Emotional reflexivity in language teacher education

Abstract

This chapter explores a teacher educator's (TE) lived experiences of emotional responses in sociocultural and institutional contexts of English language teaching. Research on teacher identity emphasized the dynamic and complex nature of how teachers view, understand, and define their identity as teachers. Teacher identity develops within the context of sociocultural conditioning, educational background, and the institutional discourses according to which teachers begin to better understand their roles in the process of professional development and curriculum making. While the examination of sociocultural contexts of language teaching and teacher education has been a popular topic of research since the sociocultural turn in teacher education, the emotional dimension of the learning-to-teach experience has largely been ignored. Critical emotional reflexivity, enables teachers to interrogate the “emotion-laden beliefs” that guide what they themselves were socialized to think and feel. The chapter suggests that such a self-study be used for both teachers and TEs to raise their critical reflexivity on practice, identity, and professional development.