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Linguistics and Education 40 (2017) 38–49

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Linguistics and Education

jo ur nal ho me p age: www.elsev ier .com/ locate / l inged

It just made me look at language in a different way:” ESOL teacherandidates’ identity negotiation through teacher educationoursework

edrettin Yazan ∗

he University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, United States

r t i c l e i n f o

rticle history:eceived 10 June 2016eceived in revised form 14 June 2017ccepted 15 June 2017

eywords:eacher identityeacher education courses

a b s t r a c t

Research on language teacher identities is burgeoning, yet there is relatively little empirical evidenceabout preservice teachers’ identity development during teacher education coursework experiences.Therefore, this study investigates the cases of three preservice ESOL teachers in a 13-month MATESOL pro-gram. Focusing on discursive, experiential, negotiated, contested, and positional construction of identity,it conceptualizes identity development as integral component of teacher learning, practice and growth.The findings suggest that the teacher candidates subjectively negotiated their teacher identities duringteacher education coursework experiences as (a) they positioned themselves as an ESOL teacher through

SOLrofessional interactionommunities of practice

asynchronous online and face-to-face course discussions, assignments, and activities, (b) they engagedin professional interaction with teacher educators and other emerging teachers, and (c) the professorsand other TCs capitalized on their simultaneous school experience as a valuable resource in the teacher-learning community. The findings implicate that language teacher education programs should integrateidentity as an explicit pursuit in its practices.

© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

. Introduction

The United States has witnessed a rapid and constant growth inublic school enrollment of linguistically and culturally diverse stu-ent populations during the past two decades, many of whom arenglish Language Learners1 (ELLs). ELLs constitute the most fast-rowing subgroup of students among the public school populationSamson & Collins, 2012; Short & Boyson, 2012). At present, nearlyne out of every nine students in U.S. classrooms is designated as anLL and the projections suggest that by 2025 almost one out of every

our school children will be an ELL (Thompson, 2012). Additionally,he U.S. ELL population is continuously becoming a more diverseroup in terms of linguistic and academic backgrounds (Samson

∗ Correspondence to: The University of Alabama, 223B Graves Hall, Tuscaloosa,L 35487, United States.

E-mail address: byazan@ua.edu1 In the US educational context, there are several terms that are used to describe

chool children whose home language(s) is other than English. Two most commonnes are limited English proficient (LEP) and English language learner (ELL) or brieflynglish learner (EL). In this article, because of its “more positive focus” and repre-entation of students’ active language learning, I follow Wright (2010, p. 3) and useLL rather than LEP which represents a deficit view. However, I acknowledge thessues in the use of ELL as a designation, as well (see Wright, 2010, p. 4).

ttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2017.06.002898-5898/© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

& Collins, 2012). There are more than 400 languages spoken inthis group and, depending on their home countries, prior schoolingexperiences largely vary making their education a more challeng-ing task (Wolf, Herman, Bachman, Bailey, & Griffin, 2008). ELLs arein the process of learning English, and they need to be linguisticallysupported to access and learn academic content. Having to cater toELLs’ diverse backgrounds, needs, and challenges, ESOL (English forspeakers of other languages) teachers’ work is uniquely demandingand they play a significant role in ELLs’ education. Therefore, theirpreparation for this challenging job in formal preservice teachereducation programs (TEPs) is an important factor in their profes-sional growth.

ESOL teachers’ initial formal preparation for teaching is not onlycomprised of gaining necessary pedagogical knowledge and com-petences but also constructing teacher identities. They need to gothrough a process of transition from being a graduate student tobeing an ESOL practitioner in part through their experiences inteacher education coursework and the teaching internship. Theyneed to learn to simultaneously juggle many different roles andresponsibilities depending on the implementation of ELL programs

and policies, which makes this transition even more important.Therefore, examining teacher candidates’ (TCs’) identities duringtheir TEP experiences could provide significant insights into theirpreparation and growth.

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As one of the two main components of teacher educationractices (along with internship), teacher education courses offereaningful experiences through which TCs negotiate, frame, and

nact their emerging identities. Exploring those experiences isather salient in gaining a nuanced understanding of ESOL teacherdentities, yet empirically, little is known about different waysCs negotiate and construct their teacher identities. ESOL tea-hers’ identity construction needs prominent attention in research,ecause ESOL has its own particularities as a subject matter taughtnd used as medium of instruction, and ELLs are the most diversetudent population who engage in intense cultural and linguis-ic identity work when learning English and academic contentimultaneously (Morgan, 2004; Reeves, 2009; Winchester, 2013).herefore, this qualitative case study sought to understand theays in which the three ESOL TCs engaged in teacher identity nego-

iation in teacher education courses. More specifically, it addressedhe following research question: How do three ESOL TCs negoti-te and construct their emerging teacher identities through teacherducation courses during their preparation in an MATESOL program?

. Literature review

.1. Teacher learning and identity

From a sociocultural perspective, teacher learning is “a long-erm, complex, developmental process that is the result ofarticipation in the social practices and contexts associated with

earning and teaching” (Johnson, 2009, p. 10). Teacher learning isiachronically and synchronically influenced by this participation

n multiple social contexts not limited to the contexts of profes-ional teacher education programs (Freeman & Johnson, 1998).hrough their schooling process, including approximately 13,000 hf observations as learners (Lortie, 1975), TCs play “a role oppositeeachers for a large part of [their] lives” (Britzman, 1986, p. 443) asapprentices of observation” (Lortie, 1975, p. 61). As a result, beforentering the preservice teacher education, they have constructedtrongly held views about teaching and learning, which constituteheir “interpretive frame” (Olsen, 2016). They make sense of the-ries of learning and teaching and all their experiences throughhis frame and construct their personal pedagogical knowledgeBorg, 2006). TCs’ teacher knowledge evolves as they engage inhe activities of teacher education and interact with teacher edu-ators, fellow TCs, mentor teachers, administrators, students, andarents (Freeman & Johnson, 1998). Later, situated in communi-ies of practice as full-time teachers, their learning to teach goes onhrough their participation in new social practices in various teach-ng contexts with own demands and dynamics (Freeman, 2002;fard, 1998). Thus, viewed as lifelong and ever changing, teacherearning occurs as teachers challenge, revisit, or remold their exist-ng “understandings of themselves as teachers, of their students,nd of the activities of teaching” as well as their beliefs, valuesnd practices through their experiences within teaching contextsJohnson & Golombek, 2003, p. 730).

Research in teacher education has demonstrated the utmostmportance of teacher identity not only in the processes of teacherearning but also in the ways teachers perform their teachingractice (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011; Olsen, 2016). Multidimen-ional and fluidly shifting in different contexts, teacher identityonstitutes a dynamic framework for teachers to form their ownonceptualizations of being a teacher, thinking like a teacher,nd acting like a teacher (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009). Teachers

iew everything encompassed in their profession through thisramework, which supports the way they become teachers. Therowing literature in second language (L2) teacher educationtarted asking “how teachers come to know what they know,

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how certain concepts in teachers’ consciousness develop overtime, and how their learning processes transform them and theactivities of L2 teaching” (Johnson, 2009, p. 17). Researchers haveincreasingly highlighted teacher identity “as a critical componentin the sociocultural and sociopolitical landscape of the languageclassroom” which is essential to grasp a better picture of L2 teach-ing and learning (Varghese, Morgan, Johnston, & Johnson, 2005,p. 22). Scholars conceptualize L2 teacher identities as a promisingvenue for “pedagogical intervention” in learning-to-teach and “anexplicit focus” to intentionally and consciously attend to in thepreparation of L2 teachers in TEPs (Morgan & Clarke, 2011, p. 825).

Teacher identity negotiation and construction are inseparablefrom the experiences of learning to teach. Olsen (2008) definesteacher identity as

the collection of influences and effects from immediate con-texts, prior constructs of self, social positioning, and meaningsystems (each itself a fluid influence and all together an ever-changing construct) that become intertwined inside the flowof activity as a teacher simultaneously reacts to and negotiatesgiven contexts and human relationships at given moments. (p.139)

From sociocultural perspective of L2 teacher learning, TCs enterTEPs with their prior experiences, beliefs, values, aspirationsand imaginations about teaching and learning which provide adynamic basis for their initial teaching identities (Danielewicz,2001; Korthagen, 2004) or “interpretive frame” (Olsen, 2016). Thisbasis or frame shifts and is always in motion as TCs respond tothe complexities of various social spaces in their teaching context.Their emerging identities influence TCs’ understanding and inter-pretation of their learning experiences while interacting with otherindividuals throughout the activities of preservice teacher educa-tion (Clarke, 2008; Loughran, 2014). As TCs make decisions abouttheir learning to teach and teaching behaviors and practices in theclassroom, their teacher identities play an influential role in wherethey channel their efforts and energy (Johnson, 2003; Olsen, 2016).Also, while negotiating the meanings of L2 teaching and learningand participating in the discourses of teacher education throughcoursework and internship, they negotiate, enact, and imagine theirteacher identities (Clarke, 2008; Mantero, 2004; Trent, 2017) in var-ious “ecological spaces” of learning and practice (Singh & Richards,2006). Therefore, constructing teacher identities and learning toteach are two intricately intertwined contours that undergird anddrive teacher growth.

2.2. Teacher identity in teacher education coursework

Previous work on preservice L2 teachers’ identities particularlyfocused on how teacher candidates’ negotiated and constructedtheir teacher identities in teacher education programs. More specif-ically, scholars explored the ways in which teacher educationcourses promoted L2 TCs’ identity renegotiation and reconstruc-tion. Pavlenko (2003) analyzed 44 TCs’ autobiographies connectingtheir language learning trajectories with the concepts and issues(e.g., bilingualism and multicompetence, native speakerness andlinguistic diversity, relationship between identity and language)discussed in a Second Language Acquisition Theories course. Shesought a nuanced understanding of the interrelation between TCs’professional identities and the imagined communities to whichthey envisioned belonging. Her study reports that course read-ings and discussions provided a space in which TCs repositionedthemselves as “multilingual individuals and legitimate L2 users” (p.

261). In a similar study in an EFL context, Abednia (2012) designedand taught a critical teacher education course to seven TCs in Iranand examined the ways those TCs renegotiated their professionalidentities. He observed that through this course, TCs internalized

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he “transformative vision of teaching EFL” as part of their teacherdentities that viewed “ELT as a tool for individuals’ mental develop-

ent, social transformation, and emancipation” (p. 713). Focusingn teacher education program discourses, Ilieva’s (2010) studynvestigated teacher identities in the entire coursework with theata from TCs’ portfolios. The participants negotiated and navi-ated “particular discourses, relationships, and positionings” (p.61). Ilieva concluded that the theoretical approaches providedhrough coursework afforded TCs with new discourses and iden-ity options to grow professional legitimacy and agency, which arentimately tethered to their “possible future pedagogical practices”p. 362).

Other scholars concentrated on how TCs’ emerging teacherdentities guided their interaction with the activities of teacherearning during teacher education courses. Specifically, Peercy2012) sought to learn what theoretical and practical componentswo ESOL TCs found useful in their courses for their preparation aseachers. Her findings indicated that TCs’ emerging identities func-ioned as a frame that had a deciding impact on the theory-practiceelationship and its implications for their teaching. Also, Singhnd Richards (2006) view teacher education classrooms as microontexts reflecting the larger societal systems of power and as com-unities of practice in which teacher learning occurs through TCs’

ngagement “in activities and discourses, mediated through cul-ural artifacts” (p. 149). Placing identity at the epicenter of teacherrowth, Singh and Richards contend that TCs constantly negoti-te their identities through activities and relationships in teacherducation courses in which they cognitively and emotionally makeense of the meanings of L2 learning and teaching. Moreover, Porternd Tanghe (2016) foreground the boundaries between teacherducation classrooms as physical spaces and the class as a cul-ural context and discuss the “emplacement” of teacher identities.t those boundaries are bodies positioned as L2 teacher, learn-rs, (non)native speakers, and Porter and Tanghe maintain that TCsan manifest, take on, negotiate and contest those positions. Theirntological perspective combines the physical and the discursive innderstanding the production of thought, action, and experiencesf self.

. Theoretical framework

L2 teacher identity has so far been conceptualized and examinedn relation to the notions of discourse and practice. From a the-retical standpoint, Mantero (2004) provides a discursive modelf teacher identity. His model proposes that emerging L2 tea-hers negotiate, construct, and mediate their identities throughiscourses of L2 teacher education curriculum, L2 teaching pro-ession, L2 classroom, and community. Although he discusses the

anifestations of those discourses in teachers’ practice, he placesajor emphasis on discourse structures. In their synthesis of iden-

ity theories, Varghese et al. (2005) combine poststructuralist andociocultural theories of language to understand identity. Theyrgue that poststructuralist premise of “identity-in-discourse” andociocultural premise of “identity-in-practice” should be mergedhen operationalizing L2 teacher identity. While the former views

eacher identities as “constructed, maintained and negotiated to aignificant extent through language and discourse” (Varghese et al.,005, p. 38), the latter refers to teacher identity formation through

nstructional practice and (non-)identification with professionalommunity (p. 39).

Further honing this theorization, Trent (2017) discusses four

imensions of teacher identity construction by relying on comple-entary conceptual lenses. He suggests that L2 teachers engage

n discursive, experiential, negotiated, and contested construc-ions of identity. Whereas those discursive and experiential

cation 40 (2017) 38–49

aspects of teacher identity correspond to Varghese et al.’s (2005)premises, Trent additionally emphasizes the negotiated and con-tested nature of identity construction. Thereby, he not onlyintegrates Wenger’s (1998) notion of negotiability over meaningsinto his framework, but also complements Wenger’s model of iden-tity by highlighting conflict and contestation of power relationsin the negotiation of community membership. His framework ofteacher identity expands the contribution of poststructuralist the-ory of language with reference to teacher agency in the web ofpower relations maintained through discourse (Varghese et al.,2005).

The current study utilizes Trent’s (2017) framework of teacheridentity formation with an additional facet: positional constructionof identity. Even though Trent touches upon the notion of posi-tioning in understanding teacher identity, he does not name it aspart of his conceptual apparatus. Following Varghese et al.’s (2005)suggestion for applying different perspectives to conceptualizingteacher identity, this study capitalizes on the dynamic, situational,and fluid nature of identity and complements Trent’s frameworkwith the premises of Positioning Theory (Davies & Harré, 1999)further expanded by Anderson’s (2009) critique.

Individuals operate within discourses that offer them access tocertain ‘possible’ subject positions. As a narrative and discursivenegotiation, positioning occurs when individuals assign those his-torically and socially constructed subject positions to themselves(reflexive positioning) and others (interactive positioning) (Davies& Harré, 1999). Positioning is “a discursive process whereby peopleare located in conversations as observably and subjectively coher-ent participants in jointly produced story lines” (p. 37). Throughvarious subject positions as resources, individuals gain “access to,for example, images, expectations, practices, opinions and values,”but their actual use of those resources varies individually, circum-stantially, and situationally (Soreide, 2006, p. 529).

Following Anderson’s (2009) expanded approach to PositioningTheory, this study operationalizes positional identity negotia-tion as “mediation of micro-interactional and macro-structuraltransactions via meso-level activity” (p. 294). Rather than dis-cretely focusing on the micro (“narrowly bounded”) and the macro(“broadly cultural”), Anderson suggests scrutinizing the interactionbetween the two at the meso level (p. 293). She conceptualizesthe acts of positioning beyond their contextual connection “to themoment of interaction in which it occurs” (p. 292). Highlightingthe complex and multi-layered nature of positioning, she under-stands positioning “across interactions and scales of activity” (p.292) which includes particular attention to the relations between“local interactions” and “cultural repertoires” (p. 292). Therefore,Anderson argues that:

Identity in the moment (i.e., specific acts of positioning) andidentity over time (i.e., resources for positioning) interanimateeach other via the recurrence of (a) participants in interaction,(b) artifacts that mediate experience, (c) situation types, and(d) appeals to stability across discursive characterizations andevaluations of individuals’ actions and identities (p. 294).

This nuanced approach to the acts of positioning offers a rigoroustool to investigate TCs’ positional identity negotiation in teachereducation courses that is complexly situated at the mutual consti-tution between their teacher identities in the moment and acrosstime.

4. Methodology

This paper reports on a qualitative case study (Merriam, 2009)that examined the teacher identity construction of three preservice

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SOL teachers – Zoe, Leslie, and Elizabeth2 – during their initialeacher preparation in a 13-month intensive MATESOL programIMP) with K-12 certification. Located at a research-intensive uni-ersity in a bustling metropolitan area in the mid-Atlantic Unitedtates, the IMP grants a Master’s of Education (M.Ed.) in TESOLnd eligibility for K-12 state certification to teach English languageearners (ELLs). In this program, preservice teachers complete 42 hf teacher education coursework and two semester-long internshiplacements (in which they assume 50% of their mentor’s teaching

oad): one in an elementary setting, and one in a secondary setting.n addition to the benefits afforded by the faster completion of theegree, ESOL TCs are attracted to the IMP because of its concurrentoursework and yearlong internship. The participants in this studyegan the program in Summer I semester in 2012 and completed

t in Summer I semester in 2013. Fall 2012 and Spring 2013 werehe semesters when they were placed in elementary and secondarychool internships respectively.

Along with the IMP, the university offers two more ESOL teacherducation tracks and two World Language teacher education trackshose students interact largely through coursework. These teacher

ducation tracks are either two-year M.Ed. with certification pro-rams that provide school internship in their fourth semesternly or two-year M.Ed. without certification programs that do notnclude any internship. The M.Ed. in TESOL without certificationnd World Language programs attract a lot of international stu-ents, whereas the intensive track has largely domestic students. Athe time of the research, the IMP had been offered for five years byhe department, and historically, the student enrollment rate in thisrogram is much lower than the other two TESOL teacher educa-ion options, probably because it is an intensive full-time program.owever, this low enrollment rate coupled with institutionalizedractices and structures (such as the seminar class, having com-on beginning and graduating times, taking the same classes as

cohort) facilitate the formation and maintenance of a sense ofommunity and cohort in this program.

.1. Participants

When I designed this study, there were six TCs enrolled in theMP. When invited, they all graciously agreed to take part in myroject, but one TC dropped out of the study before the second inter-iew without mentioning any specific reason. I chose to includeoe, Elizabeth, and Leslie as my focal participants because thesehree TCs attended all the teacher education classes I observed,nd provided all the course assignments requested for documentnalysis.

As all White females in their twenties, the typical populationf K-12 ESOL TCs in the US, Zoe, Elizabeth, and Leslie had vari-us teaching and language learning experiences before entering theMP. Zoe studied French in elementary school in Alberta, Canada,

hich she described as a very exciting experience. She was hopingo attend a French immersion middle school, but her family movedack to the US before she began middle school. She took French inhe US public school system, which led to frustration and a lack ofxcitement to learn a language. As for her teaching experience, shead tutoring experience with athletes at a large research univer-ity and with high-need students who have learning disabilities orcademic probations in public schools.

Elizabeth took Spanish classes starting at seventh grade, whichhe thought were not sufficient to understand the professor in lowntermediate Spanish classes in her Spanish major at the college.

2 All names are pseudonyms. IRB approval was granted by the University of Mary-and’s Institutional Review Board (Reference # 377152-3). All participants agreed tooluntarily participate in this study by signing an informed consent form.

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After working for three years in the health sector, she decided tochange her career to education. She moved to Costa Rica and com-pleted a one-month TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language)certificate program there. Then, she worked with adults in a lan-guage center and later with younger English language learners at abilingual high school. She believes her teaching practice was largelyinformed by her own Spanish learning experience and the focus ongrammaticality and error correction in the TEFL program.

Leslie took Hebrew classes as a child learning to say prayers,and after her yearlong stay in Israel, she attended Hebrew classesat the college. She also studied Spanish from seventh grade throughtwelfth grade and continued taking classes throughout her collegeeducation. She highlights her study abroad in Argentina as instru-mental for her to improve her linguistic and cultural skills whichshe believes are an asset for her as an emerging ESOL teacher. Lesliehad tutoring experience with seventh and eighth graders who stud-ied Hebrew at a local Jewish community center, as well as, fifth andsixth grade ELLs in a largely Latino community in the US when shewas a college student.

4.2. Data collection and analysis

In this study, I collected data through semi-structured inter-views, classroom observations, and document analysis. I selectedthese instruments for two main reasons. First, they are the mostcommonly used data collection tools in the earlier studies thatexplored language teacher identity (e.g., Abednia, 2012; Ilieva,2010; Pavlenko, 2003; Peercy, 2012), and I wanted to combinethem in this study to grasp a more comprehensive view of teacheridentity negotiation. Second, I intended to capture the inter-play between individual TCs’ teacher “identities in the moment”and “over time” (Anderson, 2009) because interviews, classroomobservations, and document analysis enabled me to glean dataabout the participants’ various acts of discursive positioning andongoing positional identity negotiation. In that sense, those datainstruments were complementary in presenting an evidence-basedpicture of TCs’ identity negotiation.

I interviewed Zoe, Elizabeth, and Leslie twice (75–90 min), onceafter they started their secondary school placement in January2013, and once after their graduation from the IMP in July 2013.Because teacher education classes provide ecologically complexsocial spaces for teacher learning (Singh & Richards, 2006), Iobserved three sessions of the following courses Special Educationand TESOL and Elementary ESOL Literacy. Additionally, I analyzedthe participants’ assignments (e.g., language learner autobiogra-phy, reflection paper, teaching philosophy, grounded theories) andonline discussion board posts from those courses: ELL TeachingMethods, SLA Theories, and Intercultural Communication.

In terms of the interview data, I followed Talmy’s (2010) concep-tualization of interviews as “social practice” in applied linguistics.I conceived interview data as interviewer and interviewee’s co-construction of knowledge and negotiation of meaning, not asdirect reports of facts, beliefs, attitudes, and identities. The inter-view data gleaned were “accounts of phenomena” jointly generatedthrough interaction between interviewer and interviewees (Talmy,2010, p. 139). Different from the interview data, the TCs’ assign-ments and online discussion board posts were “materials existingnaturally in the context of the study” (Merriam, 2009, p. 86) and“unaffected by the research process” (p. 156), although the anal-ysis relied on my interpretation and research question and goals.When analyzing those data, I looked for the TCs’ discursive acts ofpositioning as they discussed or challenged theories of L2 learning

and teaching, reflected on their understanding of issues about ELLs’education, and responded to others’ comments and questions.

I utilized constant comparative method (Corbin & Strauss,2014) in the data analysis that included open and axial coding

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see Appendix A for coding table). From the outset of data col-ection, I acquainted myself with the data through listening tohe recorded interviews and taking notes, transcribing the inter-iews verbatim, reading the documents (e.g., course assignments,

synchronous online discussion board conversations), and fieldotes coming from classroom observations. I managed the dataleaned from those three sources: transcribed interview data, col-ated assignments and online discussion board conversations, andrganized field notes. While managing and organizing the data, Iook marginal notes, which was guided by my research questionnd research goal in this study, that is, to explore how the threeCs negotiate their teacher identities through teacher educationourses. This goal led me to consider the following: TCs’ instruc-ional values, priorities, and beliefs about working with ELLs, thessues they see important to themselves as emerging ESOL tea-hers, how they conceive teaching ELLs and understand their rolesnd responsibilities, and how they position themselves in relationo others i.e. other TCs, professors, ELLs, ELLs’ parents. Those initialotes comprised my “conversation with the data, asking questionsf it, making comments to it” (Merriam, 2009, p. 178) motivated byhe above goal.

Following data organization, I re-read the data and took furtherarginal notes that constituted the basis for the open coding. Then,

started the data coding process, which “makes evident the theo-etical approach used to analyze the data by applying code nameso segments of text” (Smagorinsky, 2008, p. 399). During this pro-ess, the codes that I assigned to the data gathered for the currenttudy “serve[d] to explicate the stance and interpretive approachhat [I brought] to the data” (p. 399) and “to align my analysis with

y motivating theory” (p. 400). Using the explanatory power of theositioning theory (Anderson, 2009; Davies & Harré, 1999), I soughtor instances of the three TCs’ acts of reflexive and interactiveositioning and resources for positioning to understand the TCs’eacher identity negotiation. To illustrate, in the segments of dataoded as “valuing ELLs’ culture,” “cohort as support mechanism,”nd “professors and other TCs as sources of validation and recog-ition,” (see Appendix A for coding table) the participants assignedhemselves, their (current or future) ELL students, fellow TCs, andeacher educators subject positions with certain “images, expec-ations, practices, opinions and values” (Soreide, 2006, p. 529). Inhe axial coding phase informed by my motivating theory, I identi-ed the relationships between the open codes and clustered them

nto categories (e.g., self-positioning as an ESOL teacher) that areligned with the positioning theory. Drawing from the categories,

started formulating finding statements to construct a data-drivenxplanation about the ways in which the three ESOL TCs negotiatedheir teacher identities through teacher education courses.

.3. Researcher positionality

Born and raised in the northwestern Turkey, I racially count boths European and Middle Eastern and have always grappled with thisuality when asked to talk about my racial and ethnic background.

speak Turkish as my first language and learned English as a foreignanguage starting at high school. I also studied German, French, andrabic throughout my educational trajectory in Turkey.

When conceptualizing and designing this research, I was aourth-year doctoral student and was working as a teaching andesearch assistant in the department that housed the IntensiveATESOL Program. Through my assistantship in particular, I

ecame familiar with the ESOL and World Language teacherducation tracks offered in the department and grew interest in

he ways L2 TCs learn to teach and construct teacher identities.one of my participants took the courses in which I was the

nstructor or served as an assistant. Neither did I serve as theirniversity supervisor with whom they worked in their elementary

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and secondary internship placements. The MATESOL programcoordinator introduced me to the cohort of six IMP students in oneof their biweekly seminar meetings. Attending those meetings, Ihad the chance to establish rapport with all six TCs. Because I hadshared with them my experiences as an EFL teacher before startingthe doctoral program and as an international teaching assistant inthe department before I invited them to the research, they alreadyknew that I was an emerging researcher who was interested inpreservice teachers’ learning and identities.

At the time of this research, I was undergoing an identity trans-formation, as well. As an international student who were pursuinga degree in applied linguistics and serving as a teaching assistantworking with TCs, I would always consider how my professors,my students, and fellow (domestic and international) doctoral stu-dents discursively and experientially positioned me (intentionallyor unintentionally). It was a significant transition for me to learnabout my roles and responsibilities in the US social and educa-tional context with which I was not entirely familiar. My socialinteractions in this context played an important mediating rolein my professional growth and identity negotiation and includedinfluential experiences of positionings. Particularly, with regardsto my future claimed identity as an emerging researcher, I wascognizant that my interactions with the participants during thisresearch experience were crucial for me.

5. Findings

The data analysis led to the interpretation that Zoe, Elizabeth,and Leslie subjectively negotiated their teacher identities duringtheir teacher education coursework experiences in three mainways: (a) they positioned themselves as an ESOL teacher throughasynchronous online and face-to-face course discussions, assign-ments, and activities, (b) they engaged in professional interactionwith teacher educators and other emerging teachers, and (c) theprofessors and other TCs capitalized on their simultaneous schoolexperience as a valuable resource in the teacher-learning commu-nity. Each one of these findings will be presented in this section.

5.1. Self-positioning as an ESOL teacher

Zoe, Elizabeth, and Leslie engaged in acts of self-positioning asan ESOL teacher through class discussions, assignments, and activ-ities in the teacher education coursework. Their courses affordedthe TCs with dialogic spaces where they could share and reflect ontheir conceptions about working with ELLs, and encounter, negoti-ate, and experiment with a repertoire of possible “subject positions”with certain values and practices (Anderson, 2009). The TCs dialog-ically framed and tried on ESOL teacher positions in various ways,which kept them attentive to their teaching role of serving certaintypes of learners with certain characteristics.

5.1.1. Zoe: “I respect and value their language”Zoe emphasized how preparing a lesson plan for her Language

Assessment class led her to think about language differently:

when I’m writing directions and language objectives, I’m like‘be aware of the language you’re using, be aware of how you’rephrasing them, are you giving the students appropriate options,are you phrasing things the right way,’ I started asking ‘howwould someone who has English as an L2 [second language] feelabout the instruction I give?’ It just made me look at language

in a different way, in terms of like the academic language. (Zoe,Interview 1, 01/23/2013).

Zoe’s description illustrates how a lesson plan assignment requiredher to think about her ELLs’ learning needs and goals as she

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nvisioned the subject position of an ESOL teacher with its expec-ations. In that course along with teaching experiences in herracticum schools, she learned about her ELLs’ potential languageeeds and envisioned herself taking those needs into considerations their teacher when designing assessment procedures and instru-ents. Zoe positioned herself as an ESOL teacher who can see her

nstruction through ELLs’ eyes and know her target student popu-ation and consider their language needs.

Moreover, Zoe’s teacher learning experiences in the online Inter-ultural Communication course supported her self-positioning as anSOL teacher who would be working with culturally and linguisti-ally diverse ELLs. Her Reflection Paper assignment for this coursellustrates her growing awareness about one dimension of her iden-ity as an ESOL teacher to help her ELLs preserve their L1 linguisticapacities to maintain their cultural connections. She wrote:

Ensuring that my students feel that their L1 is important, valu-able, and a central part of their identity is a major componentin how they can be successful in learning English. . . . Their lan-guage is different than the language used to instruct them, butit does not mean that one is better than the other. Making suremy students know that I respect and value their language isimportant to me because it is a way to show them that I careabout their individual stories. I can show my students the valueI place in them by letting them teach me about their culture andlanguage. By taking the time to show them that they can teachme as well, a mutual respect of communication can occur. (Zoe,Reflection Paper, Intercultural Communication)

riting this paper, Zoe discursively positioned herself as an ESOLeacher who acknowledges and respects ELLs’ home cultures andanguages to promote their learning in the US classrooms. Shencorporated this awareness and sensitivity in her identity as theffective ESOL teacher she imagined becoming. She frames a suc-essful ESOL teacher as one who is invested in ELLs’ evolvinginguistic and cultural identities and make them feel recognized andccepted in her classes by stripping herself of the deficit perspec-ive and valuing all languages equally (Nero, 2005; Reeves, 2009).his example illustrates how Zoe’s emerging teacher “identity man-fests as a tendency to come up with certain interpretations, tongage in certain actions, to make certain choices, to value certainxperiences” (Wenger, 1998, p. 153).

.1.2. Elizabeth: “we must strive to make content accessible”Elizabeth’s comments in online conversations in the Inter-

ultural Communication course exhibit how she discursively took onn ESOL professional’s position. In a post about parental involve-ent in ELLs’ education, Elizabeth framed herself in the position

f an ELL teacher who took into account not only ELLs’ parents’xpectations, but also the students’ academic and life goals whenresenting the content to ELLs. She commented:

It is important to understand the expectations parents place ontheir children, and as ELL teachers we must strive to make con-tent accessible, dependent on their previous education, so thatthese expectations are reached. It is also important to under-stand what the students themselves hope to achieve in schooland beyond. (Elizabeth, Online Discussion, Intercultural Commu-nication)

lizabeth highlighted the significance of parents’ academic expec-ations for their children, ELLs’ prior educational background, andLLs’ own academic goals. In her understanding of ELLs’ education,

hose variables influence ELL teachers’ main goal and responsibil-ty of “making content accessible” to ELLs. Her comment implieshat she views teaching ELLs as an effort to strike a balanceetween components of ELLs’ education and life. Her “reflexive

ation 40 (2017) 38–49 43

positioning” (Davies & Harré, 1999) emerged as she negotiated herrole, priorities, and values in teaching ELLs (Kayı-Aydar, 2015).

Moreover, Elizabeth conceived language learning and teachingtheories covered in coursework as a buttress for her self-image asa “strategic” and “reflective” ESOL teacher. She remarked:

I’m reflecting on theory and how you teach and how you learna language . . . The theory is so useful in terms of supportinghow I’m gonna do something and being more strategic or reflec-tive about how I’m gonna do it but I think the classes, some ofthem have been excellent, . . . in a way that we could take whatwe were doing in class directly to what we were doing in ourstudent teaching (Elizabeth, Interview 1, 02/01/2013).

As Elizabeth learned more about second language teaching andlearning theory, reflected on it, and used it to inform her practice,she approached instructional situations from an ESOL teacher posi-tion and defined herself as a strategic and reflective ESOL teacher.This finding corroborates that teachers engage in acts of position-ing when reflecting on their future teaching practice is an instanceof teacher identity formation (Urzúa & Vásquez, 2008).

5.1.3. Leslie: “encourage her students’ first culture and firstlanguage”

Leslie’s comments in an online discussion board conversationdemonstrate how she discursively negotiated the meanings ofteaching ESOL. One of the online discussion threads in the ELLTeaching Methodology course was on lesson plan modification. TCswere asked to share a lesson plan and make modifications to itbased upon their peers’ comments. Leslie designed an ESOL socialstudies lesson on the workings of the US government for an inter-mediate to advanced group of 11th and 12th grade ELL students.Comments and questions from other TCs on her lesson plan led herto reconsider and revise her lesson. When responding to her peers’comments and questions in this discursive space, she engaged inself-positioning as an ESOL teacher. For instance, Leslie replied toa peer’s question about her lesson plan (“What kind of scaffoldingwould you provide to help the students with the mock debates andthe writing assignment?”) by commenting:

I was hoping to introduce the writing assignment at the begin-ning and encourage students to take notes throughout thelessons. Maybe some prompting questions in each lesson tobrainstorm and build ideas for the later essay would help too. Asfor the debates, you are so right that it is very culturally embed-ded to debate one another. I would need to scaffold debatingbeyond just showing the videos of presidential debates. I wouldlike to model the debate with another teacher and slowly intro-duce the concept over the year in advance of this lesson. I believethis would have to be a lesson later on in the year due to thehigh expectation for participation and mutual respect requiredto debate one another. (Leslie, Online Discussion, ELL TeachingMethodology)

When addressing the question, Leslie reflected on her planned les-son from an ESOL teacher’s lens. She took on the position of anESOL teacher and commented on the question imagining herselfactually executing the lesson plan and considering her ELLs’ spe-cific cultural needs. Her reflection points out certain priorities shehas as an ESOL teacher, namely, scaffolding, modeling, and respectamong students, which demonstrate what kind of teacher Leslieimagined becoming.

In addition, in her Grounded Theories Paper assignment for the

Intercultural Communication course, Leslie delineated her vision ofan effective ESOL teacher. She framed one of the dimensions of theteacher identity that she envisioned for herself by relying on herbeliefs about teaching ESOL.

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Being a good teacher is not only about method, it is about thehuman component, the language and culture in the classroom.For teachers there is much to consider when teaching Englishlanguage learners. One of the most important adjustments ateacher can make to support her students is to encourage herstudents’ first culture (C1) and first language (L1) . . . In the past,teachers taught to the idea of a United States mainstream assim-ilationist culture. I believe that this type of teaching does notbenefit students as it can hurt the students’ C1 identities . . .Teachers should also encourage a strong command over L1 toenhance students L2 literacy. (Leslie, Grounded Theories Paper,Intercultural Communication)

eslie explicated her conception of effective ESOL teaching whichust commit to ELLs’ shifting cultural and linguistic identities and

se their background as a basis for their new learning experiences inhe US schools (Reeves, 2009; Winchester, 2013). She laid out whatnstructional values she held as a budding ESOL teacher. Writinghis paper, she had to make explicit to herself what her teacherdentity imagined in the moment capitalizes on. She discursivelysserted her agency to contest the dominant structure that favorshe use of one-size-fits-all methods and a cultural assimilationistpproach in ELLs’ education (Benesch, 2012; Trent, 2017).

Lastly, Zoe, Elizabeth, and Leslie enacted their subject positions ESOL teachers in the Elementary ESOL Literacy course. As aourse assignment, they selected a multicultural children’s booko use with their elementary students in their internship classes.n a microteaching presentation, they demonstrated at least oneeading strategy while reading aloud their children’s books in thelass and they had a brief discussion with their peers afterwardsegarding how they utilized the reading strategies. They paused toocus on target vocabulary items and to ask questions about theictures.

I observed Zoe present her children’s book (The Skin You Liven by Michael Tyler), which she had read with ESOL level 1 and 2tudents the previous week. She evaluated the book for its instruc-ional features such as, vocabulary, punctuation, and illustrations.hen, she read it aloud to her peers who acted as her elementarytudents. She had selected to focus on particular vocabulary wordse.g., beam, frightening, cringe) while reading, so she paused, triedo elicit the meaning from the students, and then provided an expla-ation. At the end of her read-aloud activity, Zoe asked a questiono wrap up:

I just wanna ask you guys a question. The author says we arespecial, different and just the same, too. What do you think hemeans when he says that? It is kind of confusing because heis using opposite words. He says we’re different and the same.What do you think he means when he says that? (Zoe, MicroTeaching, Elementary ESOL Literacy)

he then shared her students’ answers when she actually readhis children’s book with two first graders: “One child spoke Viet-amese, one child spoke Arabic, one was a boy, one was a girl, buthey are in the same class, they had the same teacher.” Then, sheighlighted an answer that came from a student: “a student who

s Vietnamese, she said, they are the same because they are bothearning English. It melted my heart, [Zoe smiling], because it is not

hat I was using it for.”In this read-aloud activity, Zoe not only practiced reading strate-

ies introduced in this course and received feedback, but also shehared her teaching experiences reading a book with her studentst different ages and proficiency levels. She reflexively positioned

erself as an ESOL teacher who actively engaged in reasoning,

ustifying, decision making, and theorizing about her students’nglish comprehension and learning through reading aloud. More-ver, she had the space to share her emotions when hearing her

cation 40 (2017) 38–49

Vietnamese student’s remarkable response to her question. Zoe’smention of that emotion-evoking moment (“it melted my heart”)during the presentation reminds her and others that teaching is anemotionally charged profession and emotional experiences are ameaningful part of their job (Benesch, 2012). Sharing it as a sig-nificant moment, she positioned herself as an ESOL teacher whoseemotions influence her commitment to and investment in teachingELLs (Yazan & Peercy, 2016).

5.2. Professional interaction in a teacher learning community

ESOL TCs who are enrolled in the IMP take all their classestogether as a cohort for 13 months. Some TCs are also placed inthe same schools for their teaching practicums, although workingwith different mentor teachers. In the cases of Zoe, Leslie, and Eliz-abeth, their shared experiences supported the co-construction of adynamic, collective identity as a cohort (with three other IMP TCs),and as part of their professional interaction, they frequently sharedideas and resources and assisted one another when needed (e.g.,arranging classroom observations for their peers in their schools).For instance, in the second interview, Leslie described this close-knit group of teacher-learners and their supportive relationships asa significant part of their growth as teachers. She articulated thattheir positionings as a cohort in the department also contributedto their individual identity formation. She noted:

we had a team, . . . we had been in classes together, workedtogether, knew each other really well, we’re less shy about shar-ing our opinion, and . . . we’ve been in so many classes together,. . . I mean, sometimes in a class you need to get to know peo-ple and then share your opinion, but for us having that cohortreally gives you that confidence, ‘cause you know that half theclass is gonna like you anyway no matter what you say. (Leslie,Interview 2, 08/22/2013)

Thanks to team spirit in her cohort, Leslie was very comfortableexpressing her opinions and sharing her experiences in the contextof her teacher education courses. In return, when she participatedin the activities or engaged in the practices of the teacher educationclassroom community, she was able to contribute to the profes-sional interaction that was created and sustained in the social spaceof the classroom. In this respect, through coursework, TCs engagedin professional exchanges in which they fluidly took on positionalteacher identities. This finding echoes Singh and Richards (2006)who emphasized that “one of the most obvious benefits of attend-ing an LTE [language teacher education] course is not what theinstructors say, but conversations and networking with other tea-chers, an opportunity that many teachers say they have little timefor in their professional lives” (p. 164). Through those conversa-tions, ESOL TCs relied on their evolving teacher beliefs and thinking(Kubanyiova, 2015) and emotions about serving ELLs (Benesch,2012) that influenced and were influenced by their reflexive posi-tioning and identity construction.

In teacher education courses, ESOL TCs were expected to bring intheir experiences as a learner or teacher, or their questions to con-tribute to class discussions or initiate new ones. These discussionsusually turned out to be venues for TCs to capitalize on their ownbeliefs about teaching, challenge and internalize the theoreticalcourse content, make meaning out of it, and benefit from their peersas resources. Participating in such venues, TCs not only startedengaging in collaborative professional learning activities, but werealso seeking membership to the ESOL professional community byappropriating and practicing the discourses of ESOL (Ilieva, 2010).

For example, Zoe explicated how she was exposed to other teacherlearners’ professional knowledge when she took part in the classdiscussions in which she felt and called herself as a teacher. Shepointed out that:

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the discussions are more about your experiences as a teacher,like ‘oh here is an example of what I’ve seen or what I did inmy internship and how that connects to what we’re learning,oh I could have really done this better, I wish I’d done this, thisand this, now that I know this information,’ . . . They [such dis-cussions] help me feel more like a teacher, and you learn a lothearing other people talk about their experience, ‘oh I need totake this idea down and that’s a really good idea for science planfor 4th graders,’ or interaction helps you, almost everyone elsein the class is a teacher or in teacher preparation as well so itdoes help me feel more prepared and more like a teacher. (Zoe,Interview 1, 01/23/2013)

During these class discussions, Zoe framed herself as a teacherho reflects on her own teaching and students when discussing

eaching with fellow TCs. Through her participation in conver-ations revolving around the issues of teaching ELLs, Zoe cameto validate [her] own knowledge and beliefs or reshape themhrough dialog with others” (Singh & Richards, 2006, p. 165).hose professional exchanges were conducive to her meaningfulxperiences as “legitimate peripheral participants” seeking mem-ership to the ESOL professionals’ community (Lave & Wenger,991).

Finally, Zoe explicitly noted that in class discussions, she viewederself more as a teacher than a graduate student who was takinglasses to complete her degree and become a teacher. However,he was also aware of the clash or confrontation between her innerelf-image as a teacher and her institutionally designated label asteacher intern.’ Although Zoe conceived herself as an ESOL teacher

hen interacting with other TCs in teacher education classes, sheemembered the fact that in technical terms, she was still an intern.he remarked: “I call myself a teacher even though part of me feelsuilty about saying that because I’m interning and I’m not tech-ically a teacher yet, but I feel it, I feel like I am” (Zoe, Interview, 01/23/2013). She was aware that she had not yet been grantedormal and social legitimation in the professional community sincehe was still a TC in the IMP. Her transition and transformation fromeing a graduate student to being an ESOL teacher was in progress,ut not completed yet.

.3. Positioned as experts of public school context

Zoe, Elizabeth, and Leslie’s engagement in the practice of teach-ng through their practicum experiences provided them withcertain experiences of participation” that promoted their legiti-acy as participants (Wenger, 1998, p. 150). The professors, TCs

n the other MATESOL tracks, and World Language TCs paid par-icular attention to the TCs’ public school experiences in the IMPecause of their yearlong teaching practicum. This attention wasignificant for their evolving identity as prospective ESOL teachersince positional construction of their identity encompasses theirelf-identification and other participants’ validation, both of whichuidly change across time (Johnson, 2003).

In one of the sessions of the Special Education and TESOL course observed, the professor explicitly ensured that every discussionroup in her classes had at least one TC from the IMP so that theyould provide other classmates with relevant input based on their

chool experiences. The task was to examine an IEP (individualizedducation program3) protocol and answer a set of questions. Whileompleting this task, the IMP TCs served in the role of resource tother MATESOL students and world language TCs who were not

3 IEP (individualized education program) refers to a program that is used torovide specific accommodations for an individual student identified as having a

earning disability.

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yet in school placements, and had limited or no previous US class-room experience. For example, as soon as Elizabeth’s group starteddiscussing and asking questions about the IEP, Elizabeth was pos-itioned as the expert. She responded to most of the questions raisedby her peers, and shared relevant examples and incidents from herpracticum school to better address their questions (Field notes, Spe-cial Education and TESOL, Observation 2). This instance illustratedhow Elizabeth’s knowledge through her teaching practicum wereacknowledged and valued in the group work, and she served as aresource for her peers.

Elizabeth’s experience and expertise as an intern who workedwith ELLs on a daily basis was known and highlighted by themembers of her teacher education classroom community. This rep-resented validation of her teaching experience from her professorand peers, and social recognition and legitimation of her identityas an ESOL teacher. However, when asked about this recognition inInterview 2, she commented:

I felt okay about it because I think all of the things that we’reobserving are valid. Things that we’re observing that we can talkabout in a classroom. But sort of like seeing us as like veteranteachers, I was not really okay with because I’m just learning itmyself (Elizabeth, Interview 2, 08/11/2013).

Her positional identity exhibits a mutual relationship betweensocial legitimation by the others in teacher education classes andher “identity over time” (Anderson, 2009) as a teacher learner.Although she accepted the validity and importance of what sheshares about classroom teaching for other TCs, she positioned her-self as a teacher learner, which refers to her shifting positionalidentity across other interactions and “scales of activity” (Anderson,2009) in teacher preparation.

Leslie remarked that IMP cohort members were often treated asexperts in their university courses, due to their field-based learn-ing and experiential knowledge about working with ELLs in publicschool contexts. She noted that thanks to their internship, she andothers in her cohort were treated as knowledgeable when it came tothe school context. Being positioned as an expert of public schoolsboosted her confidence, and she shared: “I personally feel moreconfident when I’m in the position as an expert, I’m much shierwhen I’m not, when I’m not so confident . . . being the teacherwithin a classroom of teachers is very cool and rewarding” (Leslie,Interview 2, 08/22/2013). In the classroom as a social space, shereceived “validation of her [teaching and knowing] self from anexternal source” (Danielewicz, 2001, p. 74), in this case her peersand professors. This contextual endorsement reinforced her emerg-ing teacher identity with emphasis on her capability to providenecessary information about the public school context, which wasgoing to be the workplace environment for many of her peers inthe class.

Moreover, in response to a question in the second interviewabout her classroom interactions with the TCs in other languageteacher education programs, Zoe remarked that being positioned asan expert in teacher education classes, because of her experientialknowledge, promoted her confidence as an emerging teacher. Yet,she thought she was not able to give the most informed answers tothe questions coming from her peers.

I was placed in a group with some of the students [in the Chineseteacher certification program], and that helped me articulatemy own experiences; therefore, helping other people helps youreflect and conceptualize your own experiences. . . . I would saythat’s really good . . . when others would view us as the experts,

“how is it like in high school or how is it like in the elementaryand what do they do? What are the strategies that you use?”It was nice because you get this confidence about yourself asbeing a teacher even though we were still in our internships, but

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you also feel a little ridiculous because you feel like an impos-tor. At least I did. I was like ‘I’m not a full teacher yet, I’ve onlytaken over 50 percent of the load, and clearly that’s not 100 per-cent. That is drastically different than taking over everything’.. . . Sometimes I felt like I shouldn’t be the one giving advice.People were always really sweet about it, and it was nice to feellike they wanted your opinion and that they were asking foryour knowledge. . . . but sometimes I would walk away feelinga little guilty, like I probably gave them some really – not naïve,but I don’t have all the knowledge to give that answer. I didn’tfeel like I was giving very informed answers a lot of the time.It was cool, but it was also kind of strange. (Zoe, Interview 2,08/10/2013)

eing consulted and positioned as an expert in the courseworkupported her reflective processes and self-esteem. This position-ng granted external legitimacy for Zoe’s identification as an ESOLeacher. However, it is also intriguing that although she found thisositioning conducive to conceptualizing her experiences, she feltguilty” or “ridiculous” or “like an impostor” in those instances. Thiseeling was because she was mindful of the fact that she was still aC who did not have “all the knowledge” and her answers would note so informed. She was in a liminal phase of becoming (Gaudelli &usley, 2009) as she transitioned from being a TC to “a full teacher”uring her IMP experiences.

Lastly, Zoe’s further comments indicate that her personal viewegarding the age difference between her and other TCs had beennfluential in this case as well. Zoe felt “strange” when she wasreated as an expert by somebody who was much older than herself.

This is just for me, but some of the people asking me would be alot older than I would be, maybe 20 years or so, and it felt strangebeing the younger one teaching or imparting knowledge. That’sa personal thing that I need to just get over, but that was alsosomething I felt like you should be telling me what to do. That’sjust an age thing for me. (Zoe, Interview 2, 08/10/2013)

s a younger TC, Zoe positioned herself more as a learner in thatetting who could be taught by the older TCs in the group. Heromment illustrates that the ways in which others position TCss a teacher could diverge from their self-positioning, which markshe complex interplay between social and individual dimensions ofeacher identity formation. Therefore, TCs are both “autonomous”nd “independent” when constructing various dimensions of theirdentities (Johnson, 2003).

. Discussion

The study findings point out that the TCs negotiated theireacher identities as they fluidly positioned themselves and wereositioned by others throughout their teacher learning experi-nces in teacher education courses. Traversing various contoursf identity negotiation, the three TCs engaged in self-positioninghile developing their conceptualization of pedagogical practices

or ELLs and imagining their future classroom practices and rela-ionships with students, colleagues, and parents. Also, that theyere members of a supportive group of TCs in the IMP led their

xperiences of positioning as participants of a micro teacher learnerommunity with shared social practices, experiences, and goals.urthermore, TCs’ interactions within this community opened upialogic spaces for the TCs to negotiate who they are (becoming)s fledgling ESOL teachers, and that space became essential to theireacher learning. Moreover, during teacher education classes, Zoe,

lizabeth, and Leslie were positioned as the experts of the pub-ic school system by the other L2 TCs and teacher educators, andach subjectively negotiated this positioning as part of their evolv-ng teacher identity. Overall, the current study supports that TCs’

cation 40 (2017) 38–49

interactions (with class material and other individuals) in teachereducation classes include dynamic, subjective, and fluid ways ofpositioning (Rudolph, 2016) and teacher learning in those classesinvolves negotiation of various assigned and claimed positionalidentities through participation in social practices (Porter & Tanghe,2016; Uzum, 2013; Varghese et al., 2005).

When Zoe, Elizabeth, and Leslie self-positioned themselves asESOL teachers, they shared their understandings, beliefs, and val-ues regarding the role of language in their students’ lives. All TCswere aware of the utmost importance of providing ELLs opportuni-ties to maintain and develop their home languages and cultures andof integrating them in classroom instruction to support the learn-ing of academic content. Although this awareness is a significantpart of their teacher learning, these three TCs will learn and growfurther when constructing a classroom environment and activitiesthat promote their instructional values and working with diversegroups of ELLs. Their learning to teach and professional growthwill continue as they try to align their practices with their beliefsand values and at the same time grapple with the demands of USmonolingual policies and high stakes assessment procedures. Theirexperiences with varying cases of ELLs will require them to recon-sider and adjust their existing understandings and further reshapetheir ongoing teacher learning process.

Preservice teacher education represents a process throughwhich TCs are expected to imagine and transform themselves asteachers (Danielewicz, 2001; Loughran, 2014). This transforma-tion occurs as TCs position themselves in relation to students,colleagues, parents, and institutions, and as they are concurrentlyassigned positions through interactions with others and interac-tions with new discourses. Considering those positionings (as wellas their attached meanings and values), TCs negotiate the fluidboundaries and relationships between self and other and constructand enact teacher identities at the intersection of individual aspira-tions and social expectations, which complement or contest eachother (Trent, 2017). Their construction and enactment of identi-ties concomitantly involve TCs’ experiences of teacher learning. Forinstance, although the IMP cohort was treated as the experts of pub-lic school because of their internship experiences, Zoe negotiatedthis positioning by referring to her institutional designation as anintern and younger age. She noted that this treatment promotedher reflection on her instruction and reinforced her self-confidenceas an ESOL teacher, but she did not position herself as an expertsince she was still “technically” an intern and she did not see herselfknowledgeable enough to provide informed answers, especially asa much younger TC. This exhibits the dynamic interplay betweenher self-positioning in and the construction of her identity throughsocial and institutional positionings.

Furthermore, when Zoe negotiated her positional identity, herpositioning was mediated through mutually constitutive relationsbetween “micro-level interactions” with the other TCs and thedesignation from the institutional “cultural repertoire” (Anderson,2009) in the IMP. Her identity negotiation included the interani-mation of her identity in the moment (as an expert of public schoolsystem) and her identity (as a young teacher intern) maintained andenvisioned across time. Likewise, when positioned and consultedlike a “veteran” teacher, Elizabeth negotiated her positional iden-tity as she mediated the relations between the acts of positioningwithin classroom interactions and how she positions herself overtime.

Teacher learning and identity negotiation are two complexlyentangled processes that are particularly intensive during preser-vice teacher education (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011; Morgan, 2004).

In their winding journey of becoming teachers, TCs negotiate theirteacher learning experiences “through their existing understand-ings, and modify and reinterpret new ideas on the basis of whatthey already know and believe” (Kennedy, 1991, p. 2). At the same

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ime, they negotiate the roles, responsibilities, and positions aseachers-in-the-making and teacher education classes are impor-ant venues for this negotiation (Peercy, 2012; Singh & Richards,006). As TCs develop their teacher knowledge and skills, theylso construct their instructional priorities and values aligned withhe kind of teacher they envision becoming (Ilieva, 2010; Kanno

Stuart, 2011). For example, in an assignment for Interculturalommunication course, Leslie positioned herself as a teacher whouestions and denies the assimilationist perspective to conceptu-lize ELLs’ integration into the US society and values and prioritizesLLs’ first language and culture in their English learning experiencend their ever-evolving identities. This self-positioning points toer agentive potential as a teacher, which shapes her instructionalecisions.

Sociocultural conceptualization of L2 teacher knowledge basend teacher education directed the focus on L2 teachers as primarygents of teaching and teacher learning (Freeman & Johnson, 1998;ohnson, 2009). As a socially negotiated activity, teacher learning isnfluenced “by the sum of a person’s experiences” in multiple con-exts and “it requires the acquisition and interaction of knowledgend beliefs about oneself as a teacher, of the content to be taught,f one’s students, and of classroom life” (Freeman & Johnson, 1998,. 401). The sociocultural turn called for more research to explorethe complexities of teachers’ mental lives and the various dimen-ions of teachers’ professional worlds” (Johnson, 2006, p. 236) andaved the way for the exploration and theorization of teacher iden-ity. The current study corroborates the emphasis in the earlieresearch on the intimate, close-knit as well as highly complicatedelationship between teacher learning and identity to understandhow to support) L2 teacher preparation and growth (Clarke, 2008;lsen, 2016). The findings lead to the assertion that theorizing and

nvestigating L2 teacher learning, knowledge, and practice from aociocultural perspective needs to involve the aspects and role ofeacher identity. Furthermore, if one of the purposes of L2 teacherducation research is to explain the complexities of L2 teachers’evelopment, practices, and lives, understanding L2 teacher iden-ities from linguistic, cultural, or professional perspectives needs toonsider how identity orients and is oriented by the ways in whicheachers learn to teach, construct their knowledge base, and engagen teaching practice.

. Implications for teacher education

The study findings provide implications for language teacherducation practices. First, this study suggests that TCs’ teacherearning and identity formation, as two inseparable processes,eciprocally influence one another. Although preservice teacherducation is the ideal point to raise TCs’ awareness about theirdentity transformation and continuous negotiation (Beauchamp &homas, 2009), identity is generally not the main focus in teacherducation courses. The current study implicates that L2 TEPs shouldrchestrate a program-wide endeavor that pursues teacher iden-ity formation as its main goal infused across all teacher educationractices. Courses should provide spaces for TCs to bring in andritically examine their prior conceptions about L2 teaching andearning and negotiate the kind of L2 teacher they are and aspire toecome. This conscious goal of identity negotiation could mediate2 TCs’ professional learning and growth during preservice teacherducation.

Second, professional interaction in a learning community ofCs presents a meaningful space to reconsider instructional beliefs

nd take on different subject positions. L2 teacher educatorshould promote the construction of a teacher learning communitynd rich professional interaction. Their courses should representrofessional participation structures involving class discourses

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and activities that facilitate L2 TCs’ sense making, knowledgeco-construction, and professional discourse socialization. Classdiscussions could include ambiguity, tension, and contradictionthrough which L2 TCs verbalize their pedagogical reasoning andteaching philosophies in the making. They also dialogically road-test their fledgling teacher identities by positioning themselves inthe constellation of relations within the teacher learning commu-nity, particularly when encountering and deliberating discordancesbetween their “interpretive frame” (Olsen, 2016, p. 43) and prac-tices and ideas new to them. This reflexive positioning leads L2 TCsto asserting teacher agency and negotiating teacher investment atvarying levels.

Finally, teacher education practices should include ampleopportunities for TCs’ reflection on their current and aspired L2teacher identities. Although reflection and reflective practice hasbeen viewed and used as a core characteristic of teaching in TEPs(Urzúa & Vásquez, 2008), reflection has not been incorporatedin TEP activities particularly as a means to mediate TCs’ iden-tity negotiation and construction. As TCs discursively engage inreflection, they can rely on their emerging teacher identities as alens and resource and concomitantly negotiate their identity as ateacher. This engagement can foster the intricate interplay amongstteacher learning, identity, emotions, and practice. When designedand mediated with a particular focus on L2 TCs’ ongoing identitywork, reflective activities and assignments in preservice teachereducation can afford diverse opportunities for discursive, experien-tial, negotiated, contested, and positional construction of L2 teacheridentities.

8. Conclusion

This study yielded significant insights into the three ESOL TCs’learning to teach ELLs and identity negotiation during their teachereducation courses. Throughout their teacher learning experiencesin the activities (e.g., online and face-to-face class discussions,assignments) offered in the IMP courses, they negotiated andenacted their emerging identities as ESOL teachers. These expe-riences facilitated their self-positioning as an ESOL teacher as theyshaped and articulated their own conceptions about the nature,teaching, and learning of ESOL in the US schools which consti-tute their personal ever-evolving teacher knowledge (Borg, 2006).Additionally, their professional interaction with other TCs throughformal or informal conversations presented them with a dialogicspace in which they framed and tried on their subject positions asESOL teachers discursively mediated in teacher education classes.Lastly, their simultaneous internship along with coursework washighlighted and acknowledged by their professors and peers, andthe three TCs of IMP were positioned as experts of public school sys-tem. Underscoring what the community attends to, this validationbolstered their positional construction of ESOL teacher identities.The study findings attend to teacher education classes as teacherlearning spaces with “a rich life which unfolds over time, as eventsand processes interact, and shape the way participants think, feeland act” (Singh & Richards, 2006, p. 151).

This study suggests that TEPs should use teacher identity asa framework when designing teacher preparation activities. As acomplex and fluid phenomenon, L2 teacher identity defies and“risks being modularized” in dominant L2 teacher education dis-courses (Morgan, 2004, p. 177). However, TEPs can orchestrate L2teacher education activities to explicitly foster the goal of teacheridentity construction as a central part of teacher preparation and

growth. Placing teacher identity in the center does not necessar-ily deny the significance of instructional knowledge and skill base.However, explicit focus on identity entails transcending the tradi-tional L2 teacher education practices that conceptualizes teacher

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Peercy, MacSwan, Martin-Beltran, Valli, and Silverman for theirsupport and guidance. Lastly, I really appreciate the generous sup-port for my dissertation research from The International ResearchFoundation for English Language Education.

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earning as the accumulation of discrete amounts of decontextual-zed knowledge about language, learning, and teaching practices or

ethodologies (Kanno & Stuart, 2011). More than getting exposedo teaching methods, becoming teachers “requires engagementith identity,” that is, the ways they view themselves as teachersolding certain values and commitments and conceive teachings “a state of being [and becoming], not merely ways of acting orehaving” (Danielewicz, 2001, p. 3). This approach can promoteheir teacher agency, investment, and resilience that have contin-ous influence on their professional life.

unding

Doctoral Dissertation Grant Program, The Internationalesearch Foundation for English Language Education.

ppendix A. Coding table

Open codes Axial codes

• Preparing assessment tools for ELLs,• Valuing ELLs’ culture,• Valuing ELLs’ L1,• Incorporating ELLs’ L1 and culture in classroominstruction,• Positioning ELLs as teachers of their L1 and culture,• Challenging deficit perspectives,• Academic language as key to ELLs’ success,• Teaching content as part of ESOL.

• Self-positioning as an ESOL

• Teacher education classroom as social setting,• Reconsidering instructional values, beliefs, andpriorities,• Bringing in personal experiences,• Interaction as knowledge construction,• Close-knit IMP cohort,• Cohort as a support mechanism,• Comfortably sharing beliefs, conceptions, andemotions.

• Engaging in professional inlearning community.

• Continuous access to teaching practice,• Value of experiential knowledge,• Praxis through concurrent coursework andpracticum,• Professors and other TCs as sources of validation andrecognition,• Responding to others’ validation and recognition,• Interaction amongst different tracks of teacherpreparation.

• Being positioned as expertscontext.

cation 40 (2017) 38–49

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Dr. Kate Anderson and the three anonymousreviewers for their comments and suggestions on the earlier ver-sions of this paper, which significantly contributed to improvingits quality. I am also thankful to the three ESOL teachers who tookpart in this research and my dissertation committee members Drs.

Finding statement

teacher. • The three TCs subjectively negotiated their teacheridentities during their teacher education courseworkexperiences as they positioned themselves as an ESOLteacher through asynchronous online and face-to-facecourse discussions, assignments, and activities.

teraction in teacher • The three TCs subjectively negotiated their teacheridentities during their teacher education courseworkexperiences as they engaged in professional interactionwith teacher educators and other emerging teachers.

of public school • The three TCs subjectively negotiated their teacheridentities during their teacher education courseworkexperiences as the professors and other TCs capitalizedon their simultaneous school experience as a valuableresource in the teacher-learning community.

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