Search

In addressing the 21st century neocolonial research condition, in this article the au- thors firstly discuss how academia in general, and elt in particular, may configure as oppressive colonizing sites. Secondly, they introduce their own experience as pre- service and in-service educators who took part in pedagogy of possibilities (pop) at a university in Tunja, Colombia. Indigenous principles like interconnectedness and relationality and Chicanx/Latinx concepts, such as bodymindspirit, path of cono- cimiento, and spiritual activism were foundational to these educators’ pop. To them, pedagogy was a political act to resist the disembodied/disengaged/dispassionate nature of teaching/researching/being in academia and beyond. This four-year crit- ical-community autoethnography, uses testimonies, journals, and artistic creations as knowledge-gathering methods to analyze how decolonizing teaching-research practices informed the re-signification of these educators’ personal and professional identities. Theoretical coding revealed that pop permitted participants to engage in decolonial practices of self-recognition, re-construction, empowerment, growth, and healing. The analysis also revealed that decolonizing the self leads to the adoption of a positionality where values such as care and respect for one’s self and communities are paramount to move forward social-justice-critical-decolonial agendas. The results suggest the need to re-signify elt pedagogical and educational practices beyond neo- liberal agendas which propose rankings, individualism, and competition.

This collaborative autoethnographic research explores the identity shaping construction trajectory of a group of three English teacher researchers as well as the repercussions that these processes had on the enactment of a critical decolonial perception toward the ELT field. Using a qualitative approach, the English teachers engaged in this collaborative autoethnography shared their experiences, beliefs, and influences to collectively examine how these influenced their evolving professional identities and their current critical understanding of the field. In general, the study reveals that collaborative autoethnography provides a unique platform for examining the identity trajectory of individuals and for establishing a connection between the past and the present. The findings similarly highlight the interplay between individual experiences, sociocultural contexts, and pedagogical practices, fostering a deeper understanding of English teacher researcher identity development. By emphasizing the significance of collective exploration, this study advocates for incorporating collaborative autoethnography more actively as a valuable tool for professional development in English education and research in general, and in Colombia in particular.