‘I think that I am fossilized’

Abstract

In the process of becoming a teacher, novice teachers are likely to experience multiple tensions that shape their sense of professionalism. Despite their importance, novice teacher identity tensions have rarely been studied in second language pedagogy. The present study reports the role of tensions in a novice Iranian EFL teacher’s (Mina) identity development during her first year of teaching and three years later. Data were collected from three rounds of semi-structured interviews, online narratives, classroom observations, and post-observation conversations. Detailed analyses of the data indicated four major themes underlying Mina’s identity development vis-à-vis the tensions she experienced: (a) tensions between imagined and enacted identities, (b) tensions between claimed and assigned identities, (c) excessive emotion labor, and (d) resisted identities. Although tensions primarily functioned as negative mechanisms that created multiple identity conflicts for Mina, they partly made her renegotiate and restructure her identity in relation to various stakeholders in the long run. The findings are discussed in light of particularities of teaching and power relations that (re)define novices’ effective identity construction.