Teacher Research: Uncovering Professional Identities and Trajectories of Teacher Researchers through Narrative Research—A Colombian Case

Abstract

This work explores real-life experiences around research. Thinking of the English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher as an inquirer of the academic reality, the study presents accounts of professional identity as narrated in the life histories of three EFL teachers-researchers in a private but non-profit institution in Bogota, Colombia. This study sheds light on different institutional practices that, grounded on a community of practice, reinforce research as an inquiry process and as an opportunity for professional and institutional development. Additionally, the study also addresses issues of investment when teachers engage in this practice. The work concludes by reflecting that teachers' professional identities as researchers are composed of experiences that have an important effect on their teaching expertise. Thus, teachers tend to alter their identities based on the relationships they establish within the community and undergo changes when previous and current experiences are put together. It is suggested that teacher education should help teachers-to-be understand these dynamics.

Imagined Identities and Imagined Communities: Colombian English Teachers’ Investment in Their Professional Development

“…Finally, Sanches-Silva (2013) showed how future teachers in Brazil struggled to define their identities as English learners, English users, and English teachers as they were invested in learning the language in their teacher preparation program. In Colombia, Ubaque and Castañeda-Peña (2017) explored how some English teachers struggled in their school contexts to be invested in pedagogical practices that allowed them to develop their identity as teacher-researchers.…”

English Teachers’ Subjectivities: Contesting and Resisting Must-be Discourses

“…It is worth mentioning that the growing interest in subjectivity from different perspectives (feminist, psychoanalytic and postmodern theories) has pushed -in several fields-a type of research interested in the self-reflective activity (Atkins, 2005) of individuals to understand how these cope with day-to-day pressures and difficulties, contemporary, affected by a system of reasoning that promotes efficiency, competition and normalized identities (techniques of domination) and trying to understand how individuals exercise some actions (techniques of the self) to reach a self-governing existence in which they meet their own aspirations Although in the ELT field, the interest in identity as an analytical category has served to explore some aspects of subjectivity (Castañeda- Peña & Ubaqué, 2017;Guerrero & Meadows, 2015;Pennington, 2015;Cheung, 2015;Guerrero & Quintero, 2013;Viafara, 2016;Arcila, 2007); few studies have been devoted to analyzing it as a practice of self-understanding and self-governance. In this sense, this research is a contribution to the ELT field from the line constitution of subjects, subjectivity and resistance practices to examine Colombian English Teachers' struggles in their quest for giving sense to their life and work in a context full of suspicion, criticism and public scrutiny.…”

“…Also, a promising research line in relation to English Teachers' identities concerning power, knowledge, and inequality has emerged as a way to understand professional identities to embrace diversity, difference and affirmation and make visible aspects of gender, race, space, and positioning within different perspectives (See: Méndez & Clavijo, 2017;Castañeda-Peña, 2008;Castañeda-Peña & Ubaqué, 2017;Guerrero, & Quintero, 2013, among others).…”

Reflective Practice and Teacher Research: Catalysts for Teacher Growth

“…It has long been recognized [1][2][3][4] that teacher research directs teacher professional identity and better quality teaching and learning. Research has indicated that engagement of teachers in research is desirable and has a beneficial effect on both teaching and learning, thus enhancing the quality of education.…”