Learning Identity Research Articles

Language teachers’ identity tensions and professional practice in intercultural teaching

Language teachers’ experiences of identity tensions present valuable opportunities for researchers to understand the complex role of professional identity in shaping language teachers’ instructional practice. This exploratory sequential mixed-method study reports on identity tensions as experienced by teachers of Chinese as an additional language (CAL), and its role in mediating their instructional practice in intercultural teaching. First, seven types of professional and sociocultural identities related to intercultural teaching were generated based on interview responses and observation field notes from 10 CAL teachers. One hundred and three CAL teachers were then surveyed to identify the roles of these identities in mediating their approaches to intercultural teaching. An exploratory factor analysis of the survey data suggested that cultural learner identity, cultural bridge identity, and bearer of Chinese culture identity were significant predictors of fact-oriented or holistic development-oriented approaches to intercultural teaching. Furthermore, it was found that the tension and synergy among different identity components coexisted in mediating the participants’ efforts in intercultural teaching. The findings underscore the importance of adopting identity-oriented perspectives and approaches, and paying more attention to teacher identity tensions in supporting language teachers’ professional practice and development.

Investigating the role of identity versatility in the discursive production of working-class boyhood, learner identities and educational engagement

Internationally, boys from working-class backgrounds are often the most likely to disengage from their formal education. Research on the educational experience of working-class boys has focused heavily on their identity barriers, often positioning these young men as either vulnerable or volatile in their formal education. Social theorists have sought to address the historical and cultural embedded (gendered) practices which influence the identity work of working-class boys. This conceptual article contributes to the study of working-class boyhood and education through first synthesizing key themes present in the historic and contemporary literature before adopting a feminist post-structural stance to consider how these themes are informed by our understandings of the discursive production of masculinities. Then, in the second half of the paper, we make visible what has been at the margins in the scholarship – identity versatility – which we define as contextual and agentic adaptation. Attention to versatility, we feel, offers the potential for a nuanced analysis regarding working-class boyhood, learner identities and educational engagement.

The Development of Exceptional EFL Learner Identity: A Narrative Inquiry of Former Gifted Learners

ABSTRACT The gifted high schools in Vietnam aim to discover and foster talents through high–stake assessments and intensive training. While the intended impact on the nation’s development is emphasized, the learners’ experience and identity development are hardly discussed. This study examined the identity construction and negotiation of gifted English as Foreign Language learners under the meritocratic influence. Data were collected through narratives of three former gifted learners. The study finds that while gifted institutions expose learners to unique opportunities, it reproduces social stratification as learners’ symbolic capital contributes significantly to their academic success, rather than their actual talents alone. The excessive focus on exams reduces the complexity of their learning experience and restricts their identity development. Their outstanding achievements stem from outshining peers on the academic ladder, marking both their exceptional talents and their insecurity in being on the top position, at the expense of their social and psychological wellbeing.

Turkish students' language‐learning perezhivanie, learner identities, and transformation of self

AbstractThis study used the Vygotskian concept of perezhivanie, an emotionally lived experience, to examine the identities of two Turkish language learners. Learner identity has been researched from social and psychological perspectives; however, the role of emotion and its relationship with cognition has not been sufficiently addressed. As a unit of analysis, Perezhivanie offers a holistic approach to examining learners' identities by considering their emotional and cognitive processes in their learning environments. This study reports on a qualitative case study. Data were obtained from Dodo and Uraz's observations while taking an elective course in Global English and Culture, their multiple reflections written throughout the course, and their interviews. The data analysis revealed ontological instances of perezhivaniya (plural) that stemmed from the two participants' emotionally charged, memorable moments. It revealed how these perezhivaniya formed and transformed their identities throughout their language‐learning experience. These results indicate the importance of assisting language learners by introducing them to the new World of Englishes, thus providing new theoretical frameworks that create a fertile environment for identity transformation.

Learner Identity and Investment in EFL, EMI, and ESL Contexts: A Longitudinal Case Study of One Pre-Service Teacher

ABSTRACT When multilingual learners traverse across cross-border and study-abroad contexts, they enter different sociocultural spaces, negotiate conflicting identities, and may or may not invest in these identities. Addressing the lacuna, this longitudinal case study draws upon the model of investment to conduct a long-term, systematic investigation of the identities and investment of Miranda, a multilingual learner, and a pre-service teacher—as she studied, over seven years, as a university student (B.A.) in mainland China, a taught postgraduate student (M.Ed.) in Hong Kong, and a research student (M.Phil. and Ph.D.) in New Zealand. Findings reveal how Miranda negotiated, constructed, and performed multiple identities in shifting contexts and how the way her capital was valued shaped the way she positioned herself and was positioned by others. Attending to the fluidity and complexity of identities, this study provides educational authorities and teachers with implications for helping to chart the path for empowering students across contexts.

Designing is Imagining: What Futures and Identities Do Activists With Developmental Disabilities Imagine When Designing For Learners With Developmental Disabilities?

As learners engage in learning environments, they constantly co-develop ideas about who they are (their identities), and who they can become (their futures). Designers of learning activities make assumptions about what learner identities and imagined futures learners will ultimately take up. Learning activity designers with developmental disabilities who identify as activists may make assumptions about learners with developmental disabilities that other designers would not. Working from a critical disability praxis orientation, the research was led by a person with a developmental disability. This study utilized a grounded theory approach to discourse analysis to analyze the design talk between two adult activists with developmental disabilities while they engaged in a co-design process to create a learning activity intended for learners with developmental disabilities who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). The activity was a game that explores inductive logic. Discourse was analyzed to understand what imagined futures and learner identities these activists assumed learners with developmental disabilities might take up. These activists imagined learners with developmental disabilities who use AAC as being inquisitive, interdependent, and ableism literate, and capable of achieving futures that were validating, inquisitive, accessible, and ableism-literate. These futures and identities suggest that future participatory design research with adults and youth with developmental disabilities might yield innovative curriculum designs.

Research Nexus and Implications of Learner Identity in Foreign Language Education

One of the most obvious markers of an individual’s identity is their language. However, in some ways, therelationship between identity and language acquisition seems to be missed. In fact, a lot of studies have shown that identity may influence the reasons behind language acquisition, especially in bilingual or multilingual societies. Learning English can provide EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students with a good sense of identity and encourage them to practice their agency, which can improve learning efficiency and effectiveness. This paper examines how the efficacy and results of llanguage learning are influenced by the learner’s identity.

Positive Digital Practices: Supporting Positive Learner Identities and Student Mental Wellbeing in Technology-Enhanced Higher Education

Positive Digital Practices: Supporting Positive Learner Identities and Student Mental Wellbeing in Technology-Enhanced Higher Education

역량중심교육관점 범교과학습주제 연구의 도덕교육적 의의

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to propose to systematize the educational content on
 cross-curricular learning topics from the perspective of competency-based education, which was
 important in the 2022 revised curriculum, and to reveal the significance and task it leaves behind
 in moral education.
 Methods: For this, it was proposed to state cross-curricular learning topics from a competency-based
 education perspective to analyze the characteristics and limitations of cross-curricular learning topics
 stated in the curriculum and to supplement those limitations. In addition, the three characteristics
 revealed in OECD Education 2030, which is the basis of the 2022 revised curriculum competency-based
 education perspective, were revealed, and concrete measures were proposed to state cross-curricular
 learning topics in three aspects of competence. Finally, it was intended to reveal how cross-curricular
 learning topics are related to moral education and to show the significance of moral education to
 state cross-curricular learning topics from a competency-based education perspective.
 Results: Cross-curricular learning topics can be stated in three aspects of competence by referring
 to the competency-based statement method of the 2022 revised moral curriculum because they include
 many educational content related to values and attitudes.
 Conclusion: Statement of cross-curricular learning topics from a competency-based education perspective
 contributes to strengthening the systematicity of the cross-curricular curriculum. In addition, since morality
 is a core subject of school value and attitude education, it is required to strengthen the system of
 cross-curricular learning topics, strengthen morality and subject functions, and restore learner identity.

To be like a "scholar": a study on the construction of authorial identity of Chinese EFL learners in academic writing: an intertextuality perspective.

Academic writing not only conveys academic content but also represents the authorial identity, serving as a means of presenting one's identity. Writers utilize various linguistic resources to present different possibilities of self, such as intertextuality, thereby constructing their authorial identity. This study examines the Chinese EFL learners' construction of authorial identity in academic writing from an intertextuality perspective. This study adopts a mixed method, utilizing interviews and written texts as data sources. Results were found that novice writers primarily construct their identities through the practices of direct intertextuality during the initial stages of identity construction. As novice writers gain more experience through extensive reading and writing practices, as well as academic writing courses, their intertextuality practices undergo a transformation. They begin to shift from direct intertextuality to indirect intertextuality, aiming to express their own conceptions, attempting to be like a "scholar" through indirect intertextuality. The study highlights the importance of intertextuality in the construction of academic writing identity for EFL learners. By understanding the interplay between intertextuality and authorial identity, educators can better assist EFL learners in achieving success in their academic writing endeavors.

An ecological perspective on learner agency: The case of Chinese tertiary-level EFL students in peer reviews

Learner agency has gained increasing attention in feedback research. Previous studies have explored it from learner identity, social and power relation, and learning behavior, while they mainly focused on students' agency toward teacher feedback. How students enact their agency when engaging in peer reviews in multifaceted contexts over time remains under-explored. Adopting an ecological perspective, this case study longitudinally examined agency enactment of five Chinese tertiary-level EFL students in peer reviews during a 12-week English writing course by analyzing data collected from reflective journals and semi-structured interviews. The results showed that students’ agency in peer reviews could be manifested by their proactivity of self-regulated learning and reciprocity of peer interactions when engaging with peer reviews. Learner beliefs, prior experiences, language proficiency, expectations and goals interacted with the contextual factors at the textual, interpersonal and interactional, instructional and sociocultural levels, out of which teacher instruction was the most salient affordance and time shortage was the most salient constraint to agency enactment. This study demonstrated the complexity of the enactment of learner agency and the unique pattern of the chordal triad of agency in the longitudinal peer reviews, and offered pedagogical implications about how to build a more agency-supportive L2 writing class.

Exploring heutagogy, knowledge management, and rhizomatic learning approaches in Master�s degree programs

Relevance. The digital transformation of education has necessitated a shift towards heutagogical principles in postgraduate programs. Even before the pandemic, theories about digital natives and heutagogy pointed towards new directions in education driven by digitalization.Purpose. This study aims to synthesize the emerging paradigms of Education 3.0 and 4.0 in relation to knowledge management concepts for training master's students. It also evaluates students� perspectives on the principles of Education 3.0 and self-directed learning.Methodology. A questionnaire with two sections was administered to 149 master's students across four universities in Kazakhstan.Results. Understanding heutagogy as a self-determined learning theory can cultivate a new generation of professionals ready for the knowledge economy. Heutagogy nurtures this phenomenon of a globalized knowledge marketplace. The theoretical portion summarizes approaches to redefining learning and learner identities by connecting digital disruptions to transformations in learning and thinking.Conclusions. The practical component examines Master�s students� evaluations of heutagogical principles. Future plans include developing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) on heutagogy and Education 4.0.

Material-dialogic space as a framework for understanding material and embodied interaction science education

ABSTRACT Background This special issue offers a substantial contribution to the field, outlining how materiality and embodiment offer insights into science learning with respect to argumentation, use of diagrams and gestures to understand abstract concepts, the role of materiality in digital learning and the importance of material and embodied interactions in investigations, plurilingual settings and in the positioning and identities of learners of science. Purpose This paper responds to the special issue by outlining a distinctive theoretical framework for understanding materiality and embodiment in science education: a conceptualisation of material-dialogic space. Contrasting this framework with the multimodal, social semiotic and narrative ethnographic frames used in the studies in this special issue, this paper argues that by examining materiality as voices within a material-dialogic space, new insights into dialogic learning and ‘becoming’ in science are possible. Discussion In this paper, I discuss the papers in this special issue using the conceptualisation of material-dialogic space, grouped according to three areas of interest in science education: methods of analysing materiality, meaning-making in science through ‘doing’ and ‘thinking’ science, and science identities. A means by which material-dialogic space might be examined empirically is proposed, and how this enables an approach to think about thinking and doing science that focuses on the relationality of materials, bodies and language in science meaning-making is explored. The notion of becoming, changing and being changed through participation in a material-dialogic relational space is proposed as an approach to thinking about ‘being’ in science and science identities. The role of material-dialogic space with respect to spaces of science learning is raised as a key question. Conclusion This paper highlights the lively open questions in the field of materiality and embodiment in science education, whilst offering the concept of material-dialogic space as an important avenue for studying these questions.

Survey and Correlation Analysis of the Learning Motivation and Language Identity of Cambodian Chinese Learners

Survey and Correlation Analysis of the Learning Motivation and Language Identity of Cambodian Chinese Learners

Crafting a professional teacher learner through models of learning and positive psychological coaching tools

The important question of pedagogy and positive psychology in the 21st-century is how to facilitate educators in becoming professionals with successful self-concepts, capable of supporting and inspiring their students, coping with stress and burnout, and facing the challenges of their careers with autonomous, resilient strategies. Therefore, the main topic of the questionnaire conducted by Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary is teacher motivation and coaching. This paper discusses a specific aspect of the theoretical and methodological background provided by the literature sources for compiling the questionnaire. Our current analysis encompasses McClelland’s “Theory of Human Motives”, Bateson’s Logical Levels of Learning, and Dilts’ NeuroLogical Levels of Change. Central to our exploration is the significance of reflection in teacher learning, leading to an analysis of Korthagen’s frameworks, such as ALACT, the Onion Model, and the Core Reflection model. Simons and Ruijters’ Model of Professional Learner Identity illuminates the relationship between learning and professionalism in teaching, accentuating the importance of lifelong learning. Ultimately, our endeavour is to comprehend the intricacies of motivating teacher learning by synthesizing insights from various theories, models, and coaching tools to nurture proficient and inspired professional teacher learners.

Student Identity in the EFL Classrooms

This paper explores various processes of identity construction of the students studying in English medium secondary schools in Nepal while learning English as a second /foreign language. The students in English medium schools actively participate in various classroom interactions, engage mutually in the learning process and share their feelings through which they make sense of themselves and construct various identities. By collecting information from interviews with eight participants, this qualitative study showcases that the EFL students construct multiple identities through the process of positioning, opportunity and transformation. Due to positioning, i.e., how the students situate themselves through their discursive practices and how they are situated by others, the students construct a number of identities namely, discourse identity, social identity, institution identity, authored identity, affinity identity and L1 identity, becoming and being as identity, learner identity and inner circle identity. Some of these identities, especially the former ones are constructed by virtue of opportunity whereas the later one is constructed due to transformation. These identities, however, were not found going parallel because the identities constructed in one field infused their identities in other fields.

Notions of Identity and Investment in Second Language Acquisition: Bangladeshi Indigenous Students’ Perspectives

Identity and investment are closely related to second language learning in many contexts. Many studies have been done on how second language learning aff ects the identity and investment of second language learners. Banking on the theory of identity, this article investigates how and why Bangladeshi students, belonging to indigenous communities, invest in second language learning and how their investment in L2 is linked to their agency. The study adopted an interpretative qualitative research paradigm and more precisely, utilized narrative inquiry as a research method to explore the lived experiences situated in a particular time, space and context. The findings exhibit that Bangladeshi ethnic students have made financial, physical, psychological and academic investments to own the linguistic, cultural and symbolic capital of English as a second language and such investment seems to be impacted by factors such as generating new identities (real or imagined), agency, neoliberalism and social justice. The research findings tend to have implications for second language teachers, researchers, SLA curriculum and material designers and other stakeholders in the Bangladeshi context or elsewhere.

Dilemma in Designing a Mathematics Curriculum: Descriptive Versus Prescriptive Approach

Developing Nepal's mathematics curriculum is a challenging task, requiring a crucial decision between prescriptive and descriptive curriculum approaches. This study examines prescriptive and descriptive curriculum approaches, their features, and their importance in developing school-level mathematics curriculum. Conversely, the Nepalese school mathematics curriculum predominantly exhibits a perspective and vertical structure. This study conducts a comprehensive comparative analysis of prescriptive and descriptive curriculum approaches, evaluating their objectives, limitations, and applicability. Based on the available literature, the study suggests that the collaborative curriculum model may be a suitable approach. This model involves the central government in curriculum benchmark design, with state governments defining specific educational goals and actively incorporating local input, ensuring a holistic approach to shaping the school math curriculum. The collaborative model shows promise in effectively addressing contemporary challenges in math teaching and learning issues in school mathematics, ensuring inclusivity and relevance for math learners, and paving the way for a brighter future. Additionally, this study highlights the importance of prioritizing learner identity, fostering ownership of learning, and addressing the unique needs of local communities, states, and the nation. This contributes to greater equity in society and globally.

Navigating interprofessional boundaries: Midwifery students in Canada

The literature on professional socialization focuses on how students adopt and internalize professional identities and values, and assumes that boundary work is essential to learning how best to practice their profession. However, a focus on boundary work in the context of midwifery training - which is embedded in the gendered and hierarchical landscape of maternity care - is lacking. Thus, this article examines how Canadian student-midwives learn to navigate and negotiate interprofessional boundaries. Grounded in a symbolic interactionist approach, it draws on 31 semi-structured qualitative interviews from a mixed-methods national study on midwifery retention, explores how midwifery students make sense of the tensions among midwives, physicians, and nurses, and describes what strategies they utilize when navigating boundaries. Our analysis, based in constructivist grounded theory, revealed that participants learned about interprofessional tensions in clinical placement encounters via direct or indirect interactions with other healthcare professionals, and that strategies to navigate these tensions included educating others about midwifery training and adopting a learner identity. This article proposes that the process of professional socialization enables to reshape professional boundaries and that students are not only learners but also agents of change. These findings may yield practical applications in health education by highlighting opportunities for improving interprofessional collaborations.

Understanding Curriculum Transformations Towards the Creation of Sustainable Learning Environments: A Posthumanist Reflection

This paper uses posthumanism as the theoretical framing to understand the curriculum transformations towards creating sustainable learning environments at some higher education institutions (HEIs) and the early childhood care and education (ECCE) centres in South Africa. The choice of these two bands in education is necessitated by the fact that curriculum singularities and/or insularities have become obsolete in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath, the calls for decolonization of the curriculum and the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). For example, COVID-19 has demonstrated that the curriculum is best delivered when various actors, different modes of interaction and distributed sites are used to ensure no learner is left behind, irrespective of their station in life. Emphasizing the same notions of multi-layered and multi-perspectival approaches, the calls for decolonization affirm the importance of all canons of knowledge, beyond just the euro-centric ones, as the basis for a transformed curriculum. Furthermore, the 4IR privileges the skills of collaboration and compassion for others as critical in this era. What the article brings forth as the central idea is the primacy of relationalities in the construction of curriculum, hence the identities of learners, students, academics, caregivers, institutions of higher learning and care centres. The above are beyond the deleterious influences of anthropocentrism, hence the Anthropocene, and the individuality of humanism and enlightenment. Creating sustainable learning environments is the primary goal of all curricula across the globe. The challenge thus far has been the curriculum approaches that isolate individuals and/or processes from the stakeholders and role players. Curricula emphasized the lone genius’s power and prowess, relying almost solely on their innate abilities as advised by genetic epistemology; this was despite the incessant caution by socio-culturalism and eco-systemic couplings. The latter advocates for the focus on relationalities as a basis for curriculum quality assurance and its transformations. To evidence the above, this article traces how the scholars and practitioners of the curriculum at HEIs and ECCE in South Africa have shifted focus from an emphasis on isolationism to collaboration and the privileging of relationalities. The article highlights the nature and the specificity of those changes and how they relate to new curriculum experiences.