International First-Generation College Students Pursue Doctoral Programs: Navigating the TESOL Profession as Emerging Scholars

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Eleven
  In Roundtable Session: International Experiences and Language Teaching and Learning (Table 8)

Abstract

While a substantive scholarship has been focusing on TESOL teacher education, little has focused on the narratives of TESOL professionals’ navigation and experience during their pursuit of doctorates. In this qualitative study, we explore our lived experience of learning, researching, and teaching in the TESOL profession as international first-generation college students in U.S. doctoral programs. Taking a Bourdieusian theory of practice perspective, we used the method of narrative inquiry to analyze barriers and opportunities we encounter, and examine the interactions between the development of our identities, both personal and professional, and the doctoral program context as the environment. We conclude with implications for navigating the TESOL doctoral programs as international first-generation college students and emerging scholars.

Authors

• Lei Jiang, University of Kansas
  Presenting Author

• Shuzhan Li, Ithaca College
  Presenting Author

• Wenyang Sun, University of Utah
  Presenting Author