Identities and ideologies in a language teacher candidate's autoethnography: Making meaning of storied experience

Abstract

This study examines the use of autoethnography as a teacher learning activity in a graduate‐level Linguistic for Classroom Teachers course to provide teacher candidates (TCs) with a discursive and experiential space to engage in narrative identity work. Designed as a semester‐long critical autoethnographic narrative (CAN), this teacher learning activity included language ideologies as a conceptual lens to guide six teacher candidates’ analysis of their experiences learning, using, and teaching languages. This study focuses on one of six TCs, Sara, as an information‐rich case selected with intensity sampling, and examines how she approaches and analyzes language ideologies and identity positions in her CAN. It specifically addresses the following research question: How does Sara make sense of language ideologies and identity positions as she recounts and examines the stories in her autoethnography? To answer this question, the author analyzes the following CAN components as data: four installments, one‐on‐one feedback sessions, discussion board posts, concept map of CAN, pair work of rubric co‐construction, and CAN presentation. The findings demonstrate that in her CAN assignment, Sara discusses valorization and hierarchization in language ideologies, explores border patrolling and identity positioning in language ideologies, and destabilizes ideological binaries as she constructs her teacher identity through narrative.