Memory, Postmemory and Critical Language Teacher Education

Abstract

Narratives and stories of teachers' experiences in pre-service and in-service education are commonly used to understand the identities of language teachers, as they tend to be influenced by their life experiences and are stored in their memories. However, the concept of post-memory has emerged more recently and seems not yet to have been used in language teacher education. In this paper, we discuss the possibilities of using the concept of post-memory in the education of language teachers, through narratives of their life experiences. We intend to explore more deeply the influences of traumatic historical events, such as the Brazilian Military Regime, on the identities of preservice and in-service English teachers in Brazil, through narratives and stories of their experiences. Our main objective is to analyze the relationships and interrelationships among memory, post-memory and life experiences and identities of English teachers, especially in relation to the experiences related to the influences of the Brazilian military period. &nbsp