EFL teacher professional identity construction the case of a non native novice teacher

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ********************** NGUYỄN PHƯỚC ÁI PHƯƠNG EFL TEACHER PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION: THE CASE OF A NON-NATIVE NOVICE TEACHER (Sự hình thành ngã nghề nghiệp giáo viên Tiếng Anh: trường hợp giáo viên vào nghề) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Major: English Language Teaching Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2015 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ********************** NGUYỄN PHƯỚC ÁI PHƯƠNG EFL TEACHER PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION: THE CASE OF A NON-NATIVE NOVICE TEACHER (Sự hình thành ngã nghề nghiệp giáo viên Tiếng Anh: trường hợp giáo viên vào nghề) M.A Minor Programme Thesis Major: English Language Teaching Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã HANOI - 2015 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled EFL TEACHER PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION: THE CASE OF A NON-NATIVE NOVICE TEACHER submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Teaching Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‟s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2015 Nguyen Phuoc Ai Phuong Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date: i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been completed if I did not have the support of many individuals Therefore I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all of them First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr Vu Thi Thanh Nha, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher A special word of thanks goes to the teacher pseudo named Mai without whose participation it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family and friends for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work Their love will always be my sunshine in my road to success ii ABSTRACT This present study seeks to explore the construction of professional identity of a novice EFL teacher in Vietnam, identify the factors that have influence on this process and how these factors interact with each other in constructing and complicating the teacher‟s professional identity The instruments for data collection to serve the aim of the research are narrative inquiry and semi – structured interview After a careful long time of collecting and analyzing data, it is revealed in the study that the teachers‟ professional identity construction is highly complex and affected by a number of factors, including personal, contextual and sociocultural factors These factors have interaction and close connection to each other that it is completely hard to isolate them The findings of the research are expected to be significant in providing valuable insights into EFL teachers‟ process of identity formation and reconstruction with reference to a particular working environment iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL English as a Foreign Language E Entry I Interview LIST OF TABLES Table Categories of Professional Interests Table Data Analyzing Examples iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv TABLE OF CONTENTS v PART A: INTRODUCTION I The context of the research PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 The concept of identity 1.2 The contents and processes of identity 1.2.1 Identity as a socio-cultural construct 1.2.2 Identity and communities of practice 1.3 Teacher professional identity and the benefits of researching teacher identity 1.4 Professional identity construction of novice teachers 1.5 Self-interests 11 1.6 Material interests 12 1.7 Social-professional interests 12 1.8 Chapter summary 12 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 13 2.1 The research genre: Case Study 13 2.2 Method of inquiry 14 2.3 Research setting 15 2.4 Participants 15 2.5 The role of the researcher 16 2.6 Data collection methods and procedure 16 2.6.1 Journals 16 2.6.2 Semi-structured interviews 17 2.7 Data analysis procedure 17 2.8 Chapter Summary 20 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS 21 3.1 Self-interests 21 3.1.1 Mai‟s task perception 21 v 3.1.2 Attempts to establish desirable work conditions congruent with task perception 22 3.1.3 Social Recognition 24 3.1.4 Coping with vulnerability 26 3.1.5 Coping with visibility 30 3.2 Material interests 33 3.2.1 Access to school facilities 33 3.2.2 Searching for instructional materials 35 3.2.3 Time demand 35 3.3 Social-professional relationships 37 3.3.1 Social professional relationships with mentors 37 3.3.2 Social professional relationships with colleagues 39 3.3.3 Social relationships with leaders 44 3.4 Chapter summary 45 PART C: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 46 I Summary of the research 46 II Discussion of the key findings 46 II.1 Summary of key findings 46 II.2 Factors that contribute to identity construction and the interaction between these factors 47 II.2.1 Personal and contextual factors: Striving for self-affirmation and dealing with vulnerability and visibility 47 II.2.2 Social-cultural factors: Power relationships and communities of practice 49 II.3 Summary for Discussion 50 III Pedagogical implications 50 III.1 For teacher training institution 51 III.2 For the school 51 III.3 For novice teachers 51 IV Limitations and recommendation for further research 52 VI Concluding message 53 REFERENCES 54 APPENDIX A I APPENDIX B III APPENDIX C IV vi PART A: INTRODUCTION This part starts with the description of the research context, including the identification of the problem and the landscape of English language education and English teacher training in Vietnam Next, I present the research‟s aims, methods, and significance of the study I The context of the research Since the EFL context of the proposed study is Vietnam and given the contextualized nature of teacher professional identity, it is necessary that a brief description of the current situation of English language education and English teacher training in Vietnam be given Like other Asian countries, Vietnam has followed the social trend of learning English in recent years as both the government and the people see the need for Vietnamese to have a good command of English in order to integrate better into the globalized world Thus, English is introduced early in the curriculum by the Ministry of Education and Training Even though this increasing popularity of English learning leads to a higher demand and a better social status for English teachers in the country, several socioeconomic constraints have been seen to have impacts on the teaching practice of English teachers in Vietnam Many public school teachers have to take part time jobs to teach English at privately owned language centers in order to get higher incomes Also, it is still a common belief among parents and students that native English teachers are better than nonnative teachers; therefore, Vietnamese teachers of English are under constant pressure from the society to perform well At the same time, most English teacher training programs in public universities across the country focus on providing student teachers with practice in English language skills and knowledge of teaching methodology, but not prepare them for coping with the hardship of the process of becoming an English teacher (Phan, 2008) First year mentoring, though provided, is considered by both senior and trainee teachers as a bureaucratic rather than learning and supporting procedure In most cases, it is all left to new teachers to try and survive by themselves and to establish their own professional identity With the increasing popularity of the socio-cultural approach toward language teaching and learning in the past decade, more transformative and comprehensive views of EFL teachers in practice have also been recorded (Varghese, Morgan, Johnson, & Johnston, 2005) Indeed, nowadays, EFL teachers are seen as not only teaching practitioners operating in their own world, but also social entities that constantly interact with and are under the influence of various socio-cultural and sociopolitical elements that characterize their communities of practice (Miller, 2009) Despite its role of adding diversity and uniqueness to teaching and teachers‟ lives, the interplay and negotiation between these socio-cultural influences and teachers‟ own learning experience, teaching beliefs, and personal practical knowledge, as Farrell (2009) stated, is one of challenging factors to second language teachers in the process of establishing themselves professionally To novice teachers, this process of forming a professional teacher identity has been shown to be even more dramatic Indeed, it has been revealed that during the first year of teaching, beginning teachers constantly ask themselves many questions of identity such as “Who am I in my story of teaching? Who am I in my place in school? Who am I in my children‟s stories? Who am I in my administrator‟s stories?” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1999, p.3) However, given the conflicts, reality shocks and anxieties that are highlighted in many studies into new teachers‟ teaching experience as common characteristics of the transition from being a student to a teacher (Huberman, 1989; Vonk, 1993; Thomas & Beauchamp, 2011), novice teachers often find it hard to find proper answers to these questions, which leads to their feeling overwhelmed and challenged (Thomas & Beauchamp, 2011) In examining the constructed identity of novice EFL teachers, these research projects emphasized the influence of classroom practices on teachers‟ developing perception of self, and yet little is revealed about personal and contextual factors that might as well impact the identity construction process of novice EFL teachers There is, therefore, a gap to examine the identity formation of beginning EFL As pointed out in the participant‟s narrative, the interaction with other teachers and students contributed a large part to her job satisfaction She especially appreciated the good relationship with young colleagues who helped her a lot in the teaching as well as non-teaching jobs According to Wenger (1998), this active participation in the community of practice has notable impacts on the teacher‟s professional development and her perception of herself Noticeably, sociocultural factors had a powerful impact on the participant‟s behaviors They had a vital role in her decision to participate in or withdraw from activities at the community of practice For instance, in the community of the class that she is in charge of during the camp, Mai felt alienated from and helpless in this community Also, in the relationship with the leaders, Mai decided to participate only in the activities she thought was relevant to her As was noted by Wenger (1998), the community‟s recognition of one‟s competence was an essential source of identity construction It is clear that for Mai, students, not “significant others”, played a very important role in her self-affirmation The fact that her students responded very well to her instructional methods was essential for the confirmation of her professional self as a competent teacher Similarly, her various emotions of happiness, commitment and pride that resulted from her relations with students played an equally important part in her development of professional self II.3 Summary for Discussion The discussion has provided a detailed analysis of the study‟s findings As was discussed, teachers‟ professional identity construction is highly complex and affected by a number of factors, including personal, contextual and socio-cultural factors These factors have interaction and close connection to each other that it is completely hard to isolate them III Pedagogical implications 50 Based on the findings and discussion of the study, some implications may be inferred for the teacher training institution, the school and the novice teacher From the fact that Mai always had to struggle to deal with difficulties during her identity formation process, it is clear that Mai was not well prepared for the reality she had to face Also, the personal, contextual and socio-cultural factors that directly and indirectly affect her identity formation help me draw the following implications III.1 For teacher training institution Firstly, when training student teachers, educators should consider future teachers‟ community of practice because “teacher identity forms and develops primarily through practising teaching and by interacting with other teachers in their community of practice” (Tavakoli, 2015, p.47) It is suggested that educators inform future teachers a clearer description of the future workplace This description should as well include information of the potential students‟ culture Also, opportunities should be created for prospective teachers to access the real community of practice Therefore, novice teachers could avoid some anxiety and “reality shocks” (Veenman, 1984, p.143) III.2 For the school Secondly, mutual engagement and understanding between beginner teachers and institution management should be promoted (Liu & Xu, 2011) School administrators could encourage new teachers‟ participation in activities as well as in the practiced community Inferior feelings in power status are inevitable; however, an open discussable atmosphere could minimize negative feelings such as shame and stress With such given, an opportunity may also be created for novices to learn from experienced teachers III.3 For novice teachers With the stated responsibilities allocated to teacher educators and school administrators, it is still the teachers‟ professional perception of self and actions that is the main point of the discussion Hence, teachers themselves should play an equally, important part in the development of their own professional identity As put 51 forward by Sfard and Prusak (2005, p 15), “human beings are active agents who play decisive roles in determining the dynamics of social life and in shaping individual activities” As was discussed, personal factors are critical in identity construction Novice teachers are recommended to establish goals and strive for them Also, they need to have an overview of the possible responsibilities IV Limitations and recommendation for further research An inevitable fact is that this study has its limitations These limitations, by all means, create opportunities for future research For one thing, in terms of participant selection, it was quite risky to choose only one person to take part in the research because this participant might opt out for any reasons at any time without prior notice This may result in a discontinuation of the data collection process and obviously affect the result of the study In fact, at the very first stage of the research, my supervisor advised me to select more than one participant for the sake of my data collection However, I could not persuade other teachers to take part in my research due to its long duration and usually they did not want to share their private journals with anyone else, despite of the confidentiality that I committed For a more subjective and comprehensive research, the researcher had better select more than one participant for future research Secondly, due to the long distance between the two cities where the participant and the researcher were based, observations of the teacher in her practiced community could not be conducted It may have been different if I could interview Mai‟s colleagues and leaders as well This limitation, however, elicits a more thorough approach for future research It is suggested that future teacher professional identity researchers find opportunities to observe the participant in the real work environment, and consider the colleagues‟ perspectives as well Finally, while identity is a shifting concept that changes over time, nine months of conducting the study could be insufficient In fact, professional identity of novice teachers does not stop developing and transforming after the first year For this reason, more longitudinal approach should be emboldened to investigate how 52 identity changes over time More time should be allowed in such research, especially throughout the first years of the teaching career VI Concluding message Last, but not least, with the findings in my study, I hope to contribute some insights into the professional identity construction for novice teachers Also, I would like to quote this saying as a concluding message: “Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; 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Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage 58 APPENDIX A Sampled journal entry transcript Name: E2 Entry number: Date: 06-10-2014 Writer: Mai (pseudo name) This is the second week and I have a lot of things to write Last Tuesday I taught in class 10T After warm-up, I divided the class into groups, asking them to discuss to activities in the textbook After that, a reporter of each group told the class about their answers Each group gave only answers to the question the teacher asked (they needed to prepare all the questions) and other groups were allowed to ask questions if their answer was not clear enough The teacher acted like an advisor I was surprised because they were very active and their answers were very clear I didn‟t need to explain any more I found that group work inspired students and competition motivated students Discussing with peers helped them feel more confident And when they presented their answers and their peers applauded or their teacher praised, they felt satisfied with themselves This kind of group work seemed to be very effective for them to learn Grammar, which was always considered a boring lesson However, I had the opposite feelings when I taught in class 10N last Thursday There is a class where students from various classes come together to learn Japanese as their second language This is the class where students learn Japanese/French and English It is rather crowded, 50 students For the first week, only half of them were present because of the storm And this week almost all of them were present This class is very informal without a class monitor, a book of lesson record, without seat plan Students got together in groups of to to … talk privately As soon as I reminded them of private talk and returned to work, noise from private talk came I again When asked to answer the questions, nobody raised their hands although they knew the answers (because of the presence of students from other classes in this class, some told me later) When one student was called to answer the question, other students felt relieved and made noise again I reminded them no more than 10 times to keep the discipline in the three consecutive lessons This was the first time I had ever taught such a chaotic class and I felt incapable because my voice seemed to disappear into noise I am thinking of giving bonus marks for correct or creative answers and minus marks for talking privately If they have 10 bonus marks, this will be equivalent to a 10 but if they have minus marks, mark will be deducted from the marks of their 15 minute test Let‟s see if it works next week II APPENDIX B Sampled interview questions Name: I.1 Date of interview: 25-01-2015 Length: 20 minutes Interviewer: Phuong Interviewee: Mai (pseudo name) Interview language: English What have happened in this semester that make you feel happy? Probes - In areas of teaching and other work - In areas of your relationships with other colleagues, leaders, students, their parents Why you think these positive events have happened? How you think these positive events affect you? Probes - To what extent? - In terms of your personal growth - In terms of your teaching and extracurricular work - In terms of your relations with other people in your school What have happened in this semester that make you feel unhappy? Why you think these negative events have happened? Have you attempted to anything to deal with negative events? Probes - What have you done? - Why have you decided to so? - Have you noticed whether they are effective or not? - Have you noticed why some have been successful while others have not? III APPENDIX C Sampled interview transcript Name: I.1 Date of interview: 25-01-2015 Length: 20 minutes Interviewer: Phuong Interviewee: Mai (pseudo name) Interview language: English Phuong: I want to say thank you for giving a lot of time on your journal as well as this interview Mai: You‟re welcome Phuong: Ok, now let‟s start with the questions All the questions I sent to you by email may give you an idea about what we are talking today The first question is “What have happened in this semester that make you feel happy?” Mai: In areas of teaching, I feel happy because I had a successful semester with my students Despite of some difficulties at the beginning, my lessons seemed to go smoothly in the following time and the results we got at the end of the semester is quite good About other works, I must say that I had many problems but now I am happy that I did not make any big mistakes Phuong: What about your relationship with other colleagues, leaders, students and their parents? Is there anything that makes you happy? Mai: Well, as I told in my journal, my relationships with young colleagues are quite good, and I am trying to establish a nice relationship with the senior ones About the leaders, I not have many chances to see them but I always respect them by doing the best of my assignments My students seem to be very nice and lovely as they sometimes told me about their life stories and asked me for some advice Also, I am not a form teacher so I don‟t have to deal with the students‟ parents Phuong: Why you think these positive events have happened? IV Mai: Uhm, I‟m not sure why they happened Personally, I think these good things happened partly because I was always trying to achieve the best results Also, I am lucky to be a teacher of Quoc Hoc high school because this school is famous for its traditions and especially its hard-working students Phuong: How you think these positive events affect you? Mai: These events remind me of my role and responsibilities I learn a lot from my experience and my colleagues The fact that I am a teacher at this school makes me feel proud of myself It is clear that I am accepted by my colleagues and students as an English teacher Phuong: Ok, the next question is “What have happened in this semester that make you feel unhappy?” Mai: Because this is the first period in my teaching life, I have to deal with a lot of challenges For example, when my lesson was observed by my former teachers, I did not feel relaxed If they had not been the teachers who used to teach me and knew a lot about me myself, I would have felt more confident and more motivated to affirm myself as a competent teacher I feel that I always don‟t have enough time for my teaching and other works I am stressful when I have to meet a lot of deadlines, this kind of stress is different and even harder when I was a student Phuong: What about the negative things in the relationship with other colleagues and leaders? Mai: Yes, relationships with colleagues is a sensitive issue and sometimes difficult to deal with Because most of teachers in the division are much older than I am Relationships with teachers who are older than my parents require me to be very considerate and respectful Most of them are also my former teachers If I am not satisfied with something, I can‟t say it directly or say it in a soft way And if the mentor doesn‟t give me detailed guidance like other mentors, I ask her for more details in a gentle V way, I can‟t push them Sometimes I ask other teachers, instead of the mentor About the leaders, it seems to me that whenever they [leaders] see young teachers, they always ask them to things which are not absolutely related to their professional area And when young teachers fail to it in the way they want, they are not satisfied I am not satisfied, too Phuong: Can you tell me more about your relationship with the leaders? Mai: Yeah, more teaching assignments are given to apprentice teachers than they are supposed to but they have to accept them because there was a shortage of teachers of English For other things the principal or vice principal assigns, which young teachers don‟t like doing, they have to accept them because they have no other choice Phuong: Why you think these negative events have happened? Mai: The reasons may come from the subjective or objective matters Although I was a high school student at this school, the present reality is completely different as I am a teacher now I was not well aware of these differences and did not prepare for them Besides, the reasons also come from the reality of my situation as a novice teacher now Other people see you as a novice and they always want to test if you are qualified for the job or not Phuong: Have you attempted to anything to deal with negative events? Mai: Yes, I always make every effort to deal with these difficulties I try to think of the solutions for every problem I have and apply them in my teaching as well as other works I also asked my colleagues for some advice Sometimes my solutions work well but sometimes they don‟t If they don‟t, I usually seek for another way to solve the problems For more details, you can find in my teaching journal as well Phuong: Thank you very much for your cooperation VI ... my professional self during my first year working as an EFL teacher, this study aims at exploring various factors that construct the professional identity of a novice EFL teacher in Vietnam and... participant The participant is Mai, female, aged 23 The teacher is chosen as she qualifies as a nonnative novice EFL teacher She graduated with a Bachelor‟s degree in English language teaching from... teachers, which asserted that the identity of a language teacher does not come automatically but through actual teaching practice and constant reflection of one‟s teaching Therefore, Cooper and