DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14483/22487085.19641Published:
2024-06-19Issue:
Vol. 26 No. 1 (2024): January-JuneSection:
Research ArticlesExploring English Language Teacher Identity Construction in Disadvantaged Chilean Schools through Textbook Usage
Explorando la construcción de la identidad del profesor de inglés en escuelas chilenas desfavorecidas a través del uso de libros de texto
Keywords:
agencia, desarrollo profesional, identidad del profesor de inglés, libros de texto, marginación (es).Keywords:
agency, marginalization, professional development, textbooks , English language teacher identity (en).Downloads
Abstract (en)
Although the notion of English language teacher identity has drawn increasing interest in the literature, little is known about how teachers of English construct identities in disadvantaged settings. This study explored how three teachers of English in disadvantaged Chilean public schools construct identities and exercise agency while using prescribed textbooks. The investigation used a narrative inquiry methodology and was positioned within a sociocultural paradigm. Based on semi-structured online interviews, thematic narrative analysis was used to analyze the data collected. The findings suggest that teachers construct various identities as textbook users depending on their previous experience, level of professional development, and interactions with textbooks. According to the research, teachers exercise agency to construct new identities as textbook users by drawing on two temporal aspects that include prior experiences as English language learners and a mental image of the kind of teacher they want to become. Professional development and textbook interaction may also influence the construction of identities regarding textbook use. The article concludes with suggestions for language teachers and English language teacher education.
Abstract (es)
Aunque la noción de identidad de los profesores de inglés ha suscitado un creciente interés en la literatura, se sabe poco sobre cómo los profesores de inglés construyen identidades en entornos desfavorecidos. Este estudio exploró cómo tres profesores de inglés de escuelas públicas chilenas desfavorecidas construyen identidades y ejercen su agencia mientras utilizan libros de texto prescritos. La investigación utilizó una metodología de indagación narrativa y se situó dentro de un paradigma sociocultural. A partir de entrevistas semiestructuradas en línea, se utilizó el análisis narrativo temático para analizar los datos recogidos. Los resultados sugieren que los profesores construyen diversas identidades como usuarios de libros de texto en función de su experiencia previa, su nivel de desarrollo profesional y sus interacciones con los libros de texto. Según la investigación, los profesores actúan para construir nuevas identidades como usuarios de libros de texto basándose en dos aspectos temporales que incluyen experiencias previas como estudiantes de inglés y una imagen mental del tipo de profesor en el que quieren convertirse. La construcción de identidades en relación con el uso de libros de texto también puede verse influida por el desarrollo profesional y la interacción con los libros de texto. El artículo concluye con algunas sugerencias para los profesores de idiomas y para la formación de profesores de inglés.
References
Ahearn, L. M. (2001). Language and agency. Annual Review of Anthropology, 30(1), 109–137.
Alptekin, C. (1993). Target-language culture in EFL materials. ELT Journal, 47(2), 136–143.
Ball, D. L., & Feiman-Nemser, S. (1988). Using textbooks and teachers’ guides: A dilemma for beginning teachers and teacher educators. Curriculum Inquiry, 18(4), 401-423.
Banks, J. A. (1999). Series forward. In G. R. Howard (Ed.), We can’t teach what we don’t know: White teachers, multiracial schools (pp. ix–xi). Teachers College Press.
Barahona, M. (2015). English language teacher education in Chile: A cultural historical activity theory perspective. Routledge.
Barger, C. (2022). Metaphors and methods: The curious alignment that shapes our inquiries about teacher identity. In Methodological innovations in research and academic writing (305-322).
Baxter, J. (2016). Positioning language and identity. In S. Preece (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of language and identity (pp. 34–49). Routledge.
Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: An overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2), 175-189. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057640902902252
Beijaard, D., Verloop, N., & Vermunt, J. D. (2000). Teachers’ perceptions of professional identity: An exploratory study from a personal knowledge perspective. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16(7), 749-764. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(00)00023-8
Beijaard, D., Meijer, P., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2), 107–128.
Ben-Peretz, M. (1990). The teacher-curriculum encounter: Freeing teachers from the tyranny of texts. Suny Press.
Benson, P. (2016). Teacher autonomy and teacher agency. In G. Barkhuizen (ed.), Reflections on language teacher identity research (pp. 18–23). Routledge.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.
Buchanan, R. (2015). Teacher identity and agency in an era of accountability. Teachers and Teaching, 21(6), 700-719. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2015.1044329
Campbell, E. (2007). Glimpses of uncertainty in teaching. Curriculum Inquiry, 37(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-873X.2007.00378.x
Clandinin, D. (2016). Engaging in narrative inquiry. Routledge.
Clandinin, D., & Connelly, F. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Connelly, F., & Clandinin, D. (2006). Narrative inquiry. In J. Green, G. Camilli, & P. Elmore (Eds.), Handbook of complementary methods in education research (pp. 375-385). Lawrence Erlbaum.
Crossley, M. L. (2000). Narrative psychology, trauma and the study of self/identity. Theory & Psychology, 10(4), 527–546.
Day, C., Kington, A., Stobart, G., & Sammons, P. (2006). The personal and professional selves of teachers: Stable and unstable identities. British Educational Research Journal, 32(4), 601-616. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920600775316
Dewey, J. (1997). Experience and education. Simon and Schuster.
Duff, P. A., & Uchida, Y. (1997). The negotiation of teachers’ sociocultural identities and practices in postsecondary EFL classrooms. Tesol Quarterly, 31(3), 451-486. https://doi.org/10.2307/3587834
Edge, J. and Garton, S. (2009). From Knowledge to Experience in ELT. Oxford University Press.
Farrell, T. (2011). Exploring the professional role identities of experienced ESL teachers through reflective practice. System, 39(1), 54-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2011.01.012
Gilmore, A. (2007). Authentic materials and authenticity in foreign language learning. Language Teaching, 40, 97-118.
Goldenberg, M. (1998). Some conceptions are difficult to change: One middle school mathematics teacher’s struggle. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 1(3), 269–293.
Golombek, P. R., & Johnson, K. E. (2004). Narrative inquiry as a mediational space: examining emotional and cognitive dissonance in second‐language teachers’ development. Teachers and teaching, 10(3), 307-327.
Gray, J. (2000). The ELT coursebook as a cultural artefact: How teachers censor and adapt. ELT Journal, 54(3), 274–283.
Gray, J. (2010). The construction of English: Culture, consumerism and promotion in the ELT global coursebook. Palgrave Macmillan.
Gubrium, J., & Holstein, J. (1997). The new language of qualitative method. Oxford University Press.
Huang, J. P., & Benson, P. (2013). Autonomy, agency and identity in foreign and second language education. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, 36(1), 7-28. https://doi.org/10.1515/cjal-2013-0002
Humphries, S. & Burns, A. (2015). “In reality it’s almost impossible: CLT-oriented Curriculum change.” ELT Journal, 69(3), 239–248.
Hutchinson, T., & Torres, E. (1994). The textbook as agent of change. ELT Journal, 48(4), 315–328.
Keles, U., & Yazan, B. (2023). Representation of cultures and communities in a global ELT textbook: A diachronic content analysis. Language Teaching Research, 27(5), 1325-1346.
Kilpatrick, J. (2003). What works? In S.L. Senk & D. R. Thompson (Eds.), Standards-based school mathematics curricula: What are they? What do students learn? (pp. 471-488). Erlbaum.
Kullman, J. (2013). Telling Tales: Changing Discourses of Identity in the ‘Global’ UK-Published English Language Coursebook. In: Gray, J. (eds) Critical Perspectives on Language Teaching Materials. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137384263_2
Kvale, S. (2008). Doing interviews. Sage.
Lasky, S. (2005). A sociocultural approach to understanding teacher identity, agency and professional vulnerability in a context of secondary school reform. Teaching and teacher education, 21(8), 899-916.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage.
Lloyd, G., & Wilson, M. (1998). Supporting innovation: The impact of a teacher’s conceptions of functions on his implementation of a reform curriculum. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 248–274.
McAllum, K., Fox, S., Simpson, M., & Unson, C. (2019). A comparative tale of two methods: How thematic and narrative analyses author the data story differently. Communication Research and Practice, 5(4), 358-375.
Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2015). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. John Wiley & Sons.
Miles, M.B., Huberman, M., & Saldaña, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). Sage.
Norton, B. (2006). Identity as a sociocultural construct in second language research. In K. Cadman & K. O’Regan (Eds.), TESOL in context [special issue] (pp. 22–33). Australian Council of TESOL Association.
Polkinghorne, D. E. (1996). Narrative knowing and the study of lives. In J. Birren (Ed.), Aging and biography: Explorations in adult development (pp. 77–99). Springer.
Priestley, M., Edwards, R., Priestley, A., & Miller, K. (2012). Teacher agency in curriculum making: Agents of change and spaces for manoeuvre. Curriculum Inquiry, 42(2), 191-214. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-873X.2012.00588.x
Priestley, M., Biesta, G., & Robinson, S. (2013). Teachers as agents of change: Teacher agency and emerging models of Curriculum. In M. Priestley & G. Biesta (Eds.), Reinventing the curriculum new trends in curriculum policy and practice (pp. 187-206). Bloomsbury.
Priestley, M., Biesta, G., & Robinson, S. (2015). Teacher agency: An ecological approach. Bloomsbury. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781474219426
Prodromou, L. (2008). Prospero’s books or which English, whose English? Cauce, 24, 583–615.
Richards, J.C. (1998). Textbooks: Help or hindrance in teaching. In J.C. Richards (Ed.), Beyond Training: Perspectives on Language Teacher Education (pp124-141). Cambridge University Press.
Riessman, C. (2008). Narrative methods for the human sciences. Sage.
Riley, T., & Hawe, P. (2005). Researching practice: the methodological case for narrative inquiry. Health education research, 20(2), 226-236.
Ruohotie-Lyhty, M. (2018). Identity-Agency in progress: Teachers authoring their identities. In P. A. Schultz, J. Hong, & D. C. Francis (Eds.), Research on teacher identity (pp. 25–36). Springer.
Seferaj, K. (2014). Coping with new teaching approaches and materials: An East-European EFL teacher’s interpretation of communicative teaching activities. In S. Garton & K. Graves (Eds.), International perspectives on materials in ELT (pp. 1953-2255). Palgrave Macmillan.
Sfard, A., & Prusak, A. (2005). Telling identities: In search of an analytic tool for investigating learning as a culturally shaped activity. Educational Researcher, 34(4), 14-22. https://doi.org/10.3102%2F0013189X034004014
Shawer, S. F. (2010). Classroom‐level teacher professional development and satisfaction: teachers learn in the context of classroom‐level curriculum development. Professional Development in Education, 36(4), 597-620. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2010.489802
Sheldon, L. (1988). Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials. ELT Journal, 42(4), 237–246.
Sloan, K. (2006). Teacher identity and agency in school worlds: beyond the all‐good/all-bad discourse on accountability‐explicit curriculum policies. Curriculum Inquiry, 36(2), 119-52. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-873X.2006.00350.x
Snyder, J., Bolin, F., & Zumwalt, K. (1992). Curriculum implementation. In W. P. Jakson (Ed.), Handbook of research on Curriculum (pp. 402-435). Macmillan.
Tao, J., & Gao, X. A. (2021). Language teacher agency. Cambridge University Press.
Thornbury, S., & Meddings, L. (2001). The roaring in the chimney (or: What coursebooks are good for). Pilgrims, 3(5), 1-3.
Toohey, K. (2007). Conclusion: Autonomy/agency through sociocultural lenses. In A. Barfield & S. H. Brown (Eds.), Reconstructing autonomy in language education: Inquiry and innovation (pp. 231–242). Springer.
Toohey, K., & Norton, B. (2003). Learner autonomy as agency in sociocultural settings. In D. Palfreyman & R. C. Smith (Eds.), Learner autonomy across cultures (pp. 58–72). Springer.
Trent, J. G. (2012). The discursive construction of teacher identity: The experience of NETs in Hong Kong schools. Tesol Quarterly, 46(1), 104-126. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.1
Van Lier, L. (2008). Agency in the classroom. In J. Lantolf & M. Poehner (Eds.), Sociocultural theory and the teaching of second languages (pp. 163–186). Equinox.
Varghese, M., Morgan, B., Johnston, B., & Johnson, K. A. (2005). Theorisinglanguage teacher identity: Three perspectives and beyond. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 4(1), 21-44. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327701jlie0401_2
Webster, L., & Mertova, P. (2007). Using narrative inquiry as a research method: An introduction to using critical event narrative analysis in research on learning and teaching. Routledge.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press.
How to Cite
APA
ACM
ACS
ABNT
Chicago
Harvard
IEEE
MLA
Turabian
Vancouver
Download Citation
Metrics
License
Copyright (c) 2024 victor Birkner
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.
The journal allow the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions. Also, The Colombian Apllied Linguistics Journal will allow the author(s) to retain publishing rights without restrictions.
.JPG)
