‘Four years on, I’m ready to teach’: teacher education and the construction of teacher identities

Abstract

This article discusses the results of a qualitative study that aimed to explore how one group of preservice English language teachers in Hong Kong constructed their identities as teachers. Using in-depth interviews to gain a rich understanding of participants' teacher identity formation in practice and discourse, the paper examines the perspectives of six preservice teachers about teaching and teachers at the completion of their undergraduate teacher education program. In contrast to the theorization of teacher identity construction, the results suggest that the participants often held rigid views about teaching and how they saw themselves, and others, as teachers. The paper argues that this rigidity may lead to antagonistic relations between these preservice teachers and their more experienced colleagues as the participants move into teaching and explores the implications for challenging this rigidity within the context of teacher education programs. Implications for future research are also considered.

Professional identity tensions of beginning teachers

“…Several researchers have tried to conceptualise and characterise teachers' professional identity (e.g., Akkerman & Meijer, 2011;Beijaard, 1995;Lamote & Engels, 2010;Mockler, 2011;Rodgers & Scott, 2008), and how teachers develop this identity (e.g., Coldron & Smith, 1999;Czerniawski, 2011;Trent, 2011;Volkmann & Anderson, 1998). One reason to pay attention to teachers' professional identity is that it can be used by teachers as a resource for making sense of themselves (Coldron & Smith, 1999;MacLure, 1993, p. 311).…”

“…Several researchers have tried to conceptualise and characterise teachers' professional identity (e.g., Akkerman & Meijer, 2011;Beijaard, 1995;Lamote & Engels, 2010;Mockler, 2011;Rodgers & Scott, 2008), and how teachers develop this identity (e.g., Coldron & Smith, 1999;Cooper & Olson, 1996;Czerniawski, 2011;Flores & Day, 2006;Schepens, Aelterman, & Vlerick, 2009;Trent, 2011).…”

Responding to the Need for Re-Conceptualizing Second Language Teacher Education: The Potential of a Sociocultural Perspective

“…Despite commonly studying teachers' professional learning, a number of studies look into their cultural backgrounds (e.g., Gan, 2013;Gao & Benson, 2012;Miller, 2007;Nemtchinova, 2005), while others investigate prior beliefs (e.g., Le, 2014;Mak, 2011;Ng, Nicholas, & Williams, 2010;Tang, Lee, & Chun, 2012;Yuan & Lee, 2014), emotions (e.g., Atay, 2007;Benson, 2012;Brandt, 2006;Farrell, 2008;H. T. M. Nguyen, 2010;Pillen, Beijaard, & den Brok, 2013;Trent, 2013), and professional identity (e.g., Haniford, 2010;Miller, 2007;Trent, 2011Trent, , 2013. Although various personal factors have been accumulatively accounted for in the literature, it seems to be challenging to try and aggregate or compare findings from these studies due to their different focuses and scopes and a lack of a broad framework that allows for research to account for teachers' personal influences more comprehensively and systematically.…”

“…T. M. Nguyen, 2010), school mentors (e.g., Atay, 2007;Brandt, 2006;Farrell, 2008;Gan, 2014;Gao & Benson, 2012;H. T. M. Nguyen, 2010;Riesky, 2013;Trent, 2011Trent, , 2013Urzúa & Vásquez, 2008;Yuan & Lee, 2014), other teachers-learners (e.g., Dang, 2013;Gao & Benson, 2012; H. T. M. Nguyen, 2013; H. T. M. Nguyen & Baldauf, 2010; H. T. M. Nguyen & Hudson, 2012), and language learners (e.g., de Courcy, 2011;Gao & Benson, 2012;Yuan & Lee, 2014). Some researchers have looked into the rules and policies regulating language teaching and learning and SLTE in specific contexts (e.g., Atay, 2007;Cross, 2006;Cross, 2010;Gao & Benson, 2012).…”

A teacher-in-context

“…Teacher identity has recently become a popular concept in the language teacher literature (Cheung, Ben Said & Park, 2015;Geluso, 2013;Gu, 2014;Kiernan, 2010;Nagatomo, 2016;Park, 2012;Ruohotie-Lyhty, 2013, 2016a, 2016bTrent, 2010Trent, , 2011Trent & DeCoursey, 2011;Varghese, 2010). This is because it has been discovered that the success of language teaching often depends on language teachers: who they are, how they teach, or what they promote through their teaching.…”