Attending to EFL Teacher Identity: Reflective Practice in Optimising Teacher Professional Education Program

Abstract

This paper offers a discussion on the interconnection between teacher professional development, teacher learning and teacher identity and how reflective practice can optimize Indonesian EFL teachers development of professional identity. This paper provides some ideas for designing reflective activities to foster the development of teacher identity. It presents practical suggestions about how to incorporate reflections in learning activities during the Teacher Professional Education (TPE). The reflection model proposed by Kolb (2015) is preferred as it is considered to be simpler and more suitable in the context of TPE in Indonesia. The reflective practice during TPE is fundamental to promote lifelong teacher learner identity.

The Construction of Indonesian Efl Learners’ Identities: A Narrative-Based Case Study

“…In both P1's and P2's cases, it can be perceived that the role of the English teacher is important. This conclusion is similar to Lie (2017), Prabandari (2020), andTeng (2019), Wirza (2018). This indicates that not only the students that must invest more time and energy in learning English but also the teacher's investment in learning the materials and the way to deliver them is equally important in constructing a positive learner's identity in learning English.…”

“…Unlike the concept of motivation which sees language learners as unitary and ahistorical, the notion of investment explains how the language learners select and invest some efforts in learning the language based on their needs, sociocultural histories and environment, and multiple identities (Choi, 2018). Besides that, the teacher's investment in teaching the target language is perceived to be equally important and must be addressed too because in the process both parties are involved and affect each other (Keiler, 2018;Lie, 2017;Prabandari, 2020;Teng, 2019;Ubaidillah & Widiati, 2021).…”

Exploring Indonesian EFL Pre-Service Teachers’ Professional Identity: Why should be Civil Servant?

“…Reflect to those facts and construction, as prospective human resources of education in Indonesia, the intentions and direction of the identity of EFL preservice teachers need to be re-examined. As the teacher identity possesses the fundamental characteristics of identity, which are that it is numerous, dynamic, and contextual (Prabandari, 2020), these EFL preservice teachers as millennials are required to be dynamic with the times. With the elimination of CPNS acquiescence for teachers, it is necessary to reconsider the gap between the expectations and personal identity of the pre-service teachers in one of English education department in Medan: do they still want to be a civil servant teacher, or a private school teacher, or even in other fields that are more a priority for them?…”

A Narrative Inquiry of Two English Teachers’ Identity Construction

“…Research in the field of teacher identity construction gains an increasing interest from many scholars in the field of language teacher education (e.g., Leigh, 2019;Prabandari, 2020;Trent, 2013), drawing primarily on sociocultural and post-structural frameworks (Kocabaş-Gedik & Ortaçtepe Hart, 2021;Salinas & Ayala, 2018;Zacharias, 2010). Unlike previous studies that viewed teacher identity to be a set of relatively fixed profession-related qualities such as beliefs, attitudes, values, motivations, and experiences (Ibarra, 1999, as cited in Nghia & Tai, 2017), recent studies have suggested that teacher identity is an ongoing and dynamic process of individual teachers developing conceptions of themselves, shaping, reshaping, and being shaped by social, cultural, and political contexts (Miller, 2009;Yuan & Lee, 2015).…”

“…One dimension of it is the understanding of how teachers see themselves as teachers (Teng, 2019), which is influenced by contexts and shaped by experiences (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009). However, Devia Fitaloka, Isti Siti Saleha Gandana most literature reveals a common idea that teacher identity is an ongoing process and is a multiple, complex, and dynamic process (Beijaard, Meijer &Verloop 2004;Gee 2000;Prabandari 2020;Riyanti 2017), whose formation is influenced by a range of factors such as teachers' emotion (Kocabaş-Gedik & Ortaçtepe Hart, 2021;S AlHarbi & Ahmad, 2020;M. F. Teng, 2017), their experiences as learners (Bekereci-Şahin & Şallı-Çopur, 2020;Zacharias, 2010), and their work and life experiences in particular contexts (Chu, 2020;Flores & Day, 2006).…”