Construction of Identity in Teacher Candidates

Prof. Dr. Birsen TütünişIstanbul Aydın University

birsentutunis@aydin.edu.tr

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ABSTRACT

• Research into teacher identity in the wider education literature has tended to concentrate either on the development of personal beliefs and the effects of these beliefs on the way an individual understands him/ herself ( Connelly and Clandilin, 1999, MacCarthey,2001) or on the institutional role expectations and how these influence professional identity ( Geijsel and Maijers,2005). The formation of teacher identity is seldom conceptualized as a learning process. This paper will focus on the learning process of the teacher candidates and display how they form their identity as EFL teacher candidates.

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THEORY : POSSIBLE SELVESAnne Marshall, PhD amarshal@uvic.ca Fran Guenette, MA francisg@uvic.ca University of Victoria, BC, Canada NCDA

Conference July 9-11, 2008 Washington, DC

“Possible selves” is a future-oriented and personalizedform of self-concept that links to motivation (Markus & Nurius, 1986)• Possible Selves represent the hopes, dreams and

fears of people considering their future• Construction of possible selves involves using• imagination and reflection to create a set of• hoped-for,• expected, and• feared future selves

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Seven steps In the possIble selvesmappIng process

• 1. Creating a Possible Selves Brainstorm Map.• Brainstorming hoped for and feared possible• selves (on a brainstorm map or paper)• 2. Grouping and naming the hoped for & feared• selves• 3. Debriefing the brainstorm map• 4. Identifying most likely, least likely and most• wanted hoped for selves and feared selves• 5. Transferring brainstorm information to overview• map• 6. “Things to do right now.” Exploring how to• achieve or avoid various hopes and fears• 7. Overall impressions, thoughts & feedback

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Anne Marshall, PhD amarshal@uvic.ca Fran Guenette, MA francisg@uvic.ca University of Victoria, BC, Canada NCDA Conference July 9-11, 2008 Washington, DC 5

LEARNER IDENTITY & LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

• The knowledge base upon which language teacher education has tended to focus on studies of identity of language learners and learning.

• Teacher candidates are taught to help learners to construct their ideal self to form their identities as English language learners.

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POSSIBLE LANGUAGE TEACHER SELF

• The future dimension of language teachers’ COGNITION is conceptualized as « Possible Language Teacher Self» which embraces personalized as well as socially constructed

( MARKUS& NURIUS,1986) language teachers’ cognitive representations of their IDEAL, OUGHT TO and FEARED selves in relation to their work as language teachers.

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QUESTIONNAIRE• Write a definition of an English teacher. • Write how and why you decided to become an English teacher.• Write whether you fit in the definition you gave in question 1.• Where do you hope to work in the future? Why?• What do you expect to do in that institution? ( to become a

distinguished teacher, to become the head of the department, to implement new ideas into the system etc…) Why?

• What are your fears related to your new job? Why?• Make chart of your HOPES, EXPECTATIONS and FEARS• Share your ideas with your partner.•

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HOPES EXPECTATIONS FEARS

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UnderstandIng language teacher IdentIty

• Foreign language teacher’s education focuses on the communicative competence which puts the emphasis on:

- Opportunities for target language use for meaningful purposes;- Expressing meaning rather than accuracy form;- The ability to use language rather than knowledge about the language- The use of authentic materials ( Pachler, 2005, pp 11-12)- IN CONTRAST Elle’s teacher activity in the classroom revealed:- Very little target language use for genuine classroom

communication- A concentration on target language form- Teaching about the target language- A reliance on repetition and practice as strategies for language

learning- Used few authentic materials (Cross, 2006)- WHY?- HER teaching style satisfied the particular activity system within

which she was positioned «TO BE» the LANGUGE TEACHER ………………. HER IDENTITY formed for that community

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Schism between the theory and practice in LTE

• Cross(2006) in his studies conducted to find out what language teachers actually do in their classrooms found a schism between the theory which informs the knowledge base of language teacher education (LTE) and the actual practice of language teachers in classroom.

• Similarly Breen (1985), Block (2003) find LTE acontextual, independent of external influence focusing more on the psycho- cognitive view of language acquisition rather than real social, cultural, historic and political contexts within which teachers are expected to perform their role.

• Such studies raised interest in the issue of “ TEACHER IDENTITY”

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DISCUSSIONLanguage teachers’ cognitive development researched under the labels of belief change, conceptual change, teacher development or teacher learning, has been investigated within the domain of language teacher cognition ( Borg, 2003,2006).

However, the researches do not help us understand the highly complex issue of teacher development. The ideal language teacher self, which constitutes the identity goals and aspirations of teachers could be formed in pre-service education at universities, but the ought to language teacher self is formed in teaching at schoolsWhen a conflict occurs between the two, then the feared language teacher self is formed . This discrepancy might lead to resistance to change as in the Elle Teacher example in ( slide 10).

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AN EXAMPLE• This study is planned to explore the pre-

service teacher candidates’ views on their future selves, how they see themselves as teachers, what their hopes, expectations and fears are.

• A questionnaire ( see slides 8-9 ) was given to 9 second year ELT students - teacher candidates.

• The results proved what Breen ( 1985) and Block (2003) stated in their studies

• ( see Slide 12)13

HOPES EXPECTATIONS FEARS

Enjoy my job Do my job happily Difficult to do

well paid respected Failure in guidance

Flexible working hours Well equipped school Loss of control

Well designed office To be highly qualified unemployment

To become the head of department

To do academic career Making mistakes in English

To set up my own business with a school

To become a good teacher

Not to be accepted by the students

To be successful To be successful Teaching badly

To be a friendly teacher To be a good guide . A facilitator

Unable to control my feelings

HOPES, EXPECTATIONS AND FEARS OF 9 TEACHER CANDIDATES IN PRE- SERVICE EDUCATION

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CANDIDATES

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CONCLUSION• QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS:• 1) 9 out of 9 define the teacher as agood guide• 2) 5 out of 9 have decided because of their Eng.

Teachers• 3) 9 out of 9 say YES. • 4) 8 out of nine want to work at a university. Only

one wants to work at a high school.• 5) They are not sure what they will do in their future

contexts• 6) Their fears are stated in slide 14.

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CONCLUSIONThe ideal language teacher self, which constitutes the identity goals and aspirations of teachers could be formed in pre-service education at universities, but the ought to language teacher self is formed in teaching at schoolsWhen a conflict occurs between the two, then the feared language teacher self is formed . This discrepancy might lead to resistance to change as in the Elle Teacher example above ( slide 10) .

Our STUDY, the example (slide 13) displays the discrepancy in LTE. When they become teachers, they will be disillusioned. They will either try to be like some teachers who have given up the struggle of the ideal language teacher self or will continue to fight against the facts for a better TECHER IDENTITY.

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References• Cross, R. (2006) Identity and Language Teacher Education; The potential

for sociocultural perspectives in researching language teacher identity, • http://www.aare.edu.au/06pap/cro06597.pdf• Dörnyei, Z. And Ushioda E. (Eds.) (2009)Motivation, Language Identity and

the L2 Self. Bristol: Multilingual Matters• Marshall, A. & Guenette, F. (2008). Possible selves mapping process.• http://counselingoutfitters.com/vistas/vistas09/Marshall-Guenette.pdf Pachler,N ( 2005) Who are our Students and what do they bring from

previous experiences? İn J.A. Coleman& J. Clapper (eds.) Effective Learning and Teaching in modern languages (pp.10-16) Abington,Oxon: Routledge

In Cross Russel,2006 paper presented at the annual conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education

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