Language teacher identity across contexts: A comparative investigation of the relationship between teacher self, language use and context

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between higher education language teacher-self, context and language use, as framed in the conceptual notion of the 2020-void. Through the application of a phenomenological research approach, this qualitative study contributes to the discourse on language teacher identity, language policy implementation and teacher training frameworks in the South African higher education context. Four research questions guide this study and provide the framework for discussion. The first aims at understanding the relationship between self, language repertoire and language awareness as it presents in the embodied representation of language teacher identity in changing contexts. The second investigates, by means of content analysis of newly negotiated teaching spaces, how language practices and language ideologies contribute to the establishment of language teacher identity, experience, and classroom ecology. Furthermore, it aims to describe these linguistic ecologies and landscapes as they are presented in the 2020-void and beyond. Third, the study aims to describe the experience of higher education language teachers in the 2020-void and beyond, and their conceptualisation of teacher identity. From these descriptions, the study then proposes new frameworks for identity modelling, teacher training and adaptability. The study uses a research design consisting of three data sets. Instruments used to elicit information for Data Set 1 include the application of an adapted Oyserman’s Possible Selves questionnaire, a set of comparative language portraits and interview questions. For Data Set 2, participants provided data through a teacher identity portfolio (TIP), an adapted Teacher Competence questionnaire as well as relevant interview questions. The final data set was based on information elicited from a narrative essay and questions from a reflective interview. A thematic content analysis is applied at the hand of a reconceptualised identity investigation model - the HELTI model. It analyses the extent to which contextual factors and psychological processes feature and impact on the conceptualisation of higher education language teacher identity. It further reports on the resultant interactions within the classroom ecology, as enabled through these ideologies and conceptualisations. The data and findings are presented by means of a textural and structural description. The textural description provides rich descriptions of the participants’ individual experiences of the phenomenon (the 2020-void), and the structural description provides a rich description (both individual and shared) of the contextual grounding for these experiences. These descriptions reflect the lived experiences of the participants in new teaching spaces, as they appear embedded

in teacher perspectives on their own competence, and their reflections about multilingual pedagogy, and identify how language practices contribute to the establishment of language teacher identity, experience, and newly negotiated classroom ecology. The main findings validate the HELTI model, by confirming the complex interplay of the contextual elements of socio-linguistic and immediate socio-economic environments, as well as the psychological processes of emotive motivation as significant elements in the construction and maintenance of teacher identity of the participants. This study makes significant contributions through 1) the rich description of the lived experiences of a group of higher education language teachers in a complex context; 2) the design of a unique and well-triangulated qualitative methodology to elicit these rich descriptions; 3) the contribution of the HELTI model; 4) the expansion of the theoretical concept of linguistic landscapes to include the notion of manifested landscapes; and 5) by keeping teacher adaptability in mind, laying the framework for an NWU-specific higher education language teacher adaptability framework to be used in teacher training.