Translanguaging with gendered and racialized bodies: A duoethnography of two transnational Asian women teacher‐scholars

Abstract

This duoethnography traces two transnational woman teacher‐scholars' translanguaging pedagogies for equitable language and literacy education. Research on translanguaging has highlighted how lived experiences of transnational language and literacy educators crucially shape their language ideology, and professional identities and pedagogical practices (Motha et al., 2012). Extending this discussion, this duoethnography (Lawrence & Lowe, 2020; Norris & Sawyer, 2012) details how material and ideological conditions, along with our lived experiences, shape teachers' orientation to and enactment of translanguaging pedagogies. Through narratives and dialogue, the authors found that their translanguaging has intersected with their gendered and racialized positionalities in their own locale, and these experiences shape their translanguaging praxes. The authors argue that enacting translanguaging pedagogies necessitates teachers' reflexivity on their unequal lived experiences of varied language and literacies from their positionalities, and negotiation with material and ideological constraints. They conclude by suggesting implications for fellow teachers and teacher educators.