Making ripples in the water: empowering foreign-born teacher educators of colour through critical duoethnography

In this qualitative study, we, three foreign-born teacher educators of colour, examine how engaging in critical duoethnography enabled us to uncover the complexities of teaching in a White-dominant academic landscape. Using the metaphor of a lotus rising from water and creating ripples, we identified four interconnected stages of our collective journey: budding, in which we built trust and created a safe space to share vulnerabilities; unfolding, where we embraced the complexity of our hybrid identities and discovered resilience in our intersections; flourishing, where we reframed personal struggles as reflections of systemic and structural inequities; and sowing, where we transformed insights into seeds of action, committing to institutional and pedagogical change. These stages demonstrate how critical duoethnography served not only as a research method but also as a transformative practice that helped us navigate systemic challenges and cultivate equity and justice-oriented approaches to teacher education.