INVESTIGATING PRE-SERVICE ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS‘ IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY IN THE TURKISH CONTEXT

Date

2025-6

Author

Mutlu, Merve

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This dissertation explores how pre-service English language teachers construct their professional identities during the final year of their teacher education at a state university in Türkiye. The study examines three overlapping domains: their academic engagement in the English Language Teaching (ELT) program, their teaching practice responsibilities, and their preparation for entering the workforce, all of which are situated within broader personal and socio-cultural contexts. To address the complexity and situated nature of identity, the study employs a third-generation Activity Theory framework (Engeström, 2001), which allows for an analysis of how identity is formed through the interaction of multiple activity systems, including personal background, institutional education structures, and career-oriented goals. Utilizing a qualitative narrative inquiry approach, the research draws on semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, field notes from practice seminars, and document analysis. An adapted version of Ölçü‘s (2014) questionnaire was also used to understand participants‘ motivations and career perspectives. Data were analyzed using Riessman‘s (2008) narrative analysis, incorporating thematic, structural, and dialogic techniques. The findings, based on narratives of nine participants, indicate that identity development is shaped by emotional demands, institutional contradictions, individual agency, and social dynamics, especially amid the disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants navigated conflicting roles as students, novice teachers, and professionals-in-transition. The study contributes to language teacher identity (LTI) research by offering a contextualized view of identity construction in pre-service language teacher education. It advocates for identity-oriented pedagogical practices in ELT programs and provides insights for teacher educators and policy-makers aiming to foster sustainable identity development.

Subject Keywords

language teacher identity, narrative inquiry, activity theory, pre-service English language teacher education, identity development

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/115051

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis