The Autoethnography of an [Re]-Emerging Researcher Identity and Its Impact on EAP Teaching Pedagogy

This autoethnographic study traces the development of novice researcher identity. We investigate the mentor-mentee relationship and consider how mentoring practices helped develop researcher identity. We adopted an autoethnographical approach which relies on our memory, reflective and critical email exchanges, and feedback notes in the margins of the research papers in preparation as a set of accessible and relevant data, and the mentor voice is included to overcome possible bias. The narrative focuses on the mentoring process, looking at formal and informal aspects and covers a period of about four years. The research frames the narrative through Wenger’s (2009) four aspects of situated learning: community, practice, learning, and identity. The first author established a researcher identity through talk mediated by the mentor about joint research projects, involving a continual reiteration from micro to macro aspects—from the technical to the cognitive—leading, eventually, to development of researcher identity.