Cultural Identity Development in Second Language Teacher Education: Toward a Negotiated Model

Abstract

This is a two-phase study toward understanding the cultural identity development of the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers when they participated in cultural negotiation programs and developing a negotiated model of cultural identity development for the second language teacher education programs. To such ends, the analysis of the narratives authored by five experienced and four novice EFL teachers was done by using Wenger’s (1998) community of practice and Pennington’s (2014) TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) teacher identity model to track the cultural identity development of the EFL teachers during the cultural negotiation sessions. Then, by meticulously examining the theoretical and empirical underpinnings about cultural identity including the theories and previous empirical studies along with the results obtained from the first phase of the study, we developed a negotiated model of cultural identity development for the EFL teachers. The model is a theoretical one which can be applied to different second language teacher education programs to develop the cultural identity of the language teachers by participating in negotiation sessions. The study concluded with some implications for second language teacher education programs to develop the cultural identity of the EFL teachers.