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Volume 7 Number 2, Summer 2010, Pages 1-359   


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The Teacher Identity Construction of 12 Asian NNES Teachers in TESOL Graduate Programs

    Nugrahenny T. Zacharias


This article explores the construction of teacher identities through a narrative analysis of 12 EFL teachers pursuing TESOL graduate programs in the US. Using postsructuralist view of identities, the present study examines the narratives of 12 EFL teachers throughout their two years of studying in the US, the process that were involved as they negotiated multiple identities to be legitimate members of a US academic community. Narrative data were collected from in-depth individual interviews, focus group, and documents. The study found two major findings. First, although many have warned against the use of nativeness as a determining factor in constructing NNES teacher identities, the narrative analysis indicates that linguistic identities continue to be central in NNES identity construction. Second, teacher identities can shift. In the present study, the shift was particularly mediated by the critical pedagogies encountered in the program. Finally, the identity shifts led to some subjects' concerns about navigating their way back to their home countries as US-trained teachers. Pedagogical findings of the findings will also be addressed.

Keywords: nonnative teachers, teacher identities, critical pedagogies, multicompetence, narrative analysis