Ethan T . Trinh
Georgia State University, Middle and Secondary Education, Graduate Student
- Teacher Identity, Decolonization, Queer Theory, Mestizaje, Transnationalism, ESOL Teacher Education, and 62 moreCritical Prison Studies, Gloria Anzaldua, Global Solidarity, Curriculum and Pedagogy, Buddhist Meditation, Hegemonic Masculinity, Vietnamese studies, Mindfulness Meditation, Code switching and code mixing, Vietnamese Language, Gender and Development, Women's Studies, Multicultural Education, Healing and Religion, Feminism and Social Justice, Theology and philosophy, Buddism, The Issue of Domestic Violence, Batterers, and Abuse Victims, Teacher Education, Research Methodology, Ethnography, Discourse Analysis, Gender Studies, Feminist Theory, Gender and Sexuality, Curriculum Studies, Social Movements, Critical Race Theory, Multiculturalism, Humanities, Sociology of Education, Critical Pedagogy, Educational Anthropology, Urban Education, Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning, Racial Literacy, Arts & Humanities, Higher Education, Race and Racism, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Queer Studies, LGBT Youth, LGBTq Activisms, Queer Latinx Studies, Education, Creative Writing, Poetry, Southeast Asian Studies, Self and Identity, Student Motivation And Engagement, School Bullying, Cultural Studies, Literature, Ethics, Languages and Linguistics, Gender, Adult Education, Immigration, Academic Writing, Transnationalism and multiple identities, Duoethnography, and Poststructuralismedit
- Ethan Trinh (they/them) is teaching and pursuing their PhD at Georgia State University with a minor in Women’s Studie... moreEthan Trinh (they/them) is teaching and pursuing their PhD at Georgia State University with a minor in Women’s Studies. Ethan's work focuses on the intersectionality of gender, race, and language that embraces queerness as a healing teaching and research practice. Ethan’s book, “Critical Storytelling: Multilingual Immigrants in the United States”, with Luis Javier Pentón Herrera published by Brill/Sense in 2021. Originally from Vietnam, Ethan enjoys creative writing and having Vietnamese iced coffee in their free time.edit
- Gertrude Tinker Sachs, Ph.D.edit
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This conceptual paper proposes that all methodologies create a footprint like the carbon footprint. Design and implementation of new methodologies require limited resources and funding, and these resources are not equitably distributed on... more
This conceptual paper proposes that all methodologies create a footprint like the carbon footprint. Design and implementation of new methodologies require limited resources and funding, and these resources are not equitably distributed on a global scale. Thus, we argue for more ecological uses of methodologies, especially in the context of data collection and interdependent relations of knowledge/information creation. Like the excessive use of energy sources, potentially unnecessary productions of new data, information, and evidence should not be regarded as unproblematic, let alone virtuous. Rather, qualitative researchers, funding agencies, and other bodies that evaluate research, should question whether new data, information, evidence are needed and at what cost. We also propose more data recycling, data sharing, open access data, and other ecological ways of supporting shared knowledge and monitoring excessive data production.
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The fall 2022 issue of GATESOL Journal provides its readers with insights into how language educators could create meaningful learning experiences for their students. The papers are connected with the core idea that language educators are... more
The fall 2022 issue of GATESOL Journal provides its readers with insights into how language educators could create meaningful learning experiences for their students. The papers are connected with the core idea that language educators are vested in intentionally using pedagogical approaches that could have an impact on how and what students are learning. The papers position language educators as both transformative intellectuals (i.e., educators who strive not only for educational advancement but also personal transformation) and reflective practitioners (i.e., problem-solvers possessing “the ability to look back critically and imaginatively, to do cause-effect thinking, to derive explanatory principles, to do task analysis, also to look forward, and to do anticipatory planning” [Kumaravadivelu, 2003, p. 10]). This issue will showcase teachers’ intentions through their roles as transformative intellectuals and reflective practitioners.
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Teacher education study abroad is often designed to provide unique spaces for personal transformation. Usually, the (unspoken) default audience for these programs is Whites, who comprise about 80% of the teacher workforce in the U.S. This... more
Teacher education study abroad is often designed to provide unique spaces for personal transformation. Usually, the (unspoken) default audience for these programs is Whites, who comprise about 80% of the teacher workforce in the U.S. This chapter, however, explores how a Mexico-based study abroad program—one that engages indigenous knowledge while partnering with a Freirian language school—helps decolonize the identities of teachers of color. Through the self-reflections of two study abroad participants of color, the article explores the program’s beginning decolonization, undoing the historic subjugation of certain forms of knowledge. We see how the two former participants of color, in their own words, explored their journeys and applied wisdoms of practice in teaching English learners as a result.
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Research Interests: Creative Writing, Sociology, Queer Studies, Education, Suicide, and 15 moreEthnic and Racial Studies, LGBT Literature, Suicide prevention, Curriculum and Instruction, Gloria Anzaldua, Teoría Queer, Graduate Student, LGBTQ Health, Lgbtq, Suicide Psychology, Queer People of Color, Gloria Anzaldúa, Nepantla, Homicide and Suicide, and Latin American feminisms
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Research Interests: Sociology, Psychology, Education, Anxiety Disorders, Mental Health, and 14 moreAcademic Writing, Autoethnography, Academia Research, Curriculum and Instruction, Language and Literacy, Anxiety, Collaborative Autoethnography, Burnout, Educational studies, Feeling, DOCTORAL STUDENT, ANXIETY, Identity Exploration, and Idenity
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Queer is an inclusive term that embraces Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+), among other sexual identities. Thinking queer examines how fixed meanings or knowledge, or a particular image or identity, can be... more
Queer is an inclusive term that embraces Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+), among other sexual identities. Thinking queer examines how fixed meanings or knowledge, or a particular image or identity, can be challenged, unfixed, unlearned, inquired, and placed into new learnings and understandings. In this paper, we think queer together with terms, images, and dialogs in Vietnamese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks. We adapted the Critical Visual Discourse Analysis (CVDA) and methods of critique to guide our thinking with the two questions: 1) How are gender roles represented in Vietnamese EFL textbooks? and 2) Are there queer terms, images, dialogs represented in Vietnamese EFL textbooks? If so, how are they depicted? The findings revealed biases in gender roles and invisibility of queer representations. We conclude by offering pedagogical implications for future studies.
Research Interests: Gender Studies, Queer Studies, Queer Theory, TESOL, Applied Linguistics, and 14 moreJudith Butler, Music and identity, Sexual Identity, Transgender, Vietnamese, Invisibility, Queer, Critical Inquiry, English as a Foreign Language (EFL), Lesbian, Language Studies, Textbook Analysis, vietnamese education, and Deborah Britzman
Queer is an inclusive term that embraces Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+), among other sexual identities. Thinking queer examines how fixed meanings or knowledge, or a particular image or identity, can be... more
Queer is an inclusive term that embraces Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+), among other sexual identities. Thinking queer examines how fixed meanings or knowledge, or a particular image or identity, can be challenged, unfixed, unlearned, inquired, and placed into new learnings and understandings. In this paper, we think queer together with terms, images, and dialogs in Vietnamese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks. We adapted the Critical Visual Discourse Analysis (CVDA) and methods of critique to guide our thinking with the two questions: 1) How are gender roles represented in Vietnamese EFL textbooks? and 2) Are there queer terms, images, dialogs represented in Vietnamese EFL textbooks? If so, how are they depicted? The findings revealed biases in gender roles and invisibility of queer representations. We conclude by offering pedagogical implications for future studies.
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Employing autohistoria-teoria, “a personal essay that theorizes” (Anzaldúa, 2002, p. 578), this paper shares life events of a Vietnamese immigrant queer teacher in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). This paper uses... more
Employing autohistoria-teoria, “a personal essay that theorizes” (Anzaldúa, 2002, p. 578), this paper shares life events of a Vietnamese immigrant queer teacher in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). This paper uses Anzaldúa’s (2002) Coatlicue state, a process that helps a person to confront the struggles, the darkness, the pain in their souls, and Thich Nhat Hanh’s (1999) walking meditation, as a theoretical framework. Further, this piece continues to challenge hetero- and homonormativity, sexual and racial oppressions facing queer teachers of color in research and language classrooms (Paiz, 2018), adding another critical teaching story of a queer teacher of color in in TESOL (Nelson, 2006) and in critical queer studies (Bracho & Hayes, 2020; Brockenbrough, 2015)
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This edited volume comprises an insightful collection of international autoethnographies from doctoral candidates in the field of applied linguistics, narrating and analyzing their student experiences to problematize and challenge the... more
This edited volume comprises an insightful collection of international autoethnographies from doctoral candidates in the field of applied linguistics, narrating and analyzing their student experiences to problematize and challenge the dominant and oppressive cultures of academia. Through 12 select contributions, the book examines the intersection of identity work and emotional labor in the doctoral student journey, sharing insights into the potential of autoethnography for self-reflection, community building, and healing in doctoral studies. Contributors examine their doctoral journeys through personal narratives and testimonials to understand their own experiences, agency, identity, and emotions, encouraging current or former doctoral students to engage in the critical reflection of their own experiences. Chapters are divided into four themes: interrelating multiple identities, navigating and negotiating in-betweenness, engaging emotions and wellbeing, and establishing support systems. Offering unique perspectives from a global spread of Ph.D. candidates, this book will be highly relevant reading for researchers and prospective or current doctoral students of applied linguistics, language education, TESOL, and LOTE. It will also be of interest to those interested in higher education, dissertation research, and autoethnography as a method.
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In this chapter, we introduce the volume to our readers by answering five questions that pertain to its purpose and content. We chose to use our individual voices to engage in a conversation by bringing in our own experiences as current... more
In this chapter, we introduce the volume to our readers by answering five questions that pertain to its purpose and content. We chose to use our individual voices to engage in a conversation by bringing in our own experiences as current (Ethan) and former (Luis and Bedrettin) doctoral students and to introduce the solo and collaborative autoethnographies in the total 12 contributions. Before moving on to the five prompts that facilitate our conversation, we would like to add a note which usually comes toward the end of the introduction. That is, we are very thankful to the authors for their contributions, especially in the form of autoethnographies, which require additional commitment, deep reflection, and courage. At varying levels, contributors asserted agency to engage in “practiced vulnerability” (Spry, 2011, p. 167) in their autoethnographies by narrating critical life experiences as doctoral students in order to examine the cultures, politics, societies, and discourses that surround the doctoral education in applied linguistics. All three of us entirely enjoyed working with colleagues who chose to make their stories public, and their voices heard/audible via this volume.
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Queerness is always on the move, in the making, in partiality, in contestation. Therefore, I cannot provide a fixed framework or techniques on what works with queer students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) because its... more
Queerness is always on the move, in the making, in partiality, in contestation. Therefore, I cannot provide a fixed framework or techniques on what works with queer students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) because its rigidity will continue to perpetuate normative frames of thinking of/about queer students in the classroom. Rather, I offer a dialogic space for us (i.e., teachers, administrators, policymakers) to think queer and consider what would/could happen when sexuality and education meet. In this chapter, I argue that as sexuality and language education intersect, the affective domains and emotional aspects of the queer SLIFE youth population require special attention prior to, or in conjunction with the teaching of language and literacy. I will start by introducing the queer SLIFE youth population, the challenges this population has faced, and what actions adults might consider taking if we want to co-learn with them. I conclude by offering a few questions to discuss how to co-deconstruct the binary and essentialized thinking in our personal and professional spaces after we finish this chapter.
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Marginalized queers have experienced the “Coatlicue State” (Anzaldúa, 2012). Seeing and being seen in front of the public are painful to us. We feel ashamed due to stereotypes placed by heteronormativity and heterosexism. In this small... more
Marginalized queers have experienced the “Coatlicue State” (Anzaldúa, 2012). Seeing and being seen in front of the public are painful to us. We feel ashamed due to stereotypes placed by heteronormativity and heterosexism. In this small space, I hope to accomplish one simple thing: break down different layers of shame to ask for understanding and empathy. I write this piece to embrace us—queer marginalized voices—in schools and in academia. This dialogue will thus open doors to discussions inside and outside of a “circle”. The suggestion at the end of this article hopes to touch on insiders and outsiders of this circle. Los queers marginados han experimentado “la Herencia de Coatlicue” (Anzaldúa, 2012). Nos duele ver y ser visto frente al público. Nos sentimos avergonzados debido a los estereotipos producidos por la heteronormatividad y heterosexismo. En este pequeño espacio espero lograr una cosa muy sencilla: deconstruir las diferentes capas de vergüenza para hacer una llamada al e...
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This article witnesses a field trip of a group of English learners and the instructor at a historical site in the United States of America. The purpose of this trip explores a question, What does “social justice” look like in the United... more
This article witnesses a field trip of a group of English learners and the instructor at a historical site in the United States of America. The purpose of this trip explores a question, What does “social justice” look like in the United States? Drawing from the nepantlerx concept, the author describes a conversation between the students and the teacher on a field trip and discusses how the field trip has changed their students and the teacher as a result of it.
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Research on Latinx students studying abroad is minimal. As such, our primary research question for this study was: What are the identity-oriented experiences of Latinx students of color on a short-...
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For Nepantleras, “to bridge is an act of will, an act of love, an attempt toward compassion and reconciliation, and a promise to be present with the pain of others without losing themselves to it” (Anzaldúa & Keating 4). This... more
For Nepantleras, “to bridge is an act of will, an act of love, an attempt toward compassion and reconciliation, and a promise to be present with the pain of others without losing themselves to it” (Anzaldúa & Keating 4). This piece witnesses my entering to confusion as an outsider/writer to write about the stories of four women who work with/for Latinx communities in the U.S. Therefore, bridging tHEiR stories together becomes an act of drawing a picture of a new home; a new tribalism. Their stories become a representation of border-crossing of liminal spaces, and of going beyond the limits of monocultural perspectives. More importantly, their realities represent the intertwined and mutual way can help the Other understand one another.
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This paper neither plans to use the restorative agenda nor provides a sample of representation or voices of a teacher candidate or researcher who identifies themselves as queer. Instead, this paper looks into the researcher's desires... more
This paper neither plans to use the restorative agenda nor provides a sample of representation or voices of a teacher candidate or researcher who identifies themselves as queer. Instead, this paper looks into the researcher's desires and imagining in analyzing a split self to think about how to problematize their thinking and actions, which should go beyond the limits of gender and sexuality or a coded term "L-G-B-T-Q," to disrupt the existing binary of doing queer research. First, the author reviews what queer and after-queer mean in educational research and how the researchers have queered their work in the education field. Then, the author describes the nepantla concept as a theoretical lens. The autohistoria-teoria, or a personal essay that theorizes, is used as a form of self-critique in this piece. The author concludes by reexamining this paper's central question, How did a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) teacher candidate queer their teaching in a high school in the United States? and shares critical thoughts of what could be next in after-queer research.
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Abstract This piece will be walking, writing, meditating in in-between spaces with me. I call this act queer walking meditation, which blended autohistoria, the Coatlicue State, and meditation to examine my own queer self. This queer... more
Abstract This piece will be walking, writing, meditating in in-between spaces with me. I call this act queer walking meditation, which blended autohistoria, the Coatlicue State, and meditation to examine my own queer self. This queer walking meditation helps me move between stories, initiates dialogues with a self, recognizes my self's confusion, and leads to a series of actions to fight against the struggles and complicatedness in my identities. As a result, I learned how to mediate and take actions for myself and with my students from the standpoint of a Vietnamese queer, accented, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) teacher and Chicana-feminist writer. This walk witnesses the cathartic process through which I came to understand intersectional identities and how I used them into teaching, researching, and writing in a white gay world. I came up with another question, Is that the feeling of intersectionality?, at the end of this walk in order to open another walk in the future.
Research Interests: Creative Writing, Education, Queer Theory, Gender and Sexuality, Philosophy of Love, and 15 moreChicana Feminist Theory, Intersectionality and Social Inequality, Curriculum and Instruction, Intersectionality, Gloria Anzaldua, Meditation, Queer, Immigrant Literature, ESOL, LGBTQ Issues in Education, Gloria Anzaldúa, Coatlicue, Decolonizing methodologies in critical praxis and pedagogy, Autohistoria, and queer walking meditation
Research Interests: Creative Writing, Sociology, Education, Self and Identity, Southeast Asian Studies, and 15 morePoetry, Writing, Learning And Teaching In Higher Education, Asian American Literature, Struggling Readers, Curriculum and Instruction, Gloria Anzaldua, Academia, Identity, School, Liberation, Curriculum and Social Inquiry, language and literacy education, Monologue, and Self Esteem
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Courageous conversations are defined as honest, open-minded, vulnerable dialogues in which participants commit to engage by listening deeply to better understand each other's perspectives (Singleton, 2015). This chapter highlights how... more
Courageous conversations are defined as honest, open-minded, vulnerable dialogues in which participants commit to engage by listening deeply to better understand each other's perspectives (Singleton, 2015). This chapter highlights how three English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) educators engaged in critical reflective conversations to address racism, cultural misunderstandings, and diversity in their teaching spaces. After a brief introduction, the authors set the stage by employing ethnodramatic, queer conversation (Trinh & Pentón Herrera, 2021; Winkle, 2016) as a framework for their courageous conversation. Following, the authors share personal stories that occurred in their ESOL classrooms. Specifically, Gómez Portillo (he/him/his) shares a story of how he addressed an incident involving his middle school English learners and a cultural misunderstanding. Trinh (they/them/their) showcases an unsuccessful story of how they were not well prepared to teach refugees to address racism in a high school in the Deep South of the United States. Pentón Herrera (he/him/his) reflects on the necessary conversation he had with his high school newcomers when some of them began to use racist slurs socially and in the classroom. Through the conversations, collaborative reflections around emotions, teacher identity and positionality, and respectful relationships are identified. The chapter ends with final thoughts, where the authors provide recommendations for teachers on how to address racism in their ESOL classrooms.
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This paper, in the form of walking meditation, sitting, drinking, eating, and traveling among spaces and times, witnesses how the author as a Vietnamese immigrant child living in the United States (U.S.) traces untold stories of their... more
This paper, in the form of walking meditation, sitting, drinking, eating, and traveling among spaces and times, witnesses how the author as a Vietnamese immigrant child living in the United States (U.S.) traces untold stories of their family through family photos. Further, this paper attempts to find, understand and connect the relation between personal and political, between individual and collective, for a Vietnamese re-education camp detainee and his family, situated in political, historical, and cultural context. The use of photo elicitation comes from the desire that the reader can engage with the voices of the family members as they describe events in their past history. In addition, this paper refuses the forms of “category” and “fixed results” in writing up academic research. Rather, it will appear in the form of daily conversation, collected from multiple settings. Simply speaking, this paper is a form of storytelling that invites the readers to oscillate, communicate and t...
Research Interests: Creative Writing, Sociology, Genealogy, Transnationalism, Poststructuralism, and 15 moreVietnamese History, Chicana Feminist Theory, Photovoice, Family history, Gloria Anzaldua, Donna Haraway, Meditation, Vietnamese diaspora, Thich Nhat Hanh, Decolonizing Methodologies, Vietnamese American Studies, Vietnamese studies, Nepantla, Partial knowledge, and deacademize
Writing is collective healing to build a community. We, five Vietnamese bodies, enquire, how can individual memories be collective healing to rewrite a better future of education? We borrow Nhat Hanh's philosophy to touch on our suffering... more
Writing is collective healing to build a community. We, five Vietnamese bodies, enquire, how can individual memories be collective healing to rewrite a better future of education? We borrow Nhat Hanh's philosophy to touch on our suffering to heal and Barad's returning as a multiplicity of processes for reconnecting with the pastpresentfuture. We use the recollection of individual memories to share critical incidents of past experiences to build a collective community for healing purposes. We have demonstrated our deep commitment to creating a resilient system in retelling stories and rewriting for hope for educational change through this process.
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This paper, in the form of walking meditation, sitting, drinking, eating, and traveling among spaces and times, witnesses how the author as a Vietnamese immigrant child living in the United States (U.S.) traces untold stories of their... more
This paper, in the form of walking meditation, sitting, drinking, eating, and traveling among spaces and times, witnesses how the author as a Vietnamese immigrant child living in the United States (U.S.) traces untold stories of their family through family photos. Further, this paper attempts to find, understand and connect the relation between personal and political, between individual and collective, for a Vietnamese re-education camp detainee and his family, situated in political, historical, and cultural context. The use of photo elicitation comes from the desire that the reader can engage with the voices of the family members as they describe events in their past history. In addition, this paper refuses the forms of "category" and "fixed results" in writing up academic research. Rather, it will appear in the form of daily conversation, collected from multiple settings. Simply speaking, this paper is a form of storytelling that invites the readers to oscillate, communicate and think with the author's family members on this historical journey.
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This paper neither plans to use the restorative agenda nor provides a sample of representation or voices of a teacher candidate or researcher who identifies themselves as queer. Instead, this paper looks into the researcher’s desires and... more
This paper neither plans to use the restorative agenda nor provides a sample of representation or voices of a teacher candidate or researcher who identifies themselves as queer. Instead, this paper looks into the researcher’s desires and imagining in analyzing a split self to think about how to problematize their thinking and actions, which should go beyond the limits of gender and sexuality or a coded term “L-G-B-T-Q,” to disrupt the existing binary of doing queer research. First, the author reviews what queer and after-queer mean in educational research and how the researchers have queered their work in the education field. Then, the author describes the nepantla concept as a theoretical lens. The autohistoria-teoria, or a personal essay that theorizes, is used as a form of self-critique in this piece. The author concludes by reexamining this paper’s central question, How did a Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) teacher candidate queer their teaching in a high school in the United States? and shares critical thoughts of what could be next in after-queer research.
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Academia is a stressful environment for students and professors alike. While pursuing a degree, students often experience emotional and psychological distress, which may affect their ability to balance their personal, financial, and... more
Academia is a stressful environment for students and professors alike. While pursuing a degree, students often experience emotional and psychological distress, which may affect their ability to balance their personal, financial, and professional lives. Similarly, faculty in higher education also experience undesired feelings and emotions such as burnout, stress, fear, insecurity, anxiety, depression, and burnout, connected to their job. The authors of this article engage in a collaborative autoethnography to explore the cultivation of calm and stillness as self-care practices that promote well-being at the doctoral level. In this article, we seek to answer the questions, What does engaging in the practice of cultivating calm and stillness at the doctoral level look like? and What are its implications for doctoral students and faculty? To do this, we first explain wholehearted living as the guiding framework of our inquiry, describe procedures in our method, followed by personal vignettes shedding light on our realities as students and faculty at the doctoral level. We conclude this piece with final thoughts on the lessons learned from our own experiences engaging in calm and stillness during and after writing this collaborative piece, and invite researchers to engage in autoethnographic works for further exploration.
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This article witnesses a field trip of a group of English learners and the instructor at a historical site in the United States of America. The purpose of this trip explores a question, What does “social justice” look like in the United... more
This article witnesses a field trip of a group of English learners and the instructor at a historical site in the United States of America. The purpose of this trip explores a question, What does “social justice” look like in the United States? Drawing from the nepantlerx concept, the author describes a conversation between the students and the teacher
on a field trip and discusses how the field trip has changed their students and the teacher as a result of it.
on a field trip and discusses how the field trip has changed their students and the teacher as a result of it.
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I have not recovered yet from an illness, I thus took a week off from work to recover. I am sitting alone in a small apartment when a chilly breeze reminds me that fall is here in Georgia, United States (U.S.). Whenever I stop working, I... more
I have not recovered yet from an illness, I thus took a week off from work to recover. I am sitting alone in a small apartment when a chilly breeze reminds me that fall is here in Georgia, United States (U.S.). Whenever I stop working, I am alone. Whenever I am alone, I think about Vietnam. Even though my physical body is in Georgia, my mind always travels back to Vietnam. Every time I miss quê hương, I whisper the poem/song “Quê hương” written by Vietnamese poet Đỗ Trung Quân...
Research Interests: Creative Writing, Breath - Body - Voice, Immigration Studies, Academic Writing, Language and Power, and 11 moreStorytelling, Translation, Decolonial Thought, Multilingual Education, Vietnamese diaspora, Transnational Families, Vietnamese studies, Vietnamese Literature, Culture and People of Vietnam, critical storytelling, and Translanguaging in Education
Research on Latinx students studying abroad is minimal. As such, our primary research question for this study was: What are the identity-oriented experiences of Latinx students of color on a short-term study abroad program? We use a... more
Research on Latinx students studying abroad is minimal. As such, our primary research question for this study was: What are the identity-oriented experiences of Latinx students of color on a short-term study abroad program? We use a decolonial theoretical perspective to frame our study. The overarching assertion of a decolonial journey of conocimiento is evidenced in the students’ experiences related to their feeling on the outside and to rebraiding and recasting their identities. Their journeys included personal shifts and transformations where the students were able to grapple with feelings of being an outsider and ultimately, leaned more heavily into their feelings of connection to their language, culture and identity. The findings from our study have implications to consider when taking students of color abroad. In addition, these implications can also benefit teachers in the U.S. context who work with students of color of all backgrounds, Latinx/Transnational students or English Language Learners. In conclusion, we believe that the internal transformations and identity work with which our students engaged were part of the larger decolonial process.
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We are here, sitting at a table in a cozy apartment in North Atlanta. On the table is a plate of brownish, crunchy crust from two loafs of bread from Walmart and two cups of Vietnamese iced coffee. We are in the first weeks of February in... more
We are here, sitting at a table in a cozy apartment in North Atlanta. On the table is a plate of brownish, crunchy crust from two loafs of bread from Walmart and two cups of Vietnamese iced coffee. We are in the first weeks of February in Georgia, wherein cold winds start blowing. In this small space, two of us are exchanging our stories—the stories of transnational immigrants who have started our lives over in the United States of America (USA). We are dismissing labels that are placed on us, one as a Vietnamese English as a Second Language (ESL) instructor and the other as an Ecuadorian adult English language learner. This is a space where we transnational immigrants attempt to use our stories as transnational literacy autobiographies (Canagarajah, 2020) to seek mutual liberation in this collaborative storytelling (Norris, Sawyer, & Lund, 2012). Both of us share the same authority in this space in order to co-share and co-reflect on our transnational immigrant stories with readers, who may have similar experiences.
Research Interests: Adult Education, Transnationalism, Educational Research, Immigration, Academic Writing, and 14 moreAutoethnography, Pedagogy, Qualitative Research, Transnationalism and multiple identities, Gloria Anzaldua, English language teaching, ELT, Vietnamese diaspora, Decolonization, ESOL teaching, Duoethnography, English As a Second Language (ESL), Nepantla, and Teaching and Learning In Adult and Higher Education
This paper, in the form of walking meditation, sitting, drinking, eating, and traveling among spaces and times, witnesses how the author as a Vietnamese immigrant child living in the United States (U.S.) traces untold stories of their... more
This paper, in the form of walking meditation, sitting, drinking, eating, and traveling among spaces and times, witnesses how the author as a Vietnamese immigrant child living in the United States (U.S.) traces untold stories of their family through family photos. Further, this paper attempts to find, understand and connect the relation between personal and political, between individual and collective, for a Vietnamese re-education camp detainee and his family, situated in political, historical, and cultural context. The use of photo elicitation comes from the desire that the reader can engage with the voices of the family members as they describe events in their past history. In addition, this paper refuses the forms of "category" and "fixed results" in writing up academic research. Rather, it will appear in the form of daily conversation, collected from multiple settings. Simply speaking, this paper is a form of storytelling that invites the readers to oscillate, communicate and think with the author's family members on this historical journey.
Research Interests: Creative Writing, Transnationalism, Poststructuralism, Vietnamese History, Creative Non-Fiction, and 15 moreChicana Feminist Theory, Gloria Anzaldua, Donna Haraway, Meditation, Vietnamese diaspora, Thich Nhat Hanh, Decolonizing Methodologies, Vietnamese American Studies, Vietnamese studies, Vietnam War Literature, Genealogy-Family History, Nepantla, Walking Meditation, Partial knowledge, and deacademize
This autohistoria, or “a personal essay that theorizes” (Anzaldúa & Keating, 2002, p. 578), is a special piece to me. It is spiritual, poetic, political, and dialogic. This essay thus delves deeper into the mourning, the fear, the tears,... more
This autohistoria, or “a personal essay that theorizes” (Anzaldúa & Keating, 2002, p. 578), is a special piece to me. It is spiritual, poetic, political, and dialogic. This essay thus delves deeper into the mourning, the fear, the tears, the pain, the loneliness, the strength of a Vietnamese queer immigrant in a state of Nepantla in order to relate with other queers of color in the dark, i.e.: in suicidal process. “Living in Nepantla, the overlapping space between different perceptions and belief systems, you are aware of the changeability of racial, gender, sexual, and other categories rendering the conventional labelling obsolete” (Anzaldúa & Keating, 2002, p. 541). In this space, I attempt to use the concept of Nepantla to describe and understand stages of pre- and post- suicide attempt that I experienced. Then, I will conclude with a call for policy change to ask for attention to those who live in the life-death margins and in between and among worlds as mine.
Research Interests: Creative Writing, Queer Studies, Suicide, Suicide (Psychology), Ethnic and Racial Studies, and 12 moreLGBT Literature, Suicide prevention, Gloria Anzaldua, Teoría Queer, Chicana/o Literature, Graduate Student, LGBTQ Health, Lgbtq, Queer People of Color, Feminist/Queer Theory, Nepantla, and Homicide and Suicide
For Nepantleras, “to bridge is an act of will, an act of love, an attempt toward compassion and reconciliation, and a promise to be present with the pain of others without losing themselves to it” (Anzaldúa & Keating 4). This piece... more
For Nepantleras, “to bridge is an act of will, an act of love, an attempt toward compassion and reconciliation, and a promise to be present with the pain of others without losing themselves to it” (Anzaldúa & Keating 4). This piece witnesses my entering to confusion as an outsider/writer to write about the stories of four women who work with/for Latinx communities in the U.S. Therefore, bridging tHEiR stories together becomes an act of drawing a picture of a new home; a new tribalism. Their stories become a representation of border-crossing of liminal spaces, and of going beyond the limits of monocultural perspectives. More importantly, their realities represent the intertwined and mutual way can help the Other understand one another.
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This piece will be walking, writing, meditating in in-between spaces with me. I call this act queer walking meditation, which blended autohistoria, the Coatlicue State, and meditation to examine my own queer self. This queer walking... more
This piece will be walking, writing, meditating in in-between spaces with me. I call this act queer walking meditation, which blended autohistoria, the Coatlicue State, and meditation to examine my own queer self. This queer walking meditation helps me move between stories, initiates dialogues with a self, recognizes my self’s confusion, and leads to a series of actions to fight against the struggles and complicatedness in my identities. As a result, I learned how to mediate and take actions for myself and with my students from the standpoint of a Vietnamese queer, accented, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) teacher and Chicana-feminist writer. This walk witnesses the cathartic process through which I came to understand intersectional identities and how I used them into teaching, researching, and writing in a white gay world. I came up with another question, Is that the feeling of intersectionality?, at the end of this walk in order to open another walk in the future.
Research Interests: Creative Writing, Queer Theory, Gender and Sexuality, TESOL, Racial Identity, and 15 morePhilosophy of Love, Chicana Feminist Theory, Intersectionality and Social Inequality, Intersectionality, Gloria Anzaldua, Meditation, Thich Nhat Hanh, Immigrant Literature, LGBTQ Issues in Education, Coatlicue, Decolonizing methodologies in critical praxis and pedagogy, Autohistoria, queer walking meditation, Vietnamese queer , and autohistoria-teoria
This chapter explores how a study abroad program, one that engages a new “lifespace” with origins in indigenous knowledge, helps decolonize the identities of the teachers who participated in the program and in their practice as teachers... more
This chapter explores how a study abroad program, one that engages a new “lifespace” with origins in indigenous knowledge, helps decolonize the identities of the teachers who participated in the program and in their practice as teachers of linguistically diverse students in public schools.
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Overview Where there's struggle, there's growth-and where there's success, there are bound to be challenges. Those who join the 'business' of teaching often do so for reasons that go beyond 'the ordinary business of life' (and certainly... more
Overview Where there's struggle, there's growth-and where there's success, there are bound to be challenges. Those who join the 'business' of teaching often do so for reasons that go beyond 'the ordinary business of life' (and certainly capitalist business as usual). Many of us, for instance, pursue varying transnational trajectories to become critical language teachers and teacher educators, both in formal K-16+ as well as 'informal' community-based sites of teaching and learning across the globe. These trajectories stem from a sense of vocation professionally and a place of deep conviction personally that education is transformative and healing-for our communities as well as for ourselves. However, becoming a transnational language teacher and/or a transnational teacher educator is not always an easy or an uneventful journey; it is often mentally and physically exhausting (Penton Herrera et al., 2023), especially for those who hail from or are currently engaged in Global South contexts. Add to that the fact that professional teacher and teacher educator identities continue to become more fluid-operating increasingly at the critical intersections of race, language, nationality, religion, gender, and/or sexuality-with ever-increasing mobility back and forth across nation-states, communities, and institutions in the transnational ELT landscape (
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In this edited book, we seek proposals on critical queer theory and pedagogy within ELT. Specifically, we want to expand what Trinh (2022) urged the practitioners, theorists, and researchers “to first become the thinkers of how to ‘mess’... more
In this edited book, we seek proposals on critical queer theory and pedagogy within ELT. Specifically, we want to expand what Trinh (2022) urged the practitioners, theorists, and researchers “to first become the thinkers of how to ‘mess’ and play with fixed knowledge, turn them upside down, and ask, What else can I do differently to benefit the students?” (p. 221) and then offered the three queer considerations. These considerations are: acknowledging students’ identities, adding the discourse of difference, and dropping knowledge through communities-based projects. We would like to further explore how these three considerations connect with building queer allyship in different schoolings, spaces, times, societies, cultures, and belief systems and welcome global queer perspectives on how to suggest different queer considerations in teaching and learning in ELT. Therefore, we are looking for proposals that expand and/or delve deeper into such relationships from multiple perspectives all over the world.
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Book 1: Autoethnographies of Doctoral Students in the United States
Book 2: Autoethnographies of International Doctoral Students in the United States
Book 1: Autoethnographies of Doctoral Students in the United States
Book 2: Autoethnographies of International Doctoral Students in the United States
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This edited volume comprises an insightful collection of international autoethnographies from doctoral candidates in the field of applied linguistics, narrating and analyzing their student experiences to problematize and challenge the... more
This edited volume comprises an insightful collection of international autoethnographies from doctoral candidates in the field of applied linguistics, narrating and analyzing their student experiences to problematize and challenge the dominant and oppressive cultures of academia. Through 12 select contributions, the book examines the intersection of identity work and emotional labor in the doctoral student journey, sharing insights into the potential of autoethnography for self-reflection, community building, and healing in doctoral studies. Contributors examine their doctoral journeys through personal narratives and testimonials to understand their own experiences, agency, identity, and emotions, encouraging current or former doctoral students to engage in the critical reflection of their own experiences. Chapters are divided into four themes: interrelating multiple identities, navigating and negotiating in-betweenness, engaging emotions and wellbeing, and establishing support systems. Offering unique perspectives from a global spread of Ph.D. candidates, this book will be highly relevant reading for researchers and prospective or current doctoral students of applied linguistics, language education, TESOL, and LOTE. It will also be of interest to those interested in higher education, dissertation research, and autoethnography as a method.
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This edited book is a beautiful and powerful collection of poems and personal and visual narratives of multilingual immigrants in the United States. The purpose of this book is to create a space where immigrant stories can be told from... more
This edited book is a beautiful and powerful collection of poems and personal and visual narratives of multilingual immigrants in the United States. The purpose of this book is to create a space where immigrant stories can be told from their personal perspectives. The contributors are immigrants from all walks of life who represent a diverse picture of languages, professions, and beliefs from the immigrant diasporas within the United States. Inspired by the use of autoethnography, authors examine their own lives through poems and personal and visual narratives to share with others who might have similar experiences.
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This small article invites the readers to think and do differently
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Queerness is always on the move, in the making, in partiality, in contestation. Therefore, I cannot provide a fixed framework or techniques on what works with queer students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) because its... more
Queerness is always on the move, in the making, in partiality, in contestation. Therefore, I cannot provide a fixed framework or techniques on what works with queer students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) because its rigidity will continue to perpetuate normative frames of thinking of/about queer students in the classroom. Rather, I offer a dialogic space for us (i.e., teachers, administrators, policymakers) to think queer and consider what would/could happen when sexuality and education meet. In this chapter, I argue that as sexuality and language education intersect, the affective domains and emotional aspects of the queer SLIFE youth population require special attention prior to, or in conjunction with the teaching of language and literacy. I will start by introducing the queer SLIFE youth population, the challenges this population has faced, and what actions adults might consider taking if we want to co-learn with them. I conclude by offering a few questions to discuss how to co-deconstruct the binary and essentialized thinking in our personal and professional spaces after we finish this chapter.
Research Interests: Teaching English as a Second Language, Youth Studies, Refugee Studies, Queer Theory, English language teaching, and 5 moreTeacher Education in Teaching English to Speakers of Second/Foreign Languages (TESOL), Teacher Preparation, LGBTQ Issues in Education, SLIFE (Students With Limited/interrupted Formal Education), and Queer Studies and Education
In this dialogue, we explore the topics of identity, spaces, and writing from our own perspectives as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community, and as first-generation, immigrants, and working-class... more
In this dialogue, we explore the topics of identity, spaces, and writing from our own perspectives as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community, and as first-generation, immigrants, and working-class scholars of colors in academia. In this piece, we propose writing as an art of rebellion against a system designed to silence the voices of marginalized educators (Park, 2013; Van Galen, 2017). Within this space, we return to our true self and tell our stories in creative ways: sitting at the kitchen table and engaging in walking meditation. Furthermore, we write with the vision of working toward building a trusting space for minority communities of scholars in academia.