Teacher identity construction: On becoming ESL teachers within the Malaysian context / Taghreed El Masry

Taghreed , El Masry (2019) Teacher identity construction: On becoming ESL teachers within the Malaysian context / Taghreed El Masry. PhD thesis, Universiti Malaya.

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Abstract

Key to this study is the question of how ESL pre-service teachers (PSTs) construct their professional identity (PI). This research explores the process of becoming a teacher and what this process implies to the construction of identity in terms of belonging to a community of practice and using one's personal adaptation process to develop one's professional identity. The aims of this study are: 1) to understand what PI transformations PSTs experience during their teaching practice stage, 2) to understand what personal and socio-contextual factors in the teacher education program (TEP) contribute to pre-service teachers' professional identity (PSTPI) construction, and 3) to explore how PSTs employ adaptation processes in response to the surrounding social context to develop their identities. This work is a case study. Eight (8) female Malaysian ESL pre-service teachers (PSTs) in the final stage of their third year of the teacher education program for teaching English as a second language (TESL) at University of Malaya (UM) were chosen as the research participants. Interviews and observation are the data collection methods employed in this study. Constant comparative analysis serves as the analytical data analysis approach. The findings show that professional identity (PI) is dynamic and changing constantly as one re-interprets and re-evaluates their practices and self as a teacher. Varying contexts from universities to secondary schools expose PSTs to different opportunities and challenges that may hinder or facilitate their PI development. The study reveals that a number of personal and socio-contextual factors interplay and influence PI development. This study also demonstrates how PSTs develop a sense of professional identity (a way to see themselves as teachers) and awareness of their potential as a new generation of teachers through their simulated teaching classes at university and based on the theories of language teaching and learning they encounter through their university courses. Upon shifting to actual teaching at schools, PSTs’ evolving identity conflicts with their new community of practice. Moreover, poor physical conditions of the schools and interpersonal relationships hinder PSTPI development. The positive notions of belonging to a community of practice (i.e., collaboration, mutual and collegial relationships) prove to be applicable in the simulated teaching class context. In such a supportive training context, PSTs use their adaptation process of observation-experimentation and evaluation to attempt different teaching practices. Nonetheless, the positive notions of the community of practice (CoP) are inapplicable in the teaching practicum context. Hence, PSTs struggle to construct their PI and negotiate their understanding and teaching practices. PSTs must alter their adaptation processes to find other strategies to negotiate PI construction.

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