Uncovering the layers of foreign language teacher socialization: A qualitative case study of Fulbright language teaching assistants

Abstract

This qualitative case study explored how a novice language teacher negotiated her pedagogical beliefs and practices during her socialization into a foreign cultural and educational context. The focal participant was an Uzbek language teacher at a university in the USA. Using a language socialization theoretical framework, data were drawn from multiple sources such as interviews, video-recorded classroom observations, and classroom materials. The findings indicate that biographical factors (e.g. the teacher’s personal history, experience as a learner), contextual factors (e.g. interactions with students and institutional resources), and dialogic factors (e.g. the teacher’s knowledge of theories of teaching and learning) guided the process of socialization. The teacher was able to transform her beliefs and practices by negotiating the tensions, dilemmas, concerns, and questions across her biography, current teaching context, and theoretical knowledge of teaching and learning.