A conceptual framework to understand language teacher identities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/slte.24908Keywords:
teacher identity, Teacher Learning, Teacher Cognition, Emotions, Communities of PracticeAbstract
Language teacher identity (LTI) has recently become a prominent theme in the second language teacher education (SLTE) research because teacher identities play a major role in teachers’ learning-to-teach processes and instructional practices. Teacher identity refers to teachers’ dynamic self-conception and imagination of themselves as teachers, which shifts as they participate in varying communities, interact with other individuals, and position themselves (and are positioned by others) in social contexts. Therefore, it casts an influence upon a wide array of matters, ranging from how language teachers learn to perform their profession, how they practice theory and theorize their practice, how they educate their students, and how they interact and collaborate with their colleagues in their social setting. This paper offers a conceptual framework for LTI that explicates the interrelationships between teacher identity and these core constructs: teacher learning, teacher cognition, teachers’ participation in communities of practice, contextual factors, teacher biographies, and teacher emotions.
References
Akkerman, S. F., & Meijer, P. C. (2011). A dialogical approach to conceptualizing teacher identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(2), 308–319. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2010.08.013
Aneja, G. A. (2016). (Non)native speakered: Rethinking (non)nativeness and teacher identity in TESOL teacher education. TESOL Quarterly, 50(3), 572–596. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.315
Barkhuizen, G. (2016). A short story approach to analyzing teacher (imagined) identities over time. TESOL Quarterly, 50(3), 655–683. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.311
Barnard, R., & Burns, A. (Eds.). (2012). Researching language teacher cognition and practice: International case studies. Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781847697912
Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: An overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2), 175–189. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057640902902252
Beijaard, D., Meijer, P. C., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2), 107–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2003.07.001
Benesch, S. (2012). Considering emotions in critical English language teaching: Theories and praxis. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203848135
Benesch, S. (2017). Emotions in English language teaching: Exploring teachers’ emotion labor. Routledge.
Block, D. (2003). The social turn in second language acquisition. Edinburgh University Press.
Block, D. (2007). Second language identities. Continuum.
Borg, S. (2003). Teacher cognition in language teaching: A review of research on what language teachers think, know, believe, and do. Language Teaching, 36(2), 81–109. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444803001903
Borg, S. (2009). Language teacher cognition. In A. Burns & J. C. Richards (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to second language teacher education (pp. 163–171). Cambridge University Press.
Britzman, D. (1986). Cultural myths in the making of a teacher: Biography and social structure in teacher education. Harvard Educational Review, 56(4), 442–456. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.56.4.mv28227614l44u66
Brutt-Griffler, J., & Samimy, K. (1999). Revisiting the colonial in the postcolonial: Critical praxis for nonnative-English-speaking teachers in a TESOL program. TESOL Quarterly, 33(3), 413–431. https://doi.org/10.2307/3587672
Bucholtz, M. (2003). Sociolinguistic nostalgia and authentication of identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(3), 398–416. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00232
Bukor, E. (2011). Exploring teacher identity: Teachers’ transformative experiences of re-constructing and re-connecting personal and professional selves (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Toronto, Canada.
Bullough, R. V. (1997). Practicing theory and theorizing practice. In J. Loughran & T. Russell (Eds.), Purpose, passion and pedagogy in teacher education (pp. 13–31). Falmer Press.
Burns, A., & Richards, J. R. (2009). Introduction: Second language teacher education. In A. Burns & J. C. Richards (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to second language teacher education (pp. 1–8). Cambridge University Press.
Clarke, M. (2008). Language teacher identities: Co-constructing discourse and community. Multilingual Matters.
Cohen, J. L. (2010). Getting recognised: Teachers negotiating professional identities as learners through talk. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(3), 473–481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2009.06.005
Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1986). On narrative method, personal philosophy, and narrative unities in the story of teaching. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 23(4), 293–310. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.3660230404
Dang, T. K. A. (2013). Identity in activity: Examining teacher professional identity formation in the paired-placement of student teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 30, 47–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2012.10.006
De Costa, P. I., & Norton, B. (Eds.). (2017). Transdisciplinarity and language teacher identity. The Modern Language Journal, 101(1), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12368
Duff, P. A., & Uchida, Y. (1997). The negotiation of teachers’ sociocultural identities and practices in postsecondary EFL classrooms. TESOL Quarterly, 31(3), 451–486. https://doi.org/10.2307/3587834
Flores, M. A., & Day, C. (2006). Contexts which shape and reshape new teachers’ identities: A multi-perspective study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22(2), 219–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.09.002
Freeman, D. (2002). The hidden side of the work: Teacher knowledge and learning to teach. Language Teaching, 35(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444801001720
Freeman, D. (2013). Teacher thinking, learning, and identity in the process of educational change. In K. Hyland & L. L. C. Wong (Eds.), Innovation and change in English language education (pp. 139–154). Routledge.
Freeman, D., & Johnson, K. E. (1998). Reconceptualizing the knowledge base of language teacher education. TESOL Quarterly, 32(3), 397–417. https://doi.org/10.2307/3588114
Golombek, P., & Doran, M. (2014). Unifying cognition, emotion, and activity in language teacher professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 39, 102–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.01.002
Gu, M. M., & Benson, P. (2015). The formation of English teacher identities: A cross-cultural investigation. Language Teaching Research, 19(2), 187–206. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168814541725
Hammerness, K., Darling-Hammond, L., & Bransford, J. (2005). How teachers learn and develop. In L. Darling-Hammond & J. Bransford (Eds.), Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do (pp. 358–389). Jossey-Bass.
Haneda, M., & Sherman, B. (2016). A job-crafting perspective on teacher agentive action. TESOL Quarterly, 50(3), 745–754. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.318
Hargreaves, A. (1998). The emotional practice of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14(8), 835–854. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(98)00025-0
Hawkins, M., & Norton, B. (2009). Critical language teacher education. In A. Burns & J. C. Richards (Eds.), Cambridge guide to second language teacher education (pp. 30–39). Cambridge University Press.
Hsieh, B. Y. (2010). Exploring the complexity of teacher professional identity (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of California, Berkeley, California.
Huang, I. C. (2014). Contextualizing teacher identity of non-native-English speakers in US secondary ESL classrooms: A Bakhtinian perspective. Linguistics and Education, 25, 119–128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2013.09.011
Ilieva, R. (2010). Non-native English-speaking teachers’ negotiations of program discourses in their construction of professional identities within a TESOL program. Canadian Modern Language Review, 66(3), 343–369. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.66.3.343
Johnson, K. E. (Ed.). (2000). Teacher education. TESOL Press.
Johnson, K. E. (2006). The sociocultural turn and its challenges for second language teacher education. TESOL Quarterly, 40(1), 235–257. https://doi.org/10.2307/40264518
Johnson, K. E. (2009a). Second language teacher education: A sociocultural perspective. Routledge.
Johnson, K. E. (2009b). Trends in second language teacher education. In A. Burns & J. C. Richards (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to second language teacher education (pp. 20–29). Cambridge University Press.
Johnson, K. E., & Golombek, P. R. (2003). “Seeing” teacher learning. TESOL Quarterly, 37(4), 729–737. https://doi.org/10.2307/3588221
Johnston, B., Pawan, F., & Mahan-Taylor, R. (2005). The professional development of working ESL/EFL teachers: A pilot study. In D. J. Tedick (Ed.), Second language teacher education: International perspectives (pp. 53–72). Lawrence Erlbaum.
Kanno, Y., & Stuart C. (2011). Learning to become a second language teacher: Identities-in practice. The Modern Language Journal, 95(2), 236–252. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2011.01178.x
Kayi-Aydar, H. (2015a). Multiple identities, negotiations, and agency across time and space: A narrative inquiry of a foreign language teacher candidate. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 12(2), 137–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2015.1032076
Kayi-Aydar, H. (2015b). Teacher agency, positioning, and English language learners: Voices of pre-service classroom teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 45, 94–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.09.009
Kelchtermans, G. (1993). Getting the story, understanding the lives: From career stories to teachers’ professional development. Teaching and Teacher Education, 9(5), 443–456. https://doi.org/10.1016/0742-051X(93)90029-G
Kennedy, M. (1990). Policy issues in teacher education. National Center for Research on Teacher Learning.
Knowles, G. J. (1992). Models for understanding pre-service and beginning teachers’ biographies: Illustrations from case studies. In I. F. Goodson (Ed.), Studying teachers’ lives (pp. 99–152). Routledge.
Lantolf, J. P., & Johnson, K. E. (2007). Extending Firth and Wagner’s (1997) ontological perspective to L2 classroom praxis and teacher education. The Modern Language Journal, 91(1), 877–892. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2007.00675.x
Lasky, S. (2005). A sociocultural approach to understanding teacher identity, agency and professional vulnerability in a context of secondary school reform. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(8), 899–916. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.06.003
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge University Press.
Lortie, D. (1975). School-teacher: A sociological study. University of Chicago Press.
MacLure, M. (1993). Arguing for your self: Identity as an organising principle in teachers’ jobs and lives. British Educational Research Journal, 19(4), 311–322. https://doi.org/10.1080/0141192930190401
Mahmoudi-Gahrouei, V., Tavakoli, M., & Hamman, D. (2016). Understanding what is possible across a career: Professional identity development beyond transition to teaching. Asia Pacific Education Review, 17(4), 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-016-9457-2
Mantero, M. (2004). Transcending tradition: Situated activity, discourse, and identity in language teacher education. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 1(3), 143–161. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15427595cils0103_2
Martel, J. (2015). Learning to teach a foreign language: Identity negotiation and conceptualizations of pedagogical progress. Foreign Language Annals, 48(3), 394–412. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12144
Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: A sourcebook (2nd ed.). Sage Publications.
Miller, J. (2009). Teacher identity. In A. Burns & J. C. Richards (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to second language teacher education (pp. 171–181). Cambridge University Press.
Mockler, N. (2011). Beyond ‘what works’: Understanding teacher identity as a practical and political tool. Teachers and Teaching, 17(5), 517–528. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2011.602059
Morgan, B. (2004). Teacher identity as pedagogy: Towards a field-internal conceptualization in bilingual and second language education. In J. Brutt-Griffler & M. Varghese (Eds.), Re-writing bilingualism and the bilingual educator’s knowledge base (pp. 80– 96). Multilingual Matters.
Morgan, B., & Clarke, M. (2011). Identity in second language teaching and learning. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (Vol. 2, pp. 817–836). Routledge.
Motha, S. (2006). Racializing ESOL teacher identities in U.S. K-12 public schools. TESOL Quarterly, 40(3), 495–518. https://doi.org/10.2307/40264541
Nias, J. (1996). Thinking about feeling: The emotions in teaching. Cambridge Journal of Education, 26(3), 293–306. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764960260301
Norton, B. (2010). Language and identity. In N. Hornberger & S. McKay (Eds.), Sociolinguistics and language education (pp. 349–369). Multilingual Matters.
Norton Peirce, B. (1995). Social identity, investment, and language learning. TESOL Quarterly, 29(1), 9–31. https://doi.org/10.2307/3587803
Olsen, B. (2008). Teaching what they learn, learning what they live: How teachers’ personal histories shape their professional development. Paradigm Publishers.
Olsen, B. (2016). Teaching for success: Developing your teacher identity in today’s classroom. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315638621
Ortaçtepe, D. (2015). EFL teachers’ identity (re)construction as teachers of inter-cultural competence: A language socialization approach. Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 14(2), 96–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2015.1019785
Park, G. (2012). “I am never afraid of being recognized as an NNES”: One teacher’s journey in claiming and embracing her nonnative-speaker identity. TESOL Quarterly, 46(1), 127–151. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.4
Park, G. (2015). Situating the discourses of privilege and marginalization in the lives of two East Asian women teachers of English. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 18(1), 108–133. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2012.759924
Park, G. (2017). Narratives of East Asian women teachers of English: Where privilege meets marginalization. Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783098736
Peercy, M. M. (2012). Problematizing the theory-practice gap: How ESL teachers make sense of their preservice education. Journal of Theory and Practice in Education, 8(1), 20–40.
Reeves, J. (2009). Teacher investment in learner identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(1), 34–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.06.003
Reis, D. S. (2015). Making sense of emotions in NNESTs’ professional identities. In Y. L. Cheung, S. B. Said, & K. Park (Eds.), Advances and current trends in language teacher identity research (pp. 31–43). Routledge.
Rex, L., & Nelson, M. (2004). How teachers’ professional identities position high-stakes test preparation in their classrooms. The Teachers College Record, 106(6), 1288–1331. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146810410600610
Ricento, T. (2005). Considerations of identity in L2 learning. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research on second language teaching and learning (pp. 895–911). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Rudolph, N. (2016). Negotiating borders of being and becoming in and beyond the English language teaching classroom: Two university student narratives from Japan. Asian Englishes, 18(1), 2–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2015.1132110
Selvi, A. F. (2018). Non-native English speaking teachers (NNESTs). In J. I. Liontas (Ed.), TESOL encyclopedia of English language teaching. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118784235.eeltv02b
Sfard, A., & Prusak, A. (2005). Telling identities: In search of an analytic tool for investigating learning as a culturally shaped activity. Educational Researcher, 34(4), 14–22. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X034004014
Singh, G., & Richards, J. C. (2006). Teaching and learning in the language teacher education course room. RELC Journal, 37(2), 149–175. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688206067426
Song, J. (2016). Emotions and language teacher identity: Conflicts, vulnerability, and transformation. TESOL Quarterly, 50(3), 631–654. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.312
Sugrue, C. (1997). Student teachers’ lay theories and teaching identities: Their implications for professional development. European Journal of Teacher Education, 20(3), 213–225. https://doi.org/10.1080/0261976970200302
Trent, J. (2017). Discourse, agency and teacher attrition: Exploring stories to leave by amongst former early career English language teachers in Hong Kong. Research Papers in Education, 32(1), 84–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2016.1144215
Tsui, A. B. M. (2007). Complexities of identity formation: A narrative inquiry of an EFL teacher. TESOL Quarterly, 41(4), 657–680. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1545-7249.2007.tb00098.x
Tsui, A. B. M. (2011). Teacher education and teacher development. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (Vol. 2, pp. 21–39). Routledge.
Tudor, I. (2002). Exploring context: Localness and the role of ethnography. Humanising Language Teaching, 4(2), 1–9.
Urzúa, A., & Vásquez, C. (2008). Reflection and professional identity in teachers’ future-oriented discourse. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(7), 1935–1946. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.04.008
Uzum, B. (2013). From ‘you’ to ‘we’: A foreign language teacher’s professional journey towards embracing inclusive education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 33, 69–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2013.02.009
Varghese, M., Morgan, B., Johnston, B., & Johnson, K. A. (2005). Theorizing language teacher identity: Three perspectives and beyond. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 4(1), 21–44. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327701jlie0401_2
Varghese, M., Motha, S., Park, G., Reeves, J., & Trent, J. (2016). In this issue. TESOL Quarterly, 50(3), 545–571. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.333
Vitanova, G. (2016). Exploring second-language teachers’ identities through multimodal narratives: Gender and race discourses. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 13(4), 261–288. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2016.1165074
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press.
Wolff, D., & De Costa, P. I. (2017). Expanding the language teacher identity landscape: An investigation of the emotions and strategies of a NNEST. The Modern Language Journal, 101(1), 76–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12370
Yazan, B. (2015). “You learn best when you’re in there”: ESOL teacher learning in practicum. The CATESOL Journal, 27(2), 171–199.
Yazan, B. (2017). “It just made me look at language in a different way”: ESOL teacher candidates’ identity negotiation through teacher education coursework. Linguistics and Education, 40, 38–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2017.06.002
Yazan, B. (2018). Being and becoming an ESOL teacher through coursework and internship: Three teacher candidates’ identity negotiation. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 15(3), 205–227. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2017.1408014
Yazan, B., & Peercy, M. M. (2016). ESOL teacher candidates’ emotions and identity development. In J. Crandall & M. Christison (Eds.), Teacher education and professional development in TESOL: Global perspectives (pp. 53–67). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315641263-3
Yazan, B., & Rudolph, N. (Eds.). (2018). Criticality, teacher identity, and (in)equity in English language teaching: Issues and implications. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72920-6
Yuan, R., & Lee, I. (2016). “I need to be strong and competent”: A narrative inquiry of a student-teacher’s emotions and identities in teaching practicum. Teachers and Teaching, 22(7), 819–841. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2016.1185819
Zembylas, M. (2005). Discursive practices, genealogies, and emotional rules: A poststructuralist view on emotion and identity in teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(8), 935–948. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.06.005
