Sutures and Threads: Turning Points and Unfolding Lines in the Paths into English as a Second Language Teaching

• In Event: Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Identity Formation

Abstract

Drawing on contrasting conceptions of 'careers' and learning (e.g., Abbott, 2001; Hall, 1989; Ingold, 2007), we examine how ESL teachers assemble or unfold careers in interaction with different communities and language groups. Based on interviews with teachers in an urban center of the "New Latino diaspora" We ask in particular:
-- How ESL teachers’ previous teaching experiences (careers as teachers of other than ESL, the sequence of settings in which they’ve taught, and their formal teacher education are segmented or merged in their understandings and approaches to their work.
-- How different forms of career “permeability” are related to the knowledge teachers draw on for instruction.

Authors

• Jan K. Nespor, The Ohio State University

• Mari Haneda, Florida State University