Poster #5 - Profiling EFL Preservice Teachers' Metaphorical Professional Identity

• In Event: 25.087 - MTCC Poster Session Four
  In Poster Session: 25.087-2 - Teachers' Lives and Lived Experiences Poster Session

Abstract

This paper reports on the change of EFL preservice teachers’ metaphorical professional identities during the teaching practicums in China. By eliciting 66 written metaphors from 33 EFL preservice teachers at the beginning and the end of the teaching practicums, respectively, the authors identified four patterns of professional identity change throughout the student teaching: confirmation/consolidation, elaboration/expansiveness, contradiction/disequilibrium, and
stability/minor change. Meanwhile, this study reveals that metaphors act as powerful cognitive frameworks in gaining in-depth insights into preservice teachers’ dynamic and evolving professional identities in the learning-to-teach settings. Furthermore, the metaphorical identity construction testifies to the dual nature of professional identity construction: “identity-in-practice” and “identity-in-discourse.” Implications for facilitating EFL preservice teachers’ metaphorical professional identity (trans)formation during the practicums are discussed.

Authors

• Zhengmei Peng, East China Normal University

• Gang Zhu, East China Normal University

• Jinfei Zhu, Zhejiang Normal University

• Matthew James Etchells, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Li Deng, East China Normal University

• Guofang Li, University of British Columbia

• Mary F. Rice, The University of New Mexico