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Taking its cues from, and lending support to, the assertion in the autoethnographic literature that performative autoethnography (PA) is “moral” and “democratic” in its critical engagement, this article theoretically constructs the concepts “moral” and “democratic” in the context of PA. It does this by intersecting the performative theory of Conquergood with the moral philosophy of Dewey and the paradigmatic theory of Adorno, while including an expressionist narrative thread based on urban writer Algren’s critical prose-poem “Chicago: City on the Make,” and while drawing on examples from autoethnography written by the author of this article. As a result, the article, primarily theoretical, situates PA within the long-overlooked and very rarely discussed paradigm “Adorno-esque ‘longing’” where PA is able to “perform” its moral and democratic disposition in a nondogmatic or non-hegemonic manner while seeking social justice.

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This article focuses on student teachers of English in the Bachelor of Arts in Teaching English as a Second Language (BA TESL) program of the public state university of Oaxaca, Mexico. In Oaxaca, and Mexico at large, proficient English users are mainly from the upper socioeconomic classes. In general, the schools value Spanish and English to the exclusion of the prevailing Indigenous languages. Moreover, to be a legitimate English teacher, one is expected to look or act “American” or “gringo” and/or to have a “native-like” English accent. The Oaxacan student teachers are mainly from the lower or middle socioeconomic classes. They do not have “American” characteristics and lack a “native-like” English accent. Within this context is the present discussion situated. It demonstrates that the student teachers in two BA TESL classes utilize bilingual identity texts and dialogical ethnography as autobiographies and collages in order to co-create identities with which to assert their legitimacy as English teachers and multilingual speakers. The student teachers also validate their students’ multilingual identities, resist the “native speaker” versus “non-native speaker” dichotomy, confront the hegemony of Spanish over Indigenous languages, and attribute an international importance to their formation as English teachers. The bilingual identity texts and dialogic ethnography allow multilingual identity and intelligence to enter the TESL classroom and curriculum.