“Bamboos taught me to bend, but not to break”: a poetic narrative of teacher identity negotiations

Abstract

This poetic narrative aims to explore lived experiences of a language school teacher in a poor remote island in Vietnam. This article gives insights into how teacher identity was shaped through the eyes of a school teacher and how she struggled to rise to the challenge to become a better teacher version of herself. The self-portraits of how her identity was constructed and reconstructed unveil a sketch of bamboos embracing the aspiration of overcoming external factors to thrive and bloom in barren rocky soil and the harsh environmental conditions.

Keywords:

• Poetic narrative
• teacher identity
• construction and reconstruction
• arts-based inquiry
• metaphor

Disclosure statement

The author has no conflicts of interest regarding this study to declare.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The participant freely chose to participate in this research, and she consented to have her interview recorded. The data of this research is anonymized to ensure confidentiality.

Additional information

Funding

This research has been completed under the sponsorship of the University of Languages and International Studies (ULIS, VNU) under the Project N.21.09.

Notes on contributors

Bich-Phuong Thi Nguyen

Bich-Phuong Thi Nguyen is a lecturer at the VNU University of Languages and International Studies. She earned her MSc in TEFL at Southern New Hampshire University, the United States. She has also been working as an active teacher trainer for the National Foreign Languages 2020 Project by Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training. Her research interests include Teacher Professional Development, Teacher Education, and Global Citizenship Education.