English as a Foreign Language Teachers’ Professional Identity Formation and Its Influence on Professional Practices: Being and doing as a teacher in Gedeo Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Research studies on teacher professional identity are growing in recent times focusing on a variety of aspects linked to the teachers‘ lives. These aspects included the inner landscapes of teachers‘ lives, the artistic or spiritual selves of teachers, the various influences on identity formation, the characteristics of teacher identity, and the implication identity has for securing teachers‘ commitment to their work and adherence to their professional norms. Notwithstanding, despite the growing exploration on various aspects of teacher identity formation, still there seems elusiveness on the exact moment at which teacher identity is formed, and on the things that constitute teachers‘ professional identity. Thus, this study specifically aimed at unveiling the interplay of moments where EFL teachers construct their professional identities and the constituents of teacher identity by focusing on experienced EFL teachers working in secondary schools. Data were generated through a one-on-one semi-structured in-depth interview with eight experienced EFL teachers working in Gedeo Zone secondary schools, Ethiopia. Through IPA, thematic analysis was conducted across participants within a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology. The findings of the study revealed that teachers‘ identity formation implies choosing commitments in their professional life domains and is congruent with their engagements and personal virtues. That is, the study found out explanations of teaching functions, academic competences, personal virtues and coping strategies as manifestations of teachers‘ professional identity (TPI); implying that the participant teachers commit to multiple identities in their professional life contexts. These are represented through six pertinent themes which denote the different constituents of TPI and the various ways of constructing or negotiating it. These themes included: teaching as a fallback career, identity crisis at transition to teaching, professional roles, challenges, teacher emotions, and passion for the teaching profession. The study showed that the participant teachers co-construct and/or negotiate their professional identity while responding to routinely changing teaching conditions. The teachers‘ professional identity, which is co-constructed and/or negotiated in this study, is a multidimensional and dynamic reality shaped by personal agency and daunting contextual conditions. These professional identities disclosed themselves through teachers‘ descriptions of their lived experiences –by what teachers actually do in their work, their desire to, and their personal characters. Although the participant teachers perceive their workplace conditions as highly restricting their commitment to their job, they still conceive themselves as honourable professionals by expressing their passion for teaching as a profession. This suggests that identity is part of what makes an individual a teacher and it is thus an important aspect of professional development. These findings have implications for the feasibility of changing practices and the transferability of educational ideas. This study, therefore, suggests policy makers should strive to xvi establish programmes recognizing effective (or good) teachers as multi-dimensional professionals whose effectiveness cannot be equated to students‘ test scores alone; as a result, moving towards designing short-term on-the-job training programmes that contribute to the development of holistic teachers