(Re)-shaping and (Re)-imagining Teacher Identities: An analysis of 'becomings' of international teachers of English

Abstract

This thesis investigates the shaping of teacher identities linking past and present teaching and development experiences and imagined future selves. It focuses on fourteen ‘non-native’ teachers of English who had been teaching in schools and universities in their local contexts before furthering their development through postgraduate study in two British universities. These teachers come from a diverse range of teaching backgrounds and thus bring with them experiences from different ‘worlds’ of English Language Teaching. The study examines the complex processes of ‘becoming’ teachers bringing together these different perspectives and considering how identities become shaped and re-shaped. It first focuses on past teaching experiences and the actors which have been influential on shaping the identities these teachers brought to their postgraduate study contexts. It then examines postgraduate study experiences and the ways in which some participants responded to particular aspects of their studies, and how these further shaped their identity formation. This includes how particular forms of knowledge became meaningful to participants in relation to their past experiences. Finally, the study looks at how participants imagined their future identities and explores if and how postgraduate study has played a role in these imaginings. This is a qualitative study which uses an analysis of short story narratives collected through interviews and focus group discussions. The analysis of participants short stories is used to examine the social and material actors which have been influential on shaping participant identities and how these influences may remain significant in postgraduate study and the meanings participants attach to their study experiences. It also shows how, for some participants, particular imagined futures emerged through postgraduate study, and therefore new identity possibilities. In order to examine the influences of both human and non-human actors on teacher identity formation, I draw on actor-network theory, which provides a sociomaterialist lens through which the interplays of social and material actors can both be considered as potentially influential on teacher identity formation.