Journal of English Language Teaching

The Impact of Personal Identities of Teachers on their Teaching Practice: An Exploratory Study

Dr. P. Ravi Kumar

Assistant Professor of English, Pendekanti Law College, Hyderabad

Keywords: Teacher identity, personal identities, teaching practice

---

Abstract

This research paper explores the impact of personal identities of teachers on their teaching practice. The construct of personal identity plays a significant role in the professional life of a teacher. Research in teacher identity becomes more relevant as teachers encounter multicultural and multilingual students in diverse classrooms. Research has placed a special focus on the personal, social, economic, cultural, educational, and institutional factors, which shape teachers’ personal identity. Personal identities of teachers are constructed by gender, sexuality, region, religion, nationality, ethnicity, and culture in a society. Teachers’ current teaching is greatly affected by the background and the personal identities that the teachers carry with them to the classroom.  Hence, the study also explores whether the teachers are aware of the impact of teacher personal identities on teaching practice. The participants were from government schools. The data were collected through questionnaire and classroom observation. The study hypothesized that language teachers possess multiple personal (gender, religion, region, class, etc.) identities and these affect teaching practice. The findings of the study reveal that teachers are aware of the personal identities that they possess. The study suggests that awareness of the formation of teacher’s personal identity helps teachers understand who they are as individuals, teachers, and members of the teaching fraternity.

---

References

Beijaard, D., Meijer, P., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20, 107-128.

Blackledge, Adrian. and Pavlenko, Aneta. (2001). Negotiations of identities in multilingual contexts. The International Journal of Bilingualism, 5, pp. 243-257.

Chong, Sylvia., Low, Ee Ling., and Goh, Kim Chuan. (2011). Emerging professional teacher identity of pre-service teachers. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 36 (8).

Cross, Russel. (2011). Identity and language teacher education: The potential for sociocultural perspectives in researching language teacher identity. Australian Association for Research in Education, Adelaide (Nov. 2006), pp. 27-30.

Duff, Patricia A. and Uchida, Yuko. (1997). The negotiation of teachers’ socio-cultural identities and practices in postsecondary EFL classrooms. TESOL Quarterly, 31 (3), pp. 451-486.

Gee, J. P. (2001). Identity as analytic lens for research in education. Review of Research in Education. 25 (2000-2001), pp. 99-125.

Kristjánsson, K. (2007). Some Aristotelian reflections on teachers’ professional identities and the emotional practice of teaching.

McNamara, T. (1997). Theorising social identity: What do we mean by social identity? Competing frameworks, competing discourses. TESOL Quarterly, 31 (3) (Autumn, 1997), pp.561-567.

Morgan, B. (2004). Teacher identity as pedagogy: Towards a field-internal conceptualization in bilingual and second language education. York University, Toronto, Canada.

Norton, B. (1997). Language, identity, and the ownership of English. TESOL Quarterly, 31(3).

Varghese, M., Morgan, B., Johnston, B. Johnson, and Kimberly, A. (2010). Theorising language teacher identity: Three perspectives and beyond. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education. 4(1), 21-44.

Vesanto A. (2011). Professional identity of teachers of English. Masters Thesis, University of Jyvaskyla.

Zembylas, M. (2010). Emotions and teacher identity: A post-structural perspective. In Teachers and teaching: Theory and practice. Michigan, USA.