Teaching Otherwise: Hybrid Professional Becoming in Multilingual English Classrooms

Liza Abad, Amna Iqbal, Ashley Starford, Thanh Huong Hang Le (Jo Le), Nashid Nigar

Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne

13 November 5:30pm – 6:30pm AEDT, Online

A gathering of stories, senses, and solidarities

What does it mean to teach English across multiple languages, lands, and life-worlds?

This session brings together a diverse group of English educators—teaching in schools, TAFE, community programs, and universities across Australia and beyond—who work daily with learners from both English-first and additional-language backgrounds. The panel members are connected through Dr Nigar’s teaching and research on languages and literacies education at the University of Melbourne, and as participants and/or co-authors in her related projects. Many have also shared narratives of lived experience and professional insight as part of her broader research collaborations.

Together with Dr Nigar—whose award-winning research developed the Hybrid Professional Becoming (HPB) approach, a fluid and relational way of shaping professional identity across contexts—the panel will invite participants into an artefact-rich, co-created space of epistemic care.

Premised on Hybrid Relational Onto-Epistemology (HROE)—which we define as mixing diverse ways of being, connecting, and knowing—the session foregrounds the lived, multilingual, and affectively charged (encompassing emotion, feeling, and embodied sense and their movements) knowledge of teachers working with EAL/D learners, migrant and refugee students, and culturally diverse cohorts.

Panellists will share practical and imaginative curriculum provocations, including:

· a phonics remix through students’ home languages,

· a migration object-as-poem connecting personal histories with classroom learning, and

· a pedagogical moment of rupture that reshaped a lesson around student agency.

The artefacts do more than illustrate practice—they speak back to standard English focused monolingual standardisation and technocratic pressures, reclaiming teacher professional identity as ethical, embodied, relational, and affective.

Through translanguaging activities such as a Languages of Care Padlet and small-group storytelling, participants will surface their own hybrid knowings-cum-becomings—shaping professional identity through lived knowledges—and reimagine literacy, curriculum, and assessment. Together, we ask:

· What do we know as teachers that cannot be measured?

· Which professional norms feel unliveable?

· How might we sustain joy, solidarity, and agency amid policy constraints?

Participants will leave with a practical resource pack—including zines on linguistically and culturally responsive pedagogy, phonics remixes using students’ home languages, artefact templates such as ‘migration object-as-poem’ activities, and care collages designed to build

classroom solidarity—which they can adapt for English lessons, literacy support, and intercultural projects in their own classrooms and communities”.

Here, teaching is reframed not as compliance with fixed norms, but as a relational and intercultural act of becoming and cosmopolitan envision—a shared journey towards inclusive, justice-oriented education.

Speakers

Liza C Abad Liza is a globally experienced multilingual teacher, currently teaching English at a TAFE in Melbourne. With over a decade of experience across ELICOS, AMEP, and community education, she integrates creative and tech-enhanced pedagogies with culturally responsive strategies that honour learners’ journeys, linguistic assets, and aspirations.

Amna Iqbal Amna is a multilingual English teacher and researcher with experience in both public and independent schools, where she has worked extensively with multilingual EAL students. With a background in English Literature, Spanish, and learning design, she brings creativity, cultural awareness, and relational care to her practice. Entering the profession through Teach for Australia, she is now completing a Master of Education (Research) at the University of Melbourne, reimagining English teaching as an ethical and inclusive practice that nurtures belonging and curiosity.

Ashley Starford Ashley is an Academic Teacher and Teaching Associate who supports multilingual and EAL learners across higher education and English language programs. He teaches at the University of Melbourne and Monash University and is also an Academic Adviser and ELICOS teacher at Swinburne College. His work centres on inclusive curriculum design, teacher–student relationships, and innovative English for Academic Purposes pedagogies. He holds a Master of Education (TESOL) from the University of Melbourne and a Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching (Higher Education).

Thanh Huong Hang Le (Jo Le) Jo is a multilingual English teacher and researcher with experience in community, adult, and school-based learning settings. Currently supporting students at Collingwood College and AMES Australia, Jo brings intercultural curiosity, community care, and creative inquiry to her teaching. Grounded in lived migration experience and translingual perspectives, her practice affirms learner voices and cultural heritage while fostering inclusive education. She holds a Master of Education (TESOL) from the University of Melbourne.

Martha Heng Xia is an EAL/AMEP teacher at Chisholm Institute TAFE with over a decade of experience in English language teaching across TAFE, RTOs, and community education. Currently completing her PhD in Education at Monash University, her research explores multilingualism, TESOL, and teacher identities. She designs culturally responsive resources and learning environments that support employability, life skills, and student wellbeing, drawing on her expertise in translating, intercultural communication, and learner-centred pedagogy.

Dr Nashid Nigar Nashid is a Lecturer at the University of Melbourne with over 20 years’ teaching experience across schools, TAFE, community education, and universities in Australia and internationally. Awarded the prestigious Mollie Holman Medal for her PhD, she has made a significant impact on research and practice in English teacher professional identity, multilingual pedagogies, and interculturally responsive academic development. Her work focuses on Hybrid Professional Becoming and designing inclusive, justice-oriented curricula across diverse contexts.

Cost

$10 – VicTESOL members (including members of other state TESOL associations)
$30 – Non-members
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Please note: VicTESOL is a not-for-profit organisation. Your registration ensures we can continue to offer high quality professional learning. Registrations are per participant. Purchasing a ticket buys the participant the right to the live online session. Registration is not to be shared with any other person who has not purchased a ticket.