This study explores an EFL practitioner’s teaching life story, with a focus on the development of personal and professional identities, and on the rationale for teaching principles and practices within a Japanese socio-educational context. The study is grounded firmly in the belief that “in understanding something so intensely personal as teaching, it is critical we know about the person the teacher is” (Goodson, 1992, p. 234). As a single participant study this thesis places particular emphasis on the importance of subjective and interpretive insights and understandings as opposed to the generalizability and objectivity of knowledge claims embodied in more traditional approaches to research in the field of TESOL. To elicit the participant’s teaching life story I used a taped monologue technique, whereby the speaker, without the presence of an interviewer, is in complete control of topic selection and has the freedom to determine the temporal and sequential course of their narrative. The resulting two-hour monologue is the primary data for the study, and working within a narrative research framework I analyzed the story for critical incidents and teaching perspectives that can be interpreted as having informed the participant’s practicing professional identity, which can be defined as a set of values, principles and practices which guide an individual’s present teaching philosophy and future directions. Through the lens of the Japanese socio-educational context I focus on the unifying themes of teacher development and education, critical cultural knowledge, humanism, and second language (L2) only classroom policy. Furthermore, I explore the narrative thread that runs through the participant’s story, connecting past and present experiences with future teaching life directions and goals as the narrator takes the opportunity to articulate the rationale behind her main principles and practices, and in so doing underscores her practicing professional identity in a way that demonstrates a strong sense of the narrator’s purpose, values, efficacy and self-worth. As such, this process engages the narrator not only in a meaningful and coherent narrative account of professional development, but also in the process itself of professional development as it demonstrates potentialities for self-revelation, affirmation, and even transformation. This thesis offers a distinctive contribution to the field of TESOL educational research in three particular ways. First, in exploring the sources of a teacher’s beliefs and practicing professional identity, it offers an exemplar of how to undertake interpretive research as reflective practice and professional development. Secondly, it widens our understanding of conducting single participant case studies in TESOL education. This thesis also points the way forward to possible research using an innovative taped monologue technique with other individual teacher case studies that can then contribute to building a body of knowledge in the field.

The main purpose of this thesis is to deepen the current understanding of how the teacher self is constructed. Specifically, the study intends to integrate into this understanding the way in which language personal, professional, and student teacher identities inform this process. A special emphasis is placed on the role that language teachers’ life histories play on the construction of teacher selves. Narrative research constitutes the research design for this thesis project since I strongly believe that selves are narratively constructed through stories. This study is focused on the storied self (Chase, 2005) that is co-constructed between the researcher and narrator that reveals how personal, professional, and student teacher identities resist and interact with discursive environments in order to create and recreate a language teacher’s self. Life histories constitute the source of data collection in this study. This facilitated the construction of a broader understanding of how six language teachers’ personal, professional, and student teacher identities are shaped throughout a lifetime and the way these impact the formation of the teacher self. The results suggest that language teachers’ selves are in close relation to emotions. Language teachers negotiate their identities and emotions in order to make sense of the different sets of values that the social context presents to them. This in turn leads them to create/recreate their own teacher selves that serve as sources of agency that generates new sets of social/moral rules or stagnation that leads to the preservation of the current status quo. The thesis concludes by providing a series of suggestions tailored to the needs of the teaching context where this research took place with the purpose of fostering a continuous engagement with individual actors and socio-cultural factors that motivate transformation through reflection.

Originally conceived as Regional Technical Colleges and located in regions across Ireland, the Institutes of Technology (IoT) have evolved as a major sector of the binary system of higher education in Ireland. The Institutes of Technology are identified as focussed on teaching however recent years have also seen increasing focus on research. Following convergence in the sector, recent policy measures and changes signal a 'future higher education landscape' which opens the possibility of technological university status to Institutes of Technology who merge as part of the process for recognition as technological universities. The traditional orientation to practical, vocationally focussed teaching in Institutes of Technology is now challenged by the potential changes being driven at policy level and it is in the context of this changing higher education system that this study examines IoT lecturers' negotiation of professional identity. The research uses narrative enquiry to access the stories and narratives of lecturers working in a number of the institutes located in the Dublin region. Through an in depth qualitative study of eight lecturers in four IoTs, the study, in line with the research questions, identifies three major themes that underpin the professional identities of the sample - discipline; professional development; and external influences and policy decisions. Associated with these three themes are six constructs - Discipline; Professional Practice; Teaching; Development; Community Orientated Values; and Research - that resonate with this changing and volatile higher education environment and that intersect in different ways for individuals in the study to produce varying 'portraits' of professional identity. An analysis of how these identity portraits emerge is facilitated by a theoretical framework proposed by Paul Gee (2000) that gives appropriate insights into the dialogic process of the negotiation of professional identity. The study, through a synthesis of data generated themes and constructs and a theoretical identity perspective proposed by Gee (2000), contributes to knowledge in the field by creating a proposed framework for facilitating a generative analysis of the location and negotiation of professional identity. Such a framework enables, for example, explanations for both the strong links in the data between academic identity and subject discipline and yet also evidence of the fragmentation of an academic identity and an associated emphasis on practice-based experience. Given the way the framework allows for a multiplicity of factors to be combined in particular ways that reflect both structure and agency in individual lecturer's negotiation of professional identities, an argument is made for its application in the design and implementation of development structures at the level of the individual and the organisation - one that recognises that a Higher Education professional development model based on a "one size fits all" approach will not work. Instead the temporal nature of the impact of policy decisions and external influences is highlighted with a call for more focus on discourses on higher education, the associated importance of lecturer autonomy and the nature of professionalism and professional identity.

Aims and Rationale: The present study aims to enrich understanding of the professional identity of counselling psychology in the UK by exploring both the individual professional identities of counselling psychologists and the broader identity of the profession as a whole. This will elaborate on the existing literature base and allow the researcher to gather a breadth of perspectives of counselling psychology identity whilst also exploring the issues surrounding the identity development of practitioners in greater depth. Method: The study adopts a triangulation mixed methods design to explore the professional identity of counselling psychologists (Cresswell, Plano Clark, Guttman & Hanson, 2003). An exploratory online survey was designed to explore 1) the training, employment and practice characteristics of counselling psychologists and 2) their perception of the role, contribution and future identity of the profession. Concurrent with this data collection, qualitative interviews were conducted which aimed to explore the participants’ experience of training and working as a counselling psychologist, and develop an understanding of factors that have impacted upon their individual professional identity. Results: Both data sources contribute to the conception of counselling psychology as a diverse and multi-faceted profession. ‘Unity within diversity’ has been proposed as an overarching theme that marries the data sources and highlights the different ways in which counselling psychologists experience and articulate their individual professional identity, and the collective identity of the profession. Conclusions: The findings reveal there is no single professional identity inherent within counselling psychology. Multiple professional identities exist and are shaped by a range of factors. Uniting these diverse identities is a central commitment to a humanistic philosophy and value base. This provides a foundation on which therapeutic decision making is made and clients’ difficulties conceptualised. Whilst counselling psychology’s interest in identity and critical self-reflection has been questioned, this process may allow the profession to remain alert to the changing professional climate and adapt their practice to ensure that they remain valuable and are not overlooked within the field of therapeutic provision.

São poucos os estudos sobre gestão de carreira esportiva abordando os processos de transição, seus ciclos e a pós-carreira atlética nas Ciências do Esporte. É também incomum o uso de métodos de pesquisa que utilizam entrevistas abertas com atletas e pós-atletas que abordam de forma abrangente a vida do atleta onde esse tópico está inserido. No caso específico do futebol o jornalismo de uma forma geral costuma explorar esse tema, principalmente com a intenção de denunciar situações que contradizem o glamour e a visibilidade que o atleta vive durante a fase produtiva da carreira. A modalidade foi escolhida pelo poder de influência nas políticas públicas nacionais, e por apresentar um grupo expressivo de atletas que vivenciou tanto a fase amadora quanto a profissional. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi identificar e analisar como se dá o processo de gestão da carreira esportiva entre atletas olímpicos do futebol que também viveram uma carreira longeva no futebol profissional a partir da perspectiva da transformação da identidade nos diferentes ciclos que compõem a carreira do atleta. Busca discutir os processos de formação de identidade atlética, bem como as formas de gestão profissional da carreira esportiva apontando significados e sentidos no decorrer do seu desenvolvimento, em sua finalização e na construção de uma nova carreira. Para tanto foram intencionalmente selecionados 12 atletas, 10 deles já afastados da atividade profissional e 02 atletas ainda em atividade, todos eles acima de 33 anos de idade, originários de várias regiões do Brasil. O método utilizado foi as narrativas biográficas de atletas brasileiros que fizeram parte de pelo menos uma seleção brasileira que participou de uma edição dos Jogos Olímpicos entre as décadas de 1960 e 2000. A tese defende que a gestão da carreira esportiva é feita na relação que o indivíduo tem com sua carreira subjetiva e com a carreira construída socialmente, viabilizando o conceito de carreira como projeto de vida seguindo as ideias propostas pelo paradigma Life Design / There are few studies about sports management career addressing the processes of transition, their cycles and post athletic career in sports science. It is also unusual using research methods that use open interviews with athletes and post athletes which approach in a widely way the athlete\'s life where this topic is inserted. In the specific case of football, journalism in general, tends to explore this topic, principally intending to report situations that contradict the glamour and visibility that the athlete lives during his productive phase of the career. The modality was chosen by the influence power in national public policies, and for presenting an impressive group of athletes who experienced both amateur and professional phases. The objective of this research was to identify and analyze how it is the process of managing career among Olympic athletes in football who also lived one long-lived career in professional football from the perspective of identity transformation in the different cycles that make up the athlete\'s career. It is worth to discuss the formation processes of athletic identity, as well as the ways of management of professional sports career pointing its meanings and feelings during its development, in its finalization and in the construction of a new career. However, it was intentionally selected 12 athletes, 10 of them already removed from the professional activity, and 2 others yet in activity, all of them over 33 years old from several parts of Brazil. For both, the method used was the biographical narratives of Brazilian athletes who took part of at least one Brazilian team that participated of an edition of the Olympic Games between the decades of 1960 and 2000. The thesis argues that the management of sports career is made based on the relation the individual has with his subjective career and the career socially built enabling the career concept as a life project following the ideas proposed by the paradigm, Life Design

São poucos os estudos sobre gestão de carreira esportiva abordando os processos de transição, seus ciclos e a pós-carreira atlética nas Ciências do Esporte. É também incomum o uso de métodos de pesquisa que utilizam entrevistas abertas com atletas e pós-atletas que abordam de forma abrangente a vida do atleta onde esse tópico está inserido. No caso específico do futebol o jornalismo de uma forma geral costuma explorar esse tema, principalmente com a intenção de denunciar situações que contradizem o glamour e a visibilidade que o atleta vive durante a fase produtiva da carreira. A modalidade foi escolhida pelo poder de influência nas políticas públicas nacionais, e por apresentar um grupo expressivo de atletas que vivenciou tanto a fase amadora quanto a profissional. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi identificar e analisar como se dá o processo de gestão da carreira esportiva entre atletas olímpicos do futebol que também viveram uma carreira longeva no futebol profissional a partir da perspectiva da transformação da identidade nos diferentes ciclos que compõem a carreira do atleta. Busca discutir os processos de formação de identidade atlética, bem como as formas de gestão profissional da carreira esportiva apontando significados e sentidos no decorrer do seu desenvolvimento, em sua finalização e na construção de uma nova carreira. Para tanto foram intencionalmente selecionados 12 atletas, 10 deles já afastados da atividade profissional e 02 atletas ainda em atividade, todos eles acima de 33 anos de idade, originários de várias regiões do Brasil. O método utilizado foi as narrativas biográficas de atletas brasileiros que fizeram parte de pelo menos uma seleção brasileira que participou de uma edição dos Jogos Olímpicos entre as décadas de 1960 e 2000. A tese defende que a gestão da carreira esportiva é feita na relação que o indivíduo tem com sua carreira subjetiva e com a carreira construída socialmente, viabilizando o conceito de carreira como projeto de vida seguindo as ideias propostas pelo paradigma Life Design / There are few studies about sports management career addressing the processes of transition, their cycles and post athletic career in sports science. It is also unusual using research methods that use open interviews with athletes and post athletes which approach in a widely way the athlete\'s life where this topic is inserted. In the specific case of football, journalism in general, tends to explore this topic, principally intending to report situations that contradict the glamour and visibility that the athlete lives during his productive phase of the career. The modality was chosen by the influence power in national public policies, and for presenting an impressive group of athletes who experienced both amateur and professional phases. The objective of this research was to identify and analyze how it is the process of managing career among Olympic athletes in football who also lived one long-lived career in professional football from the perspective of identity transformation in the different cycles that make up the athlete\'s career. It is worth to discuss the formation processes of athletic identity, as well as the ways of management of professional sports career pointing its meanings and feelings during its development, in its finalization and in the construction of a new career. However, it was intentionally selected 12 athletes, 10 of them already removed from the professional activity, and 2 others yet in activity, all of them over 33 years old from several parts of Brazil. For both, the method used was the biographical narratives of Brazilian athletes who took part of at least one Brazilian team that participated of an edition of the Olympic Games between the decades of 1960 and 2000. The thesis argues that the management of sports career is made based on the relation the individual has with his subjective career and the career socially built enabling the career concept as a life project following the ideas proposed by the paradigm, Life Design

Diss. Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2006.

Sachs (2005) argues that a conceptual framework of identity can guide teachers on how to construct their own ideas regarding “how to be”, “how to act”, and “how to understand” their work (p. 15). However, teachers who work in a foreign context may need to adapt their conceptual framework of identity in order to improve the fit between themselves and their workplace. With this thought in mind, the current qualitative, exploratory study is concerned with the professional identity adaptation of a group of ten native English speaking teachers working at two governmental institutes in the state of Qatar. The aim of this study was two-fold: first, to discover what factors affect teachers’ self-perception and professional identity; second, to explore implications for the practice of these native English speaking teachers (NESTs). Research data collected through in-depth semi-structured interviewing and classroom observations revealed that both institutional and intrapersonal factors were involved in the adaptation of the teachers’ professional identity and the teachers’ approaches to adapt their pedagogy. In other words, one of the noticeable features of the teachers’ professional identity adaptation was the conflict between the teachers’ expectations and the realities of the local context (interpersonal conflicts). There was evidence that teachers’ intrapersonal negotiation lead them to develop multiple identities in order to avoid any troubles at the workplace. Consequently, the mismatch between the teachers’ expectations of their professional life and the realities of the local context caused an apparent inconsistency between the teachers’ beliefs and behavior, which was considered to be a form of cognitive dissonance among the teachers. This study provides English teachers who work in a new context with pragmatic information and insights about the professional identity adjustment process. It also heightens their awareness of the possible professional identity transitions that they may go through. The study should help expatriate ESL teachers in the State of Qatar, in particular, to cope with a possible discrepancy between the idealism of their pedagogical and cultural theory, and their perceived reality of classroom practice.

No description available.

Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-142).