Martha C.

Pennington, University of Luton 6 Dec 02 1

At the inaugural meeting of QuiTE on 18 October 2002 Martha Pennington of the

University of Luton delivered a paper with the title Teacher Identity in TESOL. The
paper provoked lively discussion. It is now presented here on the QuiTE website.
Professor Pennington invites further discussion of the topic.

Teacher Identity in TESOL

(A Discussion Paper)

Professor Martha C. Pennington

Powdrill Professor of English Language Acquisition, University of Luton
email <martha.pennington@luton.ac.uk>; website <www.luton.ac.uk/powdrill>

Acknowledgement

This discussion paper is slightly revised from the version given at the
inaugural meeting of QUITE at the Institute of Education on 18 October 2002.

Introduction

Two different orientations to teacher identity can be presented as relevant to a

consideration of identity in TESOL. One is an orientation derived from social
psychology, which provides perspectives on teachers social identity. The other is an
orientation derived from the teacher education literature, which provides perspectives
on teachers professional identity. These two orientations can serve as a basis for a
consideration of teacher identity in TESOL and how questions of identity impact on
teacher preparation, continuing development, and quality in TESOL education.

Social Identity

Every teacher wears a number of different hats, and every teachers identity
involves multiple influences. Teacher identities are always complex, and perhaps
especially so in teaching English to speakers of other languages. Teachers of
English to speakers of other languages must develop a type of identity that aligns
them with their profession and with the specific contexts in which they teach. It can
Martha C. Pennington, University of Luton 6 Dec 02 2

be thought of in general terms as a specific type of social identity. As proposed by

the social psychologist, Henri Tajfel (1978, 1981), social identity is that part of a
persons self-concept which incorporates the three elements of:

(1) Awareness of being a member of a certain social group or groups;

(2) The values associated with that membership; and
(3) The affect, or strength of feelings, associated with that membership.

In seeking to develop future teachers of English to speakers of other languages,

the teacher educator seeks to create and then to gradually enhance:

(1) A sense of awareness of being a member of various groups,

including (but not limited to):
(a) English language specialists;
(b) Teachers of English to speakers of other languages;
(c) Teachers in a particular school and community;

(2) A specific and positive set of attitudes and values related to

their group memberships, e.g.:
(a) Intrinsic motivation and high standards in relation to English;
(b) A sense of the value of learning English and a positive attitude towards
use of English in classroom instruction;
(c) Positive attitudes towards teaching in their school and community.

(3) Feelings of solidarity, loyalty, and commitment to these groups.

The goal is to develop a composite professional identity, or a complex of

overlapping multiple identities, for teachers of English to speakers of other
languages. This identity is in many respects parallel to a minority group described as
developing multiple group memberships (MacNamara, 1987) or hyphenated
identities (Hutnik, 1991) which are in part unique but which also take part in a what
Giles and Johnson (1987) refer to as communal social identity. The delineation of
these multiple identities and the charting of their development over time can be a way
Martha C. Pennington, University of Luton 6 Dec 02 3

to record the interaction between teacher and context during the teachers career
growth.

Teaching reflects its context (Pennington, 1992, 1995a,b) and is context-

adaptive at the level of individual events and classrooms, as well as at the level of
the school, the society, the individual teaching field, and the teaching profession.
Teaching identity is not only multiple or hyphenated, but also layered. It is dialogic in
Bakhtins (1935/1981) sense of invoking and overlaying multiple voices, roles, or
discourses, including the teachers past voice as a student, the teachers current
voice as an institutional representative, and the teachers separate voices as a
member of the community of peers within the school and the larger professional
community to which the teacher belongs. We can also describe teachers as having a
situated identity (Clement and Noels, 1992), such that different aspects of identity
are switched on or off in response to context and circumstances.

Teaching must be recognised as a socially constructed activity that requires

the interpretation and negotiation of meanings embedded within the context of the
classroom (Johnson, 1996, p. 24). As part and parcel of this interpretation and
negotiation, there is a continual redefinition of teacher identity, some aspects of
which will, at any given time, be in flux or development. Teaching and teacher identity
is socially embedded also in the sense that teachers knowledge of teaching is
constructed through experiences in and with members of the teaching profession
(Johnson, 1996, p. 24) and with various student groups.

The teachers identity and the discourse through which he or she expresses
that identity includes a distinctive voice as a member of the community outside the
school and the profession. This is a voice which may or may not resonate with those
of the students, depending upon whether they share community membership with the
teacher. Whether in harmony or disharmony, teaching very essentially involves a
dialogue between the teachers and the students voices, so that in some sense the
teachers identity will always be a reflection of the students identity.

Teachers may construct their identity vis--vis their students in terms of one or
more in-group or out-group boundaries. A teachers constructed in-group status with
Martha C. Pennington, University of Luton 6 Dec 02 4

students does not necessarily relate to the teachers actual group status or ethnicity
in relation to the students. It is rather a situation-defined social and psychological
status which the teacher claims and determines for himself or herself. Where such
characteristics as ethnicity, race, or home language are the same between teacher
and (most or all) students, any one of these characteristics can readily be claimed as
a basis for common ground and for establishing and displaying social and
psychological bonds of in-group behaviour and communication. Likewise, contrasts in
any of these characteristics can readily be claimed as the basis for establishing and
displaying differentiation.

Observations I have made in classes have led me to the idea of co-identities

between teachers and their students. Teachers who construe or construct
themselves as part of an in-group to which their students also belong create a co-
identity with their students which gives them a sense of responsibility for and
participation in their students learning process and progress. The effect of this
constructed in-group status or co-identity with students is a strong bonding between
teacher and students that influences the students to have a strong commitment to the
teacher and to the class. In this sense, the students also co-identify with their teacher
and perform accordingly.

OUT-GROUP
Separated Teachers

IN-GROUP
Adult Authority
Co-identified Teachers

Peers
Students

Institutional/age boundary

Community group boundary

Martha C. Pennington, University of Luton 6 Dec 02 5

Professional Identity

The different strands of teachers social identity just enumerated provide some
conceptual anchors for a discussion of teacher identity in TESOL. Further points that
might stimulate discussion about how to promote quality in TESOL education focus
on teachers professional identity. The professional identity of teachers can be
described as a tension or dialectic between the subjective or personal aspects of
teaching and the intersubjective or collective aspects, which I have described
elsewhere (Pennington, 1989b, 1990, 1999) in terms of a cline from Magic at one
end to Science at the other end.

Teaching as:
MAGIC----------ART----------PROFESSION----------CRAFT----------SCIENCE

The identity of Teacher-as-professional can be seen as a middle waya

tension or a balance pointbetween an entirely idiosyncratic teacher identity and an
entirely generic one, or, from a different perspective, between a performance-based
view and a competence-based view of teacher identity. Teaching-as-profession can
be seen as maintaining a dialectic between teacher-as-magician or creative
performer, on the one hand, and teacher-as-scientist or scholar, on the other.
Teaching-as-profession is a view of teacher identity in TESOL that allows for
individual differences within a wide range of variation and adaptation to context and
circumstance, but at the same time restricts any claim to a TESOL identity to those
who meet certain general or universal standards and competencies for the field. As I
have stated elsewhere:

In this professional conception, teacher knowledge includes a universal

component which must be (a) situated in and adapted to a specific teaching
context and (b) given a personal interpretation as part of an individual
teachers schema for thinking and acting. The universal component can be
viewed as a broad-scale schematic grid or conceptual network which teacher
educators aim to construct through formal teacher preparation that is then
refined and elaborated in a specific teaching context in interaction with an
individual teachers characteristics. (Pennington, 1999)
Martha C. Pennington, University of Luton 6 Dec 02 6

Teacher Identities Teacher as (adapted from Pennington, 1999, Figure 2)

Artist Professional Scholar
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TEACHER Individual Individual and Collective
KNOWLEDGE collective
Intuitive Intuitive Learned
and learned
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WAY OF Instinctive Instinctive Empirical
UNDER- and empirical
STANDING Affective Affective and Intellectual
intellectual
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DECISION- Subjective Subjective Reasoned
MAKING and reasoned
Reactive Reactive Pre-active
and pre-active
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PERSPECTIVE Local General General
ON TEACHING and local
EVENTS Internal Internal and External
external
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TEACHER Spontaneous Planned and Planned
BEHAVIOUR spontaneous
Unpredictable Partly predictable, Predictable
partly unpredictable
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
STUDENT Free-form Both structured Structured
RESPONSE and free-form
Individualised Individualised Uniform
and uniform
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOLUTIONS Unique Combinations of Generic
TO PROBLEMS unique and generic
Creative Procedural Procedural
and creative
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TEACHING Non-systematic Semi-systematic Systematic
ACTS
Indescribable Partly describable, Describable
partly indescribable
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TEACHING Irreplicable Partly replicable, Replicable
PERFORMANCE partly irreplicable
Context- Context-free and Context-free
dependent Context-dependent
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KEY TO Personality Intelligence Intelligence
SUCCESS and personality
Style Substance Substance
and style
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TEACHING Personal Personalised Impersonal
GOALS/
APPROACH Innovative Grounded By the books
innovation
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BASIS FOR Introspection Introspection Observation
FOR CHANGE and observation
Inside Inside-out and Outside
outside-in
_________________________________________________________________________________
Martha C. Pennington, University of Luton 6 Dec 02 7

Some years ago, I identified the attitudes, knowledge and skills that I believe
are important for teachers of English to speakers of other languages:

Attitudes
A belief in the importance of language teaching
An attitude towards students of empathy and interest
Confidence in ones own knowledge and classroom skills
Positive attitudes about the language and culture being taught
Positive attitudes about the language and culture of the students
Openness to new ideas about language, learning, teaching approach

Knowledge
Knowledge of individual students: strengths, weaknesses, attitudes
Self-knowledge: strengths, weaknesses, attitudes, how others see us
The language being taught: phonology, syntax, lexicon, pragmatics
The culture of the language being taught
The language and culture of the students
Language learning theory

Skills
Language teaching skills
Classroom management skills
Communication and interpersonal skills
Skills for assessing students progress
The ability to self-evaluate
The ability to adapt teaching approach to circumstances
A comfortable, consistent teaching approach emphasising personal
teaching strengths and preferences, and de-emphasising or
compensating for individual weaknesses. (Pennington, 1989a, p. 170)

This is the complex of attitudes, knowledge, and skills that I emphasise as goals for
those studying on a TESOL course and especially in the teaching practicum.
Martha C. Pennington, University of Luton 6 Dec 02 8

Teacher preparation programmes or courses in TESOL may be based on a

relatively personal or performance-centred conception of teacher identity (teacher-
as-artist), a relatively objective, knowledge-centred conception of teaching (teacher-
as-scholar), or some combination of these perspectives. Rarely are such
programmes based squarely on the conception of teacher-as-professional. Even
more rarely is a teacher preparation course based on an explicit articulation of any
notion of teacher identity. The orientations provided here can help those charged
with preparing English language teachers to articulate such a basis for teacher
education and bring to the surface for debate and refinement the implicit
assumptions of a teacher preparation course.

On a view of the teacher-as-artist, the approach to teacher preparation will be

through immersion in performance, whereas on a view of the teacher-as-scholar, it
will be through study and perhaps also acquisition of skills for research, such as
classroom-based and action research. A view of teacher-as-artist might focus on
developing a teachers experience of teaching and knowledge of self, the strengths
and weaknesses of the individual teacher, whereas that of teacher-as-scholar might
focus on developing a teachers knowledge of information as support and
background for teaching.

As I have stated elsewhere (Pennington, 1999):

In a view of teaching-as-profession, the aim of teacher education can be

characterised as helping teachers to synthesise and consolidate personal and
shared knowledge in a professional persona which bridges between the
subjective and the intersubjective [aspects of] teaching (Pennington, 1989b,
1990). In a model of teaching-as-profession, the teacher preparation course
orientation will be to make available opportunities for novice teachers to put
knowledge into action, to develop routinised ways of thinking and acting
related to classroom contexts.
Martha C. Pennington, University of Luton 6 Dec 02 9

Discussion

The multiple or hyphenated identities of those in TESOL can perhaps be

represented by a Venn diagram with intersecting or concentric circles to indicate
features of the identity such as performance artist and scholar. Or such diagrams
could be used to indicate the combination of aspectsperhaps in terms of attitudes,
knowledge and skillsthat can be considered part of the competency of being a
teacher of English to speakers of other languages.

ARTIST SCHOLAR Attitudes Skills

Knowledge

Aspects of TESOL identity could also be viewed as arranged in some kind of

a hierarchy; for example, with knowledge at the top.

KNOWLEDGE

Or they might be viewed as having a core of attitudes at the deepest layer of

teacher identity, with outward behaviours or practices on the surface or visible layer,
and perhaps knowledge sandwiched in between. Or the centre or core could be the
individual identity, then a layer of social identity and an outer layer of professional
identity.
Martha C. Pennington, University of Luton 6 Dec 02 10

Practices

Knowledge

Attitudes

Although these all look like static diagrams, there is no reason that they
cannot be thought of in dynamic terms, such that the different identity characteristics
of those in TESOL are in a continuing tension on a day to day basis and also change
over time. The relationships or dominance of the different components could
change, as the role of, say, teacher-as-performer becomes foregrounded in the
everyday context of the classroom and the role of teacher-as-scholar becomes
backgrounded.

ARTIST SCHOLAR

Or, as I have talked about elsewhere (Pennington, 1995a) in relation to

teacher change, we can think of teacher identity as being potentially changed into a
new identity as a result of various influences.

Practices Practices

Knowledge Knowledge

Attitudes Attitudes
Martha C. Pennington, University of Luton 6 Dec 02 11

Each of these conceptualisations of identity in TESOL has implications for

teacher preparation, evaluation and continuing development, and for the overall
definition of quality in TESOL education.
Martha C. Pennington, University of Luton 6 Dec 02 12

References

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Visitors to the QuiTE website who wish to pursue the issues dealt with in this
paper may contact Professor Pennington directly.
In the future QuiTE intends to set up discussion groups for TESOL
professionals who are interested in a broad range of issues related to their
discipline.
(Trevor Grimshaw, University of Northumbria)