Proceedings of The 7th International Conference on Research in Teaching and Education
Year: 2023
DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/7th.rteconf.2023.08.100
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Investigating Identity Construction Processes of Pre-Service English Language Teachers in a Turkish Context: A Pilot Study
Cemile Buğra, Asst Prof. Meryem Akçayoğlu
ABSTRACT:
It is known that teacher candidates have gone through a long journey to develop a teacher identity. In this journey, there can be lots of issues that affect their identity development personally and professionally such as their experiences as a student during their education, the theoretical and practical knowledge they acquired during their studies in teacher education programs and their teaching practices in the field during practicum. However, there is a limited body of research about this issue in Türkiye. With all these in mind, a pilot study was carried out as part of a PhD thesis to investigate the identity construction processes of pre-service English Language Teaching (ELT) teachers in a Turkish context. The participants were chosen from the ELT Department at Çukurova University during the 2020-2021 academic year. There were 4 volunteer pre-service ELT teachers in the study. The study was based on a qualitative approach and it was designed as a case study. For reliability and validity, various instruments were used. An open-ended questionnaire, a reflection form and a semi-structured interview were used as data collection tools. The gathered data have been analysed, compared, and presented based on content analysis procedures. The results indicate that there is a strong relationship between participants’ individual learning experiences during their prior educational life and their teacher identity construction. Although the teacher education program plays an important role in the identity construction of pre-service teachers, many other issues affect teacher identity construction processes such as role models, motives, perceptions, expectations, etc.
Keywords: teacher education; language teacher identity; identity construction, pre-service language teachers, qualitative research