Our Identities as Academic Writers: An Autoethnographic Approach Toward Linguistic Solidarity

Abstract

In this article, we reflect on our identities as English educators of color and how they have influenced our journey to becoming academic writers. Through reconciliation with our collective experiences of linguistic violence, we share how the experiences have impacted the ways we show up as secondary and higher education English educators in our classrooms. We authentically represent our sense-making in our autoethnographic journeys to demonstrate how we understand ourselves as academic writers, through music, poetry, and images. As a result, each section begins with song lyrics and images in this article that we believe speak to our academic writing journeys. With introductory narratives about who we were as English students, we then reflect on linguistic solidarity within our experiences as scholars of color. Lastly, we uplift culturally and linguistically relevant approaches to English Language Arts instruction to honor students’ multilingualism and multicultural identities and humanize their academic writing journeys.