Teacher Professional Identity Definition of Terms

12 at ‘who is she’ and the answer may be ‘she is charismatic’. This is about individual trait or personality which is recognized by others. Different to I- identity, D-identity can be nurtured to be better. The last category is affinity- identity [A-identity], the way of looking at who this person is and the answer may be ‘this is my friends’. This is to say that this identity category comes from a group or community with different backgrounds or characteristics of each member. It is also provides a sense of belonging. In accordance with the essence of identity, Murphey 1998; Singh and Richards 2006 suggest identity as “the conceptualization, conscious or not, teachers have of themselves” as cited in Izadinia, 2013, p. 694. It is to say that a teacher has an identity called teacher identity. However, teacher is ...an expert who is capable of imparting knowledge that will help learners to build, identify and to acquire skills that will be used to encounter the challenges in life. The teacher also provides to the learners knowledge, skills and values that enhance development. An educated person is capable of utilizing the available opportunities in both private and public sectors. The educated person can easily secure employment as well as having life skills that will enable himher to interact well in the society Senge, 2000, p. 26. This framework states that teacher is an expert who has a role to educate students and certain skills to interact with different students and society. In addition, as teachers, it is important to be concerned more on self-development by giving the students knowledge, skill, and value that will give both teachers and students development. In 2004, Beijaard et al. propose that teacher identity is one type of identities which defined variously. Yet, there is no definite meaning of it. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 13 However, teacher identity considerably exists and it has been argued that teacher identity holds important roles in teaching Izadinia, 2013. Since identity keeps developing in a process, teacher identity is also changeable. Thus, teacher identity is not predetermined because teacher identity formation happens during an active process of learning to teach Trent, 2010. This “strongly determines the way teachers teach, the way they develop as teachers and their attitudes toward educational changes” Beijaard et al., 2004, p. 108. Bullough 1997 suggests that teacher identity is “of vital concern to teacher education; it is the basis of meaning making and decision making”, consequently, “teacher education must begin, then, by exploring the teaching self” p. 21. In teacher identity formation, teaching self is strongly needed to develop the identity because it is important to have teacher identity which leads to have commitment to the profession Lerseth, 2013. The commitment is shown through how teachers form the ‘only’ identity into ‘professional’ identity so that the identity that teachers have is beyond expectation. In 2004, Beijaard et al. state that “the concept of professional identity was related to teachers’ concept or images of self” p. 108. It means that professional identity is the way for teachers to understand or make sense of themselves as a teacher, such as being aware of self-belief in teaching, their role in education field, and how they identify themselves as a professional. Moreover, Goodson and Cole 1994 consider, teacher is as a person and professional. In addition, professional identity is defined from self and happens in an ongoing process of 14 forming personal and professional sides of becoming a teacher Beijaard et al., 2004. The study from Antonek, Mccormick, and Donato 1997 on professional identity formation showed that professional identity of teacher “are woven from a combination of knowledge about affect, teaching, human relations, and subject matter” p. 24. They defined teachers as a person who has knowledge of the learning material; teaching process planning, implementing, assessing, and evaluating the learning process; and good relationship with students, colleagues, parents, and society. Thus, teachers should hold professionalism as their soul of occupation. The formation of teacher professional identity can begin before students enter the teacher education program Chong, Low, Goh, 2011. Thus, there are some factors which may influence the formation of teacher professional identity such as historical, sociological, psychological, and cultural of the teachers Beijaard et al., 2004. Motivation, emotion, context, and prior experiences also influence teacher professional identity formation and it is a continual flux during the certain program Izadinia, 2013. Furthermore, professional identity refers to the discovering of teachers’ self-performance in work and live based on experiences in practice and their personal backgrounds Tickle, 2000. The past experiences and personal background will always become the source of forming the professional identity. Izadinia 2013, in her research on teacher identity of students, states that there are four main focuses on his study which are: reflective activities, learning PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI