IALC

One of the biggest concerns educational institutions face is helping teachers fit into and adjust to the dynamics of the ever-changing teaching environment. What often remains a mystery is how the identity trajectories of mid-career teachers have contributed to their longevity in the field. Also important today is why teachers might choose to leave the field after achieving the milestone of becoming a mid-career teacher. This paper reports on a qualitative study looking at the dynamics of mid-career English as a second language (ESL) teacher trajectories in the intensive English program environment. The framework for the study is based on four characteristics common among current teacher professional identity studies identified by Beijaard, Meijer, and Verloop (2004). This framework assumes that teacher professional identity is dynamic, involves individuals with multiple social and professional roles interacting within a shared context to increase individual and collective agency. In this study, mid-career teachers currently teaching in intensive English programs (IEPs) who have made transitions from at least one context to another were interviewed to investigate common themes in their experiences. Results show that while individual factors are important in the development of a professional identity, the most important factors seem to be related to the administrative support systems in place and student performance as connected to teaching practice.

There are thousands of articles researching the construct of teacher professional identity and how identities are built over time based on a multitude of factors.  In the ESL/EFL world, the challenges of understanding teacher identity are complicated as well by labels such as native English speaking teacher (NEST) and non-native English speaking teacher (NNEST) that immediately mark an individual as being qualified to teach English by nature of birth versus those who may be even more qualified having gone through the English language learning experience themselves.  This study looks at how NNESTs perceive themselves and their skills and how their own perception of how they inhabit the teaching space impacts the type of classroom they create.  The study uses multiple types of identity-related reflection activities to look at varying layers of the teachers' mindsets as teachers about their role(s) and positionality within the classroom, the types of lessons they create, and how the use of reflection (verbal and/or written) as an integral part of the lesson to help understand how students perceive the activities their teachers have for them.