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Novice language teacher identity construction: similarities, differences, and beyond

  • Mostafa Nazari EMAIL logo , Peter I. De Costa and Sedigheh Karimpour
Published/Copyright: January 16, 2023
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Educational Linguistics
From the journal Educational Linguistics Volume 2 Issue 1

Abstract

Scholarship on novice language teachers has often overlooked how novices comparatively develop personalized trajectories in the initial years. This study views novice-ness through the lens of identity construction and examines how three Iranian English language teachers in the first, second, and third years of teaching comparatively constructed their teacher identities. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, post-class discussions, and reflective journals. Data analyses revealed that the teachersʼ identity construction featured similarities (emotion labor, agency conflicts, and identity standard tensions) and differences (sense of belonging, future selves, and resistance). The study demonstrates that novice teachers’ identity construction is influenced by power relations and contextual discourses as well as particularities, which collectively, underscore the importance of reconceptualizing novice-ness in light of teachers’ identity-related professional development.

Keywords: future selves; language teacher identity construction; novice teachers; teacher agency; teacher emotion labor
Corresponding author: Mostafa Nazari, Department of Foreign Languages, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran, E-mail:

  1. Research funding: This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

  2. Ethical approval: We declare that all the ethical considerations have been met regarding data collection, participant approval, and institutional permissions.

  3. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Appendix: Interviews

Round 1

  1. Please tell me about yourself, your language learning experiences, and your personality as a teacher.

  2. How do you feel about being a teacher? What do you think about the challenges and benefits and the way they influence you?

  3. How do you describe effective teaching and learning? Please explain.

  4. How does your background as a teacher has and will influence you and your current and future perceptions about teaching?

  5. What is effective teaching and a good teacher? Please explain.

  6. How do your relationships with students, colleagues, supervisors, and parents influence your perceptions about yourself as a teacher?

Round 2

  1. How do you now describe your relationships with school members including colleagues, students, and supervisors? How have they influenced you?

  2. How has your increased experience influenced you as a teacher? How does your teaching play a role in this development?

  3. Please tell me about how your teaching influences your ability to implement your ideas, your emotions as a teacher, and your understanding of yourself?

  4. Generally, how do you see the role of different factors such as your classes, institutional policies, and being an Iranian teacher in your perceptions about yourself and your profession?

Round 3

  1. Please tell me about the year that has passed. How do you see yourself as a teacher in the past year? What factors characterize you?

  2. What kinds of tensions and conflicts have you experienced in the past year? Please explain.

  3. How have the tensions and conflicts influenced your ability to implement your ideas, your emotions, and your perceptions about yourself?

  4. How do you see the role of different factors influencing your teaching in your perceptions about yourself?

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Received: 2022-07-31
Accepted: 2022-12-30
Published Online: 2023-01-16
Published in Print: 2023-06-27

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. Novice language teacher identity construction: similarities, differences, and beyond
  4. The expectations-reality dissonance in student teaching: a discourse analysis of one pre-service teacher’s perspective
  5. The knowledge-rich project, coloniality, and the preservation of whiteness in schools: a raciolinguistic perspective
  6. Quantity and quality of literacy instruction for English language learners in Indiana elementary schools
  7. Plurilingual Chinese learners of French Lx: agentic assembling of semiotic resources for learning
https://doi.org/10.1515/eduling-2022-0013
Keywords for this article
future selves; language teacher identity construction; novice teachers; teacher agency; teacher emotion labor

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Research Articles
  3. Novice language teacher identity construction: similarities, differences, and beyond
  4. The expectations-reality dissonance in student teaching: a discourse analysis of one pre-service teacher’s perspective
  5. The knowledge-rich project, coloniality, and the preservation of whiteness in schools: a raciolinguistic perspective
  6. Quantity and quality of literacy instruction for English language learners in Indiana elementary schools
  7. Plurilingual Chinese learners of French Lx: agentic assembling of semiotic resources for learning
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