An autoethnographic inquiry into a teacher educator’s transnational identity formation: a transnational ecological perspective

This study reports on the identity formation of the author as a novice research mentor of an independent research course for TESOL teachers over six months (from the course design to the first research submission). The data is collected from four critical autoethnographic narratives written by the author before, during, and after this period. The narratives were analysed thematically with an eye on the theoretical underpinning of the study, i.e. ecological perspective, in three ecological layers namely micro-, meso-, and macrosystem. The results revealed that the author’s identity construction was influenced by different factors such as ‘autonomy in mentoring’, ‘mediating mentorship’, or ‘academic recognition’ in three levels of educational ecology. The results of this study can motivate research mentors and teacher educators, specifically novice ones, to find some similarities with the ideas discussed in this research and to record their lived experiences as a tool for reflection.

This article examines what being a ‘reflective practitioner’ means and how the process of reflection can be operationalised and evaluated in the context of the continuing professional development (CPD) of those who work in the field of early education. It is argued that Personal Construct Psychology (Kelly, 1955) has strong prima facie relevance to professional development and that the repertory grid (rep grid) technique is worthy of examination as a tool for professional reflection. Rep grids eliciting constructs about children were completed by participants at the beginning and end of a postgraduate course module in early education. Categories emerging from content analysis of the beginning and end grids showed considerable similarity, but a detailed analysis of individual grids showed marked differences in some cases. The study illustrates the potential of the rep grid as a tool for reflection and yields useful insights into the professional understandings of practitioners working on a CPD course. Participants themselves commented positively on the opportunity to examine the constructs they used to describe children and to reflect critically upon them.

Stage 1: Survival During Stage 1, which may last throughout the first full year of teaching, the teacher's main concern is whether she can survive. This preoccupation with survival may be expressed in questions the teacher asks: "Can I get through the day in one piece? Without losing a child? Can I make it until the end of the week? Until the next vacation? Can I really do this kind of work day after day? Will I be accepted by my colleagues?" Such questions are well expressed in Ryan's enlightening collection of accounts of first-year teaching experiences (3).

The professional education of nontraditional adult teacher candidates requires learning environments that include multiple perspectives, democratic principles, sound pedagogy, and critical thinking. Facilitating adult learning is a very complex process that incorporates diverse paradigms of thought (Galbraith, 1991, p. ix). The process requires a metacognitive understanding of varying worldviews, shifting expectations, diverse learning styles, personalities, levels of sophistication, and various cultural and ethical backgrounds. Different approaches are often necessary with adult learners because of their diversity, variability, varying intellectual levels, and extensive past experiences. Teacher educators should recognize and value the life influences on the personal and professional development of nontraditional teacher candidates because these can be used to advance their growth. Institutional settings and the social and political climate for learning must accommodate to the educational encounter between teacher educator and adult learner. Adult learners come to teacher preparation programs with a clear set of goals and sense of themselves that their cumulative life experiences have shaped. In this article, we compare the professional beliefs and teaching behaviors of traditional and nontraditional adult teacher candidates. Using weekly student autobiographical critical reflections during student teaching, we built trust and established authentic needs and purposes for coaching novice teachers in their professional development. In this study, nontraditional adult teacher candidates are preservice teachers over 25 years old with varied life experiences, including participation in the workforce, child rearing, military service, or postsecondary training. These experiences provide adult beginning teachers with skills and competencies transferable to becoming a teacher. Nontraditional adult teacher candidates' beliefs and operational theories may be more ingrained than those of traditional candidates who lack maturation, knowledge, and life experiences. The social, political, and cultural context influences how teacher candidates view themselves, their work, and the world. Marsick and Watkins (1991) state, The teacher's use of learning methods is highly colored by the lens through which they view themselves, their work, and the world (p. 75). The worldviews of nontraditional adult teacher candidates embody basic beliefs and assumptions about the human condition reflected in the paradigms they select for teaching and learning. These beliefs and assumptions form the basis for the operational theories they implement in classrooms. Nontraditional adult teacher candidates may need strategies to help them become conscious of the consequences of their attitudes, values, beliefs, and rules, long taken for granted, by which they make sense of their world. They may also need structures that facilitate questioning whether their traditional ways of doing things produce the results they want to achieve in their teaching. In this article, we describe major characteristics of the professional development of a sample of traditional and nontraditional adult teacher candidates during student teaching. We used critical reflection as a teaching, metacognitive tool to facilitate their ability to understand how one acquires professional knowledge, develops teaching practice, and becomes a teacher. We wanted to expedite their comprehension of the relationship between teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning and their pedagogical decisions. We used critical reflection as a data collection tool to help student teaching supervisors study the professional growth and development of beginning teachers and compare the traditional and nontraditional adult teacher candidates. Thus, we identified and documented the underlying assumptions, focus issues, and self-evaluation dynamics of becoming a critically reflective beginning teacher and how these affect professional development for two groups. …

Introduction. The article is devoted to the problem of newly-qualified teachers’ professional development. The aim of the study is to identify the difficulties of novice teachers during their adaptation in educational settings of the region and to substantiate the ways to improve the quality of initial teacher education in the system of continuous teacher education. Materials and Methods. The methodological basis of the study consists of contextual biographical and cluster approaches. The contextual biographical approach involves studying teachers’ professional biographies in the system of continuing education, taking into account complex external conditions. The cluster approach defines the principles of interaction between various stakeholders within the regional community in order to ensure the sustainable development of the regional educational system. In order to achieve the research goal, the following methods were used: theoretical (analysis of scholarly literature, comparison, generalization) and empirical (online questionnaire, focus group method, method of independent expert assessments). Results. Based on the analysis of scholarly literature, the authors provide their definition of professional and personal teachers’ development as a basic component of their professional development during the period of initial teacher education and at the initial stage of professional development. The authors argued that the main difficulty of novice teachers during the adaptation period is their interaction with various subjects of the educational process at school - students and their parents. The article substantiates the necessity of creating a regional educational cluster as an effective mechanism for improving the quality of initial teacher education at different stages of continuous teacher education. Conclusions. Based on the authors’ idea about professional and personal development of teachers as a basic component of their professional development in the initial period of their working life, the study reveals the main difficulties of novice teachers during their adaptation in educational settings of the region, overcoming of which requires changes in the system of psychological, teacher and methods education at universities and colleges. As an effective mechanism for improving the quality of teacher education, the authors substantiated the idea of creating a pedagogical scientific and educational cluster in the region, which unites the participants of the territorial educational community interested in providing the regional education system with highly qualified teaching staff.

This study aims to explore the influence of contextual factors on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ professional identity formation in the context of Saudi Arabia. More specifically, it aims to examine how the participants’ educational background, life experiences and professional setting influence their professional identities as EFL teachers in Saudi secondary schools. This study involved three EFL teachers who are based in Riyadh. Employing a case study method, the data collection techniques of this qualitative study included in-depth interviews and observations. Drawing upon Wenger’s (1998) concept of communities of practice, the data analysis reveals several factors affecting the EFL Saudi teachers’ professional identity. This study found that the Saudi teachers’ educational background and life experiences act as formative elements which influence their EFL professional identity formation. Moreover, the participating teachers agree that practical experience and teaching community played a more significant role than their educational background in terms of shaping their teacher’s identity construction and their classroom practices. The results have many implications for Saudi Arabia's development of current teacher education programme. If teacher education curriculum is aimed at improving the professional identity building of EFL teachers, then the policymakers might need to review the curricula of English language teacher education and incorporate some improvements within the programme.

This study aims to explore the influence of contextual factors on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ professional identity formation in the context of Saudi Arabia. More specifically, it aims to examine how the participants’ educational background, life experiences and professional setting influence their professional identities as EFL teachers in Saudi secondary schools. This study involved three EFL teachers who are based in Riyadh. Employing a case study method, the data collection techniques of this qualitative study included in-depth interviews and observations. Drawing upon Wenger’s (1998) concept of communities of practice, the data analysis reveals several factors affecting the EFL Saudi teachers’ professional identity. This study found that the Saudi teachers’ educational background and life experiences act as formative elements which influence their EFL professional identity formation. Moreover, the participating teachers agree that practical experience and teaching community played a more significant role than their educational background in terms of shaping their teacher’s identity construction and their classroom practices. The results have many implications for Saudi Arabia's development of current teacher education programme. If teacher education curriculum is aimed at improving the professional identity building of EFL teachers, then the policymakers might need to review the curricula of English language teacher education and incorporate some improvements within the programme.

This article explores the ambiguities and ontological insecurities of pre-service trainee teachers as they prepare to enter training for work in the post-compulsory sector in the UK. Adopting a contextual sensitivity which explores the role of location in teachers’ professional learning, it makes problematic the anxieties and un-situated learning of trainees as they begin to boundary-shift professional identities at the very start of a PGCE programme. Contextualised by the hyper-rapid and intensified spatiality of teaching, learning and training in east London, the article explores the polycontexual realities of entering a newly drawn professional field in a global metropolis. Trainees’ identity formation and lived experiences are captured by means of a digital ethnographic approach. The adoption of student voice research – as a teaching and reflection tool – is tempered against trainee teachers’ own uncertain, (re)forming and emerging reflective voices captured through an ethnographic sensibility.

Quality STEM teacher education is predicated on teacher educators who are well-equipped to design learning experiences, provide feedback, guide the development of teachers across their career span, and conduct rigorous research to advance education theory and praxis. While numerous models and approaches to professional development for teachers exist, few parallels can be drawn between the professional development of teachers and teacher educators (Loughran, 2014). To support the multi-faceted identity (trans)formation of STEM teacher educators, self-directed learning opportunities can help bridge knowledge and practice, enhance productive collaboration, and support efforts to negotiate multiple and conflicting agendas (Goodwin & Kosnik, 2013). The purpose of this empirical study was to explore the identity (trans)formation of teacher educators participating in a long-term interdisciplinary STEM-based Community of Practice (CoP; Wenger, 1998), which began in 2012. An analysis of our experiences through the figured worlds lens informs how a CoP can impact curricular approaches and teacher PD, imploring members to move through their comfort zones into innovative spaces. We conclude with suggestions for our STEM teacher educator colleagues who seek opportunities to challenge their own positions and best support preservice and in-service STEM teachers in a way that allows them to model for their students the value of community.

Background: The honorable medical profession is on the verge of being reduced to a business. Evidence suggests that professionalism is fading and today's doctors are faced with value-threatening problems and gradually begin to forget their main commitment as medical professionals. Many of the problems faced by doctors are rooted in non-professionalism. Mere education in the science and practice of medicine produces an inefficient medical workforce and leads to the formation of a distorted professional identity. In the past decade, educational innovations targeting the formation of desirable professional identities have been presented and are considered a vital part of medical education for the development of professionalism. The present study was conducted to examine the relationship between the formation of professional identity and professionalism. Professionalism education is essential in the formation of a desirable professional identity. Methods: This review article was done in 2015 through searching databases, such as PubMed, Elsevier, Google Scholar, Ovid, SID, and IranMedex, using keywords of professionalism and professional identity, and medical education. Among the 55 found articles, 30 were assessed and selected for review. Results: The formation of professional identity is a process with the following domains: professionalism, and development of a personal (psychosocial) and a cultural identity, which is derived from the unification of professional, personal, and ethical development. The main components required for the formation of a desirable identity are, therefore, rooted in the dimensions of professionalism and professional development. The need for teaching professionalism has a reciprocal relationship with the formation of professional identity. Conclusion: There is a reciprocal relationship between formation of a desirable professional identity and development and strengthening of professionalism. Modern medical education should be designed to develop professional identity, and professionalism acts as an essential part of its curricula throughout the entire course of a doctor’s education, with the aim of acquiring a desirable professional identity

In This Issue

07–285Atay, Derin (Marmara U, Istanbul, Turkey; dyatay@yahoo.com), Teachers' professional development: Partnerships in research. TESL-EJ (http://www.tesl-ej.org) 10.2 (2006), 15 pp.07–286Brandt, C. (Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; c.brandt@yahoo.co.uk), Allowing for practice: A critical issue in TESOL teacher preparation. ELT Journal (Oxford University Press) 60.4 (2006), 355–364.07–287Carless, David (U Hong Kong, China; dcarless@hkucc.hku.hk), Good practices in team teaching in Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. System (Elsevier) 34.3 (2006), 341–351.07–288Diab, Rula L. (American U Beirut, Lebanon; rd10aub@edu.lb), Teaching practices and student learning in the introductory research methods class. TESL-EJ (http://www.tesl-ej.org) 10.2 (2006), 23 pp.07–289Gorsuch, Greta (Texas Tech U, USA; greta.gorsuch@ttu.edu), Doing language education research in a developing country. TESL-EJ (http://www.tesl-ej.org) 10.2 (2006), 13 pp.07–290Hiep, Pham Hoa (U Hue, Vietnam; hiepsuu@gmail.com), Researching the research culture in English language education in Vietnam. TESL-EJ (http://www.tesl-ej.org) 10.2 (2006), 20 pp.07–291Hussin, Habsah (U Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia; hbh_hussin@yahoo.co.uk), Dimensions of questioning: A qualitative study of current classroom practice in Malaysia.TESL-EJ (http://www.tesl-ej.org) 10.2 (2006), 17 pp.07–292Kubanyiova, Magdalena (U Nottingham, UK; aexmk1@nottingham.ac.uk), Developing a motivational teaching practice in EFL teachers in Slovakia: Challenges of promoting teacher change in EFL contexts. TESL-EJ (http://www.tesl-ej.org) 10.2 (2006), 17 pp.07–293Leitch, Ruth (Queen's U, UK), Limitations of language: Developing arts-based creative narrative in stories of teachers' identities. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) 12.5 (2006), 549–569.07–294Louden, William & Mary Rohl (U Western Australia, Australia; bill.louden@uwa.edu.au), ‘Too many theories and not enough instruction’: Perceptions of pre-service teacher preparation for literacy teaching in Australian schools. Literacy (Blackwell) 40.2 (2006), 66–78.07–295Love, Kristina (U Melbourne, Australia) & Merle Isles, ‘Welcome to the online discussion group’: A diagnostic framework for teachers. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy (Australian Literacy Educators' Association) 29.3 (2006), 210–224.07–296Pani, Susmita (English Language Teaching Institute, Bhubaneswar, India; susmitapani@yahoo.com), Teacher development through reading strategy instruction: the story of Supriya. TESL-EJ (http://www.tesl-ej.org) 10.2 (2006), 21 pp.07–297Pardo, Laura S. (Hope College, USA), The role of context in learning to teach writing: What teacher educators need to know to support beginning urban teachers. Journal of Teacher Education (Sage) 57.4 (2006), 378–394.07–298Paris, Cynthia (U Delaware, USA) & Combs, Barbara, Lived meanings: What teachers mean when they say they are learner-centered. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) 12.5 (2006), 571–592.07–299Peter, Lizette (U Kansas, Lawrence, USA) & Tracy E. Hirata-Edds, Using assessment to inform instruction in Cherokee language revitalisation. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (Multilingual Matters) 9.5 (2006), 643–658.07–300Rankin, Jamie (Princeton U, USA; jrankin@princeton.edu) & Florian Becker, Does reading the research make a difference? A case study of teacher growth in FL German. The Modern Language Journal (Blackwell) 90.3 (2006), 353–372.07–301Søreide, Gunn Elisabeth (U Bergen, Norway), Narrative construction of teacher identity: Positioning and negotiation. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) 12.5 (2006), 527–547.07–302Tin, Tan Bee (U Auckland, NZ: tb.tin@auckland.ac.nz), Looking at teaching through multiple lenses. ELT Journal (Oxford University Press) 60.3 (2006), 253–261.07–303Twiselton, Samantha (St Martin's College, Lancaster, UK; s.twiselton@ucsm.ac.uk), The problem with English: The exploration and development of student teachers' English subject knowledge in primary classrooms. Literacy (Blackwell) 40.2 (2006), 88–96.07–304Watson, Cate (U Aberdeen, UK), Narratives of practice and the construction of identity in teaching. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) 12.5 (2006), 509–526.

The influence of the ecological contexts of teacher education on South Korean teacher educators' professional development

Social emotional learning (SEL) of teachers is crucial both to teachers and their students. Thus, teachers’ professional development should focus on cognitive, emotional, and social skills in order to promote teachers’ identity formation. Teacher professional development is a life-long process that begins in teachers’ education. The Biographical Narrative, the story about our lives, was chosen as a method with the potential to promote SEL. Eighteen preservice teachers participated in a workshop focusing on emotional and social skills as part of professional development and shared their Biographical Narrative with the group. Data from the reflections of 12 participants were collected and analyzed qualitatively. The purpose of the study was to understand preservice teachers’ perceptions about their professional development, and the contribution of the Biographical Narrative to the social emotional learning of the tellers, the listeners, and the group. The findings revealed that the participants related to cognitive, emotional, and social aspects of development. The developmental process occurs throughout all stages of the method—planning, performance, and reflection. In addition, the Biographical Narrative influenced not only the tellers, but also the listeners and the group. Implications are discussed regarding teachers’ professional development as preservice teachers and as teachers in their work in schools.

This article demonstrates the advantages of combining hermeneutic phenomenology and narrative inquiry to examine the professional identity formation of English language teachers in Australia from non-native English-speaking immigrant backgrounds. By exploring the lived experiences of 16 teachers from 10 countries, this study foregrounds individual and shared trajectories, moving beyond the binary categories of native and non-native English-speaking teachers (NESTs and NNESTs) and capturing the evolving nature of identity formation over time. The study unravels the spatial-temporal and corporeal-relational dimensions that shape the identities, spanning from early lived experiences to current professional roles and future imaginations. Employing a recursive methodological orientation, this research emphasizes broad-based engagement with the phenomenon, framing critical questions, dialogic data generations, iterative interpretation, and reflective depth, facilitating an in-depth analysis of professional identity development. The integration of hermeneutic phenomenology and narrative inquiry offers holistic insights into the fluid processes underpinning identity construction, contributing to academic discourse on qualitative methodologies and offering practical implications for educational policy, teacher education, and support systems. This methodological approach demonstrates how such methods unveil the dimensions and layers of teacher professional identities, providing nuanced perspectives that can inform intercultural educational strategies and interventions.