2026/07/15 by Thomas Stringer · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning #Educational Philosophies and Pedagogies #Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/25783858.2026.2702936
openalex publication_date 2026/07/15 · openalex created_date 2026/07/16 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/17
This autoethnographic study examines my negotiation of personal, professional and doctoral identities in English language teaching (ELT) contexts in Japan. The study addresses my idea of what a leading ELT practitioner looks like across diverse pedagogical environments, the extent to which that overlaps with a threshold concept of doctorateness, and mechanisms of interaction and intersection with identity formation. Motivated by an interest in self-study, professional and academic development, and advocacy, I critically focus on how positionality influences my relations with pedagogical and scholarly communities. Narrative Episodes, contextual and cultural explorations, and critical analyses demonstrate the strategic stagecraft of identity and its relations to ELT and academic practice. The study leverages these to explore how distinct forms of capital, native speakerism, gender and other biases, framed as stagehands at work behind the scenes, both enhance and undermine identity formation in the Japanese ELT context.