Building Foundation on Sand: Certified TEFL Teachers’ Shifting Identity through Practice

Abstract

The contemporary research on the development of teachers' professional learning and professional identity for a large section of teachers in English as a foreign language (EFL) is woefully underdeveloped. Where previous research focuses on traditionally trained teachers, this project works with teachers trained and certified by private language schools. It examines their perception of development in learning and identity through the lens of Lave and Wenger's theories on professional learning and identity. The data comes from three in-depth interviews from a pilot project of a larger doctoral research project. The primary research questions are: (1) How do non-traditionally trained EFL teachers construct their professional identity? And (2) How do such teachers construct their professional development? The findings push back against and add nuance to the current framework for the development of learning and identity through practice as this teaching population come to and stay in teaching for reasons different yet related to their traditionally trained counterparts.