(6) Dr. Graham Crookes, my supervisor

As we all know, once we decide to engage in a post-doctorate program, we will need to find a supervisor. Naturally, this professional has to be someone who has been doing work in the same are of our interest and who will decisively be able to contribute to our professional development. The moment I envisioned to participate in such an endeavor, I thought of Dr. Graham Crookes, professor and chair of the Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawai'i, Manoa. I wrote him, and although he was working in China at the moment I tried to contact him, once he could respond, he replied to my invitation very positively. I was really glad to have that positive answer and great support. It is fantastic for a recent doctor to have the chance to work with someone so experienced. Dr. Crookes' specialties include the methodology of language teaching and teacher development (including practice teaching supervision and more recently, philosophy of teaching). Besides teaching regular graduate and undergraduate courses for the Department of SLS, he has conducted courses and workshops for teachers especially on teaching methodology, action research, and critical pedagogy. More recently, he has published the volume "Critical ELT: foundations, promises, praxis" (Routledge 2013), and his main research interests at present are critical language pedagogy and language teachers developing philosophies of teaching. Lots of common interests, I would say...   

(5) A little bit about the project

The title of the approved project is "The practicality of English as a lingua franca critical pedagogy", and as I said, it will be supervised by Dr. Graham Crookes at the Univesity of Hawai'i, Manoa, Honolulu, United States of America.  Just to make readers familiar with my intetions, as the titles makes it clear, this work is about English as a global language education and critical pedagogy. It is an attempt to extend the work I conducted in my PhD research, entitled English as an international language: for an intercultural critical pedagogy (Siqueira 2008), which addressed this complex theme from a more theoretical point of view, working with Brazilian teachers, their assumptions, values, and beliefs towards the central position they occupy as educators who may not be fully aware of the crucial role they play nowadays into developing students’ intercultural competence in a world of translingual and transcultural flows and increasing mobility (Pennycook 2007; Risager 2007; Blommaert 2010; Canagarajah 2013). 

(4) Lisbon which brings me good luck

Here I was in lovely Lisbon to see some of my dearest friends, and also for the final phase of the dispute for the Post-doc Fulbright-CAPES scholarship. I left Athens early in the morning, flew Aegean to Frankfurt and a few hours later, to "Lissabon". It would be a decisive day as my interlocutor would call me late in the afternoon all the way from Brasília. I always thought Lisbon brings me good luck and this time it was not to be an exception, I prayed. As soon as I reached the airport, I got on the metro, and 45 minutes later was in comfortable and clean hotel room almost ready to talk to Brasília. As I still had some time, I rushed to Él Corte Inglés, one of my favortite shops in the world. I had a quick lunch there, and then rushed to the hotel. 5 PM sharp in Lisbon, on a wonderful and mild autumn afternoon, I received my phone call. The representative was very nice and we talked about several issues related and not to my project. Actually, bottomline, they wanted to know the level of my English. The friendly voice on the side of the line thanked me for appplying in the program and told me to wait until the end of the month (Sept, 2014). I was very positive, but not going beyond realisitc possibilities. To "celebrate" Manuela Guilherme, Ana Gonçalves and her husband Michael, Edleise Mendes, and Lili Cavalheiro, had a wonderful dinner together. Deep iniside I was super optimistic, but, at that moment, my idea was to share my feelings and expectations only with... Lisbon. Until the results were out. Huuum, thanks Lisbon, thanks for your positive energy.  It's great being there!

(3) Lovely Athens and its good winds

I was in Athens, Greece, participating in the 7th English as a Lingua Franca International Conference (ELF7), with several friends and colleagues from all continents, when I received an e-mail from the Fulbright committee saying that I my project had been passed to the last phase, which was the interview. According to the message, I had to be ready two days later at a certain hour, Brasília time, as someone from Fulbright would call me and conduct the interview. After stating I was very happy, I said I was in Europe, 5 hours ahead of the Brasília time zone. And the thing is the exact day they wanted to talk to me, I would be in transit going to Lisbon, and three days later back to Brazil. Well, it then came to my mind to ask them to be interviewed by phone at my hotel room downtown Lisbon. I was elated they agreed. So, I rushed to the conference feeling elated. The next four days were wonderful. We enjoyed Athens and some of the Sardonic islands, including Hydra. Besides our international friends, the Brazilian group which comprised Telma Gimenez (UEL), Michelle El-Kadri (UEL), Luciana Cabrini (UEM), Lucielen Porfirio (UNEB-Alagoinhas), and myself as the only male in the gang, had a lot of fun. Inside, I was overhappy, but the best was yet to come on the same day my TAP Portugal plane touched down at Portela Airport, coming from Frankfurt, Germany. My adventure was beginning to materialize. Thanks, Greece!

(2) It all began in Salvador, between the sky and the sea

In my department at the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil, I was scheduled to go on a leave for our post-doctorate as part of our professional development. I had several plans in mind, but nothing oficially decided yet. Lisbon? Athens? Vienna? London? Just ideas. Then, while here in Salvador, I came across an "edital" of this CAPES-Fulbright Program in the US for professors who had gotten their PhD title up to eight years at the moment of application. I looked at that and simply jumped in. Constructed a project inspired by my future supervisor, Dr. Graham Crookes, and invited three superb professionals to support me with recommendation letters. They are Dr. Maria Manuela Guilherme (University of Coimbra/Universidade Lusófona, Portugal), Dr. Kanavillil Rajagopalan (UNICAMP, Brazil), and Dr. Maria Luisa Pérez Cañado (University of Jaén, Spain). Backed up by these astounding and fantastic friends and researchers, I had this feeling that I stood a great chance. I just had to wait. Graham agreed immediately to be my supervisor, and then the project was born: "The practicality of English as a lingua franca critical intercultural pedagogy". I have so much to thank these colleagues. And the story goes.    

(1) Introductory words

"In between the sky and the sea: stories of a post-doc experience," in my native Portuguese, "Entre o céu e o mar: registros de um pós-doc," is a personal initiative with the objective of keep tracking of this special moment in my life, and also sharing with special friends stories, feeelings, sensations, impressions, and so forth from home Brazil and faraway lands during a period of roughly one year. The whole "mess" began over a year ago when I submitted my post-doc project for a CAPES-Fulbright Scholarship Program to be held in any American university. Out of 12 recipients around the country, I was of them. For one entire year, I have been preparing myself and my dearest family for the experience. As I will be away from home, creating a new home, it is not easy to leave behind, even temporarily, your beloved wife and sons. But I am about to do it. And only God knows what awaits me between the sky and the sea in the distant state of Hawai'i, in the Pacific waters of the United States of America. I'll be leaving soon, but my heart already feels it is the time to look ahead and adjust the mind to the plans that are about to unfold. I'm excited, the day to leave is around the corner, but a lot has happened before I move on to board a plane that will initially take me to Miami, another to L. A., and, finally, a third one to Honolulu. Over 20 hours in the air. Join me in this adventure which has nothing to do with surfing or "radical" sports. It has to do, basically, with professional and personal development. Be my guest, if you will!!!