scholarly journals Chinese Self, Australian Other: Chinese as a Foreign Language Teacher Identity Construction in Australian Contexts

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Han ◽  
Xiaoyan Ji
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Professional Growth ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Self And Other ◽  
Organizational Attitudes ◽  
Language Teacher Identity ◽  
Relationship Of

Research in the field of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) education has been increasing in the past decades. However, the number of studies on CFL teacher identity is limited. To bridge the gap, this study employed a qualitative method to explore Chinese CFL teachers’ identity formation and reformation in Australian contexts. A Chinese-Australian language program was studied to examine the challenges, struggles and developments of Chinese CFL teachers who came to Australia to pursue professional growth. Five Master’s theses and three interview participants were included to paint a picture of how Chinese CFL teachers interact internally and externally with a new environment. Guided by Mead’s theory of self and other, we found that Chinese CFL teachers’ identity formation and reformation in Australian classrooms are deeply influenced by their self-identification and their integration with others in the community. Cultural connectedness is a key for organizational attitudes in the relationship of self and other. Chinese CFL teachers were found lacking the wholeness of self in Australian contexts, which led to obstacles in teacher identity construction. Insufficient communication between self and other resulted in their positioning crisis.

Language teacher identity construction: Insights from non-native Chinese-speaking teachers in a Danish higher educational context

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chun Zhang ◽  
Ying Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Native Speaker ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Educational Context ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Higher Educational ◽  
Language Teacher Identity

Abstract This qualitative study concerns foreign language teacher identity construction, where the focal participants are four non-native Chinese-speaking teachers (NNCSTs) working in a higher educational context in Denmark. The study aims to go beyond the current prevailing research on native speaking (NS) teachers by making NNCSTs’ challenges and contributions visible and meaningful. It attempts to raise awareness of NNCSTs’ voices and seek better understanding of their identities as foreign language teachers. Data are gathered from in-depth questionnaires, audio-recorded interviews, classroom observations and field notes over a period of four years. Participants’ perceptions of native Chinese-speaking teachers’ (NCSTs) pedagogical practices and their critical reflections on personal and professional traits as effective language teachers are examined. The roles of non-nativeness in a non-Chinese working environment are also explored. The study concludes that being a NNCST does not create barriers in a local Danish context. Rather, non-native speaker status has positive advantages over teacher-student relationships and interactions. NNSCTs’ beneficial personality traits, comparatively high sensitivity to linguistic and cultural differences, empathetic understanding of students’ learning trajectory, along with their constant and conscious development of locally appropriate practices, altogether enhance the process of professional identity construction.

scholarly journals Language Teacher Identity Formation

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 381-402
Author(s):  
Victoria Oliveira da Silva ◽  
Larissa Dantas Rodrigues Borges
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Teacher Identity Formation ◽  
Language Teacher Identity

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.

Language teacher identity

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayriye Kayi-Aydar
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Teacher Development ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Classroom Practices ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Foreign Language Teachers ◽  
Language Teacher ◽  
Pedagogical Choices ◽  
Language Teacher Identity

The topic of language teacher identity receives strong attention in current scholarly literature. Understanding the complexities of identities that second/foreign language teachers construct is crucial because the ways teachers perceive themselves as professionals impact teacher development (e.g., Kanno & Stuart, 2011*), interactions with peers and colleagues (e.g., Kayi-Aydar, 2015*), pedagogical choices or classroom practices (e.g., Duff & Uchida, 1997*), and access to power and ownership of language (De Costa & Norton, 2017*; Varghese et al., 2016*), ultimately undergirding or undermining second/foreign language teaching (Varghese et al., 2016*).

Teacher Identity (Re)Construction within Professional Learning Communities

2021 ◽  
pp. 104-115
Author(s):  
Pinar Kocabas Gedik ◽  
Deniz Ortactepe
Keyword(s):  
Professional Identity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Teacher Narratives ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Teacher Professional Identity ◽  
Teacher Professional

The research on teacher professional identity mostly focused on the process of teacher professional identity formation, the characteristics of teacher professional identity according to the teachers themselves as well as the researchers, and the representation of professional identity through teacher narratives in written and spoken discourse (Beijaard et al., 2004). However, there is much to explore in teachers' tensions and emotions regarding the issues between teacher cognition, and personal and professional sides of teacher identity (Day & Leitch, 2001). In this chapter, we have reviewed the literature on teacher professional identity in relation to communities of practice, imagined identity, and imagined communities. Various definitions of emotions and tensions as well as their roles in teacher professional identity construction have been presented and relevant studies on teacher identity construction, emotions and tensions have been discussed.

scholarly journals A drama of selves: Investigating teacher identity development from dialogical and complexity perspectives

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alastair Henry
Keyword(s):  
Identity Development ◽  
Professional Identity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Dialogical Self ◽  
Language Teacher Identity ◽  
Identity System

Identity is of increasing interest in teacher education. Crucial for resilience, the development of a coherent professional identity has been characterized as emerging from tensions between multiple and sometimes conflicting conceptions of what it means to be someone who teaches (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011). While light is being shed on these often antagonistic relations, less is known about the dynamics of identity formation and transformation. Providing a contribution to work on language teacher identity, in this single case study Hermans’ (2008) concept of the dialogical self is combined with complexity principles in an investigation of changes in the emerging professional identity of a pre-service English teacher during a practicum. Drawing on intra- and inter-personal data, experiences of learning to become a person who teaches English are conceptualized as a drama that is played out between different and sometimes unaligned selves. Analyses show how this inner drama maps onto the landscape of an emerging teacher identity, how tensions can be understood systemically, and how a teacher identity system can have a signature dynamic.

Being native and being foreign

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harumi Minagawa ◽  
Dallas Nesbitt
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Linguistic Identity ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Tertiary Institutions ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
Tertiary Teaching ◽  
Teacher Identity Formation ◽  
Language Teacher Identity

Abstract 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.

Teacher Identity (Re)Construction within Professional Learning Communities

2017 ◽  
pp. 86-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pinar Kocabas Gedik ◽  
Deniz Ortactepe
Keyword(s):  
Professional Identity ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Teacher Narratives ◽  
Spoken Discourse ◽  
Teacher Professional Identity ◽  
Teacher Professional

The research on teacher professional identity mostly focused on the process of teacher professional identity formation, the characteristics of teacher professional identity according to the teachers themselves as well as the researchers, and the representation of professional identity through teacher narratives in written and spoken discourse (Beijaard et al., 2004). However, there is much to explore in teachers' tensions and emotions regarding the issues between teacher cognition, and personal and professional sides of teacher identity (Day & Leitch, 2001). In this chapter, we have reviewed the literature on teacher professional identity in relation to communities of practice, imagined identity, and imagined communities. Various definitions of emotions and tensions as well as their roles in teacher professional identity construction have been presented and relevant studies on teacher identity construction, emotions and tensions have been discussed.

scholarly journals Understanding Teacher Identity Construction: Professional Experiences of Becoming Indonesian Montessori Teachers

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Indira Lusianingtyas Siswanto ◽  
Paulus Kuswandono
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Identity Construction ◽  
Teacher Identity ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Classroom Observation ◽  
Data Gathering ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Professional Experiences ◽  
Montessori Schools

This study sought to investigate the identity construction of Indonesian Montessori teachers. The research was done in two Montessori schools in Yogyakarta: Cosmic School and Universe School (pseudonyms). The participants involved in this research were eight teachers in total. The data gathering process employed questionnaire, classroom observation, interview, and written reflections. The findings have shed a light on the ways teachers develop their identities within Montessori’s values and principles that they reflect and implement in their daily teaching practice. The findings of the research portrayed that there were four major salient principles influencing the identity formation of becoming Montessori teachers. They were movement and cognition, choice, interest, and teacher ways and child ways. Those principles and values were becoming teachers’ guidance of creating professional working ethos. Montessori principles also influenced the teachers in the ways they perceived and treated the students. This study also revealed the undertaken agencies to hold identity as Montessori teachers. There were three broad themes to explain their agencies. They entailed the essence of building communication between teacher and parents, the significance of community support, and the importance of being well-prepared teachers. Based on the findings and discussion, some recommendations for future studies are also presented.

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