Understanding Language Teachers’ Positional Identities in a Professional Promotion Appraisal Context

Abstract

This study examines how forty-eight Polish in-service language teachers position them- selves through their discourse during professional promotion examinations for teachers. The data were collected via field notes concerning the participants’ narratives and their responses to the questions asked by the members of the examination commissions. Of particular interest were the teachers’ three self-positions: the unique self, the ideal self, and the fearful self. The analysis of the datarevealed that, apart from the emergence of the references to the three positional identities, each of these self-positions could be further subdivided into other self-position constructions which shed light on what language teachers believe would be appreciated by the examiners under the circumstances. The significance of the study lies in its focus on in-service language teachers’ discourses obtained in a particular professional situation— teacher promotion examinations— to which access is rather rare. The findings shed further light on the connection between teacher identity, teacher emotions, and teacher agency and offer implications for in-service language teachers, teacher ex- aminers, and teacher educators.

Keywords

• language teacher positional identity
• teacher self-positions
• professional promotion exam
• teacher agency
• teacher emotions