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Home > HCAS > HCAS_PUBS > HCAS_JOURNALS > TQR Home > TQR > Vol. 31 > No. 5 (2026)

 

Abstract

In this book review, the authors critically explore Bedrettin Yazan’s Autoethnography in Language Education, which addresses theoretical, methodological, and ethical dimensions of autoethnography in applied linguistics and teacher education. Organized as a reconstructed scholarly dialogue between a doctoral advisor - Ufuk, and a doctoral researcher - Meryem, the review systematically outlines the book’s central arguments, chapter structure, and contributions to qualitative research. Attention is given to Yazan’s positioning of autoethnography as an onto-ethico-epistemological stance, his engagement with debates surrounding legitimacy and rigor, and his discussion of reflexivity, identity, and emotional labor in research. The review also highlights the book’s practical guidance on autoethnographic data generation, analysis, and representation, as well as its relevance for language teachers and teacher educators. Overall, the reviewers find the book to be a timely and accessible resource that advances self-study research and supports emerging scholars navigating autoethnography in language education contexts.

Keywords

Critical Autoethnographic Narrative (CAN), language teacher identity transformation, self-reflexivity, self-study research, ethics in autoethnography, dialogic scholarship, methodological tensions around autoethnography

Author Bio(s)

Meryem Büşra ÜNSAL is an English language instructor born and raised in Türkiye, working as the modern languages unit coordinator at a private university in Istanbul. She is a British Council certified IELTS instructor. Holding a Master’s degree in English language teaching, she is pursuing her Ph.D. in English as a Foreign language teaching. Currently, she is writing her dissertation. Her research interests are qualitative research, particularly autoethnographic research as well as teacher education, EAP and ESP curriculum development, Aviation English instruction and technology integration to education. She is married, and mother of a daughter and a son. Please direct correspondence to mbunsal@fsm.edu.tr

Ufuk Keleş is an assistant professor at Bahçeşehir University’s ELT Department in İstanbul, Turkey. He completed his Ph.D. degree in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Alabama, USA on a Fulbright grant. Before, he was an English instructor in Turkey for fifteen years. His research interests include transnational socialization, social justice in ELT, multicultural education, humanizing applied linguistics research, language teacher education, critical discourse analysis, autoethnography, and qualitative educational research. He has published in international journals including Teaching and Teacher Education, Applied Linguistics Review; Pedagogy, Culture, and Society; Language Teaching Research; Language Teaching; the Qualitative Report; and others. Please direct correspondence to ufuk.keles@bau.edu.tr

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Bedrettin Yazan, PhD for his thoughtful notes and autographs in our hard copies, which he kindly signed for both of us. We truly appreciate his continued support and commitment to teaching and practicing autoethnography, as well as his efforts in fostering greater awareness of and interest in this valuable academic genre.

Publication Date

5-8-2026

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

ORCID ID

0000-0001-6176-2904

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