EFL Pre-Service Teachers Professional Identity

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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter is divided into two major parts, namely the theoretical description and the theoretical framework. The theoretical description will present theories about the EFL pre-service teachers professional identity, the EFL pre- service teachers professional identity tensions, and the EFL pre-service teachers strategies to overcome professional identity tensions. Theoretical framework provides information about why and how those theories are applied in order to answer the problems of the study.

A. Theoretical Description

This section presents theoretical description from the theories which will be employed to answer the problems of the study. The first part presents the theories about professional identity of pre-service teachers PSTs. The second part presents the theories about pre-service teachers professional identity tensions. The last part presents the theories about the strategies of pre-service teacher to overcome professional identity tensions.

1. EFL Pre-Service Teachers Professional Identity

Teachers professional identity is the way that teachers, both individually and collectively, view and understand themselves as teachers Mockler, 2011. It means that a teacher forms the professional identity from within, such as their beliefs about teaching and learning methods, materials, and also from the influence of the teachers life environment outside teacher-self, such as working PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI 10 environment classroom, school, institution, coworkers senior and junior, and social environment. This is in line with the idea from Avalos and De Los Rios 2013 who argue that motivation and commitment, work demands and satisfaction, self-efficacy , and perception of society’s views of teachers are key concepts in how teachers identify themselves as professionals as cited in Beltman, et al., 2015, p. 226. The study from Beijaard, Verloop, Vermunt 2000 showed that teachers in their study see themselves as a combination of subject matter experts, pedagogical experts, and didactical experts. They defined subject matter as dealing with the learning material, pedagogical as dealing with how the teacher understands and engages with students, and didactical as dealing with the planning, execution, and evaluation of learning process. Those study, also concluded that the teachers express themselves based on how they see themselves professionally. The study from Chong, Low, Goh 2011 argued that a teacher’s professional identity begins even before they enter the teacher preparation programs and continue to evolve as they are undergoing the programs. It means that teachers can have their professional identity began to shape since they were at the pre-service teachers stage rather than the teachers stage. Further, the study of Beltman et al. 2015 also showed that pre-service teaching program are able to provide supports and opportunities for pre-service teachers in creating a strong professional identity as future teachers, as they encounter problems, demands, and various practices in their placements at school. Pre-service teachers have their professional identity emerged during or after the process of identity development. This identity 11 development process happens during the process of integrating personal knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, norms, and values on professional demands from teacher education institutes and schools, including broadly accepted values and standards about teaching Beijaard, Meijer, Verloop, 2004. It means that a pre- service teacher will have his professional identity shaped and emerged during andor after they experienced the teaching practices in school in order to apply their knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and norms about being a teacher at school, as well as meet the demands from university and school. Pre-service teachers professional identity is the result of an ongoing identity development process. The study from Chong, Low, Goh 2011 mentioned that professional identity as an ongoing process of interpretation and reinterpretation, which consists of sub-identities that result from how teachers made sense of themselves as teachers as they develop professionally. The sub-identities were related to professional development, school environment, and personal identity. Professional development reflects social and policy expectation about being a good teacher. According to the policy, a good teacher will plan and prepare the material before he teaches the subject, for example. In relation with this, Okoro 2011 also mentioned that professional teachers are trained, always update in the subject area knowledge, skills, attitudes, and know how to impart it toward students. Meanwhile, school environment is more related to the relationship between teacher and students. Students might see and respect their teachers as role models based on the teachers behaviors and attitudes toward students. Furthermore, personal identity refers to the influence from outside the school which related to 12 expectation and feedback from family and social friends or colleagues. It is possible that family has expected and brainstormed the pre-service teacher to be a teacher for a certain level of students which affected his performances and beliefs. Pre-service teachers from the EFL setting have their professional identity shaped in the same way as general pre-service teachers. However, there are several factors which make EFL pre-service teachers different from pre-service teachers in general in developing professional identity. Based on the study from Xu 2013 supported with several other studies, the researcher derives that pre-service teachers professional identity development in EFL setting is influenced by personal beliefs and experiences on learning as a learner. Those beliefs and experiences are related to the EFL teacher as a language expert, a spiritual guide, and a facilitator. EFL teachers as language experts means that a teacher must be able to be a perfect role model for the students in terms of using language as a communication tool Xu, 2013. This EFL teachers focus on active skills such as listening and speaking, while also highlight on the fluency and good pronunciation. EFL language-expert teachers usually like to give more assignments which involve speaking practices. Therefore, this kind of EFL teachers see themselves as English teachers if they can communicate by using English fluently with correct pronunciation, as well as, be able to make the students to do so. Besides, Xiaoyu Xuemei 2013 also argue that the way EFL teachers use their language has strong influences and outputs toward learners. Meanwhile, EFL teachers as spiritual guides see themselves as a teacher who does consider knowledge transfer not as the sole necessity for being a teacher. This 13 kind of EFL teachers usually focus on using their knowledge and role as a teacher to guide students spirits and motivation in pursuing future Xu, 2013. They also believe that teaching and learning should be meaningful have purposegoal and sensible for the students Roohani Darvishi, 2015. Therefore, this kind of teachers do not only focus on knowledge transfer but also on the students life aspects such as students motivations, spirits, and dreams, and attitude. On the other hand, EFL facilitator teachers give more focus to their learning process more on assisting the students in developing language skills listening, speaking, reading, and writing. EFL facilitator teachers highlight their students development and progress in language learning Xu, 2013. This kind of EFL teachers also eager to plan classroom activities and the needed times, and capture students ’ attention in order to be able to help them in learning Farrell, 2016. Therefore, this kind of teachers see themselves as English teachers when they succeed on planning and executing the most effective method for facilitating successful language learning.

2. EFL Pre-Service Teachers Professional Identity Tension