Language Teacher Identity Formation

Becoming a teacher is a process that underlies different aspects and purposes of social interaction and the construction of a professional identity. Student-teachers perception of themselves and their emotional states might differ from what is expected from them or even from their own goals. Therefore, this research attempted to investigate the development of teacher identity formation in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) students through their own perception of their professional identity. It was conducted as a case study ­and the participants were undergraduate students in the last term. An open-ended questionnaire was used to collect data. Practical activities related to teaching and contact with teaching contexts and with students had a positive evaluation on the part of student-teachers regarding the formation of their identity as teachers. This research demonstrates the importance of the practice in the context of teacher training for the establishment and maturation of teacher identity.

A CRISE DA IDENTIDADE NA PÓS-MODERNIDADE: REFLEXOS NA FORMAÇÃO DA IDENTIDADE DOCENTE

This study consists of bibliographic research, with a qualitative approach and exploratory nature. It aims to discuss the impacts of an identity crisis on the construction of the professional identity of teachers in the context of postmodernity. At first, it deals with concepts regarding the subjects’ identity in different phases of the modern period, as well as the causes that led to the postmodern identity crisis. Next, it addresses the signs of crisis in the formation of teacher identity in this period and the main challenges involved. Therefore, the theoretical basis receives the contributions of authors such as Giddens (1991, 2007), Bauman (2001, 2005), Hall (1998), Castells (2003), and Lévy (2010), among others. It is observed that teachers’ practice is filled with fears and uncertainties between traditional and contemporary pedagogical guidelines. Postmodernity has demanded a reformulation of teachers’ identity based on a doubtful and fragmented ground over the years since the professional establishment. Among the main challenges for teacher identity formation, there is the need to make the profession appealing, to keep professionals greatly qualified in teaching and to make them realize that their education must be continuous and permanent since it will never be complete.

Being native and being foreign

Pennington and Richards (2016) argue that if the medium of instruction (MOI) is not the native language of the instructor, lack of proficiency in the MOI could bring about a lack of confidence. This study inquired how native Japanese as a Foreign Language (JFL) teachers at tertiary institutions in New Zealand and Australia perceive their English proficiency, how it influences their linguistic identity, and how the fact that they are native speakers of the target language influences their linguistic identity. Based on responses from an online questionnaire with more than 50 respondents as well as 12 follow-up individual interviews, this study argues that their linguistic identity is not narrowly conceived around their non-nativeness in English and nativeness in Japanese, but constructed from more multi-faceted aspects of language teacher identity formation, especially by factors pertinent to the very nature of the tertiary teaching environment in these countries.

Struggling to-be or not-to-be a bilingual teacher: Identity formation in a Change Laboratory intervention

While the methodology of formative intervention research has long been established, the aspect of new instrumentality of Change Laboratory is fragmentally documented. Therefore, in this study, we modified two major Change Laboratory mediating tools used in bilingual student-teaching seminars, namely the disturbance diary and four-field model. These two empirically investigated Change Laboratory tools have mediated transformative agency within the collective movement toward identity formation as the Change Laboratory participants (bilingual preservice teachers) conveyed their dilemma of to-be or not-to-be a bilingual teacher. We provide evidence on the relationship between the bilingual preservice teachers’ identity formation and their participation in the Change Laboratory intervention. The analysis made salient the role of two new Change Laboratory mediating tools, the adapted disturbance diary and individually generated four-field models, for the bilingual preservice teachers’ collective transformation in bilingual teaching. It also crystallized the importance of deepening the bilingual preservice teachers’ analysis of multiple languages and pedagogy as understood in the new bilingual teaching model in the Change Laboratory intervention.

Unpacking the complexities of teacher identity: Narratives of two Chinese teachers of English in China

This study explores the complexities of teacher identity formation for two Chinese teachers of English in China, who represent two growing groups of English teachers: Alice, who worked in a private English training institution and John, who was a self-employed private English tutor. Drawing insights from Barcelos’ (2015) theorization of the relationship among teacher beliefs, teacher identity, and teacher emotions, this study employs an integrated perspective to investigate two participants’ English teacher identity development by examining the dynamic interplay among these three constructs (beliefs, identity, and emotions). Narrative inquiry is used for data analysis. By exploring two participants’ life histories of learning English and becoming English teachers, this study captures the dynamics of how the focal participants’ core beliefs and emotions interacted inextricably with and shaped their teacher identity development.

Teaching to, with, and Against the Test: Language Teaching and Teacher Identity Under Institutional Neoliberalization

Neoliberalism has emerged as a keyword that captures some core features of global economic and educational reforms in recent years. This paper reports a linguistic ethnographic study of how a Chinese language teacher was engaged with neoliberal discourses on language education in and out of the classroom in a suburban public middle school in China, with an attempt to illuminate the complexity of language education in a neoliberal context. The analysis shows three general identity positions—as an opponent, a conformist, and a pragmatist—across the identification trajectory of the focal language teacher through the fieldwork period, in relation to neoliberal exam-oriented education and her various ways of engaging with exam discourses in her language classrooms. This inquiry argues for the perspective of unpredictability and complexity as an alternative that goes beyond the current “deterministic neoliberalism” in understanding the dynamics of neoliberalization in language education, language teaching, and teacher identity formation.

An Empirical Study on the Relationship Between Chinese Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Identity and Teacher Autonomy

Teacher identity formation provides a direction for the development of autonomy (Huang & Benson, 2013). However, the process of identity formation is complex and how this process influences teacher autonomy has not been sufficiently studied. To contribute to knowledge in this field, the present study investigated the relationship between teachers’ attitudes toward teacher identity and teacher autonomy. We first observed 14 Chinese College English teachers’ classroom teaching. Following that, we conducted stimulated recall interviews with all the teachers to pinpoint their autonomous practices. Finally, we conducted semi-structured interviews to investigate these teachers’ attitudes toward their identities. One of the main findings was that the teachers who held a positive attitude toward their professional identity were more autonomous in their teaching practices than those with a negative attitude. The findings invite us to conclude that teachers’ attitudes toward their professional identity are positively associated with teacher autonomy.