Talking the Walk,Walking the Talk: Identity and Inquiry in Critical Teacher Learning

Abstract

In this conceptual article, we consider how a stance grounded in an ethic of care can sustain critical learning across teachers’ career spectrums. Building on the self-in-context as a conceptual framework for critical autoethnography, we analyze how educators engage in the examination of their identities and positionalities in relation to their teaching in a variety of contexts. We then discuss how autoethnographic inquiry, through an assemblage of internal, relational, and contextual practices, may foster a deeper and more nuanced understanding of educators’ identities in the context of professional demands, moving beyond performative talk, toward enacting justice in their classrooms.