Navigating tensions and asserting agency in language teacher identity: A case study of a graduate teaching assistant

Robertson, William Boden; Yazan, Bedrettin

doi:10.1016/j.linged.2022.101079

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…This realization is typical when TCs are introduced to the I ‐position as a student‐teacher, a transitional and transformational position. They tend to find themselves stuck and struggling between seemingly or actually contradictory approaches to language teaching (see Karina's case in Robertson & Yazan, 2022). They grapple with their “borderland discourse[s], the weaving together of various discourses and associated subjectivities to create a professional teacher identity with which they can live and work as new teachers” (Alsup, 2019, p. 15–16).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To explicate, teacher identity informs and guides what decisions teachers make, how they assert their agency, and how they emotionally respond to and invest in experiences with students, parents, colleagues, and administration during their teacher‐learning and teaching practices (Barkhuizen, 2017; De Costa & Norton, 2017; Varghese et al., 2016). In turn, every time teachers make instructional decisions, assert agency, take actions, engage in emotion labor, and make investments in certain practices, they negotiate, imagine, construct, roadtest, and enact their professional identities as teachers (Ilieva & Ravindran, 2018; Kayi‐Aydar, 2019; Robertson & Yazan, 2022). Therefore, what teachers say about teaching (reflecting their beliefs, values, and priorities) and what they do as teachers in and outside the classroom provide evidence as to what kind of teacher they are and aspire to become.…”

Section: A Dialogical Approach To Identity and Tensionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tensions in an Identity‐Oriented Language Teaching Practicum: A Dialogic Approach

Uştuk

Yazan

2023

TESOL Quarterly

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In this study, we examine how teacher candidates navigate the tensions in their identity work as they complete the activities in the TESOL practicum course in Turkiye. Using the Bakhtinian approach to teacher identity, we conceptually maintain that identity work inevitably involves tensions that teachers encounter during their professional lives. We use a qualitative case study design to explore how two teacher candidates (Erdem and Murat) experience and understand identity tensions through dialogic engagement in an identity‐oriented practicum course. We collected data from a series of identity‐oriented activities that promote a dialogic space for teacher candidates to negotiate and enact their identities. We found that although their attempts to deal with the tensions varied, both teacher candidates made use of the self and community dialogues constructed through identity‐oriented teacher learning activities. Pushing back at authoritative discourses of language teaching prevailing in the university program and the practicum school, they engaged in identity work by constructing their internally persuasive discourses which guided their practice. Facing the contextual demands, Erdem raised doubts about his ideal way of teaching he tried out in the practicum, whereas Murat went beyond the past and the present by foregrounding his imagined identity which served as a liberating aspiration.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Dialogical Approach To Identity and Tensionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tensions in an Identity‐Oriented Language Teaching Practicum: A Dialogic Approach

Uştuk

Yazan

2023

TESOL Quarterly

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“…Bounded systems serve a methodological function, focusing the researcher's attention to the case under study. In this way, the case study boundary functions as a set of metaphorical blinders, giving the researcher laser focus on what is under study (Robertson & Yazan, 2022). Simply studying one particular entity does not necessarily make that study a case study.…”

Section: Secondary Science Teaching Qualitative Methodologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Qualitative research in science education: A literature review of current publications

Stanley,

Robertson

2024

EUR J SCI MATH ED

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This study analyzed articles from the last four years regarding how science education research is framed and discussed as qualitative research. The research question that guided this study was: <i>To what extent do qualitative secondary science teaching research publications reflect high-quality practices found in mainstream methodological texts? </i>The researchers utilized a systematic literature review methodology by (1) creating search terms based on the research question; (2) choosing relevant databases in which to search; (3) conducting the search and gathering articles; and (4) selecting articles based on inclusion criteria. The researchers chose “secondary education” and “science teaching” as search terms relevant to this study. Articles included in the review were peer-reviewed for credibility, available free online as full-text for accessibility, and available in English, which is the authors’ first language. The researchers conducted three levels of screening on the full collection of articles–title, abstract, then methods, to efficiently narrow the large sample of qualitative science education research articles to a manageable and characteristic selection. The findings include that few articles addressed science teaching and learning with deep qualitative engagement. Some articles claimed to use specific qualitative methodologies without adequately expressing aspects of those methodologies, which lend support to the credibility, transferability, dependability, or confirmability of the articles such as the researchers’ subjectivity or member-checking. Those studies that did are indeed diamonds in the ruff.

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“…The first is outside context effects, such as intercultural adaptation ( Lapresta and Huguet, 2008 ; Soldatova and Geer, 2013 ; Lou, 2021 ) and classroom teaching ( Català, 2015 ; Lynch and Motha, 2023 ; Sang, 2023 ). The second type is about different forms of identity, such as teacher identity ( Edwards and Burns, 2016 ; Nordstrom, 2020 ; Chao, 2022 ; Robertson and Yazan, 2022 ; Zhang and Hwang, 2023 ) and professional identity ( Skjeggestad et al, 2017 ; Bagiyan et al, 2021 ; Desselle et al, 2023 ). Besides, the research on cultural identity and languages mainly focuses on the issue of national identity ( Caldas and Caron-Caldas, 1999 ; Lai, 2011 ) and immigrant identity ( Petreñas et al, 2018 ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the cultural identity of EFL learners from the eco-linguistics perspective: evidence from students in arts college before and after the COVID-19 epidemic period

Peng

2023

Front. Psychol.

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The identity development process has individual and societal components and is inherently intertwined with one’s broader sociocultural milieu. The correlation between the personal and social aspects of an individual’s identity considerably influences their behavior within their environment. This study examines cultural identity changes among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students by conducting a questionnaire survey based on the anxiety/uncertainty management theory by Gudykunst (1995, 1998). The questionnaire was distributed twice: Study 1 used data from 483 students and Study 2 used data from 359 students. After each study, 20 students’ descriptions of Chinese and Western cultures were analyzed in NVivo. Guided by the ecological research paradigm, this study examines the impact of individual differences on cultural identity at the macro-, meso-, exo-, and micro- levels. The findings suggest that social context can influence an individual’s cultural identity, and cultural identity development accompanies being “oneself.”

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Navigating tensions and asserting agency in language teacher identity: A case study of a graduate teaching assistant

Cited by 15 publications

References 39 publications

Tensions in an Identity‐Oriented Language Teaching Practicum: A Dialogic Approach

Tensions in an Identity‐Oriented Language Teaching Practicum: A Dialogic Approach

Qualitative research in science education: A literature review of current publications

Understanding the cultural identity of EFL learners from the eco-linguistics perspective: evidence from students in arts college before and after the COVID-19 epidemic period

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