The ‘Other’ Here and the ‘Other’ There:

Abstract

Through examining key family narratives and selected personal experiences in this article, I reflect on how I began to rethink and (re)frame the representation of my racialized and (trans)national identities as a hyphenated, South African-Canadian citizen. The article summarizes my experiences of visiting Cape Town, South Africa (for the first time), when I engaged in a semester-long, secondary school teaching internship, conducting in-class action research while teaching Grades 9 and 10 History and English. I was sure that I was not just going to teach—I was going to discover myself. To borrow Derrida’s term, the “edges” of my identity continue to become blurred in relation to the shifting social and economic contexts.