Language Teacher Identity and Emotions in a Duoethnographic Narrative: The Perspective of Teacher, Parent, and Teacher Educator
Abstract
Teacher identity building rather than learning teaching in terms of skills and subsystems has recently been acknowledged as a priority in future teacher preparation. Several teacher identity models have been offered, including the 3A Language Teacher Identity Framework (3ALTIF) (Werbińska, 2017a) in which teacher identity comprises affiliation (teachers’ willingness to teach), attachment (teachers’ beliefs related to their teaching) and autonomy (teachers’ agentive, reflective, and resilient powers). With hindsight, it seems that the 3ALTIF, which
drew on other identity models available at the time of its conception, does not address the affective side of language teacher identity explicitly enough and therefore can hardly embrace the uniqueness of this profession. That is why we decided to explore the issue of emotions more deeply and conduct a lengthy duoethnographic narrative to consider the 3ALTIF’s ‘missing’ component for the future ‘improvement’ of the 3ALTIF. Duoethnography was chosen as a qualitative research method thanks to its novelty, its suitability for investigating identity issues and the opportunity it provides for us to explain and express ourselves. In our
duoethnographic dialogues we focused on our own emotions from three perspectives: former school language teachers, language teachers as parents, and language teacher educators, all of which are the roles we have played. The findings reveal our experience of emotions that once affected us and also suggest that emotions are not only psychological constructs but have social dimensions as well.
Keywords
language teacher identity; emotions; duoethnography; teacher narratives
References
Ahmed, S. (2004). The cultural politics of emotion. Routledge.
Alsup, J. (2019). Millennial teacher identity discourses. Routledge.
Banegas, D. L., & Gerlach, D., (2021). Critical language teacher education: A duoethnography of teacher educators’ identities and agency. System, 98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2021.102474
Barcelos, A. M. F. (2015). Unveiling the relationship between language learning beliefs, emotions, and identities. Studies in second language learning and teaching, 5(2), 301–325.
Barkhuizen, G. (2017). Reflections on language teacher identity research. Routledge.
Barkhuizen, G., & Strauss, P. (2020). Communicating identities. Routledge.
Benesch, S. (2012). Considering emotions in critical English language teaching. Routledge.
Benesch, S. (2018). Emotions as agency: Feeling rules, emotion labor, and English language teachers’ decision-making. System, 79, 60–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2018.03.015
Benson, P., Barkhuizen, G., Bodycott, P., & Brown, J. (2013). Second language identity in narratives of study abroad. Palgrave Macmillan.
Bielak, J., & Mystkowska-Wiertelak, A. (2020). Language teachers’ interpersonal learner-directed emotion-regulation strategies. Language Teaching Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168820912352
Block, D., Gray J., & Holborow, M. (2012). Neoliberalism and applied linguistics. Routledge.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). Understanding children in context: The ecological model of human development. Harvard University Press.
Brown, D. H. Principles of language learning and teaching. Second edition. Prentice Hall.
Budzińska, K. (2018). Positive institutions: Case study. Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition, 4(2). Retrieved from https://www.journals.us.edu.pl/index.php/TAPSLA/article/view/6295
Chang, M. L. (2009). An appraisal perspective of teacher burnout: Examining the emotional work of teachers. Educational Psychology Review, 21, 193–218. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-009-9106-y
Cheung, Y. L., Said, S. B., & Park, K. (2015). Advances and current trends in language teacher identity research. Routledge.
Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic structures. De Gruyter.
Chomsky, N. (1963). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2009). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. Harper Collins.
Clarke, M. (2009). The ethico-politics of teacher identity. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 41(2), 185–200.
Davies, B., & Harré, R. (2001). Positioning: The Discursive Production of Selves. In M. Wetherell, S. Taylor, & S. Yates (Eds.), Discourse theory and practices (pp. 261–271). Sage.
Day, C. (2018). Professional identity matters: Agency, emotions, and resilience. In P. A. Scutz, J. Hong, & Francis, D. C. (Ed.), Research on teacher identity (pp. 61–70). Springer.
De Costa, P. I., & Norton, B. (2016). Identity in language learning and teaching: Research agendas for the future. In S. Preece (Ed.), Routledge handbook of language and identity (pp. 586–601). Routledge.
De Costa, P. I., Li, W., & Rawal, H. (2019). Language teacher emotions. Encyclopedia of teacher education, 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1179-6_262-1
Dewaele, J. M. (2018). The Relationship between trait emotional intelligence and experienced ESL/EFL teachers’ love of English, attitudes towards their students and institution, self-reported classroom practices, enjoyment and creativity. Chinese Journal of Applied Linguistics, 41(4), 468–487. https://doi.org/10.1515/cjal-2018-0034
Dὅrnyei, Z. (2020). Innovations and challenges in language learning motivation. Routledge.
Douglas Fir Group. (2016). A transdisciplinary framework for SLA in a multilingual world. Modern Language Journal, 100(1), 19–47.
Fairley, M. J. (2020). Conceptualizing language teacher education centered on language etacher identity development: A competencies-based approach and practical applications. TESOL Quarterly, 54(4), 1037–1064. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.568.
Frydenberg, E. (2017). Coping and the challenge of resilience. Palgrave Macmillan.
Gabryś-Barker, D., & Bielska, J. (Eds.) (2012). The affective dimension in second language acquisition. Multilingual Matters.
Gabryś-Barker, D. (2012). Reflectivity in pre-service teacher education: A survey of theory and practice. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego.
Gabryś-Barker, D., & Gałajda, D. (Eds.) (2016). Positive psychology perspectives on foreign language learning and teaching. Springer.
Gallardo, M. (2019). Negotiating identity in modern foreign language teaching. Palgrave Macmillan.
Gee, J. P. (2001). Identity as an analytic lens for research in education. Review of Research in Education, 25, 99–125.
Gkonou, Ch., Dewaele, J.-M., & King, J. (Eds). (2020). The emotional rollercoaster of language teaching. Multilingual Matters.
Golombek, P. (2015). Redrawing the boundaries of language teacher cognition: Language teacher educators’ emotion, cognition, and activity. Modern Language Journal, 99, 470–484.
Gray, J., & Morton, T. (2018). Social interaction and English language teacher identity. Edinburgh University Press.
Harbon, L. (2017). Acknowledging the generational and affective aspects of language teacher identity. In G. Barkhuizen (Ed.), Reflections on language teacher identity research. Routledge.
Jackson, D., Firtko, A., & Edenborough, M. (2007). Personal resilience as a strategy for surviving and thriving in the face of workplace adversity: A literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 60(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2007.04412.x
Kanno, Y., & Stuart, C. (2011). Learning to become a second language teacher: Identities-in-practice. Modern Language Journal, 95(ii), 236–252.
Keller, M. M., Chang, M. L., Becker, E. S., Goetz, T., & Frenzel, A. C. (2014). Teachers’ emotional experiences and exhaustion as predictors of emotional labor in the classroom: An experience sampling study. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01442
Lasky, S. (2000). The cultural and emotional politics of teacher-parent interactions. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16(8), 843–860. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(00)00030-5.
Lasky, S. (2005). A sociocultural approach to understanding teacher identity, agency and professional vulnerability in a context of secondary school reform. Teaching & Teacher Education, 21, 899–916.
Lowe, R., & Kiczkowiak, M. (2016). Native-speakerism and the complexity of personal experience: A duoethnographic study. Cogent Education, 3(1): 1264171.
Lowe, R. J., & Lawrence, L. (Ed.) (2020). Duoethnography in English language teaching: Research, reflection and classroom application. Multilingual Matters.
Martínez Agudo, Juan de Dios (Eds.) (2018). Emotions in second language teaching. Theory, research and teacher education. Springer.
Maslach, C., & M. P. Leiter (2006). Teacher burnout: A research agenda. In R. Vandenberghe & A. M. Huberman (Eds.), Undersatnding and preventing teacher burnout (pp. 295–303). CUP.
Medgyes, P. (1994). The non-native teacher. Macmillan.
Mercer, S. & Gregersen, T. (2020). Teacher wellbeing. Oxford University Press.
Norris, J., & Sawyer R.D. (2017). Introduction: The efficay of duoethnography in teaching and learning: A return to the roots. In J. Norris & R. D. Sawyer (Eds.), Theorizing curriculum studies, teacher education, and research through duoethnographic pedagogy (pp. 1–14). Palgrave Macmillan.
Olsen, B. (2016). Teaching for success. Routledge.
Pavlenko, A., & J. Lantolf. (2000). Second language learning as participation and (re)construction of selves. In J. P. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp. 155–177). Oxford University Press.
Pennington, M. (2015). Teacher identity in TESOL: A frames perspective. In Y. L. Cheung, S. Ben Said, & K. Park (Eds.), Advances and current trends in language teacher identity research (pp. 16–30). Routledge.
Phillipson, R. (1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford University Press.
Pinar, W.F. (1978). The reconceptualisation of curriculum studies. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 10(3), 205–214. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0022027780100303
Richards, J. C. (1998). Textbooks: Help or hindrance in teaching? In J. C. Richards (Ed.), Beyond training (pp. 125–140). Cambridge University Press.
Rudolph, N., Selvi A. F., & Yazan, B. (2020). The complexity of identity and interaction on language education. Multilingual Matters.
Sawyer, R. D., & J. Norris (2013). Duoethnography. Oxford University Press.
Schutz, P. A., Hong, J., & Francis, C. D. (2018). Reseach on teacher identity. Springer.
Smith, M. (2018). Supporting the professional development of English language teachers. Taylor & Francis.
Song, J. (2016). Emotions and language teacher identity: Conflicts, vulnerability, and transformation. TESOL Quarterly, 50(3), 631–654. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.312
Trent, J. (2015). Towards a multifaceted, multidimensional framework for understanding teacher identity. In Y. L. Cheung, S. Ben Said, & K. Park (Eds.), Advances and Current Trends in Language Teacher Identity Research (pp. 44–58). Routledge.
Varghese, M., Morgan, B., Johnston, B., & Johnson, K. A. (2005). Theorizing language teacher identity: Three perspectives and beyond. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 4(1), 21–44.
Varghese, M., Motha, S., Park, G., Reeves, J., & Trent, J. (2016). In this Issue. TESOL Quarterly, 50(3), 545–571.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge University Press.
Werbińska, D. (2016). Language-Teacher Professional Identity: Focus on Discontinuities from the Perspective of Teacher Affiliation, Attachment and Autonomy. In: C. Gkonou, S. Mercer & T. Dieter (Eds.). New Directions in Language Learning Psychology. (pp. 135–157). Springer.
Werbińska, D. (2017a). The Formation of language teacher professional identity. A phenomenographic-narrative study. Wydawnictwo Akademii Pomorskiej w Słupsku.
Werbińska, D. (2017b). A teacher-in-context: Negotiating professional identity in a job promotion examination. Apples—Journal of Applied Language Studies, 11(2), 103–123.
Werbińska, D. (2020). Language teacher positioning in a teacher promotion examination: A small story approach. Neofilolog, 54(1), 133–153.
Wolff, D., & De Costa, P. I. (2017). Expanding the Language Teacher Identity Landscape: An Investigation of the Emotions and Strategies of a NNEST. Modern Language Journal, 101(c), 76–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12370
Zembylas, M. (2005). Teaching with emotion: A postmodern enactment. Information Age Publishing.
Pedagogical University of Cracow Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6272-9548
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The Copyright Holders of the submitted texts are the Authors. The Reader is granted the rights to use the material available in the TAPSLA websites and pdf documents under the provisions of the Creative Commons 4.0 International License: Attribution - Share Alike (CC BY-SA 4.0). The user is free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
1. License
The University of Silesia Press provides immediate open access to journal’s content under the Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0 license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Authors who publish with this journal retain all copyrights and agree to the terms of the above-mentioned CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
2. Author’s Warranties
The author warrants that the article is original, written by stated author/s, has not been published before, contains no unlawful statements, does not infringe the rights of others, is subject to copyright that is vested exclusively in the author and free of any third party rights, and that any necessary written permissions to quote from other sources have been obtained by the author/s.
If the article contains illustrative material (drawings, photos, graphs, maps), the author declares that the said works are of his authorship, they do not infringe the rights of the third party (including personal rights, i.a. the authorization to reproduce physical likeness) and the author holds exclusive proprietary copyrights. The author publishes the above works as part of the article under the licence "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International".
ATTENTION! When the legal situation of the illustrative material has not been determined and the necessary consent has not been granted by the proprietary copyrights holders, the submitted material will not be accepted for editorial process. At the same time the author takes full responsibility for providing false data (this also regards covering the costs incurred by the University of Silesia Press and financial claims of the third party).
3. User Rights
Under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, the users are free to share (copy, distribute and transmit the contribution) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) the article for any purpose, provided they attribute the contribution in the manner specified by the author or licensor.
4. Co-Authorship
If the article was prepared jointly with other authors, the signatory of this form warrants that he/she has been authorized by all co-authors to sign this agreement on their behalf, and agrees to inform his/her co-authors of the terms of this agreement.
I hereby declare that in the event of withdrawal of the text from the publishing process or submitting it to another publisher without agreement from the editorial office, I agree to cover all costs incurred by the University of Silesia in connection with my application.
