Exploring L2 Teacher Identities in an Intercultural Telecollaborative Mixed-Reality Teaching Environment

Authors

  • Meei-Ling Liaw National Taichung University of Education
  • Sumei Wu Southern Methodist University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.20169

Keywords:

telecollaboration, mixed-reality simulated teaching, teacher identity, multimodal inter(action) analysis

Abstract

This study investigates the identities produced by three L2 teachers of different backgrounds and experiences in an intercultural telecollaborative project that integrated the use of mixed-reality technology. Content-analysis (Hoffman et al., 2011) and multimodal (inter)action analysis (Norris, 2011) were employed to identify the identity elements produced during their multimodal interactions. Using Darvin and Norton’s (2015) model of investment (MOI) as an interpretative lens, this study uncovers the different identities held by the participants, and the ways in which they aspired to become good teachers. Findings also show that mixed-reality simulated teaching provided a safe environment for exercising professional agency, thereby facilitating identity development and promoting the sense of getting there. Interactive reflection provided a site of struggle where the value of capital and imagined identities shifted. Dialoguing among the participants allowed them to reassess the value of pre-acquired capital and move to (re)imagining new teacher identities and restructuring ideological structures. Mixed-reality teaching and intercultural professional learning sensitizes the less experienced teachers to the socially and culturally complex roles required for L2 teachers. The mixed-reality simulation technology still has its limitations, mainly where classroom interaction is concerned, because the number of avatar students is small and they cannot move around physically.

Author Biographies

  • Meei-Ling Liaw, National Taichung University of Education

    Meei-Ling Liaw is a professor in the English Department at the National Taichung University of Education in Taiwan. Her research focuses on intercultural learning, teacher education, and CALL.

  • Sumei Wu, Southern Methodist University

    Sumei Wu is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Southern Methodist University in the United States. Her research interests include telecollaboration for language teacher intercultural learning, language teacher noticing, and the integration of technology in language teacher education (especially virtual reality simulations programs).

References

Campbell, J. L., Quincy, C., Osserman, J., & Pedersen, O. K. (2013). Coding in-depth sem-istructured interviews: Problems of unitization and intercoder reliability and agreement. Sociological Methods & Research, 42, 294–320. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124113500475

Chen, J. (2021). A novice Japanese teacher’s identity construction in online teaching under COVID-19: Beliefs and perceptions. Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies, 6(1), 5–11. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.tecs.20210601.12

Clarke, M. (2009). The ethico-politics of teacher identity. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 41, 185–200. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2008.00420.x

Darvin, R., & Norton, B. (2015). Identity and a model of investment in applied linguistics. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 35, 36–56. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190514000191

Del Rosal, K., Conry, J., & Wu, S. (2017). Exploring the fluid online identities of language teachers and adolescent language learners. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 30(5), 390–408. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2017.1307855

Dooly, M. A., (2011). Crossing the intercultural borders into 3rd space culture(s): Implications for teacher education in the twenty-first century. Language and Intercultural Communication, 11(4), 319–337. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2011.599390

Driver, M. K., Zimmer, K. E., & Murphy, K. M. (2018). Using mixed reality simulations to prepare pre-service special educators for collaboration in inclusive settings. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 26(1), 57–77.

Ensor, S., Kleban, M., & Rodrigues, C. (2017). Telecollaboration: Foreign language teachers (re)defining their role. Language Learning and Information and Communication Systems, 20(2). https://doi.org/10.4000/alsic.3140

Gu, M., & Benson, P. (2015). The formation of English teacher identities: A cross-cultural investigation. Language Teaching Research, 19(2), 187–206. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168814541725

Hoffman, J. V., Wilson, M., Martinez, R., & Sailors, M. (2011). Content analysis in literacy research: The past, present and future (pp. 28–49). In N. K. Duke & M. H. Mallette (Eds.), Literacy research methodologies (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

Hudson, M. E., Voytecki, K. S., & Zhang. G. (2018). Mixed-reality teaching experiences improve preservice special education students’ perceptions of their ability to manage a classroom. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 11(2), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.4101/jvwr.v11i2.7308

Irwin, B., & Hramiak, A. (2010). A discourse analysis of trainee teacher identity in online discussion forums. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 19(3), 361–377. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939X.2010.513767

Johnson, H., Ehrlich, S., Watts-Taffe, S., & Williams, C. (2014). Who am I here? Disrupted identities and gentle shifts when teaching in cyberspace. Journal of Instructional Research, 3, 43–54.

Kanno, Y., & Stuart, C. (2011). The development of L2 teacher identity: Longitudinal case studies. Modern Language Journal, 95, 236–252. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2011.01178.x

Kaplan-Rakowski, R., & Meseberg, K. (2019). Immersive media and their future. In R. M. Branch, H. Lee, & S. S. Tseng (Eds.), Educational media and technology yearbook (vol. 42, pp. 143–153). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27986-8_13

Kayi-Aydar, H. (2019). Language teacher identity. Language Teaching, 52(3), 281–295. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444819000223

Kiely, R. (2014). English language teacher identity: A framework for teacher learning and professional development. In D. Evans (Ed.), Language and identity: Discourse in the world (pp. 207–228). London: Bloomsbury.

Kitade, K. (2014). Second language teachers’ identity development through online collaboration with L2 Learners. CALICO Journal, 31(1), 57–77. https://doi.org/10.11139/cj.31.1.57-77

Kramer, C., Czura, A., Pfingsthorn, J., & Stefl, M. (2019). Cultural diversity and the formation of professional identity: Exploring the potential of telecollaboration in foreign language education. European Journal of Language Policy, 11(2), 143–165. https://doi.org/10.3828/ejlp.2019.10

MacLure, M. (2003). Discourse in educational and social research. Buckingham: Open University.

Miller, J. (2009). Teacher identity. In A. Burns & J. Richards (Eds.), The Cambridge guide to second language teacher education (pp. 172–181). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Norris, S. (2004). Analyzing multimodal interaction: A methodological framework (1st ed.). London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203379493

Norris, S. (2011). Identity in (inter)action: Introducing multimodal (inter)action analysis. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781934078280

Norton, B. (2000). Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity and educational change. Harlow: Pearson Education/Longman.

Norton, B. (2013). Identity and language learning: Extending the conversation. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783090563

Norton, B., & Gao, Y. (2008). Identity, investment, and Chinese learners of English. Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, 18, 109–120. https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.18.1.07nor

O’Dowd, R. (2017). Exploring the impact of telecollaboration in initial teacher education: The EVALUATE project. EUROCALL Review, 25(2), 38–41. https://doi.org/10.4995/eurocall.2017.7636

O’Dowd, R. (2018). From telecollaboration to virtual exchange: State-of-the-art and the role of UNICollaboration in moving forward. Journal of Virtual Exchange, 1, 1–23. Research-publishing.net. https://doi.org/10.14705/rpnet.2018.jve.1

O’Dowd, R., & Lewis, T. (Eds.) (2016). Online intercultural exchange: Policy, pedagogy, practice. Routledge Studies in Language and Intercultural Communication. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315678931

Piro, J. S., & O’Callaghan, C. (2018). Journeying towards the profession: Exploring liminal learning within mixed reality simulations. Action in Teacher Education, 41(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/01626620.2018.1534221

Puvirajah, A., & Calandra, B. (2015). Embodied experiences in virtual worlds role-play as a conduit for novice teacher identity exploration: A case study. Identity, 15(1), 23–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/15283488.2014.989441

Richards, K. (2006). Being the teacher: Identity and classroom conversation. Applied Linguistics, 27(1), 51–77. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/ami041

Rodríguez Tamayo, I. Y., & Tenjo-Macías, L. M. (2019). Children’s cultural formation: Experiences in a dual language program. Gist Education and Learning Research Journal, 18, 86–108. https://doi.org/10.26817/16925777.439

Sadler, R., & Dooly, M. (2016). Twelve years of telecollaboration: What we have learnt. ELT Journal, 70(4), 401–413. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccw041

Saito, Y. (2014). Launching out into the sea: Identity development of novice Japanese teachers of English., 32, 53–68.

Sarasa, M. C. (2017). A narrative inquiry into pre-service English teachers’ temporal investments in their initial education curriculum. HOW, 24(1), 27–43. https://doi.org/10.19183/how.24.1.337

Sayer, P. (2012). Ambiguities and tensions in English language teaching: Portraits of EFL teachers as legitimate speakers. New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203803714

Sayer, P., Martínez-Prieto, D., & de la Cruz, B. C. (2019). Discourses of white nationalism and xenophobia in the United States and their effect on TESOL professionals in Mexico. TESOL Quarterly, 53(3), 835–844. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.492

Stranger-Johannessen, E., & Norton, B. (2017). The African storybook and language teacher identity in digital times. Modern Language Journal, 101, 45–60. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12374

Tavakoli, P. (2015). Connecting research and practice in TESOL: A community of practice perspective. RELC Journal, 46(1), 37–52. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688215572005

Taylor, F., Busse, V., Gagova, L., Marsden, E., & Roosken, B. (2013). Identity in foreign language learning and teaching: Why listening to our students’ and teachers’ voices really matters. ELT Research Papers 13–02. London: British Council.

Tsui, A. B. M. (2007). Complexities of identity formation: A narrative inquiry of an EFL teacher. TESOL Quarterly, 41, 657–680. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1545-7249.2007.tb00098.x

Varghese, M. M., Morgan, B., Johnston, B., & Johnson, K. A. (2005). Theorizing language teacher identity: Three perspectives and beyond. Journal of Language Identity & Education Identity, 1, 21–44. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327701jlie0401_2

Wenger, É. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. New York: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511803932

Yang, P. (2017). Developing TESOL teacher intercultural identity: An intercultural communication competence approach. TESOL Journal, 9(3), 525–541. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.356

Published

2021-10-26

How to Cite

Liaw, M.-L. ., & Wu, S. . (2021). Exploring L2 Teacher Identities in an Intercultural Telecollaborative Mixed-Reality Teaching Environment. CALICO Journal, 38(3), 296–318. https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.20169

Most read articles by the same author(s)