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Identities and Practices of Plurilingual English for Academic PurposesInstructors: A Multimodal PluriethnographyEmbracing 

Embracing the tensions inherent in enacting plurilingual pedagogy in a historically monolingual context, this presentation explores the relationship between the identities and practices of plurilingual English for Academic Purposes instructors. Rooted in theoretical frameworks of complexity, intersectionality, and plurilingualism, this study crafts a novel qualitative methodology called multimodal pluriethnography. Through methods of identity texts and duoethnographic interviews, 14 participants created complex expressions of teacher identity and engaged in collaborative dialogue in which they co-constructed their own interview questions with a partner of differing identity markers. From this holistic data set, the study responds to the following research questions: 1) How do plurilingual EAP teachers portray the relationship between their identities and practices? 2) How do plurilingual EAP teachers engage with each other in the role of researchers of difference? 3) What do identity texts reveal or conceal about plurilingual EAP teacher identities? Findings show that plurilingual EAP teachers portrayed a relationship between their lived experiences, personal beliefs, and teaching practices; discursively co-constructed new understandings of themselves and each other; and revealed linguistic, cultural, and professional characteristics while concealing gender, sexuality, and race. This study contributes to more complex and intersectional theorizations of plurilingual teacher identity, advances a participant-informed methodology that facilitates dialogue across difference, and exemplifies novel formats of multimodal teacher identity texts, from comic strips to tattoo designs. In educational and societal contexts marked by monolingual and hegemonic ideologies and practices, greater understanding and enactment of linguistically and culturally diverse identities can be an act of empowerment and transformation.