Language teachers’ narratives of professional experience in online class discussions

Abstract

AbstractLanguage teachers’ narratives of professional and personal experience have been shown to support sense-making, problem-solving, and the forging of personal connections, as well as to aid in developing their identities as language teachers. As language teacher education increasingly moves online, examining how teacher-learners engage in the sharing of professional experiences through narratives in these spaces is of paramount importance. This paper traces narratives of professional experience across 1,089 discussion posts shared by 10 Master’s students throughout one graduate-level online course, analyzing participants’ forum discussions to understand the functions of these narratives for the teacher-learners engaged in the course. Findings demonstrate how narratives of professional experience served to warrant individuals’ claims about topics related to multilingual writing pedagogy and teaching multilingual learners in general, positioning them as competent experts, often by presenting narrative events as something experienced time and again. Finally, this study considers how narratives of professional experience produce and reproduce a particular view of teachers’ role in educating language learners, collaboratively building on one another to preclude alternative stances, even when making potentially controversial claims.