Negotiating English language teacher identity—an autoethnography

Identity construction is an integral part of learning how to teach. As a former British colony, Hong Kong provides a unique educational and research context where East meets West. This study examines my identity construction as an English language teacher (ELT) in Hong Kong and the United States usi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lai, YSS
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2022
Subjects:
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Summary:Identity construction is an integral part of learning how to teach. As a former British colony, Hong Kong provides a unique educational and research context where East meets West. This study examines my identity construction as an English language teacher (ELT) in Hong Kong and the United States using an autoethnographic approach, which serves as an attempt to answer recent calls in the field of applied linguistics for more innovative and authentic research. Reflexive journals and essays written for my postgraduate courses were used to reconstruct my life stories and identify the critical events pertinent to my professional identity formation as an ELT and meaningful lived experiences as a transnational woman. To analyse the important events that contributed to the construction of my professional identity, critical event analysis was used in tandem with salient literature pertaining to teacher identity development and teacher education. Based on my lived experiences as a transnational woman educator, I provide some suggestions regarding teacher identity construction for school administrators, researchers, and teacher educators to consider when implementing ways to recruit, support, and retain English language teachers.