What and How to Teach in an ESL Writing Class: From a "Teacher Identity" Perspective

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Constructing a Teacherly Identity: Perspectives From Australia, Brazil, and the United States

Abstract

As teachers are no longer perceived as passive technicians who transmitted knowledge, but as agentic professionals and creators of knowledge, research on teacher identity has grown rapidly in the past decade. However, studies on ESL argumentative writing teacher identity remain largely invisible in literature. Therefore, this longitudinal case study explores a non-traditionally trained teacher’s narrated and enacted identities in an ESL composition class. Relying on a variety of data, this study reports that identity construction is multi-layered and mediated in specific contexts, identity is not fixed and static but developing, and also that teacher identity construction is informed by past learning, teaching histories, and present environment. The study also concludes with implications for teacher education, professional development, and future research.

Author

• Zhenjie Weng, The Ohio State University - Columbus