EFL teacher professional identity construction the case of a non native novice teacher

ABSTRACT This present study seeks to explore the construction of professional identity of a novice EFL teacher in Vietnam, identify the factors that have influence on this process and ho

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

**********************

NGUYỄN PHƯỚC ÁI PHƯƠNG

EFL TEACHER PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION:

THE CASE OF A NON-NATIVE NOVICE TEACHER

(Sự hình thành bản ngã nghề nghiệp của giáo viên Tiếng Anh: trường hợp của

giáo viên mới vào nghề)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Major: English Language Teaching Code: 60140111

HANOI - 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

**********************

NGUYỄN PHƯỚC ÁI PHƯƠNG

EFL TEACHER PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION:

THE CASE OF A NON-NATIVE NOVICE TEACHER

(Sự hình thành bản ngã nghề nghiệp của giáo viên Tiếng Anh: trường hợp của

giáo viên mới vào nghề)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Major: English Language Teaching Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã

HANOI - 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis would not have been completed if I did not have the support of many individuals Therefore I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all of them First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr Vu Thi Thanh Nha, my supervisor, who has patiently and constantly supported me through the stages of the study, and whose stimulating ideas, expertise, and suggestions have inspired me greatly through my growth as an academic researcher

A special word of thanks goes to the teacher pseudo named Mai without whose participation it would never have been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family and friends for the sacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work Their love will always

be my sunshine in my road to success

ABSTRACT

This present study seeks to explore the construction of professional identity of a novice EFL teacher in Vietnam, identify the factors that have influence on this process and how these factors interact with each other in constructing and complicating the teacher‟s professional identity The instruments for data collection

to serve the aim of the research are narrative inquiry and semi – structured interview After a careful long time of collecting and analyzing data, it is revealed

in the study that the 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 The findings of the research are expected

to be significant in providing valuable insights into EFL teachers‟ process of identity formation and reconstruction with reference to a particular working environment

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

I The context of the research 1

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 The concept of identity 5

1.2 The contents and processes of identity 7

1.2.1 Identity as a socio-cultural construct 7

1.2.2 Identity and communities of practice 8

1.3 Teacher professional identity and the benefits of researching teacher identity 8

1.4 Professional identity construction of novice teachers 9

1.5 Self-interests 11

1.6 Material interests 12

1.7 Social-professional interests 12

1.8 Chapter summary 12

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 13

2.1 The research genre: Case Study 13

2.2 Method of inquiry 14

2.3 Research setting 15

2.4 Participants 15

2.5 The role of the researcher 16

2.6 Data collection methods and procedure 16

2.6.1 Journals 16

2.6.2 Semi-structured interviews 17

2.7 Data analysis procedure 17

2.8 Chapter Summary 20

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS 21

3.1 Self-interests 21

3.1.1 Mai‟s task perception 21

3.1.2 Attempts to establish desirable work conditions congruent with task

perception 22

3.1.3 Social Recognition 24

3.1.4 Coping with vulnerability 26

3.1.5 Coping with visibility 30

3.2 Material interests 33

3.2.1 Access to school facilities 33

3.2.2 Searching for instructional materials 35

3.2.3 Time demand 35

3.3 Social-professional relationships 37

3.3.1 Social professional relationships with mentors 37

3.3.2 Social professional relationships with colleagues 39

3.3.3 Social relationships with leaders 44

3.4 Chapter summary 45

PART C: DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION 46

I Summary of the research 46

II Discussion of the key findings 46

II.1 Summary of key findings 46

II.2 Factors that contribute to identity construction and the interaction between these factors 47

II.2.1 Personal and contextual factors: Striving for self-affirmation and dealing with vulnerability and visibility 47

II.2.2 Social-cultural factors: Power relationships and communities of practice 49

II.3 Summary for Discussion 50

III Pedagogical implications 50

III.1 For teacher training institution 51

III.2 For the school 51

III.3 For novice teachers 51

IV Limitations and recommendation for further research 52

VI Concluding message 53

REFERENCES 54 APPENDIX A I APPENDIX B III APPENDIX C IV

PART A: INTRODUCTION

This part starts with the description of the research context, including the identification of the problem and the landscape of English language education and English teacher training in Vietnam Next, I present the research‟s aims, methods, and significance of the study

I The context of the research

Since the EFL context of the proposed study is Vietnam and given the contextualized nature of teacher professional identity, it is necessary that a brief description of the current situation of English language education and English teacher training in Vietnam be given Like other Asian countries, Vietnam has followed the social trend of learning English in recent years as both the government and the people see the need for Vietnamese to have a good command of English in order to integrate better into the globalized world Thus, English is introduced early

in the curriculum by the Ministry of Education and Training Even though this increasing popularity of English learning leads to a higher demand and a better social status for English teachers in the country, several socioeconomic constraints have been seen to have impacts on the teaching practice of English teachers in Vietnam Many public school teachers have to take part time jobs to teach English

at privately owned language centers in order to get higher incomes Also, it is still a common belief among parents and students that native English teachers are better than nonnative teachers; therefore, Vietnamese teachers of English are under constant pressure from the society to perform well At the same time, most English teacher training programs in public universities across the country focus on providing student teachers with practice in English language skills and knowledge

of teaching methodology, but do not prepare them for coping with the hardship of the process of becoming an English teacher (Phan, 2008) First year mentoring, though provided, is considered by both senior and trainee teachers as a bureaucratic rather than learning and supporting procedure In most cases, it is all left to new teachers to try and survive by themselves and to establish their own professional

identity

With the increasing popularity of the socio-cultural approach toward language teaching and learning in the past decade, more transformative and comprehensive views of EFL teachers in practice have also been recorded (Varghese, Morgan, Johnson, & Johnston, 2005) Indeed, nowadays, EFL teachers are seen as not only teaching practitioners operating in their own world, but also social entities that constantly interact with and are under the influence of various socio-cultural and sociopolitical elements that characterize their communities of practice (Miller, 2009) Despite its role of adding diversity and uniqueness to teaching and teachers‟ lives, the interplay and negotiation between these socio-cultural influences and teachers‟ own learning experience, teaching beliefs, and personal practical knowledge, as Farrell (2009) stated, is one of challenging factors to second language teachers in the process of establishing themselves professionally

To novice teachers, this process of forming a professional teacher identity has been shown to be even more dramatic Indeed, it has been revealed that during the first year of teaching, beginning teachers constantly ask themselves many questions of identity such as “Who am I in my story of teaching? Who am I in my place in school? Who am I in my children‟s stories? Who am I in my administrator‟s stories?” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1999, p.3) However, given the conflicts, reality shocks and anxieties that are highlighted in many studies into new teachers‟ teaching experience as common characteristics of the transition from being a student to a teacher (Huberman, 1989; Vonk, 1993; Thomas & Beauchamp, 2011), novice teachers often find it hard to find proper answers to these questions, which leads to their feeling overwhelmed and challenged (Thomas & Beauchamp, 2011)

In examining the constructed identity of novice EFL teachers, these research projects emphasized the influence of classroom practices on teachers‟ developing perception of self, and yet little is revealed about personal and contextual factors that might as well impact the identity construction process of novice EFL teachers There is, therefore, a gap to examine the identity formation of beginning EFL

teachers in a more comprehensive approach that takes into consideration various constructing factors that build up the teacher self of novice EFL teachers in a particular context

II Research aims

Motivated by the abovementioned complexities of the identity development of EFL teachers in general and novice EFL teachers in particular, and originating from my own bittersweet experience in establishing my professional self during my first year working as an EFL teacher, this study aims at exploring various factors that construct the professional identity of a novice EFL teacher in Vietnam and how these factors interact with each other in constructing and complicating the teacher‟s professional identity Also, given the identified gap in the literature about identity research with novice EFL teachers and the current situation of English teacher training and professional development in Vietnam, this study sets out to address the following questions:

- How is the novice EFL teacher‟s professional identity constructed?

- What factors contribute to the construction of novice EFL teachers' identities?

- How do these factors interact with each other in their identity construction process?

Given the research aims, the scope, methods and significance of the study are clarified in the following section

III Scope of the study

The research is confined to the study of one EFL teacher‟s construction of her professional identity and factors that affect the process of her professional identity formation As a single case study, the research does not intend to generalize its findings

IV Methods and significance of the study

Given the research problem and based on existing theories and previous research, this study follows a qualitative approach Specifically, it adopts case study as the

main research method The data were collected by collecting teaching journals and interviewing the participant who is spending her first year of teaching at a high school The aims are to explore the identity construction of this particular teacher, and identify factors that exert influences on her self-perceptions in a particular context The findings of the research are expected to be significant in providing valuable insights into EFL teachers‟ process of identity formation and reconstruction with reference to her working environment

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

This part is designed for the development of the whole thesis Specifically, it includes three chapters named 1 (Literature Review), 2 (Methodology), 3 (Findings) Each chapter serves different purposes which importantly contribute to

the success of the present thesis

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter starts with detailed explanations of concepts and theories that are foundational to the present research, including the notion of identity and the contents and processes of identity politics The chapter provides a definition of teacher professional identity, followed by a review of relevant research on the identity construction process of novice EFL teachers From this theoretical and empirical discussion, I highlight the significance of the study and its potential contribution to current knowledge in the field of teacher identity and professional development Finally, a conceptual framework for conducting the research is presented and discussed

1.1 The concept of identity

Identity is a complex concept that, as Schwartz, Luyckx, and Vignoles (2011) state, takes different definitions across disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, political science, education, family studies, and public health Despite this complexity, according to these authors, the process of conceptualizing identity involves, at the core of it, finding answers to the question:

“Who are you?” This seemingly simple question, in essence, “masks a considerable amount of complexity” (p 2) Since „you‟ can be single or plural, identity can refer

to self-definitions of not only individuals but also groups and societies, as well as how an individual constructs the image of himself/herself in social interactions (Tajfel & Turner, 1986) One‟s identity, therefore, is composed of both „who you think you are‟ and „who you act as being‟, or “who others think you are” (Butler, 1990)

Taking the above conceptualization as the point of departure, in the field of social

science, I can figure out that the definition of identity comprises three different levels (Sedikides & Brewer, 2001), namely individual, relational, and collective

identity Individual identity refers to self-definitions at the level of the individual

person, and often includes goals, values, and beliefs, self-esteem, self-evaluation, desired, feared, and expected future selves, and even one‟s life stories (MacDonald, 2000; Atkins, Hart, & Donnelly, 2005) As its title suggests, the core concept of individual identity is the emphasis on the role of an individual in constructing his or

her own identity Relational identity, on the other hand, refers to one‟s role in

relation to other people in the society, including family, groups, and the society at large The focus here is the idea that one‟s identities cannot be independent of the social and cultural contexts that he or she is situated in (Bamberg, 2004; Chen,

Boucher, & Tapias, 2006) Finally, the notion of collective identity is built around

the social interaction beliefs, and refers to one‟s identifications with the social groups or categories that he/she belongs to, the beliefs and behaviours that come with the group membership, as well as the meaning that is associated with the identification (Ashmore, Deaux, & McLaughlin-Volpe, 2004; Tajfel & Turner, 1986; Taylor, 1997) These aspects, according to Vignoles, Schwartz, and Luyckx (2011), when assembled together, create the basis for an integrative definition of identity:

Viewed through the lens of an individual person, identity consists of the

confluence of the person‟s self-chosen or ascribed commitments, personal

characteristics, and beliefs about herself; roles and positions in relation to

significant others; and her membership in social groups and categories (p

4)

In other words, the identity of a person is a complicated concept which includes all the elements related to herself (commitments, characteristics, beliefs, roles and positions) in relation to other relationships within her social community

Due to its comprehensive and integrated nature, the present research adopted this explanation as the operational definition of identity to further explore the content and processes of identity in the following sections

1.2 The contents and processes of identity

Given the conceptualization of identity as encompassing multiple levels of personal and social relationships, a further investigation into the politics of identity as examined by identity researchers in the field of social science showed several factors that come into play, or as Norton (2006) put it, a number of trajectories to which the notion of self is constructed

1.2.1 Identity as a socio-cultural construct

This line of thinking originated from Tajfel and Turner‟s (1986) social identity theory, which places emphasis on the role of social group membership in constructing one‟s identity Social identity theorists‟ main point of reference is the relationship between the individual and the larger society, mediated through social institutions such as families, schools, and workplaces To take a step further from this viewpoint, Norton (2006) in her comprehensive review of identity theories, combined the notion of social identity with that of cultural identity (which refers to self-definitions that are derived from membership of a particular ethnic group who shares the same language, history, and lifestyles), and argued that social and cultural identity share more common themes Identity, therefore, can be seen as socioculturally constructed

Along this line, identity, as Norton pointed out, has certain characteristics First, it is dynamic and constantly changing across time and space This means as individuals

go through different stages in their lives and experience changing sociocultural settings, their identity is also subject to change and transition, and thus is far from stable Second, it is complex, contradictory, and multifaceted Again changes in sociocultural settings lead to a different notion of self, which might or might not be compatible with one‟s known self, creating contradictions and conflicts Third, identity must be understood in correspondence with larger social processes, typified

by relations of power Indeed, as identity is socially and culturally constructed, any attempt to make sense of it must be made in conjunction with the sociocultural processes in which individuals operate Finally, as Norton was specifically working

with second language learners when she conceptualized this notion of identity, her sociocultural concept also embraces the idea that identity is linked with classroom practices, where learners should be given the chance to raise their own voice and express their thinking and beliefs, thereby forming and actualizing their identities

1.2.2 Identity and communities of practice

From a sociocultural standpoint, group membership significantly contributes toward one‟s perception of self To further clarify this, identity researchers have turned toward Lave and Wenger‟s (1991) notion of communities of practice According to these scholars, a community of practice is a group of people who share the same professional expertise and interest The core idea is through interaction within the community, participants share knowledge and experience with each other and thus develop personally and professionally Participation in communities of practice, therefore, has been claimed to have notable impacts on individual development and one‟s perception of self (Wenger, 1998) To be more specific, Wenger proposes that

an individual‟s identity is not only represented through the way one thinks and talks about oneself, or what others think and talk about one, but is also lived day to day

In this sense, membership in a community of practice is a representation of one‟s day-to-day identity, and thus contributes to the process of identity formation

1.3 Teacher professional identity and the benefits of researching teacher identity

As pointed out at the beginning of this chapter, the concept of identity and its construction is multidisciplinary and thus has been researched across a wide range

of subject areas In the field of teaching and teacher education, teacher identity has, for the most part, also been viewed from a poststructuralist perspective More specifically, teacher identity is defined as the way an individual teacher sees himself/herself in relation to his/her relationships with his/her professional setting

as well as the society at large (Norton, 2005; Morgan, 2004; Varghese, 2006) Teacher professional identity construction is then considered the process of

“making sense and interpretation of one‟s own values and experiences” (Flores &

Day, 2006, p 220) Added to this, according to Smith (1996), teacher-self develops

as teachers constantly move between the need to connect with other colleagues and the desire to keep their sense of individuality In that respect, teacher identity is

“transformational, transformative, context-bound, and constructed, maintained and negotiated via language and discourse” (Varghese, Morgan, Johnson, & Johnston,

2005, p 180) Miller (2009), in reviewing a range of definitions of teacher identity, also pointed out that teacher identity is dynamic, contextualized, and is often a mix

of “context, contradiction, and conflict” (p 174)

Given its complex nature, teacher professional identity is said to “stand at the core

of the teaching profession”, and “provide a framework for teachers to construct their own ideas of “how to be”, “how to act”, and how to understand their work and their place in society” (Sachs, 2005, p.15) As a result, according to Flores and Day (2006), a realization of professional identity contributes to teachers‟ self-efficacy, motivation, commitment and job satisfaction

1.4 Professional identity construction of novice teachers

Farrell (2009) defined novice teachers as “teachers who have completed their teacher education program and have just commenced teaching in an institutional institution” (p 182) Research has shown that in their process of “learning to teach”, novice teachers are constantly faced with concerns and challenges (Fuller & Brown, 1975) while trying to develop the conception of teacher-self as well as formulate their identities (Miller, 2009) The first year of teaching, therefore, is considered unpredictable, idiosyncratic, and anxiety-provoking (Johnson, 2002)

Due to greater attention directed toward the unpredictability and idiosyncrasy of the first year of teaching, research on the identity formation of preservice and novice EFL teachers has in recent years flourished Liu and Fisher‟s (2006) research on the conceptions of self of student teachers of modern languages in a postgraduate program in the UK revealed the role of practice in the formation of teacher self, whereby student teachers showed improvement in classroom performance, positive changes in relationships with pupils, changing image in pupils' eyes, and a clearer

sense of being a language teacher during practicums This is also supported by Kanno and Stuart‟s (2011) findings in their research on beginning ESL teachers, which asserted that the identity of a language teacher does not come automatically but through actual teaching practice and constant reflection of one‟s teaching Therefore, Cooper and Olson (1996) confirmed that “identity formation is constantly informed, formed, and reformed through self-evaluation and interaction with other people”

In the research of Kelchtermans and Ballet (2002) on teacher induction and teacher socialization, they focus on various professional interests that are available for the teacher involved The categories proved to be a powerful conceptual tool to describe and understand the different aspects of the teaching reality (Table 1)

structural time facilities

Organisational interests Issues concerning roles, positions or formal tasks in the school as an organisation

Cultural-ideological interests Normative values and ideals about „„good‟‟ teaching in the school

Social professional interests Issues on the quality of interpersonal relations within the school

Note Adapted from: The micropolitics of teacher induction A narrative-biographical study on teacher socialization, p.110, by Kelchtermans, G & Ballet, K., 2002, Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 105–120

In examining the constructed identity of novice teachers, this research project place

an utmost emphasis on the influence of classroom practice on teacher‟s developing perception of self, as well as the personal, contextual and social factors that might impact the identity construction process of novice teachers However, the data that I collected and analysed do not cover all these categories, so they can be classified by

only three professional interests: self-interests, material interests and professional interests

social-1.5 Self-interests

Kelchtermans and Ballet (2002) indicated that self-interests hold a dominant place

in the novice teacher‟s personal interpretative framework A novice teacher‟s interests refer to his/her beliefs about him- or her-self as a teacher, which are closely related to self-esteem and task perception The beliefs are essential for the teacher to cope with job situations and to develop professionally When one‟s self-esteem and one‟s task perception are threatened, self-interests become critical In some cases, the new teacher uses his/her own professional actions to safe-guard his/her professional integrity Professional actions are mainly concerned with striving for self-affirmation, dealing with vulnerability and visibility

self-There are two main sources of self-affirmation, efficacy and social recognition (Kelchtermans and Ballet, 2002; Rots, Kelchtermans, and Aelterman, 2012) Efficacy refers to the fact that a novice teacher is able to perform his/her professional actions consistent with his/her task perception and to bring about achievements with students Social recognition refers to the acknowledgement of a novice‟s efficacy by “significant others” The experience of efficacy and its social recognition is crucial for the novice‟s positive self-esteem, which, in turn, confirms the teacher‟s professional self

Kelchtermans (2009) claimed that vulnerability can be interpreted as a structural condition which is made up of three elements Firstly, vulnerability happens when teachers are unable to fully control their desirable work conditions; secondly, vulnerable conditions emerge if teachers find it very difficult to prove that students‟ outcomes are the direct results of their teaching efficacy And finally, vulnerability takes place whenever the decisions made by the teacher lack a firm ground The appearance of vulnerability depends upon whether one of the elements emerges

Additionally, visibility refers to others‟ evaluation of the novice teacher based on what they could see from the novice To protect one‟s self-image, novice teachers tend to invest more time and efforts in their professional actions

1.6 Material interests

The notion of material interests involves “the availability of and teachers‟ access to material facilities at the school” (Kelchtermans & Ballet, 2002) Materials include specific facilities like computer rooms, library, photocopiers, overhead projectors, etc Kelchtermans and Ballet (2002) also include time as part of the concept of material

1.7 Social-professional interests

Social-professional interests refer to the interpersonal relationships in the school as

an organization (Kelchtermans & Ballet, 2002) As Rots et al (2012) claimed,

“Social-professional relationships can be an essential source of recognition, but reversely also constitute potential threats to this self-esteem.” (p.6)

1.8 Chapter summary

This chapter reviews the literature on teacher professional identity in general and novice teachers‟ identity formation in particular, which helps me understand and decide on the appropriate theoretical frameworks for this study In order to answer the stated research questions, this research was framed based on Norton (2006) conception of identity as a sociocultural construct Moreover, the professional

interests‟ categories of Kelchtermans and Ballet (2002) also contributed toward the

process of making sense of the research issue Also, the relationships between identity and other socially and culturally defined constructs, including context and communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) are taken into adequate consideration

In the following chapter, I will discuss the main research methodology and approach of the study

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter states the method of case study and specifies reasons why case study and narrative inquiry was adopted as the main research approach This is then followed by a detailed description of the research setting and participants Next, the procedure and methods for data collection are presented Finally, the chapter concludes with thorough explanations of the data analysis process

2.1 The research genre: Case Study

For the fulfillment of the stated purposes of the paper, I employed a qualitative research methodology in the form of a longitudinal small-scaled, in-depth single-case study

There are several rationales for the choice of this research method For one thing, since it takes time to construct one‟s identity, in order to examine a teachers‟ professional identity, a longitudinal approach would make sense For another thing, one of the main purposes of qualitative research is to understand the behaviors of the subject in a real context which, in turn, provides information for the construction and reconstruction of professional identity (Beijaard, D., Meijer, P., & Verloop, N., 2004) Indeed, for a research issue that is greatly affected by contextual elements as identity, a research approach that studies subjects in real-life contexts (Yin, 2003) and strong on reality (Cohen, L., Manion, L & Morrison, K., 2007) like case study would work most effectively Case studies sketch out a picture of “what it is like" in

a particular circumstance and maintain a “thick description” (Geertz, 1973b) of subjects‟ lived stories, thoughts, and sentiments (Cohen, L., Manion, L & Morrison, K., 2007) Gall, Gall, & Borg (2003) postulated that case study is the most widely used approach to qualitative research in education The qualitative case study “can be defined in terms of the process of actually carrying out the investigation, the unit of analysis (the bounded system, the case), or the end product” Merriam (1998, p.34) A case study explores a case or multiple cases

“over time through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information rich in context” (Creswell, 1998, p.61)

2.2 Method of inquiry

In terms of method of inquiry, this study employed narrative inquiry as the main research approach Narrative inquiry involves, at the heart of it, “eliciting and documenting stories”, “interpreting them in view of the literature of a field” (Murray, 2009, p 46), and “bringing storytelling and research together either by using stories as research data or by using storytelling as a tool for data analysis or presentation of findings” (Barkhuizen, 2013, p.3) The reasons for this choice, as will

be specified below, lie mainly in the nature of narrative inquiry and the inherent features of identity research

First, the story-based characteristic of narrative inquiry perfectly matches the nature

of teacher identity exploration As “teachers‟ working lives are shaped by stories, and these stories to live by compose teacher identity” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1999,

p 150), a focus on eliciting their stories can be beneficial in helping narrative inquirers uncover aspects of teacher self that otherwise will remain hidden In the same way (Reis, 2011) confirmed that telling their own stories can provide teachers with a tool to make sense of their experience and themselves, as well as “externalize their beliefs, understanding of themselves, and emotions” (p 121) In addition, as Vasquez (2011) stated, since identity is context-specific and constantly changes across time and space, story research can “illuminate how identities are constructed

in situ and the various ways in which identities are performed in local, situated contexts” (p 535)

Second, as an insightful method of investigation which provides in-depth knowledge of participants‟ thinking and beliefs, in the field of applied linguistics, narrative inquiry has in recent years gained popularity, especially with research on identity (see Kanno, 2003; Norton, 2000; Johnson & Golombek, 2002; Tsui, 2007; Park, 2012; Pavlenko, 2003; Reis, 2011) Also, in its September 2011 special-topic publication, TESOL Quarterly dedicated its content to Narrative Research in TESOL, with a wide range of articles and reports on recent studies in TESOL that use narrative inquiry as a research method This by all means demonstrates the

power and impacts of story-telling on second language research Despite this, narrative research in TESOL, “still remains very much in its infancy” (Vasquez,

2011, p 536), and as Barkhuizen (2011) stated, there is spacious room for TESOL researchers to make significant contributions By also adopting narrative inquiry as the main research approach, this research, therefore, hoped to integrate into the larger stream of narrative research in TESOL, and thus add voices to a growing collection of professional stories about English language teachers

2.3 Research setting

The research was conducted with a novice EFL teacher who teaches at Quoc Hoc high school, Hue, Vietnam This school is one of several high schools in Vietnam which is qualified as having „national standard‟, which means the quality of teaching facility, teaching staff and students of this school is considered better than most of the others Students of the school are selected mainly from Thua Thien Hue province and also other provinces in the central region of the country These students have to pass a strict examination to enter the school and they can choose to study in different specialized classes such as English, Math, Literature, Physics, Chemistry, etc basing on their interests and exam scores

In terms of EFL learning and teaching, the English division is divided into two divisions, the English-specialized and the normal ones The teachers who take responsibility of the English-specialized classes do not teach the normal classes and vice versa The participant of this study, Mai, only taught normal classes at the time

sub-of the research

2.4 Participants

The participant of this research was selected from the abovementioned research site Regarding selection of the participant, I used the purposive sampling technique (Patton, 1990), according to which participants are recruited based on certain criteria set out by the researcher For this particular research, the participant was chosen based on three main criteria First, she is an English teacher and speaks

English as a foreign language Second, she has just graduated from university and started her first year of teaching at the time of the research Third, I based on her availability and willingness to participate in the research For confidentiality, pseudonyms are used to refer to the participant The participant is Mai, female, aged

23 The teacher is chosen as she qualifies as a nonnative novice EFL teacher She graduated with a Bachelor‟s degree in English language teaching from Hue University of Foreign Languages in July 2014 and started her teaching career the following month

2.5 The role of the researcher

On a professional and, to a certain extent, personal level, as a researcher I share a lot

in common with the participant Five years ago, I was also a novice teacher of the school where this research was set I felt that I could sympathize a lot of her stories,

as I also experienced many of the same issues that confronted her In brief, as with Park (2012), I could not “divorce myself from the experiences of the participant” (p 131) The conduct of this research, therefore, was also an opportunity for me to reflect on my own professional self and relate my process of reconstructing my professional identity with that of the participant

2.6 Data collection methods and procedure

2.6.1 Journals

As part of the data collection procedure, the participant was asked to keep journal entries about her teaching life based on the form of story-telling She started the first entry from the first week of the school year of 2014-2015 and kept writing every week until the end of the school year In total, more than thirty entries were written and sent to the researcher According to Connelly and Clandinin (1999), “teachers‟ working lives are shaped by stories, and these stories to live by compose teacher identity” (p 150) At the same time, telling their own stories can provide teachers with a tool to make sense of their experience and themselves, as well as “externalize their beliefs, understanding of themselves, and emotions” (Reis, 2011, p 121) The

participant was therefore asked to write entries focusing on describing herself as an EFL teacher and telling experiences that make the most impression on her from when she started teaching until the time of research The minimum number of entries is ten, but she is also encouraged to write more if she feels the need to The participant was given options as to how she wants her stories to be delivered to the researcher This could be done via email if she decided to write electronically or in paper if she opted for handwriting Also, I asked her to choose the language (English or Vietnamese) and she preferred to write in Vietnamese as it is more natural and easier for her to express her thoughts and feelings It was hoped that through the participant‟s written stories, data about personal, contextual and socio-cultural factors that influence teachers‟ identity constructions would be revealed

2.6.2 Semi-structured interviews

As had been suggested by Johnson and Golombek (2002), foreign language teachers‟ verbalizations of their experiences could provide a window onto their professional identities Accordingly, face-to-face semi-structured interviews were employed as a secondary source of data Also, in a semi-structured interview, “the questions are usually open-ended to allow participants to elaborate and researchers

to pursue developing themes” (Barkhuizen, 2013, p.17)

After each semester of the school year, a semi-structured interview was conducted with the participant The purpose of the interviews is three fold: to clarify the participant‟s points made in her teaching stories, to ask further questions related to factors that are reported to influence EFL teachers‟ development of professional identity according to the literature, but do not seem to be prominent in the written data, and to examine in depth how the identity construction factors emerging from the written data interact with each other in the participant‟ process of becoming EFL teachers Based on these three objectives, the interview questions were made The interviews were recorded

2.7 Data analysis procedure

The data collected in this research were analyzed following the theoretical framework of identity as discussed in chapter 2 The data were handled following the 3-step procedure

In the first stage, journal entries were read in a chronological order The stories were pulled into a chronological line to display a continuous story line Memos were also made along with the process of reading and evaluating the journals At the end of this process, the outline of Mai‟s development of teachers‟ professional identity through time was visualized, notwithstanding some blurred interior features

In the second stage, the journals were read and the interviews were reviewed numerous times to highlight the similarities in separate stories These stories were then categorized into different groups based on Kelchtermans and Ballet‟s (2002) framework and sent to the participant to confirm the accuracy of the narratives In this very same stage, the properties of each group were also identified

Finally, in the third stage, the previously determined categories and their properties were reflected in the mirror of theoretical analysis This process of theorization put the individual stories into the conceptual framework that “had the analytical power

to pull together all codes” (Canh, 2013, p 8) Thanks to this power, the process of professional identity construction of the participant was gradually illuminated The findings were presented in the form of a story Mai‟s journals mostly followed

a chronological order However, sometimes her memories about the high school and student teacher time interrupted the sequence Therefore, it was necessary to reorder the individual incidents so as to make a complete story of Mai‟s identity development This so-called „story‟ was then sent back to Mai to check for accuracy A story told chronologically was necessary in order to observe as well as demonstrate a more vivid growth in Mai‟s identity over time After this activity was done, the themes that stood salient in the narratives, or those that ran through several stories, were explored and established These themes, or categories, were not randomly selected Instead, the selection and establishment of categories were

informed by the reviewed literature, especially by that on elements that might influence the identity construction Personal background and contextual factors including educational context, cultural setting, and institutional context were referenced when generating the categories

As a principal rule, the findings were discussed and analyzed following the framework of Kelchtermans and Ballet (2002), with regard to the theories of Norton (2006) and Wenger (1998) The following table shows several examples of the data which were analyzed by the determined framework The data taken from the entries

of her journal is conventionally written as E (which means Entry), along with the serial number of the entries, for example E1, E2, etc The data taken from the two interviews is conventionally written as I (which means Interview), along with the number of the interview, for example I.1 and I.2

Participation in communities of practice has notable impacts on individual

development and one‟s perception of self

Mai struggles to establish teaching and learning conditions

consistent with her task perception (E2, E17, E22, E30)

Material interests

(Contextual

factors)

Mai struggles to gain access to school facilities (E8, E25)

2.8 Chapter Summary

This chapter describes the main method of the study It has also clarified the research approach and the procedures of collecting and analyzing the data This is a qualitative small-scaled yet in-depth single case study that employed narratives and interviews as main instruments of data collection The data was analyzed based on the framework of Kelchtermans and Ballet (2002) The findings of the study are presented in chapter four that follows

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS

This chapter consists of three main parts, each part indicates a different professional interest that relates to the incidents the participant encounters, including self-interests, material interests and social-professional interests (Kelchtermans & Ballet, 2002) In each part, I narrate the relevant incidents and events that Mai came

up with during the teaching and non-teaching processes, which make it systematic and helps me understand the whole picture of her identity construction process

3.1 Self-interests

A novice teacher‟s self-interests refer to his/her beliefs about him- or her-self as a teacher, which are closely related to self-esteem and task perception Professional actions are mainly concerned with striving for self-affirmation, dealing with vulnerability and visibility (Kelchtermans & Ballet, 2002) This part presents data from Mai‟s stories regarding how her professional self was confirmed by these sources

3.1.1 Mai’s task perception

Her stories showed that with knowledge acquired from teacher education, Mai believed that students were able to learn only if they were sufficiently inspired to interact with each other Accordingly, the teacher was expected to create favorable conditions so that students could be interested to participate actively in class activities Her blog entries revealed the perception obviously:

The students feel bored when they just sit and listen to the teacher

explaining things which are similar to those in the textbook I need to

inspire them [….] If the teacher creates favorable conditions, they

[students] could do their best An English lesson never happens in silence

with individual work only except in exams (E1)

[…] the main role of a teacher is to create a relaxing atmosphere to involve

them actively (E17)

It is obvious that the two major principles that guided her professional actions include student inspiration and active interaction

3.1.2 Attempts to establish desirable work conditions congruent with

task perception

With the task perception in mind, Mai proactively sought chances to perform professional actions that could establish teaching and learning conditions consistent with her task perception Data from Mai‟s narrative accounts showed four critical incidents in which she managed to apply instructional techniques to maintain an active and interesting learning environment The first incident happened right in the second week of the school year when she used a discussion activity to encourage group work This activity aimed to avoid boredom caused by the grammar section

in the book She considered this activity as the most successful activity she had ever conducted up to the specific time As she described:

After warm-up, I divided the class into 4 groups, asking them to discuss to

do activities in the textbook After that, a reporter of each group told the

class about their answers Each group gave only answers to the question the

teacher asked (they needed to prepare all the questions) and other groups

were allowed to ask questions if their answer was not clear enough The

teacher acted like an advisor I was surprised because they were very active

and their answers were very clear I didn‟t need to explain any more I

found that group work inspired students and competition motivated

students Discussing with peers helped them feel more confident And when

they presented their answers and their peers applauded or their teacher

praised, they felt satisfied with themselves (E2)

Another incident took place toward the end of the first semester In this incident, Mai organized another group work activity which encouraged students to learn and play by engaging in a variety of simultaneous activities such as singing, guitar-playing, games, and role play As she reported, students involved actively in the activity and spoke English with much fun In addition, she resorted to a role play where students were required to use one period to prepare a talk about the topic of environmental protection, one of the topics in the English language syllabus of secondary schools, and spent another period presenting their talk Overall, the

effects on students were reported to be positive although they were felt differently

in different classes:

There are differences [in terms of results] between classes Students from

grade 10 showed their great interest and less shyness than their counterparts

from grade 11 It is probably because students from grade 10 haven‟t

acquired the passive habits that students from grade 11 did There are

classes with very creative ideas which surprise me a lot The language is

English, just simple but comprehensible Another reason is that grade 10

students belong to the gifted class and grade 11 students don‟t Another

reason is that grade 10 students are nạve, natural and express their ideas

very clearly while grade 11 students can‟t (E17)

Mai furthered her two formulated principles of student inspiration and active involvement through the adaptation of the textbook materials in use The third incident occurred towards the second half of the school year Then Mai began to recognize some shortcomings of the current secondary English textbook that affected the learning and teaching of English, including uninteresting materials, a lack of variety of activities and too easy tasks She reported that of the different sections of the textbook, grammar was the worst As she commented on this part:

So far I haven‟t been satisfied with the grammar sections which are very

boring and don‟t help students to learn the nature of grammatical structures

or to use them in real situations Students tend to learn the structures by

heart and apply to exercises mechanically Random exercises in the

textbook don‟t help them much (E22)

The blog entries revealed her belief that the textbook should be at the right English level of the students and tasks designed in the book should be authentic enough to

be useful and interesting enough to appeal students Guided by the belief, she started searching for either a new way of teaching English or alternative materials for adaptation For example, in the middle of the second semester, she borrowed ideas from an article about how to explain the omission of relative pronouns in a simple, clear but still interesting manner At about the same time, she selected a

lesson from another textbook, made some changes to suit the level of her students, and introduced it to her class As she told about the effect of the action, her students showed interest and she showed inspiration

Nevertheless, Mai would like to achieve something beyond this The final incident happened at the end of the school year As she noticed they were not motivated enough to study, she decided to select a movie with English subtitles, instead of continuing to adapt the materials The result was that her students demonstrated their interest in and paid much attention to the activities, thus making no noise at all and refraining themselves from playing any games Nevertheless, the purpose was not just keeping students interested and attentive, but facilitating their expression of emotions through the use of English As she remarked,

I think this is a good way and will apply to normal classes so that students

can have a chance to listen to English and write about their emotional

reactions (E30)

It was inevitable from the last two incidents that Mai moved from working within the boundaries of the textbook early in the school year (this incident will be presented in great details in the following part), through proactively borrowing ideas or adapting the current materials in the middle of the year, and finally to using alternative materials to replace the existing materials at the end of the year

In short, all the incidents showed that Mai relied on the self-evaluation of her professional actions and also on positive responses from her students, not from

“significant others” for the experience of her self-efficacy

3.1.3 Social Recognition

The data from her diary indicated that Mai‟s experience of social acknowledgement emanated from the meeting with former and current students from her school who came back from a national Olympic Competition for the gifted They brought back with them many medals which, as she recounted, contributed to the well-established reputation of her school This incident was significant for her because it created

various positive emotions in her The first emotion she experienced was pride in the gifted students:

Quoc Hoc high school once again confirmed its reputation thanks to

generations of excellent students As a teacher at this school, I am very

proud to teach such excellent students (E24)

The second emotion she felt was happiness:

I am very moved to receive a gift, which is small but significant upon their

returning home (E24)

The third emotion she was well aware of was inspiration:

I feel the warm relation between teachers and students and feel inspired to

make more efforts (E24)

And the final emotion she realized through reflection was job satisfaction:

Though teaching is a hard job, it is rewarding whenever students are successful

(E24)

Before this incident, Mai actually experienced another incident that also triggered a variety of positive feelings It was the 20th of November when she first experienced the National Teachers‟ Day, not as a student, but as a teacher She also experienced happiness As she described it:

There has been a great event this week This is the first Teacher‟s Day

November 20 I have experienced in a different position from before Having

received many flowers and gifts and wishes from students and friends and

colleagues, I feel very happy (E6)

As a former student of the school and now an official teacher there, Mai was one of the witnesses of the best achievements teachers and students had made to the school She reported not just the feeling of happiness, but also a proactive commitment:

Seeing veteran teachers who devote their whole life to teaching, successful

students who visit their old school, the emotional ties among generations of

teachers and students of this school, I would remind myself of making

greater efforts to deserve the title of teacher previous generations have

confirmed (E6)

It is clear that for Amanda, 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

3.1.4 Coping with vulnerability

The data from Mai‟s narrative accounts revealed how she dealt with vulnerability in class instruction, class management, and non-teaching work

3.1.4.1 Coping with vulnerability in class instruction

For class instruction, there are three critical incidents in which Mai found herself vulnerable The first incident took place early at the beginning of the school year

At this time, her instructional style turned out to be completely textbook-based, although she intended to present herself as a competent teacher:

I taught like a machine, a speaker of the textbook, that‟s it! I don‟t know if

other new teachers had the same feeling as I did To be safe, I followed the

activities in the textbook strictly (E1)

Mai identified three reasons for this failure: a lack of self-confidence, a shortage of time for material adaptation and a lack of knowledge of students Of the three reasons, Mai considered the lack of understanding students as a more important reason than the others As a consequence, Mai resorted to the textbook-based style

as a quick solution

The second incident that happened at the end of the first semester was absolutely different This time, she was forced to shift away from an interactive and communicative approach to teaching to the traditional and non-communicative one

As she recalled:

For the past two weeks, I haven‟t taught as usual; instead, I have just given

students exercises of grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and reading

comprehension to do (E13)

Mai explicated that the shift, though completely incongruent with her task perception, was attributed to exam pressures:

Although I know I myself don‟t like it and neither do students as it‟s boring,

we have to because they need some revision for higher marks in semester

exams, esp for university entrance exam they will take later (E13)

In this case, Mai experienced self-doubts and uncertainty about when a change for the better would take place As she put it:

I don‟t know when there is a positive change And I don‟t know when

students can say hello to foreigners they meet in the street without fear and

don‟t have to be absorbed in thick books of grammar which give them no

chance to speak or to practice pronunciation (E13)

Moreover, in her reflection, Mai criticized the traditional assessment system by emphasizing the benefits students would have if an alternative assessment system were applied

However, not every student likes that Some students are very good at

speaking and very confident If all the students were tested on their

communicative competences, the number of students who are good at

speaking would certainly increase Hope the ministry of education and

training will soon propose changes (E13)

This evidence showed a shift in Mai‟s concerns away from self in the first

incident to students in the second incident This also marked a change away

from the technical dimension of effectiveness and efficacy in the earlier

incident to the moral, political, and emotional dimensions in the later

incident Finally, it revealed her gradual progress from more reactive to less

reactive political tactics, which marked a positive change in the regaining of

power

3.1.4.2 Coping with vulnerability in class management

There were also two major critical incidents when Mai found herself incapable to establish an orderly learning environment The first incident happened at the

beginning of the school year in one of the classes she taught This class was quite different from the others As she described,

There is a class where students from various classes come together to learn

Japanese as their second language This is the class where students learn

Japanese/French and English It is rather crowded, 50 students For the first

week, only half of them were present because of the storm And this week

almost all of them were present This class is very informal without a class

monitor, a book of lesson record, without seat plan […] (E2)

Despite her good knowledge of the class, she experienced a chaotic situation for the first time This was what she recounted regarding the class:

Students got together in groups of 5 to 7 to … talk privately As soon as I

reminded them of private talk and returned to work, noise from private talk

came again When asked to answer the questions, nobody raised their hands

although they knew the answers (because of the presence of students from

other classes in this class, some told me later) When one student was called

to answer the question, other students felt relieved and made noise again I

reminded them no more than 10 times to keep the discipline in the three

consecutive lessons This was the first time I had ever taught such a chaotic

class and I felt incapable because my voice seemed to disappear into noise

(E2)

To establish order, she sought a combination of various measures instead of a single one She created a system called “bonus marks and minus marks”, which combined both rewards and punishments:

I am thinking of giving bonus marks for correct or creative answers and

minus marks for talking privately If they have 10 bonus marks, this will be

equivalent to a 10 but if they have 2 minus marks, 1 mark will be deducted

from the marks of their 15 minute test (E2)

She also reorganized the class by selecting a monitor, and an assistant monitor responsible for studies, as well as some heads of groups responsible for recording marks However, the main problem was that she did not apply the measure of rewards and punishments consistently and strictly enough She gave them only good