Speakers
Description
This trioethnography explores the traumas experienced by minoritized teachers in Japan and their collaborative reflection and research for practicing ethics of care (Kamlongera & Katenga-Kaunda, 2023). Although distrust toward our professional status rooted in linguistic racism has culminated in emotional distress and trauma, we could verbalize and interpret our trauma with trioethnography, processing our distress collaboratively and turning negative experiences into growth points (Johnson & Golombek, 2016).
Abstract section 2: Contribution/research questions
To contextualize our experiences of marginalization and care for each other, we initiated a CAE project that explored: (a) How do minoritized Asian women English teachers in Japan experience and respond to trauma generated by linguistic racism?; and (b) How does CAE serve as a transformative space for care, healing, and collective empowerment in addressing linguistic racism-induced trauma?
Abstract section 5: References
Dovchin, S. (2019). Language crossing and linguistic racism: Mongolian immigrant women in Australia. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 14(4), 334–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/17447143.2019.1566345
Johnson, K. E., & Golombek, P. R. (2016). Mindful L2 teacher education: A sociocultural perspective on cultivating teachers’ professional development. Routledge.
Kamlongera, M. I., & Katenga-Kaunda, M. W. (2023). Researchers’ reflections on ethics of care as decolonial research practice: understanding Indigenous knowledge communication systems to navigate moments of ethical tension in rural Malawi. Research Ethics, 19(3), 312–324. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470161231169484
Wang, M., & Dovchin, S. (2022). “Why should I not speak my own language (Chinese) in public in America?”: Linguistic racism, symbolic violence, and resistance. TESOL Quarterly, 57(4), 1139–1166. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.3179
Abstract section 1: Relevance
This collaborative autoethnography (CAE) explores the traumas experienced by ethnically minoritized teachers in Japan and their collaborative reflection and research for practicing ethics of care (Kamlongera & Katenga-Kaunda, 2023). Linguistic racism, or discriminatory treatment on the basis of linguistic practices, race, and ethnicity (Dovchin, 2019) leaves psychological damage that often results in trauma (Wang & Dovchin, 2023). As three Northeast Asian non-Japanese women teachers of English in Japan, our translingual teaching practices have been questioned and doubted, because we are often not considered ‘legitimate’ as teachers of English.
Abstract section 3: Content/method
We composed narratives on our emotion and trauma, shared them in six two-hour meetings and co-authored two papers on translanguaging pedagogy and teacher emotion. We iteratively analyzed our narratives and meeting transcripts, identifying overarching themes, juxtaposing diverse experiences, and connecting them to theory. In our analysis, we investigate how our collaborative dialogue, analysis, and writing lead to renewed understanding of our experiences of linguistic racism and trauma.
Abstract section 4: Outcomes/results
Our tentative findings indicate that our traumas mainly emerge from navigating misogynistic and raciolinguistic assumptions. A general attitude of distrust toward our professional status has culminated in emotional distress and trauma. Through CAE, we could verbalize and interpret these trauma with theory – processing our distress collaboratively and turning negative experiences into growth points (Johnson & Golombek, 2016) by (re)interpreting and reframing our understandings in dialogue. Weaving our experience with theory, we situated our voices in scholarship. Our trajectory suggests that CAE could be a space for mutual growth and for cultivating care, especially for teachers dealing with linguistic racism.
| Title | An arts-based trioethnography of minoritized women educators |
|---|---|
| Teaching Context | College and university education |