An Ecological Study of Identity in Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Light of the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity.

Rouhua Wang,Majid Elahi Shirvan,Tahereh Taherian

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.799418

Abstract

Influenced by the growing urge of investigating the combined nature of teacher identity with the dynamic teacher professional learning processes in recent years, the present study aimed to cast an ecological look at identity role construction and change in L2 teaching. To this aim, Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) meta-theoretical framework was employed with the centrality of social–cultural roles in framing an EFL teacher’s experiences and guiding actions. In a single-case study, a Chinese EFL teacher’s dynamic construction of identity (as a single-case design) was traced in three phases: before a practicum (teacher professional development program), during the practicum, and during the first year of teaching. A triangulation of data was used to ensure the adequacy and representativeness of the required data. The data were analyzed qualitatively to find traces of change and development in the teacher’s ontological beliefs, goals, self-perceptions, and action possibilities. The DSMRI-oriented analysis of pre-, mid-, and post-practicum data emphasized the traces of role identities of the teacher trainee in her professional development process, that also created both emerging patterns and emerging challenges in her role, fostering a more negotiated, adaptive and realistic teacher role identity. This study substantiated the usefulness of the DSMRI for viewing language teachers’ professional development and the dynamic identity development processes as several temporal and situated factors contribute to the alignment or misalignment of a teacher’s ontological beliefs, goals, self-perceptions, and action possibilities.

Highlights

Identity as a personal construct is at the core of the self who is actively engaged in teaching and learning, but it resides in the periphery of academic discourse (Bochner, 1997; Stets and Burke, 2012; Eisenbach, 2016).Teacher identity, which includes a combination of self-perceptions, beliefs, values, purposes, affects, and actions at the core of teacher’s role
In Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI), this definition is the representation of a complex dynamic system (Opfer and Pedder, 2011; Henry, 2016, 2021)— an ever growing interactive network of role-specific assumptions and beliefs, self-conceptions, values, goals, emotions, and actions held by the individual at the core of who s/he is as a teacher in the situation (Kaplan and Garner, 2017)
This study showed how DSMRI could be used in a case study analysis of the role identity and professional change of an English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher before taking part in a practicum, during the practicum and through her first year of teaching experience

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Identity as a personal construct is at the core of the self who is actively engaged in teaching and learning, but it resides in the periphery of academic discourse (Bochner, 1997; Stets and Burke, 2012; Eisenbach, 2016).Teacher identity, which includes a combination of self-perceptions, beliefs, values, purposes, affects, and actions at the core of teacher’s role The existing literature on teacher identity has shown growing interest in the role of teachers’ educational perspective, values, perceived competencies, efficacy to do different teaching activities as well as the construction of interests, personal and social aims in the school, and mindsets about the school setting in teachers’ learning as well as decisions regarding their practice (Barkhuizen, 2017; De Costa and Norton, 2017; Reeves, 2018). In DSMRI, this definition is the representation of a complex dynamic system (Opfer and Pedder, 2011; Henry, 2016, 2021)— an ever growing interactive network of role-specific assumptions and beliefs, self-conceptions, values, goals, emotions, and actions held by the individual at the core of who s/he is as a teacher in the situation (Kaplan and Garner, 2017). The model is compatible with the assumptions of the CDS approach and helps map the emergent patterns of LTI as constructed through the student teacher’s actual experience of professional development

METHODOLOGY

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

ETHICS STATEMENT