Author Identifier (ORCID)
Christina Gray: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8464-1961
Abstract
This collaborative autoethnography examines how two university-based teacher educators navigated personal trauma while continuing their academic and caregiving work. Using narrative portraits, the study explores how collaborative storytelling enabled the authors to embrace vulnerability, surface hidden experiences, and make sense of trauma within the normative and relational conditions of academic professionalism. Analysis of the narratives highlights three interrelated mechanisms that supported wellbeing amidst trauma: the ongoing negotiation of teacher identity, the capacity to accept help and relational support, and intentional self-care through reflective practice. Rather than positioning recovery as linear or complete, the study illuminates how educators may continue to function, care, and find meaning while trauma remains present. Attention is also given to the role of time in shaping how trauma is storied and understood. The findings underscore the value of collaborative autoethnography as both a methodological and ethical approach for exploring trauma in teacher education, and point to the importance of creating reflective, relational spaces within universities where educators can share, witness, and support one another.
Keywords
Collaborative autoethnography, teacher educators, trauma, professional identity, vulnerability, wellbeing
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
1-1-2026
Publication Title
Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
School
School of Education
RAS ID
94327
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Gray, C., & Lambert, K. (2026). Embracing vulnerability and evolving through trauma: Teacher educators’ collaborative autoethnographic reflections. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2026.2662335