Teacher identity and agency in language teaching: Adult ESL instructors as explorers

Anna Sanczyk

University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA

Anna Sanczyk received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Philology from the University of Bialystok, Poland and a Master of Arts degree in English Linguistics from the University of Oslo, Norway. She taught adult ESL and was a program coordinator at Central Piedmont Community College, USA. She recently earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Curriculum and Instruction: TESL from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA. Her research interests include language teacher identity, language teacher agency, culturally responsive pedagogy, and critical pedagogy.


https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5819-2058


Abstrakt

As the world becomes more globalized, various social, cultural, and historical contexts are shaping teacher identities. Exploring teacher identities is essential in understanding experiences, interactions, and beliefs that influence language teachers’ practices inside and outside the classroom (Farrell 2011). This narrative study, conducted in a large urban community college located in the southeastern region of the United States, engaged seven adult ESL instructors in critical reflection on their assumptions, teaching, personal experiences, and an institutional environment. Data collection included semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, journal entries, and classroom observations, including notes about artifacts used in the lessons. The findings of this study highlight the relationship between teacher identity and agency in teaching culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Participants characterized themselves as explorers, who valued various cultural experiences and acted agentively to create culturally responsive lessons and an enriching learning environment. These findings have significant implications for language teacher training and further research.

Słowa kluczowe:

language teacher identity, language teacher agency, language teaching, adult ESL, culturally and linguistically diverse learners

Beauchamp, C. & Thomas, L. 2009. Understanding teacher identity: An overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education 39(2): 175-189.

Biesta, G. 2008. Learning lives: Learning, identity and agency in the life-course. Teaching and Learning Research Program 1: 1-4.

Biesta, G. & Tedder, M. 2007. Agency and learning in the life-course: Towards an ecological perspective. Studies in the Education of Adults 39: 132-149.

Borjigin, A. 2017. Culturally relevant pedagogy in adult ESL classrooms: A case study of a university intensive English program. Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1267.

Brooks, K. & Adams, S. 2015. Developing agency for advocacy: Collaborative inquiry-focused school-change projects as transformative learning for practicing teachers. The New Educator 11(4): 292-308.

Buchanan, R. 2015. Teacher identity and agency in an era of accountability. Teachers and Teaching 21(6): 700-719.

Bukor, E. 2015. Exploring teacher identity from a holistic perspective: Reconstructing and reconnecting personal and professional selves. Teachers and Teaching 21(3): 305-327.

Colegrove, K. & Zúñiga, C. 2018. Finding and enacting agency: An ESL teacher’s perceptions of teaching and learning in the era of standardized testing. International Multilingual Research Journal 12(3): 188-202.

Community College Consortium for Immigrant Education. 2015. The U.S. Population: Demographics, Education, Labor Force, and Economy.

Creswell, J. W. 2014. Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches. SAGE Publications.

Dadvand, B. 2015. Teaching for democracy: Towards an ecological understanding of preservice teachers’ beliefs. Australian Journal of Teacher Education 40(2): 77-93.

Day, C., Kington, A., Stobart, G., & Sammons, P. 2006. The personal and professional selves of teachers: Stable and unstable identities. British Educational Research Journal 32(4): 601-616.

Edwards, E. & Burns, A. 2016. Language teacher–researcher identity negotiation: An ecological perspective. TESOL Quarterly 50(3): 735-745.

Eyring, J. L. 2014. Adult ESL education in the US. The CATESOL Journal 26(1): 120-149.

Farrell, T. S. C. 2011. Exploring the professional role identities of experienced ESL teachers through reflective practice. System 39(1): 54-62.

Freire, P. 1993. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Continuum.

Griswold, O.V. 2010. Socializing adult ESL learners into idealized views of the United States during citizenship preparation classes. TESOL Quarterly 44: 488-516.

Gunderson, L., D’Silva, R.A., & Odo, D. 2014. ESL Literacy Instruction. A Guidebook to Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge.

Jaar, A. 2017. Professional development of dual-language teachers: Learning communities as potential sites of teacher identity, agency, and advocacy. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Kayi-Aydar, H. 2015a. Teacher agency, positioning, and English language learners: Voices of preservice classroom teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education 45: 94-103.

Kayi-Aydar, H. 2015b. Multiple identities, negotiations, and agency across time and space: A narrative inquiry of a foreign language teacher candidate. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 12(2): 137-160.

Kayi-Aydar, H. 2017. A language teacher’s agency in the development of her professional identities: A narrative case study. Journal of Latinos and Education online, 1-15.

Kumaravadivelu, B. 2012. Language Teacher Education for a Global Society: A Modular Model for Knowing, Analyzing, Recognizing, Doing, and Seeing. New York: Routledge.

Lasky, S. 2005. A sociocultural approach to understanding teacher identity, agency and professional vulnerability in a context of secondary school reform. Teaching and Teacher Education 21(8): 899-916.

Miller, J. 2008. Teacher identity. In: A. Burns & J.C. Richards (eds.), Cambridge Guide to Second Language Teacher Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Mockler, N. 2011. Beyond what works: Understanding teacher identity as a practical and political tool. Teachers and Teaching 17(5): 517-528.

Morgan, B. 2009. Fostering transformative practitioners for critical EAP: Possibilities and challenges. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 8(2): 86-99.

Ollerhead, S., & Burns, B. 2016. Creativity as resistance: Implications for language teaching and teacher education. In: R.H. Jones & J.C. Richards (eds.), Creativity in Language Teaching, 227-240. New York: Routledge.

Olsen, B. 2008. Teaching What They Learn, Learning What They Live: How Teachers’ Personal Histories Shape their Professional Development. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.

Palmer, P. J. 2007. The heart of a teacher identity and integrity in teaching. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning 29(6): 14-21.

Pantić, N. & Florian, L. 2015. Developing teachers as agents of inclusion and social justice. Education Inquiry 6(3): 333-351.

Phillion, J. & He, M. F. 2007. Narrative inquiry and ELT research. In: D. Cummins & C. Davison (eds.), International Handbook of English Language Teaching, 1003-1016. Boston, MA: Springer US.

Priestley, M., Biesta, G. J. J. & Robinson, S. 2015a. Teacher Agency: An Ecological Approach. London/New Delhi/New York/Sydney: Bloomsbury.

Priestley, M., Biesta, G. J. J. & Robinson, S. 2015b. Teacher agency: What is it and why does it matter? In: R. Kneyber & J. Evers (eds.), Flip the System: Changing Education from the Bottom Up. London: Routledge.

Priestley, M., Edwards, R., Priestley, A., & Miller, K. 2012. Teacher agency in curriculum making: Agents of change and spaces for manoeuvre. Curriculum Inquiry 42(2): 191-214.

Sachs, J. 2005. Teacher education and the development of professional identity: Learning to be a teacher. In: P. Denicolo & M. Kompf (eds.), Challenges for Teaching and Learning in Schools and Universities, 5-21. Oxford: Routledge.

Samoukovic, B. 2015. Re-conceptualizing Teacher Expertise: Teacher Agency and Expertise through a Critical Pedagogic Framework [Unpublished PhD dissertation]. University of Iowa.

Tao, J., & Gao, X. 2017. Teacher agency and identity commitment in curricular reform. Teaching and Teacher Education 63: 346-355.

U.S. Department of Education. 2016. English Literacy/English Language Education in the Adult Basic Grant Program.

Varghese, A., Morgan, B., Johnston, B., & Johnson, K.A. 2005. Theorizing language teacher identity: Three perspectives and beyond. Journal of Language, Identity & Education 4(1): 21-44.

Walkington, J. 2005. Becoming a teacher: Encouraging development of teacher identity through reflective practice. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education 33(1): 53-64.

Wiggan, G. 2012. Education in a Strange Land: Globalization, Urbanization and Urban Schools; the Social and Educational Implications of the Geopolitical Economy. New York: Nova Publishers.


Opublikowane
2020-09-30


Sanczyk, A. (2020) „Teacher identity and agency in language teaching: Adult ESL instructors as explorers”, Crossroads. A Journal of English Studies, (30), s. 77–97. doi: 10.15290/cr.2020.30.3.05.

Anna Sanczyk 
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA

Anna Sanczyk received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Philology from the University of Bialystok, Poland and a Master of Arts degree in English Linguistics from the University of Oslo, Norway. She taught adult ESL and was a program coordinator at Central Piedmont Community College, USA. She recently earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Curriculum and Instruction: TESL from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA. Her research interests include language teacher identity, language teacher agency, culturally responsive pedagogy, and critical pedagogy.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5819-2058