The case of English teachers’ professional identity in a community of practice in a Mexican public university
The case of English teachers’ professional identity in a community of practice in a Mexican public university
This case study explores the professional identity of a group of English language teachers in a community of practice in a public university in Mexico. The main characteristic of this particular group of teachers is that they do not have a degree in the area of language teaching. The eight participants have a degree in different areas of knowledge; however, they have been teaching English for many years. The present research follows the Theory of communities of Practice by Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998) and the theory of identity by Norton (1995) to create an articulated framework for the study.
By drawing on narrative inquiry in the form of life stories, I gathered the data for this study in which the participants narrated different aspects of their professional lives and their ways of navigating the community of practice (CoP). With the help of the extended positioning analysis by Barkhuizen (2009), I could analyse in three different levels the narratives elicited with a semi-structured interview from the participants.
The findings of the research demonstrated that all the participants navigated in different ways the community of practice. I also discovered how some aspects which are not considered in the Theory of CoP such as power relations, inequality, status, among others, turned out to be of the outmost importance in the interactions of the community. The macro discourses out there, like neoliberalism, also play an important role in the construction of teachers’ identities in the community of practice.
University of Southampton
Caballero Gastelum, Margarita Aurora
68416d7d-740e-43e9-b19b-31d809129b76
21 September 2023
Caballero Gastelum, Margarita Aurora
68416d7d-740e-43e9-b19b-31d809129b76
Patino, Adriana
6a3c90b1-c110-4c9e-8991-afb409e76ef7
Wright, Vicky
5a4085ca-99b1-43d4-92e0-8b36edbcf93a
Caballero Gastelum, Margarita Aurora
(2023)
The case of English teachers’ professional identity in a community of practice in a Mexican public university.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis, 283pp.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
This case study explores the professional identity of a group of English language teachers in a community of practice in a public university in Mexico. The main characteristic of this particular group of teachers is that they do not have a degree in the area of language teaching. The eight participants have a degree in different areas of knowledge; however, they have been teaching English for many years. The present research follows the Theory of communities of Practice by Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998) and the theory of identity by Norton (1995) to create an articulated framework for the study.
By drawing on narrative inquiry in the form of life stories, I gathered the data for this study in which the participants narrated different aspects of their professional lives and their ways of navigating the community of practice (CoP). With the help of the extended positioning analysis by Barkhuizen (2009), I could analyse in three different levels the narratives elicited with a semi-structured interview from the participants.
The findings of the research demonstrated that all the participants navigated in different ways the community of practice. I also discovered how some aspects which are not considered in the Theory of CoP such as power relations, inequality, status, among others, turned out to be of the outmost importance in the interactions of the community. The macro discourses out there, like neoliberalism, also play an important role in the construction of teachers’ identities in the community of practice.
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PhD final Caballero Gastélum Margarita Aurora
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Submitted date: September 2022
Published date: 21 September 2023
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Local EPrints ID: 481183
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/481183
PURE UUID: e456fecc-c6e4-499f-a760-b7659e4dec37
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Date deposited: 17 Aug 2023 16:56
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:24
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Author:
Margarita Aurora Caballero Gastelum
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