Examining Teacher Identity Construction in Action Research: The Mediating Role of Experience

ABSTRACT

While research on teacher identities has received a surge of attention in the past decades, there is a need for further exploring how teachers’ professional profiles contributes to their engagement in action research. To this end, the current action research-oriented study explored two novice and two experienced language teachers’ identities across the four main stages of action research, namely Plan, Act, Observe, and Reflect. For this purpose, we collected data via semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, and classroom observations. Data analyses indicated that the teachers’ identity construction was largely featured by similarities than differences, as Plan (similar predicaments, different confidence); Act (struggling differently, exulting similarly); Observe (similar emotions, similar recognition); and Reflect (similar trajectories, different reflectivity). In addition, the study argues that while experience influences teacher-researchers’ initial AR steps, novice and experienced teachers undergo similar trajectories in constructing their identities over the course of implementing their plans.

KEYWORDS:

• Action research
• experienced teachers
• novice teachers
• teacher identity construction
• teacher emotions

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in the study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all the individual participants included in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Despite this statement of the teacher, it could also be argued that the teacher’s higher engagement in research has negatively influenced her perceptions in that she has possibly thought of the present study as of little practical use in improving her practice, like her previous research experiences.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Ali Derakhshan

Ali Derakhshan is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at the English Language and Literature Department, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran. He has published in both accredited international journals (Applied Linguistics, Language Teaching Research, System, ELT Journal, Current Psychology, Journal of Multilingual Multicultural Development, Frontiers in Psychology, Journal of Pragmatics, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Intercultural Pragmatics, Iranian Journal of Language Teaching Research, etc.) and various local journals. His research interests are positive psychology, teacher education, interlanguage pragmatics, intercultural communication, learner individual differences, and cross-cultural interpersonal factors in educational psychology.

Mostafa Nazari

Mostafa Nazari is a PhD candidate of Applied Linguistics at Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran. His area of interest is Second Language Teacher Education, and he has published in Computer Assisted Language Learning, RELC Journal, TESOL Journal, etc.