Exploring Second-Language Teachers' Identities Through Multimodal Narratives: Gender and Race Discourses

Abstract

This article has several interconnected goals. First, it foregrounds the role of narratives and narrative inquiry in the research of second language teaching practices. It illustrates how multimodal narrativity could be used in analyzing the formation of personal and professional identities of several female teachers of English. Specifically, it claims that narratives, while personal and unique constructions, can also function as bridges to understanding social and cultural beliefs. Second, it focuses on gender and race as the major social discourses contributing to the emergence of teachers' in training selves. Finally, viewing both teacher identities and narratives as multidimensional, emotional, and often contradictory constructions, the article calls for their investigation from multiple theoretical perspectives, for example, dialogism, as articulated by Bakhtin (1981, 1984), and other postpositivist approaches.