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and knowledge building. Andi is collaborative and collegial as he shared his teaching matter with his colleagues; he is activist in orientation given he has a willingness to be
active to improve his professionalism; he is responsive to change because he always works at becoming a better teacher; he is self-regulating because he has motivation to
always improve his professionalism by developing his teaching skills; and he is oriented to knowledge building because of his efforts to always develop his expertise as
a teacher. In other words, Andi is driven to continuously improve his teaching practice. The next section discusses Andi’s capital and how it emerges and how it enables him to
act in his field.
6.3 Andi’s capital
A teacher is only able to act in the field if he or she possesses the necessary resources or capital to produce effects within it Bourdieu, 1986. Andi attains physical
embodied cultural capital because of his friendly face which supports his image as a caring teacher. He also possesses personal institutionalized capital in the forms of
choice of attire, sense of humour, confidence, enthusiasm for teaching, and ability to speak English fluently. Teachers’ choice of clothing impacts their students’ view of
them as profession. Andi loves wearing dark coloured formal clothing when teaching, which is considered to be appropriate attire in his field. Moreover, Andi has a great
sense of humour, which is a valuable asset as a teacher, as it helps to create a relaxed classroom environment. This is because the use of humour discourages anxiety and fear
among the students, stimulates curiosity and interest towards learning, and fosters a positive relationship between the teacher and the student Purdue, 2001.
In addition, although Andi is a novice teacher, he demonstrates enough self- confidence when he is teaching. This helps him to teach effectively as he is able to stand
in front of the class and present material in a relaxed and engaging manner. Andi also exhibits great enthusiasm in the classroom and this helps to further engage the students’
interest in his lesson. Andi is able to speak English fluently and is thus a good role model as a target language user. In other words, the physical embodied and personal
institutionalized cultural capital Andi possesses is the resource, which allows him to yields power in his field. The next section of the chapter examines Andi’s initial
pedagogic habitus, that is the habitus in relation to his instructional practice.
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6.4 Andi’s initial pedagogic habitus
