The Tensions Between EFL Teacher Identities and INSET in the Turkish Context

Abstract

Due to the insufficiency of current in-service training courses which are far from the collaboration and the reflection of teachers, the current study scrutinizes the incongruities between teacher identities and in-service training programs offered by the Ministry of National Education in Turkey based upon the use of the activity theory. In this narrative study, two English as a foreign language teachers reflected on their environment, behaviors, beliefs, competencies, and missions under the heading of teacher identity concept. The results suggest that teachers need a supportive community of practice and a well-tailored mentoring system to be able to reflect on themselves and the context in which they are teaching.Key words: Activity theory, ınset, teacher identity, the onion model, Turkey.Debido a la poca oferta de programas de desarrollo profesional donde los profesores puedan reflexionar o colaborar, el presente estudio analiza, con base en la teoría de la actividad, las incongruencias entre las identidades de los docentes y los programas de formación permanente ofrecidos por el Ministerio de Educación de Turquía. En este estudio narrativo, dos profesores de inglés reflexionaron sobre su entorno, comportamiento, creencias, habilidades y misión bajo la noción de identidad docente. Los resultados apuntan a que los profesores necesitan el apoyo de una comunidad de práctica y un sistema de mentoría bien diseñado que les permita reflexionar sobre sí mismos y sobre el contexto en el que enseñan.Palabras clave: el modelo cebolla, identidad docente, programas de desarrollo profesional, teoría de la actividad, Turquía.

Career Motivations as Sources of Teacher Identity in Foreign Language Education

“…Teacher identity research in mainstream education elaborated on the relationship of teacher identity with various factors such as agency, commitment to work, job satisfaction, sense of selfefficacy, motivation and possible selves (e.g., Canrinus, Helms-Lorenz, Beijaard, Buitink, & Hofman, 2012;Cobb, Harlow, & Clark, 2018;Erdem, 2020;Marschall, 2021). Research in the Turkish EFL context investigated the perceived L2 teacher identities of pre-service (Babanoğlu & Ağçam, 2019) and in-service EFL teachers (Keskin & Zaimoğlu, 2021;Ölmez, 2016), revealed their incongruities with in-service training programs (Güngör, 2017) and explored the intricacies in L2 teacher identity development process (Kaya & Dikilitaş, 2019;Tokoz Goktepe & Kunt, 2021). In an attempt to contribute to this research line, the present study drew on the robustness of a well-structured motivation theory, expectancy-value theory, in offering broader insights into the intricate characteristics of teacher identity and motivation with their correlates (Richardson & Watt, 2018) and focused on the interplay of L2 teacher identity and career motivations using the FIT-Choice framework.…”

The Field of Teacher Identity: Challenges, Endeavors, and Implications for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Research

“…Most of these studies employed semi-structured interviews only (e.g., Chan & Clarke, 2014;Chan & Lo, 2017;Choe, 2016;Namaghi, 2009;Trent, 2012Trent, , 2014. Some studies involved both semi-structured interviews and other qualitative approaches like classroom research reports (Schaefer, 2013), field observation (Xu, 2013;Yuan & Burns, 2017), email exchanges (Chang, 2018;Loh & Hu, 2014), relevant documents (e.g., transcripts and internship plans or reports) (Chang, 2018;Mora et al, 2016), and reflective journals or autobiographies (Güngör, 2017;Xu, 2013). Following this line of qualitative paradigm, further noted by Yuan (2019), qualitative content analysis was employed as the most dominant data analysis approach (e.g., Chan & Lo, 2017;Güngör, 2017;Mora et al, 2016;Namaghi, 2009;Trent, 2012;Yuan & Burns, 2017), whilst approaches like discourse analysis (Chan & Clarke, 2014;Trent, 2016Trent, , 2017 and narrative inquiry (Loh & Hu, 2014) were also adopted.…”

“…Another pitfall of the qualitative paradigm lies in the plethora of theoretical frameworks that "have much in common" with "also many differences" (Willis, 2007, p. 147). For example, the 22 studies reviewed by Yuan (2019) were based on varying frameworks like identity as discourse, practice, and activity (Lee, 2013), the dual process of identity formation (Tsui, 2007a), community of practice (Yuan & Burns, 2017), the framework of practice, language, and discourse (Trent, 2017), and the onion model (Güngör, 2017). Although nuanced understanding of EFL teacher identity might be achieved from diverse perspectives, relatively more generalizable knowledge is still needed that can be attained from studies primarily following the quantitative approach or combining the quantitative and qualitative paradigms.…”

“…The theory of situated learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991), among others, might prove to be a potential "encompassing" framework for EFL research (Tsui, 2011). Specifically, the theory of CoP demonstrates an openness to almost all contextual factors influencing EFL teacher identity, subsuming, for example, "social and economic influences" and "institutional support" (Choe, 2016), "rigid teacher recruitment system" (Chang, 2018), "psychical conditions of schools" and "xxam-oriented culture" (Güngör, 2017), "professional training" and "context of work" (Tsui, 2007b), "social-identification" (Varghese et al, 2005), and other contextual variables identified in He's (2013) three-stage framework. In this line of thinking, contextual factors can and should be further grouped in a more refined manner.…”

Primary student teachers’ professional identity tensions: The construction and psychometric quality of the professional identity tensions scale

“…If professional identity tensions are not properly managed, they can limit teachers' learning and enthusiasm for the profession (cf. Akkerman & Meijer, 2011;Smagorinsky et al, 2004;Güngör, 2017;Lim, 2011;Smith, Anderson, & Blanch, 2016;Warin et al, 2006). Additionally, these tensions may lead to feelings of insecurity and exhaustion (Pillen et al, 2013), which, in time, increases the risk of delay or dropout during training or shortly after graduating (Hong, 2010;Pillen et al, 2013).…”