Cartographic Dialogue: A Pedagogy for Emotion and Critical Consciousness in Language Teacher Educator Identity Development

Language teacher educators (LTEs) enter their roles with complex personal histories and experiences. Little research examines the ways in which LTEs of varying backgrounds reflect on these histories, their emotional responses to these reflections, and their connections to cultural contexts or systemic (in)justice. In this article, we treat the examination of our own personal histories and their intersections with systems of power, as well as our related emotions, as pedagogy or as a reciprocal way of teaching and learning. We critically map out and discuss our journeys towards an LTE identity, including our emotions, through a reflective, collaborative, and ongoing method we call cartographic dialogue. We demonstrates that our LTE identity journeys are strongly influenced by five key factors: emotion, place, relationships, collaboration, and positioning. We also highlighted the potential for emotionally informed teaching and embodied critical consciousness to be built through this work.