Understanding Foreign Language Teachers’ Professional Identities Through the Use of Metaphors

Abstract

This study has been conducted to gain insight about the way how language teachers see themselves as professionals and how they compose their identities. To deepen understanding how language teachers enact their professional identities, 32 English language teachers at the preparatory school of a university were asked to describe their professional identities as English teachers through the metaphor they chose. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis were used in this study. In the qualitative method, the data were collected by an interview form with two parts with the help of observational notes and analyzed by using content analysis. In content analysis, the metaphorical expressions were structured into seven thematic categories such as Teacher as Guide, Teacher as Knowledge Provider, Teacher as Authority, Teacher as Nurturer, Teacher as Entertainer, Teacher as Craftsperson and Teacher as Captive. In the quantitative method, language teachers' metaphors were investigated to understand the relationship between teachers' conceptions of their professional identity and their gender. According to results, it was revealed that there was no difference in the teachers’ perceptions of their professional identities across genders. The findings of this study are believed to shed a light on language teacher education programs.

Keywords

• Teacher Identity
• Professional Identity
• Language Teachers
• Language Teaching

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