Towards a possible selves-based model of language teacher identity among new teachers: An exploratory sequential analysis

• Main Author: Quinto, Edward Jay Mansarate
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2018
• Subjects: Language teachers; Teaching; Language and Literacy Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/566
• Institution: De La Salle University

Language teacher possible selves were used as a bellwether of the ongoing identity construction among new language teachers (NLTs). The aim was to build a socio-psychological model that illuminates the dimensions and transitional trajectory of hoped-for and feared language teacher selves during the transition into ELT role. An exploratory sequential design was used, consisting of qualitative (n=15 pre-service=7, in = service=8), scale development, and quantitative (n=507 pre-service=207, in-service=300) phases. NLT identity was indeed multidimensional, resulting from a rich intermingling of personal and social factors. Most dimensions constitute ‘recurrent identities, rationalizing current ELT thinking and behavior. Also, an emergent language model self was traced, raising questions on the affordances and constraints of dichotomizing NLT identity into qualities and tasks. The assembly of a wide repertoire of future-oriented identities appears to be a creative strategy that NLTs utilize toward a ‘resistance-in-progress. A language model self most clearly demarcates this, since it directly veers away from the notion that only native speaker teachers could be language models. Further, validation of NLT hoped-for and feared selves scales and quantitative analyses revealed no transitional trajectory between ELT qualities or tasks. Instead, difference exists in whether the transition primed more hoped-for or feared identities. This suggests that NLT identity construction is neither simply outward, nor both outward and inward, as previous studies proposed, but could also be edgeways moving from valence to valence depending on the fit of current context and future thinking. Implications focused on how might language teacher possible selves inform ELT preparation and practicum, professional development, and instructional and curricular design.