The ‘Good Language Teacher’; An exploration of how preservice teachers in Chile develop their professional identity through the practicum

Abstract

This qualitative research explored how a group of nine preservice teachers (PSTs) from an English language teaching (ELT) programme in Chile navigated their professional identities throughout their last-stage practicum. By adopting a sociocultural approach, where the good language teacher (henceforth GLT) concept is understood as PSTs professional identities, this study shows how PSTs encountered a series of challenges during this period that resulted in them indicating what aspects of their professional identity they consented to, and how they were shaped through a combination of personal lived experiences and trajectories, framed within a particular social context.
A variety of conceptualisations about the GLT have been offered from researchers’ points of view, language teacher educators, and pupils in recent years, attempting to identify the desirable characteristics of the GLT. However, little is known about the understanding of the GLT from the PSTs’ point of view. By exploring how PSTs shape this concept through the practicum, light could be shed regarding how to improve the teaching practice, as teacher identity and practice are closely related (Barkhuizen and Mendieta, 2020).
The data generated from this case study, through semistructured interviews, lesson observations, stimulated recall interviews, and focus groups, showed that despite PSTs conceiving the practicum as a valuable learning experience to learn to teach, the practicum offers them scarce opportunities to do so. One of the reasons identified is that the school’s and the university’s understanding of the GLT do not always correlate. While the university promotes communicative ways to teach English, school practices showed to continue to be very traditional, focusing more
on passive skills of the language. At the same time, this research shows how the way in which PSTs perceive pupils may have an impact on the teaching of English in a more inclusive way.
In terms of the current national ELT policy, this research suggests that framing the teaching of English within a more local and contextualised pedagogy could benefit its understanding and implementation in contexts that are very deprived or vulnerable. At the same time, it is expected to better inform language teacher education programmes and teacher educators of the mismatches and power issues experienced during the practicum for PSTs, which tend to result in them adopting coping and complying behaviour that impacts on their professional identity formation.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Priscila Riffo: orcid.org/0000-0003-2623-8052

ORCID for Tony Kelly: orcid.org/0000-0003-4664-8585

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