Purpose and Rationale. Canada admits skilled immigrants based on a points system that considers their language proficiency, education, work experience, and age (Government of Canada, 2021). The growing number of this category of professional immigrants (Government of Canada, 2019)—English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers included—has brought attention to the need to understand issues concerning their identity as bi/multilingual language users (Ilieva, 2010; Pavlenko, 2003). While a growing body of literature investigates issues related to ESL learners (Dagenais, 2020; Norton, 2019), more research needs to be conducted on immigrant ESL teachers in Canada (Walsh et al., 2011). Current scholarship lacks a focus on immigrant female teachers’ everyday experiences of identity, which is important for how they navigate challenges associated with relocating, competing for the same jobs as Canadian-born professionals, and finding a meaningful place in mainstream society. This focus on a woman’s ways of understanding her past, present, and future persona to become a legitimate peripheral member who inhabits new communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991) reflects many scholars’ emphasis on viewing female immigrants as a marginalized group whose experiences need to be understood as different from those of male immigrants (Ilieva, 2012; Norton, 2013). To address these issues, I explore lived experiences of my identity (re)construction and negotiation as a multilingual language teacher across time and space before and after immigrating to Canada.  

Research Questions. 1) What meanings does the language teacher ascribe to her past and present lived experiences and imagined future identity before and after immigrating to Canada? and 2) How do objects help her navigate identity tensions and become an adept member of new communities of practice?

Theoretical Framework. This study is framed within new materialism and scalar approaches as conceptual frameworks and autoethnography as chosen research methodology. New materialism (Barad, 2007; Bennett, 2010), which acknowledges the entangled existence of the human and natural world and theorizes that material objects are holistically connected to life and identity, helps me focus on how (im)material objects impact my experiences and orient my sense-of-self in unfamiliar environments. The scalar approach guides my analysis of how I relate to those around me, understand my identity across time and space, and imagine my future identity (Budach, 2018; Farrell, 2017).

Results and Interpretation. The backward and forward cycle of identity brought past and present lived experiences into reflexive awareness, prompting a holistic awareness of the self. The main stories echoed three main stages in my identity (re)construction and negotiation (i.e., symbolic objects, material objects, and digital objects), which speaks to an evolving relationship with the human and (im)material world. The shifting and flexible spatiality of identity development and transformation across time was consistent with rural, semi-urban, and urban locales.

Educational Importance and Practical Implications. Based on my lived experiences as a language learner, teacher, and immigrant woman, in this study I develop the construct of symbolic new materialism, which places identity at the intersection of symbolic, material, and digital objects.. The past-present-future cycle of identity is threefold: 1) as a theoretical framework, it brings past and present lived experiences into reflective awareness and allows for future identity to be (re)imagined; 2) as a pedagogical tool, it incorporates (auto)ethnographic data into school curricula and language teacher programs, thus empowering learners and instructors; and 3) as an iterative creative process, it suggests alternative ways of being in and with the world, which pertains to immigrant teachers’ and newcomer students’ identity tensions triggered by relocating and building a new life.

To understand the multiple, dynamic, and complex nature of identity and make holistic descriptions reflective of my lived experiences as a language learner and immigrant language teacher, I employed a qualitative research design (Creswell, 2014) of autoethnography (Campbell, 2016; Canagarajah, 2012; Yazan, 2019). Proponents of autoethnography consider it “a valuable form of knowledge construction” (Canagarajah, 2012, p. 262) and “a concentrated and profound experience of identity negotiation” (Yazan, 2019, p. 41). While aware of the limitations inherent to autoethnography (e.g., tunnel vision due to focus on first person storytelling and vulnerability due to revealing too much or deeply private information), I particularly drawn to autoethnography given its potential to connect research studies in the field of language and identity with my individual lived experiences. Furthermore, autoethnography allows me to “articulate [my] own experiences rather than letting others represent them” (Canagarajah, 2012, p. 262). Ultimately, I hope that this will resonate with other immigrant female teachers and newcomers to Canada. Data Sources and Analysis. I generated data through journal entries of lived experience descriptions (Van Manen, 2016) and artifacts as identity texts (Cummins et al., 2015). By combining “notions of identity affirmation and literacy engagement” (Cummins et al., 2015, p. 555), identity texts can be used “in the construction of identity and the possibilities of speech” (Norton, 2013, p. 53). I followed Barkhuizen’s (2016) three-dimensional scalar approach to exploring participant-generated stories—when (temporality), where (place), and who (interactions and relationships), adding a fourth dimension—what (objects). First, I analyzed data geographically and chronologically along a past-present-future continuum (i.e., significant life history events), then thematically (i.e., significant multilingual identity tensions and transformations) (Menard-Warwick, 2008; Seidman, 2013). The multimodal open-ended line-by-line text analysis and interpretation (Bryman & Bell, 2019) of the journal entries revealed 41 keywords that were collated into three main themes (i.e., symbolic objects, material objects, and digital objects) and used to discuss the findings.

Given the challenging times that we are facing amid the coronavirus pandemic and economic instability, together with a saturation of existing approaches to learning and living, new materialism offers novel avenues to looking for more effective ways of being in and with the world. Situated at the intersection of new materialism and symbolic new materialism, the three journal entries that generated data for my study fleshed out new interpretations of my identity. The shifting and flexible spatiality of identity (re)construction and negotiation across time was consistent with rural, semi-urban, and urban areas, while the three main themes (i.e., symbolic objects, material objects, and digital objects) echoed three main stages in my identity formation and negotiation, which shed light on an evolving relationship with the symbolic (im)material world. My proposed backward and forward cycle explored identity along a past-present-future continuum that allowed for a fluid and flexible movement between past and present lived experiences and imagined future persona, which enabled reflection in and on action. The cycle of identity helped me gain a deeper understanding of where I come from, who I am as a language learner, teacher, and immigrant woman, and where I am headed. In doing so, I revisited lived experiences and learned, relearned, and unlearned aspects of my identity. This cyclical movement (of living life → telling about life → (re)imagining life) resembles life itself. By applying my findings to professional teaching practice, a holistic past-present-future awareness of the self can facilitate teacher in supporting their students. By extrapolation, this study has the potential to advance socio-cultural and academic knowledge that will enhance a better understanding of Canada as a mosaic society of bi/multilingual language users and assist settlement, integration service providers, citizenship and immigration agencies, and regulatory bodies, contributing to gender equality and inclusion of immigrant women.

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