Searching for a Middle Ground: Teachers' Identities and Perceptions of the Teaching/Learning of Writing

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Twelve
  In Roundtable Session: Teachers' Experiences Teaching Language and Literacy (Table 2)

Abstract

This qualitative exploratory study analyzed the identities of eight Chilean language and communication (LC) teachers participating in a collaborative problem-based Professional Development Program (PDP) aimed to develop students’ writing skills. This study aimed at analyzing how these teachers’ beliefs about the teaching/learning of writing shaped their identities and positionings in the Language classroom. Using semi-structured interviews (Rubin & Rubin, 2012) and following a dialogical (Akkerman & Meijer, 2010; Bakhtin, 1981) and narrative approach (De Fina, 2012) to identity, we found that there were clear contradictions in the way that teachers presented themselves in their narratives. These contradictions align with the literature and theoretical framework, showing clear evidence of teacher identity being multiple and unitary, individual and social, and continuous and discontinuous.

Authors

• Erika Abarca Millán, New York University
  Presenting Author

• Constanza Alvarado, Universidad de Chile
  Presenting Author

• Patricio Cabello, Universidad de Chile
  Non-Presenting Author

• Silvana Arriagada, Universidad Catolica de Chile
  Non-Presenting Author