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
15 communities, context, and prior experiences. First, reflective activity: it is
considered as important process in teacher professional identity formation because students construct their own learning. Students
“reflect upon their own values, beliefs, feelings and teaching practices and experiences helps shape their
professional identity” p. 699 and through reflective activities in teacher education program evoke positive impact in students
’ self-knowledge, cognitive and emotional selves, sense of agency, confidence, and self-dependency. Second,
learning communities: to be in a certain community, individuals will gain confidence and commitment to the profession. Still, in communities is important
to create supportive learning such as collaboration and reflection which impact the students professional identity. Third, context: the formation of professional
identity may depend on contextual factors like interaction and environment. This is to say that external factors influence students development on professional
identity. The last, prior experiences: this factor suggests the reasons for entering the teacher education program. The reasons are prior events and experiences.
Those reasons give positive contribution to reform the identity and as learning opportunities. Nonet
heless, Dewey states that “we do not learn from experiences, we lear
n from reflecting on experience”. Thus, by reflecting on the experiences, students can recognize the disharmony, growth, and new understanding.
According to Nias 1989, “teacher’s profesional identity is important in the sense that it is believed to strongly determine how teachers teach, how they
develop professionally, and how they apporach educational changes” cited in Schepens, Aelterman, Vlerick, 2009, p. 6. Hence, to develop the identity,
16 Antonek et al. 1997 propose that reflective skill will contribute to the
development of students ’ identity because they will relate and reflect the
experiences to their own knowledge, feelings, willing and able to integrate it into their images of themselves as teachers. A students
’ biography is also important to the professional identity formation such as early childhood experiences, early
teacher role models, previous teaching experiences, and significant or important people and significant prior experiences Beijaard et al., 2004. In line with this,
prior experiences matter a lot to the professional identity formation.
2. Professional Teacher
As the government states in
Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia No. 14 Year 2005
about Teachers and Lecturers, it is explained that teacher is a professional educator with the main role of educating, guiding, training, assessing,
and evaluating the students through both formal and informal education. Hence, in
order to have education improvement, teachers should hold professionalism as their soul of occupation.
In 1975, Hoyle defines professionalism as “strategies and rhetorics employed by members of an occupation in seeking to improve status,
salary, and conditions” p. 315. However, in 2001, he adds that professionalism do not focus on the enhancement of status; it is the improvement of service
quality. Therefore, professionalism includes behavior and attitudes in order to improve the service quality
Demirkasımoğlu, 2010 and it “focuses on the question of what qualification and acquired capacities are, what competence is
required for the successful exercise of an occupation is ” Englund, 1996, p. 76.
17 In accordance with the explanation above, teachers need to develop their
professionalism to have good service quality and focus on qualification, capacity, and competence of an occupation. According to Richards and Renandya 2002, p.
385 , “professional growth becomes a top priority”. Hence, as teachers, the self-
development toward professionalism should be increased since it is not only about mastering the knowledge of subject matter, but also the knowledge of pedagogy
Richards Renandya, 2002. Lange 1990 adds that professional development is “continued growth before and throughout a career” p. 250. Nonetheless,
professional development requires motivation and commitment which become the concept of teacher to identify them as professionals Avalos De Los Rios,
2013. The significant reason is that being a professional needs long journey and triggered by having certain qualification and competencies understanding such as
pedagogy, personality, professional, and social and keep on track to develop the professionalism as a teacher Mulyasa, 2008.
Mulyasa 2008 explains those competencies as: first, pedagogy competence is the ability to organize learning process. This competence covers
about student understanding, planning, implementing, and evaluating the learning, and develop the students to explore themselves. Second, personality competence
is having good attitude as a teacher and can be the role model to the students. Third, professional competence means the ability of mastering the knowledge of
certain subject deeper. The last, social competence is the ability to communicate and socialize with the students, colleagues, parents, and society.
18 In identifying themselves as professionals, teachers find criteria of being
professional teacher. According to
Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia
No. 87 Year 2013 about Teacher Profession Education [PPG] Program, the requirement of being professional teacher is the
students who succeed the competency test and get a certificate of professional educator article 11. Then, PPG Program graduates will be given professional
title:
Gr
behind the name and they are entitled as a professional article 14. The government regulation gives a perspective that professional is measured by a test.
Conversely, as cited in Dhae 2014, Sockcet as in Reagan and Charles, 2009, proposes that standard measurements are not only the one which considers
whether a person is professional. It means that the meaning of professional teacher can be seen from another perspective by looking out the essence of professional
teacher from informal ways since “in reality the professional development of most language teachers occurs in a variety of informal ways” Senior, 2006, p. 65.
That is to say that being professional teacher is not only because of the qualification measurement
. Thus, Baggini 2005 states, “for today’s teacher, professionalism is interpreted in terms of what extent the teachers overcome the
difficulties and what extent they are able to use their skills and experiences related to their profession” as cited in Demirkasımoğlu, 2010, p. 2049. Experiences are
the key of someone’s growth. Demirkasımoğlu 2010 argues that “the qualifications of professional
teachers are ‘being good at hisher job’, ‘fulfilling the highest standards’, and ‘achieving excellence’” p. 2049. The question on how to be good, fulfill the
19 standards, and achieve excellence can be answered through constructing own
understanding of being a teacher. Bereiter 1994 proposes that own understanding is constructed through experiencing things and reflecting those
experiences. This framework elaborates that experience will help teachers to improve the quality by conceiving idea or plan in teaching or deepening the
teacher profession. Therefore, teachers do need particular standards to support the quality.
The new pride in professionalism takes the perspective that teachers are not slaves to rules and routines established in state education departments
and textbooks publishing houses. Rather, they are reflective decision- makers, selecting objectives and teaching procedures to meet the needs of
different learners Sadker Sadker, 1997, p. 29.
According to Sadker and Sadker, teachers need to develop themselves in a positive way which is being self-reflective so that teacher can achieve a win-win
situation: teachers deliver the knowledge well and students can absorb the knowledge. It means, teachers should know what things should do in the
interaction of teaching and learning. Therefore, in order to create positive atmosphere in learning, teachers need to choose the suitable activity.
Being a professional teacher is more than didactic stuff Nias, 1996. It is about how teachers relate the personal lives in work and how teachers value their
lives. It is because consciously or not, teachers inve st their ‘selves’ in their work.
In teaching, teachers will not just teach what the students must have but value the lives and motivate the students to have strong willing to achieve what they dream
about. Therefore, this kind of aspect is strongly needed since the successful of students learning is not about number.
20
3. “Self”
In order to have professional identity, students need to recognize the “self”.
In other words, students should know how to maintain a positive sense of their identity. It refers to the meaning of self toward teacher profession and includes the
quality of becoming a teacher which related to the four competencies proposed by Mulyasa 2008. Hence, students, in order to be a teacher along with its
professional identity, responsibility, and demands adherence, need to construct the “self” to fulfill their self-concept.
As cited in Epstein 1973, William James 1910 identifies self as “consisting of whatever the individual view as belonging to himself” p. 2 and
Le cky 1945 “identifies self as the nucleus of the personality” p. 3. William
James explains that t he ‘belonging’ includes a material self, a social self, and a
spiritual self. The material self is the individual’s own body, family, and possessions. The social self is the individual’s relation with others. The spiritual
self is the emotions and desires. Those aspects have competence to heighten the self-
esteem. Moreover, Cast Burke 2002 espouse that “self-esteem is one of the most parts of the self-
concept” p. 1041. According to Gecas and Schwalbe 1983, self-esteem is the positive
evaluation of the self and it encompasses beliefs about oneself: competent and worthy which become dimensions of competence and worth as cited in Cast
Burke, 2002, p. 1042. The competence dimension is how individuals see themselves as capable and efficacious while the worth dimension is how
individuals feel themselves as valuable person. In the study of Tafarodi Swann PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
