Crossing Horizons: An Autoethnography of Professional Growth

This autoethnographic study explores the professional development of a female Iranian expatriate teaching in Oman’s higher education system. The study explores the intersections of cultural adaptation, pedagogical transformation, and identity negotiation through reflective narrative and critical self-inquiry in a transnational academic setting. Drawing on lived experience, the study examines the realities of academic life abroad, institutional power structures, and the sociopolitical dynamics of Omanization. The narrative demonstrates how critical reflexivity, pedagogical innovation, and professional agency were all sparked by cross-cultural engagement. This study adds to the expanding corpus of research on foreign teachers and the transformative power of teaching across borders, placing it within larger discourses of globalization, educational mobility, and intercultural pedagogy. It makes the case that, rather than being a straight-line adjustment process, it is an evolving practice of becoming, one marked by disruption, resilience, and deep intellectual renewal. The study concludes by outlining implications for institutional policy, support for expatriate faculty, and future research on language teacher identity and autoethnographic inquiry in higher education.

کلیدواژه ها:

autoethnography ، cross-cultural interaction ، professional development ، professional identity ، reflective practice ، transnational teaching