms as open to negotiation • Languages as mobile semiotic resources • A functional orientation to communication and meaning Social values • An openness to diversity • A sense of voice and locus of enunciation • A strong ethic of collaboration Learning strategies • Learning from practice • Adaptive skills • Use of scaffolding 16-06-2021 22:21:38 Unpacking Identities and Envisioning TESOL Practices through Translanguaging 95 41), refers to the effort each of us puts forth to communicate and the latter refers to our acceptance of each other on their own terms and our openness to the unexpected emerging communication. Even when lingua franca English is the shared resource in a translingual contact zone, we center on our shared practice rather than grammatical norms or common identities. Methods As language learners, speakers, teachers and teacher educators, we came together as a community eager to examine our experiences both personally and professionally with translanguaging practices. We wanted to explore the gaps that existed between the theory and our practice, between the vision and our reality. The focus of self-study on the critical examination of one’s own practice guided our approach to both data generation and analysis. We used collective self-study (Davey & Ham, 2009; Gallagher et al., 2011; Lighthall, 2004) and self-study of language and literacy teacher education (Peercy, 2014; Samaras, 2010; Sharkey & Peercy, 2018) as the guiding methodological frameworks to examine our linguistic identity constructions as well as our language teaching and learning practices in hopes of disrupting monolingual ideologies and challenging linguistic power dynamics. Unlike (duo)autoethnography, which describes studies of the self situated in broader cultural contexts, self-study lends itself to analysis at a smaller grain size, often with a particular problem of practice and situated context in mind (Hamilton et al., 2008). We were drawn to self-studying methodologies because collaboration is one of the defining characteristics of self-study (Lighthall, 2004). Together, members of selfstudy communities of practice (Kitchen & Ciuffetelli Parker, 2009) assume ‘a pedagogical responsibility to continuously monitor [their] progress; to check for discrepancies between [their] ideals and [their] practice’ (LaBoskey, 2004: 839). However, we have chosen to describe our approach as collective self-study, rather than collaborative self-study, because our data and analysis are a collection of our thoughts, experiences and learning. We view ourselves not as a collaboration of seven individuals, but as a collective community. Tracing our Community’s History Zhongfeng and Elizabeth first connected in January 2017 when Zhongfeng reached out to find possible collaborators doing work in TESOL teacher education in the Boston area. Their collaboration grew to include Elie, an undergraduate in Elizabeth’s class and also her research assistant, and Maíra, who had recently moved to the Boston area and was interested in enrolling in Elizabeth’s class. Together, the four of them Jain.indb 95 16-06-2021 22:21:39 96 Transnational Identities and Practices in English Language Teaching began collaboratively exploring the process of transforming a TESOL certificate that had been designed from a sheltered English instruction (SEI) approach into a translanguaging-based TESOL certificate. In East Lansing, Christina and Abe met in August 2016 when they were assigned to be co-instructors for a TESOL practicum course offered to undergraduates at Michigan State University; translanguaging had been introduced into the curriculum by the supervising professor that year. Two years later, Christina would teach that same course with Laura. In the interim, Christina and Zhongfeng were introduced to each other by a common colleague, which led to Christina joining a symposium that Zhongfeng had organized for the American Education Research Association’s annual conference in April 2017. However, it was not until Christina bumped into Elizabeth and Zhongfeng at a roundtable session at the conference that the three of them began discussing their shared interest in translanguaging. Later that summer, they met to discuss how they could support each other in the development of their respective undergraduate courses, where translanguaging pedagogy played a central role. The self-study group grew from that initial discussion (see Figure 6.1) and eventually Elizabeth and Zhongfeng introduced Elie and Maíra to Christina, while Christina invited Abe and Laura to join the group. Figure 6.1 Tracing our community’s history Jain.indb 96 16-06-2021 22:21:40 Unpacking Identities and Envisioning TESOL Practices through Translanguaging 97 Data Generation and Analysis Using Zoom and a shared Google Drive folder, the group began to meet twice a month to explore translanguaging, an inquiry that led to further investigation into our individual backgrounds and contexts, language repertoires and translanguaging practices. This virtual space was our primary contact zone (Pratt, 1991), where we were able to blur the lines around what it means to form a linguistic community (Canagarajah, 2013). As Zhongfeng explained, ‘During this process, we inform each other, and we treat each other as knowledgeable resources. We push forward, we push each other’s thinking. I think it’s more than exploratory to me. It’s also critical; it is also liminal’ (19 November 2018). Figure 6.2 is a screenshot of us, engaging in one of more than a dozen meetings throughout that first year of collaboration. In the first year of our collaboration, we met 12 times in as many months, each meeting running for between one and two hours. Using constant comparative methods (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), we identified emerging themes in our conversations. To explore our identities as well as our triumphs and challenges in taking up translanguaging pedagogy in our teaching practices, we examined the transcripts and meeting notes, our reflective analytic memos and artifacts that included syllabi, lesson plans and course assignments. However, in this chapter, we focus specifically on the transcription data from our first year of collaboration. Table 6.2 provides an overview of our coding scheme as well as data exemplars for each code. It is important to note that all transcripts were analyzed by two or, in some cases, three or more members of our community. Figure 6.2 Members of the TTT group during an online meeting Jain.indb 97 16-06-2021 22:21:40 98 Transnational Identities and Practices in English Language Teaching Table 6.2 Coding scheme and data exemplars Coding Stage Codes Data Exemplars Deductive coding Creating community It’s really interesting to see how our space evolved because originally, we came together just to say, ‘Okay, let’s share our different experiences’. That’s kind of our original purpose [. . .] During this process, [. . . ], and we treat each other as knowledgeable resource. (Zhongfeng, 19 November 2018) Examining practices I was in a Spanish class in college right after returning from Kenya where I was learning Swahili and 1 was getting the two languages mixed up in my writing speaking. I was growing increasingly frustrated with folks not understanding and being patient as I was sorting out languages. (Laura, 8 February 2019) Disrupting monolingual ideologies It’s kind of empowering that you have your own culture and how beautiful it is, but it’s also confusing. I don’t know. [. . . ] I like when people are reminding themselves, ‘Why are you using the English words? You live here and you have a very good word for this’. (Maíra, 12 October 2018) Interrogating ‘practitioner’ I think this idea around practitioners . . . but like this idea that we’re pushing on the boundaries of what a practitioner who does translanguaging, who does research? (Elizabeth, 19 November 2018) Crafting our story This connects to Laura’s suggestion about a possible structure. Perhaps this conversation space or this multi-voiced whatever this is, is part of how we’re thinking about opening up that space. (Christina, 19 November 2019) Exploring ‘home’ I don’t want to stay in the same place all the time. But I’m like, I will always feel like I was a colonizer. I think it’s a privilege because of colonization [. . .] My passport was stronger, or I’m intruding in certain people’s place or benefiting from the gentrification that happened before. Al1 the stuff like that, so I always feel guilty. (Elie, 18 March 2019) Finding translanguaging So that’s the reason why I like this concept because it’s not me against all this body of literature or all this body of research. [. . .] I have my voice, even though it’s not published, or it’s not codified. (Abe, 22 February 2019) Open coding Selective coding While a discussion of any one of the following findings could be the sole focus of its own chapter, we want to take this opportunity – our first publication as a self-study community of practice – to briefly address each of the three most salient themes of our work to date: how our collaboration has (1) grown into an inclusive inquiry community, (2) supported us in examining our language practices, identity constructions and teachinglearning practices and (3) allowed us to begin disrupting a pervasive monolingual ideology and challenging power dynamics. Jain.indb 98 16-06-2021 22:21:40 Unpacking Identities and Envisioning TESOL Practices through Translanguaging 99 Findings Creating an inclusive inquiry community Brought together by our shared interest in translanguaging, our group quickly developed into an inclusive inquiry community. Our shared virtual meeting space has essentially served as a contact zone (Pratt, 1991); through Zoom, we have been able to meet across physical space, connecting people who are in Massachusetts (Elie, Elizabeth, Maíra and Zhongfeng) and Michigan (Abe, Christina and Laura). Members within the group have also brought their experiences from previous contexts as well as their rich and diverse linguistic repertoires. As a result, our shared online space has made possible the ‘multilateral flow of people, things, and ideas across borders’ and ‘made more visible mixed forms of community and language’ (Canagarajah, 2013: 25). More specifically, as we have interacted in the group, we have explicitly examined and shared our respective language identities and practices, a point that we will return to later. During a meeting in the fall of 2018, we discussed how our online space allowed us to compare and contrast across our contexts, experiences and identities: Elizabeth: [T]ranslanguaging is … you know, the thing that joins us, but then within this space, we’ve found this contact zone to work on our identities as practitioners. It’s one thing to work individually within your context to try to shift [larger systems of power], but then to do this imperative work that only can happen, really, in this liminal contact zone, which is our translanguaging group. So we can sort of see what other people are doing. That really opens up the spaces for us, you know, that we wouldn’t have without that, without our Zoom group. (19 November 2018) In response, Christina connected Elizabeth’s point to the construct of contact zones: Christina: There’s something about these contact zones that [is] fostering our engagement with … potentially with our engagement of our translingual selves … the compare and contrast [helps] us to see what’s possible that we might not be able to see if we were only doing this ourselves in our own respective contexts. (19 November 2018) As highlighted in Elizabeth and Christina’s exchange, the online group has created a social space where members and their linguistic and cultural practices could bump up against each other through interaction. In other words, when juxtaposed together, our group demonstrated greater openness Jain.indb 99 16-06-2021 22:21:40 100 Transnational Identities and Practices in English Language Teaching to each others’ diverse positionalities and meaning-making practices, actively seeking to understand and affirm each others’ backgrounds and experiences as we illustrate below. As a contact zone, our online group has also blurred the lines around ‘linguistics of community’ and illuminated the ‘linguistics of contact’ through our shared meaning-making (Canagarajah, 2013). More specifically, through our interaction, we have demonstrated the ‘cooperative disposition’ associated with translingual awareness. For instance, in our meeting on 22 February 2019, Abe introduced the Spanish term ‘lírico’ to describe his evolving language identity since moving to the USA from Mexico over ten years ago; he explained that the term might translate to ‘lyric’ or ‘lyrical’ in English, but was unsure. When Elizabeth interjected to share that she had looked the term up on Google Translate, the two began co-constructing a shared understanding of the term: Abe: Elizabeth: Abe: Elizabeth: Abe: Oh, okay. Okay. So what does it say? (Laughs) I think it said lyrically or to put to song or something like that Okay. So what do you understand in English when you think about that word? I under – I understood it as lyrically, but more like as a sense of musicality Oh ok, so it’s like musicality. It’s related to that. But I think this is like a, so like, it took a new meaning – So like growing up, [lírico] had a like slightly different meaning. And so I’ll try to explain that and see how, show you how that connects to something I’m trying to write While English served as the shared resource in Abe and Elizabeth’s exchange, through their interaction, Abe described how he employed lírico according to his respective cultural values and identity to construct a shared meaning of the term. As Abe continued, he explained how the term is used in his context in Mérida, Mexico, to distinguish between músico profesional and músico lírico, where the former is classically trained in the theory of music and the latter has learned by doing. Both Abe and Elizabeth demonstrated a negotiation of meaning together, reflecting the ‘synergy’ and ‘serendipity’ that Canagarajah (2013: 41) uses to describe individual speakers’ acceptance of the other on his or her own terms and openness to the unexpected emerging in communication. As a result, Abe was able to share a vulnerable part of his language identity and experience, namely the uncertainty he felt about his use of English in professional interactions as a graduate student and the courage it took: Abe: Jain.indb 100 I always felt like there was the sense of ‘I’m missing some language here. I’m missing some, some of the language 16-06-2021 22:21:40 Unpacking Identities and Envisioning TESOL Practices through Translanguaging 101 that people use to talk about all sorts of things like research, teaching or service or all the things that people do in academia’. So having that feeling and in the back of … and the same time, having the courage to go and do it, even though I was missing the language. So I, I felt like every time I was doing, like, I was teaching as a lírico, right, as someone who is trying to pay attention to the people, to the interactions and being aware that there is, there’s some language that you are missing but doing it anyways. (22 February 2019) The term lírico has not only proven generative for Abe, but also opened up possibilities for our group as we blurred the boundaries of our respective named language practices to instead consider our own fluidity, or líricamente, of language. Examining our identity constructions and language, teaching and learning practices Within our TTT group, we have interrogated our experiences as language learners, practitioners and teacher educators. We have also examined our transnational and translingual identities (Canagarajah, 2013), noting the fluidity and evolution of these constructs over time. Here we highlight the voices of each team member to illustrate and unpack the heterogeneity in our language identities and practices. Our group formed with the explicit intention of exploring translanguaging as theory and as pedagogy; the openness of the theory allowed us space to make meaning of various components of ourselves and our practices as related to translanguaging. We found the positive affirmation of multilingual identities to be a relevant and important result of exploring translanguaging, especially for members of our group who hold multilingual and transnational identities. For instance, Elie shared the following. Elie: I was learning as a student about translanguaging, and I didn’t know anything about it. And I didn’t know much linguistics, education, and language. So, it challenged me and I learned a lot about how to see myself. So, I’m a little bit better with confidence and language. But I still see myself as an emergent bilingual. (18 March 2019) Elie’s introduction to translanguaging provided him with new knowledge and ways of understanding. His learning challenged some of his ideas and feelings about his own language use and provided him with more confidence. Similarly, Zhongfeng reflected on the relationship between his identity and translanguaging. Jain.indb 101 16-06-2021 22:21:40 102 Transnational Identities and Practices in English Language Teaching Zhongfeng: [L]earning translanguaging, I think, it just affirms my identity … People see language mixing as a natural practice and as sophisticated, creative, critical use of different language features from their repertoire. When I learned translanguaging, I just feel like, yes, this is … finally I found the theory that really resonates with me, that speaks to my experience, my identity. (22 February 2019) Zhongfeng’s language experiences with Mandarin, Cantonese and English are legitimized by the theory of translanguaging. Instead of a deficit view focusing on the lack of English, the evolving and shaping of one’s language repertoire is seen as positive and augmenting. Language mixing is seen as a creative, critical, conscious, active and involved process. This narrative of linguistic practices affirms how Zhongfeng identifies himself, and the same was true for Maíra: Maíra: I cried when I finished it [the Flores and Aneja (2017) article] because (laughs) it got me so involved, and I realized so many things that I thought about myself and of my teaching while I was doing that. I started teaching when I was 17 and I was always questioned […] And so we are not kind to ourselves as teachers and as students and as English speakers. (12 October 2018) Maíra’s response highlights the transformative possibilities (Poza, 2017) of translanguaging. It was emotional for her to realize that she had been evaluating herself through the lens of English supremacy. Adopting a kinder, more affirming lens, and shifting from a deficit to a resource point of view brought Maíra to tears; it also impacted the way Elizabeth came to view her work. Elizabeth: ESL was no longer a home for me … I didn’t feel like I was doing justice work in ESL. I felt like I was just preparing people to teach people English and that didn’t feel good anymore. So this notion that accepting people and what they bring in their languages and their cultures was part of translanguaging, that really resonated with the dissatisfaction I was feeling with English as a second language. (18 March 2019) For the TTT members whose home language was English (i.e. Elizabeth, Christina and Laura), it was important to challenge monolingualism both within their own identities and also as it played out in their teaching and learning practices. As Christina shared: Christina: Jain.indb 102 I see myself as having a responsibility to, one, broaden my perspective of the affordances that non-native English speaking teachers and pre-service teachers bring, and 16-06-2021 22:21:40 Unpacking Identities and Envisioning TESOL Practices through Translanguaging 103 lifting that up because in doing so, I’m also thinking of how I lift up or amplify the voices of my non-native Englishspeaking students. And so that requires examination of the privilege that I have as a monolingual English teacher and teacher educator. (12 October 2018) Christina understands her privileged position as a monolingual English teacher in the US context. A fixation with native speakerism is allied to English language hegemony and permeates the fields of education and teacher education, allowing monolingualism to be seen as a privilege. Monolingualism of no language other than English is seen through the same lens. Christina sees her role as a teacher educator as coming with a responsibility to promote the abilities of multilingual (pre-service) teachers. This thought is echoed in Abe’s reflection on his practices as a multilingual and transnational teacher-educator as well. Abe: Because they [students] are also interested in teaching language, they not only appreciate your perspective, but they need to see you doing those things, like working through stuff, because you are showing the example of, ok, this is how from an – I’m living in language, I’m aware of the language that is happening at every single point of this lesson, and they need to see that. (25 October 2018) Abe’s teaching and modeling of ‘living in language’ is an example of the work that Christina wants to lift up and amplify in her classes. Admittedly no one in our group is a translanguaging expert; instead we share our process of exploration in ways that we believe are consistent with a translanguaging approach to learning. As Laura explains of her own journey: Laura: I was already halfway through my PhD before I came into translanguaging, and I just remember that it made a lot of sense, in that I wish that’s how I had been learning languages … And I don’t know that I’ve ever been a student in a language classroom that encouraged translanguaging, which means so when my students asked me, ‘Well, what does this look like in a classroom?’ I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced it. And so I think that’s what draws me to it still. So this like mystery, what is this? What could … What could this be? And I love thinking about that. (18 March 2019) Laura beautifully demonstrates the openness, honesty and shared sense of wonder that we have co-constructed in our TTT group. These are our linguistics of contact (Pratt, 1991), our shared repertoire of linguistic Jain.indb 103 16-06-2021 22:21:41 104 Transnational Identities and Practices in English Language Teaching resources that we use not only to communicate but also to reflect on ourselves and our practices. Our collective goal has been and continues to be to open ourselves up to the mystery and possibilities of translanguaging. Disrupting pervasive monolingual ideology and challenging power dynamics More broadly, our collaboration has reinforced our capacity to challenge traditional (false) dichotomies in TESOL (e.g. native/non-native, researcher/practitioner) and the underlying power dynamics of monolingualism through a translanguaging lens (Jain, 2013; Lee & Canagarajah, 2019a; Yazan & Rudolph, 2018). We have worked to collectively envision a more critical and socially-just way forward in our practices as TESOL teachers, teacher candidates and learners. Our conversations can be interpreted by looking at both the content and the context. If one starts with the context, exploring how the conversations came to take place, a pattern of synergy and serendipity begins to emerge. The content of the conversations tackles experiences in broader professional contexts as well in the specific work of TESOL educators. Together, we tease out meanings around the notion of monolingualism. On the one hand, members of the TTT research group who spoke languages other than English shared their experiences of feeling the pressures of monolingual environments in their various professional contexts, while members who considered themselves to be monolingual speakers of English explored their roles as TESOL educators in such contexts. The tone is key in how these conversations unfolded. While some members were prompted to analyze their own roles in a monolingual society, the conversations did not turn into a session of ‘scolding’, ‘shaming’ or ‘blaming’ the other. It was not about people complaining or accusing – it was a conversation in which TTT members understood that they were navigating structures larger than themselves. Thus, these conversations lent themselves to fruitful insights. To illustrate what we mean, consider our meeting in November 2018. Zhongfeng captured this ethos of respect in the following way. Zhongfeng: I think our group is a good demonstration of [how] we [are] trying to disrupt the power dynamics, because we are in different stages in our academics and careers. So we, you know, and we just really respect for each other’s opinions and value each other’s perspectives in this virtual space. (8 November 2018) An ethos of respect has proven to be necessary because conversations of this kind can often turn personal and, if not handled professionally, they can pull people apart. Jain.indb 104 16-06-2021 22:21:41 Unpacking Identities and Envisioning TESOL Practices through Translanguaging 105 Not only were we aware of the dominance of English in our conversations, we also explored the dominance of English in our contexts. As an example of this, we turn to our conversation in October 2018, stemming from an observation Zhongfeng shared with the TTT group about TESOL students in China: Zhongfeng: And in terms of the reality that the marketing, you know, the TESOL profession marketing. You always see job requirements, like, native speakers preferred. Always this. No matter how hard we push against this monolingualism. Always you can see one of the job requirements is, ‘Ok, so native English speaker preferred. And this kind of always put us in, you know, I don’t know, put us in a less competitive position’. (12 October 2018) Zhongfeng’s comments moved Maíra to share what she referred to as a ‘mutt complex’, a term coined by the Brazilian writer and playwright Nelson Rodrigues to refer to a kind of inferiority that Brazilians tend to experience in comparison to the rest of the world. As Maíra explains in her own words: Maíra: [A] general feeling, like we’re not good enough as a nationality, like Brazilians are not as good, we wished we lived somewhere else … and we make fun of ourselves with our accents. If you know just a little English, you already look down upon people who know a little less. (12 October 2018) Elizabeth responded with an introspective look at her own perspectives. She used the image of a mirror to describe how the interaction with Maíra served as a ‘check’ on her position. Elizabeth explained how her interactions with other members of the group have enhanced her awareness of monolingual ideologies. Elizabeth saw her own actions and perspectives as language educators through the actions and perspectives of the group’s multilingual educators, stating: Elizabeth: Jain.indb 105 I mean, as monolingual people, and I know that I’m problematizing that and understanding that that’s not necessarily who I am, but so much of that thinking goes into my teaching. Like, I think also it’s so amazing to have people who are coming at this with much broader linguistic backgrounds than I have to sort be our accountability check, to be our partners. So thank you, Abe and Maíra, and you know, cuz I think that that’s really hard to have to play that role (laughs) and saying, ‘Oh, that was a really monolingual thing for you to say’, (laughs) but just to help us and to push on those perspectives that we might still be trying to work through. (25 October 2018) 16-06-2021 22:21:41 106 Transnational Identities and Practices in English Language Teaching Christina then continued the line of reasoning Elizabeth started and elaborated on the implications for her role as a teacher educator in affirming bilingual prospective TESOL educators. Christina: There are less [educators] who would consider themselves being bilingual than there are monolingual English, at least in the US. And we also know that having educators who are bilingual … those educators who are bilingual have more asset-based orientations toward their learners. And so I guess what I’m getting at is when I think about our teacher preparation programs, if we really are committed to this work, part of it means ensuring that people who are bilingual feel like our TESOL teacher preparation programs are spaces that they can enter and be affirmed and feel successful. (25 October 2018) Christina posed a question that would lead the group into a discussion of paradoxical situations in TESOL. She wondered, ‘What does that mean for me, in doing the work, to ensure that I am not marginalizing them?’ Drawing from Flores and Aneja (2017), Zhongfeng’s reply reflected on a paradox that addressed this question, responding: Zhongfeng: And I think that one paradox right now in TESOL programs, especially master’s programs, like, they recruit lots of students internationally, around the world. I don’t know, this is the case at least at [Boston University], when I was a TESOL master’s student, actually the majority are from China, you know. The majority are not monolingual English speakers, but the paradox, the problem is, they don’t create that space for us, like, to interrogate the monolingual ideologies. That’s why after graduation, lots of us, like I mentioned last time, we ended up finding jobs teaching Chinese, not teaching English necessarily. (25 October 2018) From there, Abe related his experience wondering about how to create a space for students intending to teach abroad. Abe expressed his goal of making explicit in his courses that many of his students can and will go abroad to teach English from a place of privilege. Abe: Jain.indb 106 … especially for the ones who are going abroad and they’re going to teach English, to help them think that … from a space of privilege or from a place of dominance, right? Because of the things that their language, country, affords them and perceptions and ideologies, that’s the reason why they can do a lot of those things and it doesn’t mean it’s evil that they go and do that, but for me, they need to interrogate that. (25 October 2018) 16-06-2021 22:21:41 Unpacking Identities and Envisioning TESOL Practices through Translanguaging 107 Based on those conversations, we have identified several opportunities for the work of disrupting monolingual ideologies highlighted by the experiences of the TTT group. One is the role that instructors play in opening spaces to question monolingual ideologies. Another opportunity is challenging the roles we play in marginalizing multilingual speakers. In particular, teacher educators need to be aware that some students, as Maíra highlighted, have internalized what she called a mutt complex and thus arrive in TESOL programs feeling the need to keep a low profile of their linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The paradoxical nature of translanguaging in TESOL education points at the challenge monolingual ideologies represent for students from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds. At the same time, it reveals opportunities to open space where students and instructors can challenge such ideologies. Discussion and Implications Translanguaging is what brought us together. We had already accepted it as a theory, we were already excited by its possibilities and we were interested in using it in our teaching and learning practices. Our interaction within the TTT group allowed for self and group exploration. We originally believed that the best way to realize our goal of envisioning a more critical and socially-just way forward was to develop our translanguaging stance (García et al., 2017). A translanguaging practitioner’s stance, or underlying philosophical or ideological system, is described by García et al. (2017: 50), with the word juntos/together. This stance of working juntos reflects three core beliefs about joint construction: • • • recognizing that students’ language and cultural practices ‘work juntos and enrich each other’ that students’ families and communities are resources to be leveraged for learning the understanding and creation of a classroom as ‘a democratic space where teachers and students juntos co-create knowledge, challenge traditional hierarchies, and work toward a more just society’. Our team has worked to adopt this juntos stance not only within our classroom practices but also within our practices as a TTT group. Our first finding demonstrated the ways that we created an inclusive research community juntos. We did this by creating a contact zone in which everyone’s cultural and language practices were resources leveraged for our learning juntos. We collectively decided what activities we would engage in during our meetings. Sharing memos, reflections on readings and our multimodal linguistic autobiographies allowed us to learn about, and learn from, each other’s cultural and linguistic resources. Our second finding helped us realize our need to further develop the cooperative dispositions as translingual speakers described in our Jain.indb 107 16-06-2021 22:21:41 108 Transnational Identities and Practices in English Language Teaching framework (see Table 6.1) that includes an openness to diversity and collaboration as well as a set of practices to negotiate meaning (Canagarajah, 2013). Our exploration of our own language practices, identity constructions and teaching–learning practices led us to interrogate our openness to language plurality. Especially for the three group members who referred to themselves as monolinguals, interrogating their use of this label in relationship to their actual linguistic practices and complex linguistic repertoires moved their dispositions. With the support and insight of the transnational, multilingual members of TTT, our group recognized the importance of countering monolingual dispositions. In fact, we believe the development of a translingual disposition, theorized by Canagarajah (2013) and elaborated elsewhere (Lee & Jenks, 2016; Lee & Canagarajah, 2019a, 2019b), is a fundamental component of constructing a translanguaging stance. As described by Canagarajah (2013: 179), this ‘cooperative disposition’ refers to the open humility exhibited by translingual speakers, whose language awareness, social values, and communicative strategies reflect a willingness to negotiate diversity and co-construct meaning with others (Lee & Canagarajah, 2019a, 2019b). In our group, as in our classrooms, one way of developing a translingual disposition begins with challenging the notions of named languages and bringing into focus the harm brought about by perpetuating English supremacy through unchecked monolingualism. An understanding that grew from our work together is of the interdependent relationship between translingual disposition and translanguaging stance and the ways in which the two fuel each other. While there is not space in this chapter to explore this further, we look forward to investigating this relationship in our future collaboration. It was not uncommon for our group’s discussion to highlight the interconnectedness of examining ourselves and examining dominant structures and practices. The process of self-reflection that resulted in our second finding would lead to pushing back on pervasive power structures bringing us to our third finding. Our third finding focuses on how we attempted to disrupt monolingual ideology and challenge power dynamics for ourselves and society more broadly. As Christina explained in November of 2018: ‘We’re opening up this space to look at the self, but we’re looking at the self to look back outward again’. Every exploration we entered into juntos resulted in raising our group’s awareness of dominant power dynamics. In our exploration of our TTT members’ linguistic autobiographies, we sought to understand how the preference for ‘native’ English speakers plays out not only in the USA but also internationally. In our exploration of our group members’ definitions of home, we grappled with the questions of ancestral lands, colonialism and what it means to claim a place as home. In our exploration of different classroom practices, we questioned the locus of knowledge and the consequences in academia of co-constructing knowledge against traditional US assumptions about the roles of teachers/professors. Jain.indb 108 16-06-2021 22:21:41 Unpacking Identities and Envisioning TESOL Practices through Translanguaging 109 Conclusion TTT is our academic home. ‘Living’ in TTT has been transformative. We understand our transformation as being brought about by each members’ agency, which, as Haapasaari et al. (2016: 2) wrote, ‘develops the participants’ joint activity by explicating and envisioning new possibilities’. Transformative agency goes beyond the individual as it seeks possibilities for collective change efforts. We have all seen the transformative impact of TTT on our individual lives and practices. For Abe, TTT provided a space that affirmed his experiences as he explored the vulnerability he has experienced with respect to his language identity and practice and the feeling that he was ‘missing something’. His critical reflection on courageously ‘living in language’ provided a model for the whole group for sharing our personal learning processes in our classrooms and our writing. For Elie, TTT bolstered his confidence as he was able to apply translanguaging to his own emergent language. He shared his questioning of social constructions around language identity and practice, and furthered the group’s interrogation of the privilege of calling a place home. For Zhongfeng, TTT has affirmed his identity, experience and practice. He has helped us to recognize how, within our group, we have valued and respected every member and worked to challenge the hierarchies so deeply embedded in academia. For Maíra as well, TTT was a space that affirmed her experiences. The shared readings and discussions within the group provided Maíra (and others) with tools to question the hegemonic presence of English. She shared with the group her shifting view of her language practices from a deficit to a resourceoriented lens. She also transformed her perspectives on teaching to see the value of drawing on multiple languages. For Christina, TTT was a safe and generative space to explore the ‘privileges’ of monolingualism. Her probing questions helped the group explore ways to amplify the voices of all emergent bilingual students. For Laura, TTT provided a forum to explore the mysteries and complexities of teaching language. Her reflections opened up possibilities for exploring new practices in classrooms. For Elizabeth, TTT provided her with valued ‘critical friends’ willing to help check her monolingual bias. She realized that ESL was no longer her ‘home’ and that her commitment to justice was shared and intensified by the group. For all of us, TTT has served as a contact zone where we co-constructed new understandings and practices, new ways of being. Our membership in TTT has challenged us to consider how we carry what we are learning and exploring in our group into our practices as language speakers, learners, educators and researchers. We have experienced the beginnings of disrupting power dynamics in our personal lives. Our group membership has enabled us to bring that experience into this chapter to be shared with a broader audience. While we are not surprised, Jain.indb 109 16-06-2021 22:21:41 110 Transnational Identities and Practices in English Language Teaching we are impressed by and thankful for our newly found ways of engaging in academia. TTT is a democratic space where ‘we juntos co-create knowledge, challenge traditional hierarchies, and work toward a more just society’ (García et al., 2017: 50). We are at the beginning of the ongoing process of collective transformation. We aspire to co-create endless new possibilities for envisioning TESOL practices through translanguaging. Notes (1) The lines from this poem were taken from across the transcriptions of our group meetings, where we used ‘English’ as our shared resource to negotiate meaning. While we acknowledge that our use of English in this context may reflect its hegemonic presence as a dominant named language system, we view our use of English as a reflection of one of the shared linguistic features in our respective repertoires. Furthermore, while English was used as the linguistic resource to communicate in speaking and writing in this context, woven throughout our ‘process of knowledge construction that goes beyond language’ (Li, 2017) are our diverse personal histories and perspectives of ‘home’. (2) While APA conventions would have us italicize terms used in our writing from named languages other than English, we have chosen not to distinguish between linguistic features in this way in order to consciously resist this expectation and its underlying monolingual bias. References Canagarajah, A.S. (2013) Translingual Practice: Global Englishes and Cosmopolitan Relations. New York, NY: Routledge. Davey, R. and Ham, V. 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