Exploring the professional teacher identity as ethical self-formation of two multilingual native English teachers

Exploring the professional teacher identity as ethical self-formation of two multilingual native English teachers

• Gu, Ming Yue Michelle The Education University of Hong Kong
• Jiang, Lianjiang The University of Hong Kong
• Ou, Wanyu Amy University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Language Teaching Research, 2022

SAGE Publications

2022

• M Teachers & Education for Teachers
  • MG Identities, Attitudes & Opinion of Educational Workers

Ethical Self-formation Native English Teachers (NET) Non-Caucasian Native-English-Speakers Teacher Identity

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Post-Secondary Education

• View Full Text 全文連結

The past decades have witnessed an increasing number of studies documenting native English teachers’ (NETs’) challenges in professional development and collaboration with nonnative English teachers’ (NNETs’) across multiple educational contexts. There are also debates in TESOL regarding the essentialized dichotomy of NETs and NNETs with insufficient recognition of the educational and cultural experiences of teachers of English as a foreign language (EFL) / English as a second language (ESL). Little research has been conducted on the lived experiences of transnational multilingual NETs who work in heritage contexts; and how they position themselves when they conduct their teacher identity work and negotiate between heritage identity and NET identity. This study, drawing on the notion of ethical self-formation and its application in teacher identity research as a theoretical lens, addresses the gap by investigating the identity construction of two transnational NETs of Chinese ethnicity returning to their home context in Hong Kong to teach. The findings indicate that (1) the participants negotiated their multilingual identity and the monolingual NET identity ascribed in the workplace, (2) they developed counter-strategies to turn the knowledge of the local language and culture into resources in teaching, and (3) they agentively expanded the definition of NET and situated them in the full institutional and social context to consider their identity conflict and self-empowerment. The findings have implications for education policy to accommodate and value the plural-competences of NETs and NNETs. Copyright © 2022 The Author(s).

• English

Journal Articles

• 13621688

• 10.1177/13621688221117061

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/b89e90d7

2023-02-06