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cation(theHpre-service”term)anddevelopment(thefirstyearofteaching
and,atthesametime,theHin-service”term),duringathreeorfouryearperi-
od:fromastudentoftheEnglishlanguageteachingprofessiontoafirst-year
full-timeEnglishlanguageteacher.Inthisregard,thechoiceofalongitudinal
studyseemslegitimate,asitallowsfordatagenerationHindurationand
breadth”(CrossFrancisetal.,2015,p.349).Italsoseemsthatthemainfocus
placedonthosewhoareonlylearningteachingiswarrantedbecauseofevi-
dencethatteachingphilosophiesaredeterminedveryearlyinaperson’spro-
fessionallife(Crookes,2009).Thebasicdiscourseofthebookoscillatesaround
theissueofhowateacherchangesvis-à-vishisorherattitudetotheteaching
profession,languageteachingchoicesandautonomousinclinations.Hence,
thepositiontakeninthisbookrenouncesthenotionofidentityassociated
withstructuralistresearch,andinsteadbuildsonpoststructuralisttheoriesof
language,asrepresentedbyBakhtin(1981),Bourdieu(1991),Gee(2001),and
inlanguageacquisitionstudiesbyKramsch(2000,2009,2013),Morgan(2004)
andNorton(2000,2013),tonamebutafew.Accordingtothepoststructuralist
perspective,identityisneitherfixed,norsociallydetermined,butbecomes
ataskforalanguageteachertoworkupon(Bensonetal.,2013,p.19).There-
fore,learninghowtoteachlanguagesforapotentialteacherbecomesan
Hidentitywork”(Bensonetal.,2013),asnewexperiencesimpactontheidenti-
tiesalreadycreated,causingmodificationsrelatedtonewwaysofthinking
aboutlanguageteachingHtoenablethepersontoadjusttothechangedcir-
cumstances”(p.32).Inlinewiththis,theadoptionofphenomenographyas
aresearchtoolmakesitpossibletoaccessidentityasacompositeconstruct
builtuponindividualwaysofthinking(study1),whereastheadoptionof
thenarrativeastheresearchinstrument(study2)makesitpossibletostudy
thechangesinindividualteachersovertimeandexplorethechallengesfaced
onthejourneytobecominganEnglishlanguageteacherinPoland.Altogether,
thisvolumeseekstosuggestawayofconceptualizinglanguageteacherpro-
fessionalidentitywhichrestsontheassumptionthatteacheridentityisnotthe
stateofperformingaparticularprofessionatacertainpointintimebutsome-
thingwhichisassembledanddevelopedovertime.
Thebookisdividedintotwoparts:theoreticalandempirical,eachcom-
prisingthreechapters.ChapterOneprovidesabriefbackgroundtothedif-
ferentconstructsofidentity,inparticularrelatedtokeytermsandconceptu-
alissues.Focusisplacedonpresentingthevariousmeaningsofidentity,as
understoodbytheleadingscholarsandtheorists,followedbyshowcasing
themostcommondivisionsofidentity:social,personalandprofessional,
withemphasisonthelast,and,finally,givinginsightintosomecurrentcon-
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