Autoethnography as a Research Method to Examine Women's ELT Leadership Development in Transnational Spaces: Commentaries

• In Event: Autoethnography as a Research Method to Examine Women's English Language Teaching (ELT) Leadership Development in Transnational Spaces

Abstract

This Working Group Roundtable explores the applicability of autoethnography as a research method for women’s leadership development in transnational spaces within English Language Teaching (ELT). This Roundtable offers six brief commentary papers from six transnational women leaders, from varying global ELT higher education contexts, such as Egypt, China, Colombia, and Qatar, now working in Canada and the United States, who use autoethnography to understand their leadership development.

After the Opening paper, an individual commentary paper is presented from each scholar serving as panelist in the Working Group Roundtable The commentary paper from each individual panelist briefly explains why they selected autoethnography for their inquiry. The commentary provides: their experience writing an autoethnography, the questions they addressed, their methodological decisions, challenges that surfaced, and conclusions. Finally, each commentary paper includes a discussion of their unique insights to the overarching theme/question of the use of autoethnography to explore women’s ELT leadership development in transnational spaces.

The commentaries emphasize using autoethnography to uncover how we negotiate leadership identities and practices, while living and working within plurilingual and pluricultural spaces. Each commentary paper concludes with a brief discussion on implications for transnational ELT women leaders using autoethnography.

Authors

• Debra Suarez, Johns Hopkins University

• Doaa Rashed, Rutgers University

• Kate Mastruserio Reynolds, Central Washington University

• Xatli Stox, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Lan Wang-Hiles, West Virginia State University

• Ana-Marija Petrunic, George Brown College