EXPLORING THE CONSTRUCTION OF NOVICE EFL TEACHERS’ IDENTITY IN UNIVERSITY CONTEXT
THESIS
BY
ARIF ANGGA PUTRA NPM 21902073030
UNIVERSITY OF ISLAM MALANG POSTGRADUATE PROGRAM
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
2021
ABSTRAK
Putra, Arif Angga. 2021. Penyelidikan Pemebentukan Identitas Guru Baru Bahasa Inggris dalam Konteks Universitas. Tesis, Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Program Pascasarjana, Universitas Islam Malang. Pembimbing: Dr. Alfan Zuhairi, M.Pd
Keywords: Identitas Guru, Guru Baru Bahasa Inggris, Kerangka TESOL Identitas Guru, Konteks Universitas
Isu tentang identitas guru sudah menjadi hal yang menarik untuk diamati bagi para peneliti dalam satu dekade terakhir tidak hanya dalam ilmu pengetahuan tetapi juga bahasa. Memahami identitas seorang guru baik guru baru atau guru lama menjadi penting untuk membentuk dan meningkatkan identitas yang profesional. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menyelediki pembentukan identitas guru baru bahasa Inggris dalam konteks universitas.
Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif yang mengambil kata-kata tertulis atau terucap dari cerita seorang menjadi data untuk dianalisa. Penelitian ini juga diklasifikasikan sebagai studi naratif yang bertujuan untuk mengamati pengalaman dari guru baru bahasa Inggris. Penelitian ini kemudian menggunakan kerangka identitas guru TESOL yang dikemukakan oleh Pennington (2014) untuk mengambil data pengalaman serta ucapan yang mengindikasikan pembentukan identitas guru.
Hasil dari temuan penelitian ini mengungkapkan bahwa identitas guru dibangun oleh guru baru bahasa Inggris melalui pelaksanaan praktik mengajar dengan pengembangan keprofesionalan pada konteks universitas yang meliputi pengaplikaisan strategi mengajar, penguasaan bidang ilmu, pemahaman dan usaha keprofesionalan, komitmen dalam pengajaran, dan pemenuhan kebutuhan hidup.
Pembentukan identitas dari peserta juga dipengaruhi dari faktor intrinsik dan ekstrinsik. Faktor intrinsik meliputi motivasi dari peserta, kepuasan, dan kompetensi. Faktor ekstrinsik meliputi lingkungan kerja dari peserta, karir kerja, kebutuhan belajar siswa dan interaksi dengan kolega. Hal itu mengindikasikan bahwa mereka telah membangun identitas mereka menjadi pengembangan profesional.
Studi ini menyarankan kepada peneliti selanjutnya untuk melakukan penelitian dalam penginvestigasian pada pembentukan identitas guru dalam konteks pendidikan yang lain. Disamping itu, disarankan juga kepada peneliti selanjutnya untuk menggunakan kerangka identitas yang lain untuk meningkatkan analisa data tentang identitas guru dan juga untuk membuka isu identitas baru yang terdapat pada beragam bidang pendidikan.
ABSTRACT
Putra, Arif Angga. 2021. Exploring the Construction of Novice EFL Teachers’
Identity in University Context. Thesis, English Language Education Study Program, Postgraduate Program, University of Islam Malang.
Advisor: Dr. Alfan Zuhairi, M.Pd
Keywords: Teacher Identity, Novice EFL Teacher, TESOL teacher Identity Framework, University Context
The issue about teacher identity has been interesting to be observed by researchers in the past decades, not only in science but also language.
Understanding teacher identity becomes important for teacher, both novice and experienced teacher in which they need to shape and to develop professional identity. Become a teacher needs continuous process then it will be essential to understand the professional teacher identity. This research aims at exploring the construction of novice EFL teachers’ identity in university context.
This research is qualitative research which takes written or spoken words of some individual’s personal stories as data for analysis. This research used narrative study to reveal the challenges and the experiences of novice EFL teachers. This research adopted TESOL teacher identity frameworks by Pennington (2014) to capture the participants’ narrative and utterances which indicate the teacher identity construction.
The findings show that teachers’ identity was constructed by the participants as novice EFL teachers through the implementations of teaching practices within professional development in university context that includes teaching strategies application, the knowledge field mastering, professional comprehension, teaching commitment, and life need fulfillment. It was also influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Intrinsic factors include the participants’ motivation, satisfaction, and competence. Extrinsic factors include the participants’ work environment, job career, students’ need and interaction with colleagues.
It is suggested for further researchers to conduct the research by investigating teacher identity construction in other educational contexts. Besides, it is suggested for further researcher to adopt other identity frameworks that will enrich the data analysis of teacher identity and uncover various identity issues reflected in educational practices.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents research background, research question, research objective, research significance, research scope and limitation and definition of the key terms.
1.1 Research Background
It has now been agreed that teacher identity is considered as popular research topic in language teaching and education over the past ten years (Tsui, 2007; Trent, 2013). The issue about teacher identity has been interesting to be observed by researchers in the past decades, not only in science but also language.
In educational context, teacher identity has become an analytic tool to understanding teacher development (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2011). The
construction of teacher identities is not only beneficial for classroom practice but also for teachers’ own professional development (Varghese, Morgan, Johnston, &
Johnson, 2005).
Understanding teacher identity becomes important for teacher, both novice and experienced teacher in which they need to develop and perceive professional identity. Varghese et al. (2005) added that in the form of constructing identity within language teaching and learning, teacher needs to understand teacher
identity involves kinds of professional, cultural, political, and individual identities in which they claim and assign.
Since the construction of teacher identity process is a dynamic and complex in that individuals face struggle and change due to internal and external factors (Bloomfield, 2010), the process of teacher identity construction critically is influenced by various factors, such as the social relationships with the others in a sociocultural, historical and institutional context (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009).
These factors bring the development of professional teacher identity especially in improving pedagogical development.
The competency of teacher brings an important issue in teaching and learning. Most of educational parts of school consist of students, parents,
educators, and policy makers believe that the quality of teachers and achievement of students are related with the competency of teacher. Indonesia has developed standard competency of teacher in evaluating teachers. Understanding novice EFL teacher’s identity is not only beneficial for classroom practice but also for teacher identity professional development (Zacharias, 2010). Become a teacher needs continuous process then it will be important to know the professional identity.
Professional identity is difficult to separate from teacher personal identities since teaching requires personal requirements with students, colleagues, and community. Professional teacher is built from professional and experienced knowledge. For novice teachers, it is quite difficult to entirely understand the professional identity because the new teachers need to know on how they become professional teacher based on professional teacher identity. From the beginning teachers, teachers’ experience changes into their identities that will develop
through the educational process alongside they start to concern more positions and responsibilities as teacher in their study program (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009).
In many countries where English is generally taught as a foreign language, English subject becomes urgent for students to be understood in order to
mastering English language skills. However, novice EFL teachers in university need to observe their roles and recreate their professional identities related to the shifting context surround them (Thomas & Beauchamp, 2011). This reality can create the development of strong teacher identity construction for novice teachers through understanding the professional teacher identity.
Some previous researches have been conducted related to English teacher identity construction (Farrel & Yang, 2017; Chung & Chang, 2017; Hidayati, 2018; Kiss, 2020; Upa & Mbato, 2020; Li, 2020). They investigated the
phenomenon through self-reflection, interpretation, negotiation, motivation and language use. Farrel & Yang (2017) revealed that English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teacher in relation to teaching second Language (L2) still show some instances of divergences in which teacher’s instructional decisions were shaped by interaction of teacher’s teaching and learning experiences, and the teaching
context. They observed through case study of one EAP teacher in Canada. They focused on teacher’s reflection because it serves deep insight within the issues.
Hidayati (2018) found that novice EAP teacher made the use of reflective practice of self-reflection to show theory and practice and also to build a
systematic analysis to construct teacher’s professional identity. Hidayati also
applied single case study through self –reflection to explore the findings and to negotiate complex aspects in EAP teacher’s teaching practice in Indonesia. Both Farrel & Yang and Hidayati used single case study through the teacher’s
reflection to investigate participants’ construction.
While other researchers such as (Chung and Chang; 2017) found that the factors of being professional are from instructional experience of the teacher which brought the teacher’s professional development. They focused on the narratives of a teacher to obtain insight into her identity development during the process becoming ESP teacher. They interviewed single participant by doing face- to-face meeting and interview through initial reflection. Kiss (2020) found that novice teachers change their linguistic properties along a global and local orientation in conveying a multitude of identities in an online Community of Practice (CoP).
Upa and Mbato (2020) stated that both intrinsic factors such as the desire to assist students and to help students with special must be more independent, and extrinsic factors like family, students, and colleagues influenced. They observed two English teachers of private special need schools. And Li (2020) revealed that identity construction is manifested by the teachers through interactive work with students through developing personal and practical knowledge and appealing in language practices. She observed the participants as novice English teachers through the lens of classroom discourse.
Those previous researches applied kinds of analysis in identifying the construction of teacher identity. They investigated the phenomenon through participants’ self-reflection, interpretation, negotiation, motivation and language use. However, those previous researches do not yet observe and discuss teachers’
identity of novice EFL teachers in the context of university particularly in Indonesia which is considered as a topic discussing in this study. Those
researches also have not investigated the factors that construct teachers’ identity especially for the subject of novice EFL teachers. Thus, this research will fulfill the gap by providing more complete analysis on teacher identity construction using TESOL teacher identity frameworks by Pennington (2014) and the factors affecting novice EFL teachers in university context in Indonesia.
TESOL teacher identity frameworks by Pennington (2014) are appropriate for this study because it proposed the complete frames include practice-centered frame and context-centered frame. The practice-centered frames in this study are used to investigate and to reveal the indication of identity construction of novice EFL teachers that consists of instructional, disciplinary, professional, vocational, and economic frame. The context-centered frames then support the practice- centered frame to show the influence of context surrounding to teacher identity construction. It covers global, sociocultural, and local frame in which Tao & Gao (2018) constituted the local frame into institutional and societal frame. Thus, the result of this study will show the complete analysis on how identity is constructed by the novice EFL teachers in university context.
1.2 Research Question
Based on the research background above, the research problem can be formulated as
1. How do the participants construct their identity as novice EFL teachers in university?
2. What are the factors affecting the construction of novice EFL teachers’
identity in university?
1.3 Research Objective
The main objective of this research is to investigate on how participants construct their identity as novice EFL teachers in university and the factors affecting novice EFL teachers in constructing their identity.
1.4 Research Significance
Based on the topic, this research is urgent to do with theoretical and
practical contributions especially to the interdisciplinary area of teacher identity to understand on how novice EFL teachers construct their professional identity.
Theoretically, this research is expected to give academic contribution particularly in giving more comprehensive understanding on teacher identity especially in teacher identity construction within the professional development and developing theoretical framework of Pennington’s TESOL teacher identity within categorical frames and contextual frames.
Practically, this research can provide valuable knowledge to the further pre-service or novice EFL teachers to understand the construction of novice EFL teacher identity so that they can prepare for their professional formations in English teaching and educational practice. Hence, English teacher also could apply this result of research as one of sources to analyze the similar study on teacher identity, especially related to teacher identity construction which is explored in other pedagogical cases in particular context.
1.5 Research Scope and Limitation
This research have several scopes and limitations in terms of subject and the data of the study. This research focuses on the narrative and story of two novice EFL teachers on how they construct teacher identity in which the data are specifically analyzed using TESOL teacher identity framework by Pennington (2014) within five categorical frames include instructional, disciplinary, professional, vocational and economic frames. This research used narrative
inquiry to acquire the data from the participants’ experiences during their teaching learning in universities. Moreover, this research limits the data for two novice EFL teachers who have taught English for less than five years in university. This research derived the data through a narrative frame and interviews. A narrative frame and interviews with two novice English teachers are conducted to elicit their viewpoints related to the identity construction.
1.6 Definition of the Key Terms
The definition of the key terms is used to specify the definition of some points in this research, I provide the key terms as follows:
1. Teacher identity in this research is defined as the identity which belongs to two participants as novice teacher who construct and develop their identity into professional formations
2. Novice EFL teacher refers to as two new university EFL teachers who teach English as Foreign Language in initial period of time for less than five years.
3. TESOL identity framework refers to the way of the researcher to analyze the data using the TESOL identity frameworks proposed by Pennington (2014) which covers practice-centered frame and context-centered frame.
4. University context refers to the institutional context of novice EFL teachers teach where the researcher took as context of this study.
5. Professional development refers to the processes and efforts of the
participants in acquiring and learning knowledge to help them gaining and developing the professional formations.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
This chapter presents the conclusion and suggestion of the study. It concludes the findings and discussions in the previous chapter. It also provides suggestion for the next researcher who wants to conduct the similar research or to continue this study.
6.1 Conclusion
This present study aims to investigate how EFL novice teachers construct their identity in university context. The identity construction of the participants was identified from the participants’ frame of instructional, disciplinary,
professional, vocational, and economic. The findings show that teachers’ identity was constructed by the participants as novice EFL teachers through the
implementations of teaching practices within professional development in university context that includes teaching strategies application, the knowledge field mastering, professional comprehension and efforts, teaching commitment, and life need fulfillment. It was also influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors.
Intrinsic factors include the participants’ motivation, satisfaction, and competence.
Extrinsic factors include the participants’ work environment, job career, students’
need and interaction with colleagues. Thus, understanding the construction of EFL novice teachers will contribute the platform for EFL teachers mainly for native
teachers to prepare their professional teaching practice particularly in the university context.
6.2 Suggestion
This study has significance potential to be investigated by other researchers who have same interest in teacher identity because teacher identity is dynamically evolving (Beijard, et al., 2004). Future research could adopt other teacher identity frameworks that will enrich the data analysis of teacher identity.
In addition, further research is also encouraged to investigate teacher identity in other educational contexts. Hopefully it can provide and broaden teacher identity construction analysis framework.
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