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Teacher Identity Development of Pre-Service English Language Teachers in Turkey

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• Volume 12,Issue 3, May 2025

Year:

2025

Type of Publication:

Article

Keywords:

Teacher Education, Teacher Education Program, Teacher Identity, Teacher Identity Formation, Practical Courses

Authors:

• Bilican, Recep

Journal:

IJIRES

Volume:

12

Number:

3

Pages:

74-86

Month:

May

ISSN:

2349-5219

BibTex:

@article{2081, author = "Recep Bilican", abstract = "Although the English language teacher education program was evaluated extensively by many researchers from different perspectives in Turkey, the place of teacher identity in the program has not been examined thoroughly yet. The aim of this research was to investigate to what extent the current teacher education program contributes to teacher identity formation of pre-service English language teachers. For this purpose, seven teacher educators were interviewed in one-to-one standardized format to get their perceptions of the process of teacher identity development of their students throughout the program. In addition, the senior students in an ELT Department at a state university were given an open-ended questionnaire to see the impact of the program on their understanding and conceptualisation of teacher identity. The ultimate aim of the study was to raise awareness of the process of teacher identity formation which is a critical issue in training pre-service English language teachers. The results revealed that the most significant perceived roles of English language teachers were guiding and motivating students, being friendly and teaching language skills in an enjoyable way. On the other hand, the teacher educators agree that practical courses make contributions to teacher identity development more than other courses. It is also concluded that teacher identity needs to be an explicitly targeted and primarily focused issue rather than being a by-product one.", issn = "23495219", journal = "IJIRES", keywords = "Teacher Education, Teacher Education Program, Teacher Identity, Teacher Identity Formation, Practical Courses", month = "May", number = "3", pages = "74-86", title = "{T}eacher {I}dentity {D}evelopment of {P}re-{S}ervice {E}nglish {L}anguage {T}eachers in {T}urkey", volume = "12", year = "2025", }

Abstract:

Although the English language teacher education program was evaluated extensively by many researchers from different perspectives in Turkey, the place of teacher identity in the program has not been examined thoroughly yet. The aim of this research was to investigate to what extent the current teacher education program contributes to teacher identity formation of pre-service English language teachers. For this purpose, seven teacher educators were interviewed in one-to-one standardized format to get their perceptions of the process of teacher identity development of their students throughout the program. In addition, the senior students in an ELT Department at a state university were given an open-ended questionnaire to see the impact of the program on their understanding and conceptualisation of teacher identity. The ultimate aim of the study was to raise awareness of the process of teacher identity formation which is a critical issue in training pre-service English language teachers. The results revealed that the most significant perceived roles of English language teachers were guiding and motivating students, being friendly and teaching language skills in an enjoyable way. On the other hand, the teacher educators agree that practical courses make contributions to teacher identity development more than other courses. It is also concluded that teacher identity needs to be an explicitly targeted and primarily focused issue rather than being a by-product one.

Full text: IJIRES_2081_FINAL.pdf Online version [Bibtex]