De-peripheralizing the Southern Theoretical Frameworks in Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Critical Duo(Auto)ethnography

Theoretical frameworks as explanatory points of departure inform the study as a guide to frame the right questions to be asked. Therefore, selecting a theoretical framework is always a wise decision in doctoral dissertation work. In this study, we use critical duo(auto)ethnography as a reflective, dialogic methodology to shed light on how doctoral researchers from the Global South may incorporate and negotiate Southern theoretical frameworks. Two doctoral studies discussed in this chapter draw on two different, but interrelated frameworks, given the critical nature of the work in applied linguistics/TESOL. For example, study 1 draws on Southern critical discourse studies (CDS) to examine discursive normativities and ruptures related to nation-state identities, Otherization, and gendered subjectivities in ELT textbooks and pedagogy. Study 2 uses critical language pedagogy (CLP) as a broader theoretical framework in ELT characterized by academic (de)coloniality and raciolinguistic perspectives to uncover colonial (language) ideologies, tensions, and contestations in university ELT classes. As doctoral researchers, we argue that to facilitate Southern theoretical emergences in applied linguistics/TESOL, it is necessary to blur the South-North binary in knowledge and theory making by taking a marginal positionality, which aims for an epistemological non-centrality.