English Teacher Identity Development in Borderland Discourse: Delving into Negotiating Personal and Professional Selves

Abstract

This study was an exploration on Thai non-Christian English language teachers in a Catholic school of their teacher identity development by looking into their conflicting personal and professional selves which created tensions. An inquiry into how they negotiated these conflicting selves was conducted to detect any borderland discourses. Life story interviews, shadowing observations, and triangulation procedures were conducted to obtain necessary data for this study. The gathered data was analyzed by coding and thematic methods to form categories of dominant teacher identities which were context dependent. The findings revealed the journey of English teacher identity development of two non-Christian informants who worked in a Catholic school. They illustrated several tensions at the workplace resulted from their conflicting personal and professional selves. By negotiation of these selves which they expressed through borderland discourses, they allowed their professional selves to be dominant in certain contexts. Their teacher identity was influenced by their feelings, personal backgrounds, and socio-cultural factors. Therefore, there is a necessity to enhance teacher identity, aspects of negotiation of personal and professional selves, the understanding of cultural diversity in teachers’ training programs as well as to form supporting groups to assist novice English teachers who have just joined their teaching profession in schools.