Exploring L2 Teacher Identities in an Intercultural Telecollaborative Mixed-Reality Teaching Environment

Abstract

This study investigates the identities produced by three L2 teachers of different backgrounds and experiences in an intercultural telecollaborative project that integrated the use of mixed-reality technology. Content-analysis (Hoffman et al., 2011) and multimodal (inter)action analysis (Norris, 2011) were employed to identify the identity elements produced during their multimodal interactions. Using Darvin and Norton’s (2015) model of investment (MOI) as an interpretative lens, this study uncovers the different identities held by the participants, and the ways in which they aspired to become good teachers. Findings also show that mixed-reality simulated teaching provided a safe environment for exercising professional agency, thereby facilitating identity development and promoting the sense of getting there. Interactive reflection provided a site of struggle where the value of capital and imagined identities shifted. Dialoguing among the participants allowed them to reassess the value of pre-acquired capital and move to (re)imagining new teacher identities and restructuring ideological structures. Mixed-reality teaching and intercultural professional learning sensitizes the less experienced teachers to the socially and culturally complex roles required for L2 teachers. The mixed-reality simulation technology still has its limitations, mainly where classroom interaction is concerned, because the number of avatar students is small and they cannot move around physically.