JIĀO/JIÀO 教 Chinese bilingual doctoral researchers to theorise translingually: A pedagogy for intercultural doctoral education

Abstract

The transcultural and translingual diversity of bilingual doctoral researchers who speak languages other than English, in particular those with non-Anglophone backgrounds, has been emphasised in recent years to challenge the monolingual English norm. To explore effective pedagogies to motivate these bilingual doctoral researchers to theorise translingually, this paper draws upon methodologies about translingualism and intercultural doctoral education to dispel the recurrent doubts raised by these bilingual doctoral researchers. Thus, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 Chinese bilingual doctoral researchers and their supervisors in Australia and China to understand their perceptions and practices regarding using the linguistic and epistemological resources buried in Chinese for academic purposes. In response to the concerns expressed by the participants, three critical roles of supervisors are highlighted, namely exemplifying, teaching and demanding translingual theorising. These three roles are further developed into a pedagogical framework inspired by the Chinese word jiāo/jiào 教, which itself is an example of translingual theorising.