쌤 (Ssam) I Am: Preservice EFL Teachers' Imagined Teacher Identities in South Korea

• In Event: 43.078 - MTCC Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 43.078-1 - Identity, Self-Making, and Commitment Across Teaching Contexts

Abstract

In this ethnographic case study, I explore imagined teacher identities formed by three pre-service English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers in South Korea. Following the pre-service EFL teachers through a six-week teacher preparation program, I sought to understand how participants were negotiating their imagined identities as 쌤 [ssam; teacher]. Guided by Sach’s key tenets of professional identity (i.e., how to be, how to act, and how to understand teachers’ roles and responsibilities), participants’ conversations and storied experiences revealed the complex process of pre-service EFL teachers’ identity negotiations. For two participants, negotiations served to reinforce teacher identities brought with them into the program. For one, however, these events triggered myriad moments of identity-disruption and renegotiation.

Author

• Laura M Kennedy, Michigan State University