LANGUAGE TEACHER IDENTITY: HOW EXPERIENCED TEACHERS CONSTRUCT AND NEGOTIATE THEIR IDENTITIES IN A NEW INSTITUTION

Date

2026-2-20

Author

Kızıl, Vedat

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In this study, I explored how a group of six newly recruited English language teachers with prior teaching experience constructed and negotiated their professional identities in a new institutional community. In this process, they adapted to new professional expectations and sociocultural dynamics. Their participation in a year-long teacher induction and development program was an important context for this adaptation. Institutional, social, and classroom dynamics shaped their interactions with students, colleagues, mentors, and administrators. I examined how these relationships influenced their evolving professional selves and how collaboration and institutional expectations contributed to their identity trajectories. Following a qualitative case study approach, I collected data through semi-structured interviews, reflective writings, relevant documents, and contextual fieldwork. The findings suggest that teacher identity construction is a relational process informed by mentorship, collegiality, classroom practice, and institutional expectations. Participants’ prior experience influenced how they positioned themselves in the new institutional culture. The new professional setting was a site of identity negotiation, where teachers reinterpreted mentorship dynamics, experienced vulnerability, and enacted agency to align institutional norms with their own professional values. The study shows that identity formation during a transition period is not limited to novice teachers but also applies to experienced teachers recalibrating their sense of self in new contexts. By illustrating how teacher identity is shaped by social interaction and reflection, the study contributes to understanding teacher development and adaptation as a dynamic process and offers implications for more adaptive induction and mentoring practices in higher education.

Subject Keywords

language teacher identity, identity construction, identity negotiation, community of practice, experienced teachers

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/118735

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis