As was discussed, teachers‟ professional identity construction is highly complex and affected by a number of factors, from personal to contextual and cultural. In this case, Mai made every effort in order to present herself as a proper teacher. Mai struggled to apply a variety of instructional techniques to the classroom practice to establish a desirable teaching and learning conditions congruent with her professional perception. She employed a wide range of strategies to deal with the realities she was confronted with (discussion activity, role play, material adaptation,
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and material replacement with movies). She also employed a wide range of strategies to deal with vulnerability in a variety of situations, either in class instruction or in class management. In order to protect her own belief and maintain her own social-professional interests, Mai also resorted to a combination of different strategies (compensation and confrontation). Despite the negative effects of time demand upon her professional and personal life, and struggles to gain access to school facilities, and to search for materials and adapt them to suit the high levels of her students, and despite the experiences of lessened confidence, dissatisfaction, stress, risk, and guilt, Mai always tried to project an image of a good teacher in front of her students, and colleagues. The successful factors included personal (efforts to use various strategies), contextual (students‟ higher level of proficiency) and cultural (traditions of the school). In brief, through the narrative and interview, in which the teacher image of the participant was constructed by self-reflection, the professional identity of the teacher participant is revealed.
II.2. Factors that contribute to identity construction and the interaction between these factors
The analyses of the teacher‟ stories show that there are several factors that contribute toward the identity construction of novice EFL teacher in the study, which can be explained based on the theoretical frameworks discussed in the review of the literature, including Kelchtermans and Ballet‟s (2002) teacher professional development of self, Norton‟s (2006) conceptualization of identity as a sociocultural construct, the relationships between identity and other socially and culturally defined constructs including context and power relationships, and finally Wenger‟s (1998) communities of practice. In fact, these factors cannot be separated because this factor is included in and related to another one in the identity formation process.
Hence, I combine these factors when analyzing and discussing the data in order to see the relation between them.
II.2.1. Personal and contextual factors: Striving for self-affirmation and dealing with vulnerability and visibility
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When Mai struggles to establish teaching and learning conditions consistent with her task perception, which means she was striving for self-affirmation and looking for a sense of self-efficacy (Kelchtermans and Ballet, 2002). The four incidents presented in the section 3.1.2 indicated two important features of Mai‟s stories.
Firstly, all the instructional techniques she managed to employ in her teaching practice were consistent with her task perception. Secondly, Mai experienced satisfaction with the successful application of some instructional activities (being able to establish desirable teaching and learning conditions) and with some achievements with students (being able to be motivated to interact in English).
These two features connected her directly to the experience of self-efficacy which, in turn, generated her positive self-esteem, thus contributing strongly to her self- affirmation as a competent teacher.
It was inevitable that all of the positive emotions that are mentioned in section 3.1.3 (Social Recognition), though to different extents, and at different times, were significantly and symbolically valuable for Mai because they all opened up chances to connect her with her students. This close connection was crucial for a novice teacher. Moreover, it was also worthwhile to note that her acceptance of the gift seemed to assume more of symbolic than materialistic significance as it sent an important message - she was genuinely accepted by the students. Although successful students were not the direct results of her own efforts, these incidents triggered the positive emotions followed by a sense of belonging which was strong enough to create her positive self-esteem and job motivation. These, in turn, confirmed herself as a teacher (Rots, Kelchtermans, and Aeltermans, 2012).
When dealing with vulnerability (section 3.1.4), she had acquired another type of identity. In the first incident when she had to turn to the textbook-based instructional style, Mai found it insecure to apply the interactive and communicative instructional style in the face of lack of confidence and of knowledge of students.
Similarly, in the second incident when she shifted back to the traditional, non- communicative instructional style, she found it impossible to change the status quo.
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In the same way, in the incident of entering marks, she had no other choice but follow the well-established rule of the school regarding recording marks for students. In these three incidents, the only one thing Mai had to do to respond to the circumstances was to switch to conservative and submissive actions. However, in the incident regarding dealing with students‟ disruptive behavior, Mai noticed signs of fear from students, and she immediately chose to use confrontation as a strategy.
In addition, when dealing with visibility, the fact that Mai cope with those three incidents (coping with lessons for observation, substitute lessons, and students‟
questions) (section 3.1.5) affirmed the link between visibility and vulnerability. As Kelchtermans and Ballet (2002) claimed, teacher‟s high degree of visibility increased vulnerability.
Additionally, other institutional elements such as school facilities, and various instructional materials and time pressures exerted a profound impact on Mai‟s professional identity development, which kept surfacing throughout her first year.
To sum up, through the influence of the above-mentioned personal and contextual factors, Mai‟s professional identity was formed as a competent teacher who had strived for self-affirmation and had been able to use different strategies to deal with different situations occurred in classroom practice (Norton, 2006).
II.2.2. Social-cultural factors: Power relationships and communities of practice According to Norton (2006), identity must be understood in correspondence with larger social processes, typified by relations of power. Unequal power relationships lead to the marginality in membership (Tsui, 2007). In the relationship with the mentor, leaders, senior teachers and the form teacher that she shared the duty with during the camp, Mai was in an inferior position. She was a young, novice, inexperienced teacher, while they are older, experienced, and have a long-time respected position in the division as well as in the school. As a result, Mai failed to establish relationships with her mentor and experiencing powerlessness in other relationships with her colleagues and leaders.
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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.