Turkish Preservice EFL Teachers' Professional Identity Development: Candan's Case
Description
This study was guided by the assumption that preservice EFL teachers' professional identity develops through their participation in the teaching practicum activity and is shaped by different levels of contradictions and expansive learning processes. Drawing on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, Expansive Learning Theory, and a reformulated version of the concept of Identity-in-Activity, the study examined how contextual factors, developmental processes, and identity facets are interconnected. The dataset consists of qualitative longitudinal data collected over an 11-week teaching practicum from a preservice EFL teacher in Türkiye. Data were generated through two drawings, semi-structured one-on-one interviews, semi-structured focus group interviews, weekly reflective journals, and overt non-participant classroom observations. All verbal and written data were collected in Turkish, transcribed, translated into English, and analyzed using Qualitative Content Analysis through inductive, abductive, and retroductive reasoning. The findings show that the participant encountered multiple contradictions embedded in the practicum activity system, involving students, teachers, school administrators, institutional rules, and dominant teaching practices. These contradictions prompted expansive learning actions, including questioning existing practices, analyzing challenges, modelling and testing new strategies, implementing a new teaching practice, and reflecting on its outcomes. Through these processes, the participant transformed her teaching practice and developed several interconnected facets of professional identity, including being a friendly, considerate, up-to-date, motivated, and coeducation-supportive teacher. The data can be interpreted as illustrating how professional identity develops through the interaction between individual agency and contextual conditions rather than through individual reflection alone. Beyond documenting identity change, the dataset provides detailed evidence of the mechanisms through which contradictions stimulate expansive learning and identity development within a teaching practicum. Researchers may use these data to investigate teacher identity, teacher learning, practicum experiences, expansive learning, and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory in teacher education, while teacher educators and mentors may use the findings to better understand how contextual challenges influence preservice teachers' professional development.
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'Drawings.' Drawings were used as a data collection tool alongside semi-structured one-on-one interviews to elicit thoughts, emotions, and experiences that might not emerge through interviews alone. At the beginning and midpoint of the data collection period, the participant was asked to draw herself during a typical day at her practicum school before the interview. She received the following prompts: 1. Imagine yourself at your practicum school. 2. Position yourself in that setting. 3. Portray yourself in that position. 'Semi-structured one-on-one interviews.' The interviews were conducted using the participant's drawings as discussion prompts. The discussions focused on the school and classroom context, the participant's and students' positions within that context, and gradually expanded to include the participant's views on the school's culture, rules, administration, teachers, and staff; students' characteristics, learning habits, and behaviors; and her own relationships, experiences, dispositions, and emotions related to these aspects. 'Semi-structured focus group interviews.' The focus group interviews were moderated by the researcher, who used a small number of open-ended questions to initiate discussion and elicit perspectives that might not emerge in individual interviews. Participants also responded to one another's views, resulting in interactive discussions and occasional debates. The interviews were guided by the following questions: 1. What role do university courses play in your development as an English language teacher? 2. What are your expectations from the practicum process at this point? 3. How would you describe the ideal English language teacher? What does it take to become one? How can this be achieved? 4. What do you think about the school's EFL curriculum? 5. What do you think about the school's rules and culture? 6. At the end of the practicum, what kind of teacher would you like to become? What kind of teacher would you not like to become? 'Reflective journals.' At the beginning of the study, the participant was provided with paper notebooks and asked to write weekly reflections. She was asked to respond to the following prompts: 1. Write about your experiences at the practicum school this week. 2. What role has this experience played in your development as an English language teacher? 3. How? The participant wrote her reflections in Turkish throughout the 11-week practicum. 'Classroom observations.' The researcher observed the participant's classroom teaching as a non-participant observer. After obtaining the necessary permissions and ensuring the confidentiality of school students, the researcher observed the lesson, recorded detailed field notes, and video-recorded the participant's teaching session.
Institutions
- Cukurova UniversityAdana, Adana