Literacies in Times of Crisis: A Trioethnography on Affective and Transgressive Practices

Brian Morgan,Ruberval Franco Maciel,Cláudia Hilsdorf Rocha

doi:10.1590/1984-6398202118068

Abstract

ABSTRACT Utilizing duoethnography (NORRIS; SAWYER, 2012), the authors explore challenges and opportunities for critical language teaching in times of crisis. Following a brief introduction of research methodology, the authors’ trioethnography dialogically examines three topical areas of particular concern in Brazil and Canada: 1. The potency of affect and its relevance for applied linguistics and language teacher education; 2. The re-emergence of “literacy wars” in education, with attention to their ideological and epistemological interconnections to social power relations; 3. Emerging implications for language and literacy pedagogies in which the authors share classroom experiences and transgressive strategies informed by plurilingual and affective insights. The complexity and variety of settings discussed in this final section help promote the possibilities for critical research and teaching in these difficult and dangerous times.

Highlights

PALAVRAS-CHAVE: educação linguística; letramentos e pedagogias críticos; afeto; duoetnografia. The theme of this special issue of RBLA is on language education in times of crisis, and it invites, challenges, perhaps even demands of us that we question our conventional ways of understanding and responding to events within and beyond our classrooms and research settings
Our response is in the form of a trioethnography, which is based on duoethnographic research principles (NORRIS; SAWYER, 2012; BREAULT, 2016)
Similar to other more experiential and reflexive modes of inquiry in applied linguistics and language teacher education such as narrative inquiry (BARKHUIZEN, 2017) and autoethnography (YAZAN; CANAGARAJAH; JAIN, 2020), the personalized and conversational style of this type of writing potentially resonates and inspires in ways unrealized by more abstract forms of scholarly writing

Summary

Introduction

The theme of this special issue of RBLA is on language education in times of crisis, and it invites, challenges, perhaps even demands of us that we question our conventional ways of understanding and responding to events within and beyond our classrooms and research settings. Cláudia: I would say it is high time we looked critically at and into affect, so that we could debate politics and language ideologies beyond languages and other semiotic resources alone, disrupting rationalist ways of approaching people, social relations and structures, meaning making, the world, and so on. It is high time we integrated an affective turn in our language teaching, following Sardar Anwaruddin’s (2015) recommendation for critical literacies. Too! As you suggest, it’s often in times of crisis that we discover personal and collective bravery – as researchers, educators and citizens

The Battleground of Literacies

Emerging implications for language and literacy practices

Conclusions