Teaching and Teacher Education 91 (2020) 103055

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Teaching and Teacher Education

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate

Student teachers’ identity construction: A socially-constructed

narrative in a second language teacher education program

ndez Varona b, 1, *,
Diego Fernando Macías Villegas, PhD a, Wilson Herna
Ange
lica Gutie

rrez Sa

nchez c
a
Universidad Surcolombiana, Avenida Pastrana Borrero e Carrera 1, 410001, Neiva, Colombia
b
Adjunct Faculty, English Language Teacher Program, Universidad Surcolombiana, Avenida Pastrana Borrero e Carrera 1, 410001, Neiva, Colombia
c
Gimnasio Yumana, Carrera 55 No 8-108. 410001, Neiva, Colombia

h i g h l i g h t s

 Student teachers’ experiences evidence a social co-construction of teacher identity.

 Introducing conflicts leads to a sequence that unveil teacher identity construction.
 Understanding teacher identity construction through elements of a narrative.
 Student teachers’ conflicts lead to new understandings of their teacher selves.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Even though it is widely accepted that teacher identity is transformed as a result of teachers’ partici-
Received 20 September 2019 pation in a teacher community, little relevant research has been undertaken with pre-service teachers
Received in revised form (Clarke, 2008). This narrative research aimed to investigate how student teachers constructed their
19 February 2020
teacher identity in an English teacher education program. By analyzing student teachers’ written and oral
Accepted 21 February 2020
Available online 7 March 2020
narratives, and their teaching practicum journals, we found that teacher identity construction involves
an ongoing process and its development is constantly shifting as a result of teaching experiences and
social interactions. Findings also showed that the construction of teacher identity started with some
Keywords:
Teacher identity
conflicts regarding teacher vocation, target language proficiency, and a misconception about the teacher
Teacher education program education program, that student teachers faced in the process of learning to teach. Consequently, those
Student teachers of English conflicts began to be solved as they interacted with the teacher community and experienced the act of
Narrative inquiry teaching. Finally, student teachers revealed how their conflicts were temporarily overcome, resulting in a
new understanding of their teacher selves and recognizing new opportunities for their professional
Palabras clave:
development.
Identidad docente
programa de formacio
n docente © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

s
estudiante practicante de ingle

n narrativa
investigacio
r e s u m e n

A pesar de que es ampliamente aceptado que la identidad del docente se transforma como resultado de

n en una comunidad docente, poca investigacio
su participacio
n se ha llevado a cabo con docentes en
formacio
n (Clarke, 2008). Esta investigacio
n narrativa tuvo como objetivo comprender co
mo los
estudiantes-practicantes construyeron su identidad docente en un programa de licenciatura en ingle
s. Al
analizar las narrativas escritas por los estudiantes-practicantes, sus narrativas orales y sus diarios de

cticas, encontramos que la construccio
pra
n de identidad de los docentes implica un proceso continuo y
su desarrollo est

a en constante cambio debido a las experiencias de ensen ~ anza e interacciones sociales.
Adicionalmente, los resultados mostraron que la construccio
n de la identidad docente comenzo
con
algunos conflictos respecto a la vocacio
n docente, al dominio del idioma objeto de estudio, y a una idea
equivocada sobre el programa de formacio
n docente, que los estudiantes-practicantes enfrentaron al

* Corresponding author.

ndez Varona), magutierrez@yumana.edu.co (A. Gutie
E-mail addresses: diego.macias@usco.edu.co (D.F. Macías Villegas), wilson.hernandez@usco.edu.co (W. Herna
rrez
S

anchez).
1
Present address wilson.hernandez@mail.concordia.ca

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2020.103055
0742-051X/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 D.F. Macías Villegas et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 91 (2020) 103055
memento de aprender a ensen
interactuaron con la comunidad de docentes y experimentaron el acto de ensen
estudiantes-practicantes evidenciaron co
struyendo una nueva comprensio
su subsecuente desarrollo profesional.
1. Introduction
For this research study, we perceived teacher identity con-
struction in terms of what student teachers (henceforth STs) do and
know; bearing upon the activities e non/academic encounters
along the undergraduate program e in which they engage, and the
beliefs and emotions they evoke during such activities. The devel-
opment of teacher identity is “an ongoing process of interpretation
and reinterpretation of who one considers oneself to be and who
one would like to become” (van Lankveld, Schoonenboom, Volman,
Croiset, and Beishuizen, 2017, p. 2), that is, teacher identity is not
something that is fixed nor is it imposed; it is rather negotiated
through the experience and the meaning-making potential of that
experience.
In the Colombian context, some scholars (Fajardo, 2014; Díaz,
2013; Quintero Polo, 2016) have explored the issue of teacher
identity construction from a social perspective. Based on their
contributions, we can say that the construction of teacher identity
takes place when STs or prospective teachers are immersed in a
teacher community. The act of being recognized as a teacher by
colleagues and students shape and transform prospective teachers’
professional affiliation (Fajardo, 2014). On the other hand, reflection
allows STs to think of new possibilities to act within the teaching
context, shaping their self-images as teachers (Díaz, 2013). Finally,
social actors such as former teachers and classmates can help STs to
construct their identity through encouragement and support dur-
ing learning experiences (Wenger, 1998).
Kanno and Stuart (2011) highlight that a) teacher identity might
begin with a self-identification as teachers, and b) practice shapes
identity, whereas identity in turn affects practice. In the same vein,
(Trent & Decoursey, 2011) see engagement as the beginning of
identity. They claim that identity begins when doing while they do
not appear to consider the influence that thinking about or
listening to what others say about teachers and teaching may play
on it (e.g., interacting in a teacher education program). Trent and
Decoursey further point out the importance of relations of power as
determining factors in shaping discourses, meanings and then
identities.
Archanjo, Barahona, and Finardi (2019) claim that the con-
struction of teacher identity is an issue that has been under-
researched in contexts such as South America. Clarke (2008)
similarly points out that even though it is widely accepted that
teacher identity is transformed as a result of teachers’ participation
in a teacher community, little relevant research has been under-
taken with pre-service teachers. Additionally, most of the previous
studies appeared to have focused on the construction of teacher
identity only after the completion of the teaching practicum period
or once pre-service teachers engage with the school context. In
contrast, this study aimed to understand and detail how a group of
student teachers in an undergraduate English teacher education
program, at a public university in Colombia, construct their teacher
identity. Thus, we engaged in an exploration of the narratives of six
STs when they were in their final semester of a four-year teacher
education program.
~ ar. Consecuentemente, esos conflictos empezaron a resolverse cuando
~ ar. Finalmente, los

mo sus conflictos fueron temporalmente resueltos, con-

n de su identidad docente y reconociendo nuevas oportunidades para
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1.1. Teacher identity construction
The process of becoming someone involves the construction of a
person’s identity. In becoming, each of us defines her/himself
uniquely and differently, somehow against societal preestablished
models, “because every person; who, searching his own inward-
ness, extracts what was mysteriously hidden” (Novatore, 1985, as
cited in Bey, 2003, p. 146). In relation to constructing identity with
others, Danielewicz (2001) states that “identity is our under-
standing of who we are and of who we think other people are.
Reciprocally, the term also encompasses other people’s under-
standing of themselves and others” (p. 10). In line with
Danielewicz’s (2001) idea of seeing identity as individual and so-
cial, Clarke (2009) recognizes a person’s identities as how the
person views him/herself and how other people see him/her. In like
manner, Norton (2013) uses the term identity in reference to “how
a person understands his or her relationship to the world, and how
that relationship is constructed across time and space” (p. 45).
Similarly, Johnson (2003) argues that identity is “constructed and
altered by how I see others and how they see me in our shared
experiences and negotiated interactions” (p. 788). Other scholars
(Johnson & Golombek, 2016; Penuel and Wertsch, 1995; Roth,
2003) have theorized about the social origin and formation of
identity by highlighting how cultural tools shape and re-shape
action in goal-oriented activity, so that identity is a being in
continuous becoming through activity. Teacher identity involves an
understanding of who we are and how people see us as individuals,
and its development is constantly shifting due to the teaching ex-
periences and social interactions.
As teacher identity construction is a never-ending process that
involves others, Barkhuizen (2017) acknowledges that teacher
identity changes, in the short-term and over time, discursively in
social interaction with teacher educators, learners and the like, and
in material interaction with spaces, places, and institutions. Teacher
identity is similarly argued to be developed as part of the process of
learning to teach (Britzman, 2003), which often implies that college
teacher education programs in general and the teaching practicums
in particular provide STs with the theoretical and practical tools to
construct and interpret their understandings of themselves as
teachers.
The social interaction is a crucial element in the formation of
teacher identity since it is through others that we become ourselves
(Vygotsky, 1987). In this regard, Day, Kington, Stobart, and
Sammons (2006) also claim that teacher identity is not only con-
structed from personal experiences, technical and emotional as-
pects of teaching “but also as the result of an interaction between
the personal experiences of teachers and the social, cultural, and
institutional environment in which they function on a daily basis”
(p. 603).
As Cooper and Olson (1996) affirm, “teacher identity is contin-
ually being informed, formed, and reformed as individuals develop
over time and through interaction with others” (p. 80). Thus, we
recognize that the construction of teacher identity is influenced by
various factors including but not limited to beliefs, perceptions,
 D.F. Macías Villegas et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 91 (2020) 103055
personal histories, social interactions, and cultural and psycholog-
ical factors. When constructing teacher identity, STs copy and
integrate models of being and strategies from colleagues and
former teachers. According to Castellanos (2004 as cited in Díaz,
2013), the construction of teacher identity is also linked to the
interaction and collaboration with cooperating teachers and prac-
ticum supervisors. It follows that “the culture of the school, its in-
ternal dynamics, and organization, enable or constrain the
achievement of ‘satisfaction’, ‘commitment’ and ‘motivation’, and
impact upon teachers’ constructions of their teacher identities”
(Day et al., 2006, p. 606). In short, teacher identity construction has
no start or end point; therefore, the process of becoming and being
a teacher is constantly shifting and is mediated and transformed
through the social practice and the active process of learning to
teach.
1.2. Teacher identity construction from a sociocultural perspective
When considering the underpinnings of identity development,
Vygotsky’s approach to cognitive development suggests a clear
mindful stance based on a sociocultural process. For instance,
Johnson and Golombek (2016), who framed their research
approach in Vygotskian theory, see “the development of human
cognition as inherently social; that is, it emerges out of participa-
tion in external forms of social interaction that become internalized
psychological tools for thinking (internalization)” (p. 4). Social ac-
tivity is considered then as the vital process through which human
cognition is formed, considering that human cognition happens
when the person is part of a sociocultural environment.
Turning the sociocultural theory towards the field of teacher
education, teachers seem to acquire most of their understanding on
how to teach from their experiences as learners, and through
practices lived along their contact with teachers (Cavanagh,
Moloney; Adnum, Lane, Stewart, and Stevenson, 2014). Thus, it
was through a sociocultural perspective that we sought to under-
stand how a group of six student teachers in an English teacher
education program construct their identity.
We consider that all the experiences lived by our participants in
the undergraduate teacher education program, have been socially
constructed and have played an important role in this complex
interplay, resulting in co-constructing their teacher identity.
Engestro €m (1987), for instance, weighs on the process of social
interaction by expressing that “the individual’s contribution quickly
loses its individual identity and merges into a vast pool of similar
contributions in the social exchange within communities” (p. 127).
From this perspective, we observed that participants in our study
have placed their individuality in an assortment of characteristics
and values, and through interacting with others in the English
teacher education program, they have socially constructed a
teacher identity. In fact, it is through the interaction with their
community and the social practices that prospective teachers can
experience and imagine themselves while both being and
becoming the result of such identity formation.
Another significant aspect from the perspective of sociocultural
theory relates to scientific and everyday concepts. Vygotsky (1987)
defines the former as the scientific and academic concepts taught in
schools and the latter as the intuitive concepts contained in
everyday situations and contexts. The importance of these two
concepts lies in their interrelationship; in how they interlace to
transform thinking and practice (Fleer, 2009). Linking the theo-
retical and pedagogical knowledge to teachers’ experiential and
practical knowledge may “enable [teachers] to reorganize their
experiential knowledge and this reorganization creates a new lens
through which they interpret their understandings of themselves”
3
(Johnson & Golombek, 2016, p. 6). (Elbaz (1983)) points out that
practical knowledge involves knowledge of various aspects of a
teacher’s experience (e.g. knowledge of the social structure of the
school, the community of which the school is part of). Similarly,
(Clandinin (1985)) considers personal practical knowledge as
“knowledge which is imbued with all the experiences that make up
a person’s being. Its meaning is derived from, and understood in
terms of, a person’s experiential history, both professional and
personal” (p. 362). It is of particular relevance for this study that, as
claimed by (Clandinin (1985)), this personal practical knowledge “is
given biographical, personal meaning through reconstructions of
the teacher’s narratives of experience … It is knowledge which is
experiential, embodied and based on the narrative of experience”
(p. 363). Thus, we focused on student teachers’ social relationships
and interactions with their professors and peers through the
teacher education program as these are crucial to the construction
of teacher identity.
From a sociocultural perspective, we see the process of teacher
identity construction as “woven through the ideologies, discourses,
contents and approaches of the course, and the individual teacher’s
own desire to find meaning in becoming a teacher” (Singh &
Richards, 2006, p. 152). Hence, the sociocultural perspective de-
scribes a route to achieve teacher knowledge while inherently
constructing teacher identity.
2. Research methodology
The present study followed a qualitative narrative research
orientation. A qualitative study seeks “to understand, explain,
explore, discover and clarify situations, feelings, perceptions, atti-
tudes, values, beliefs, and experiences of a group of people” (Kumar,
2011, p. 103); while narrative research constitutes as “a way of
understanding experience” involving “collaboration between
researcher and participants, over time, in a place or series of places,
and in social interaction with milieus” (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000,
p. 20).
Narratives or stories have made an impact on teacher education
especially in terms of how teachers’ narratives shape and inform
their practice. The work of Carter (1993), Connelly and Clandinin
(1990, 2006), Clandinin and Connelly (1986, 1996, 2000), and
Craig (2011) represent an important part of the so called ‘narrative
turn’ (Liu & Xu, 2013) in teacher education which has contributed to
the emergence of narrative as a relevant means for understanding
and providing evidence of teacher education and development.
Narratives shed light on individuals’ experiences and illustrate
how prospective teachers, in this case, shape and transform their
professional identities (Schultz & Ravitch, 2013). Bruner (1985,
1990) claims that we create or hear about a narrative in relation to
our life experiences and background, that is, stories must be
considered as embedded in society and as experienced by people
across settings. Likewise, narratives seek to restore remarkable
memories and experiences that may reveal how STs see themselves
as teachers and how they construct their professional identity.
As narrative inquiry requires going beyond the use of narratives
as a rhetorical structure, that is, beyond simply telling stories, to an
analytical examination of the underlying insights and assumptions
that the story reveals (Bell, 2002). This approach helped us to un-
derstand our participants’ experiences, their interpretation of
themselves, and the events that shed light on who they are as
teachers. Narrative inquiry similarly allowed us to examine how
participants shaped and transformed their teacher identity as they
negotiated forms of participation as members of a teacher com-
munity (learners in a school, teacher learners in a teacher education
program, and student teachers in the teaching practicum). Narra-
tive inquiry relies on a temporal continuum (Clandinin & Connelly,
4 D.F. Macías Villegas et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 91 (2020) 103055
2000) that allows participants to reinterpret “the meaning of past
events in terms of later consequences, through which they redefine
who they are and revise the plots of their life stories” (Mishler,
2006, p. 36).
2.1. Context
This research study took place in the context of an undergrad-
uate English teacher education program at a public university in
Colombia, South America. This program prepares prospective ESL
teachers to work in primary and secondary schools in the country.
Students who enter this program should complete 165 credits in
order to be certified as English as a second language teachers.
Throughout their stay in the English teacher education program,
students develop proficiency in English and gain knowledge in the
areas of history and philosophy of education, general pedagogy,
curriculum, and English didactics or methods courses (Second
Language Learning Theories, Principles of Language Teaching, and
Course Design and Assessment) in order to learn the fundamental
aspects of the language teaching process.
STs must complete two teaching practicum periods in a public or
private primary and secondary school during their final year in the
teacher education program. Each ST is assigned a cooperating
teacher (usually someone working in the designated school), and a
practicum supervisor, who must observe a minimum of 8 lessons
during each practicum and provide feedback to the ST. The English
teacher education program states that the objectives of the teach-
ing practicums include providing STs with opportunities to plan
and develop courses through teaching techniques and activities in a
real-life teaching and learning context, and gradually gaining
experience in their performance as teachers.
2.2. Participants
Three female (Juanita, Laura, Luisa) and three male (Lucas, Raúl,
Antonio) STs participated in this study. At the time of collecting the
data, they were enrolled in the final practicum period in the English
teacher education program. STs were between the ages of 20 and
25. All of them had graduated from public high schools, and five of
them studied in ‘normal schools’, “authorized [schools, seeking] to
prepare educators for the preschool and primary levels” (Article
122, Law 115 of 1994, translation). These ‘normal schools’ have an
agreement with higher education institutions to operate as aca-
demic support for initial professional teacher preparation by of-
fering complementary and extending cycles for the final two grades
in high school. When students complete the cycles in a ‘normal
school’, they receive a certificate as a qualified preschool and pri-
mary teacher, and if they wish, they can seek admission in a college
undergraduate teacher education program. It is worth mentioning
that only two participating STs, out of the total five who went to a
’normal school’, completed such cycles and were certified teachers.
The other three did not complete the cycle because they did not
want to become teachers.
2.3. Data collection
The data were collected over a 5-month period, during the final
year of STs in the English teacher education program. Written and
oral narratives, and participants’ reflective journals written during
their practicum periods constituted the sources of data collection.
The implementation of these methods helped us to gather mean-
ingful experiences and difficulties that STs encountered upon
entering and during their stay in the English teacher education
program.
Data gathering was divided into three moments (See Fig. 1). The
first moment involved participants posting their written narratives
to Seesaw (a digital platform). Once we read and analyzed these
written narratives, we invited participants to share with us their
oral narratives about their first-year experiences. The second
moment, which focused on their second- and third-year experi-
ences, similarly initiated with the collection of participants’ written
narratives and continued with their oral narratives. The third and
last moment also required the collection of participants’ written
and oral narratives, along with their practicum journals, addressing
their experiences during the last three semesters in the teacher
education program. In short, each of the three moments focused on
three sets of experiences participants had in the four-year English
teacher education program. During the process of data collection,
we intended to achieve an uncoerced elaboration of participants’
narratives, with no interest in “stating the obvious” (Uprichard,
2010, p. 7).
2.4. Data analysis
Since we sought to understand how participants’ mindful ex-
periences in the English teacher education program had influenced
their teacher identity and valued their narratives as a fundamental
source for understanding the meaning and construction of such
teacher identity, we relied on a paradigmatic analysis of narrative
data, that is, a type of data analysis that “seeks to locate common
themes or conceptual manifestations among the stories collected as
data” (Polkinghorne, 1995, p. 13). Paradigmatic analysis, adds Pol-
kinghorne, is used not only “to discover or describe categories that
identify particular occurrences within the data but also to note
relationships among the categories” (Polkinghorne, 1995, p. 14).
Consequently, we performed the analysis of narratives through
the following steps: The first step required us to read two partici-
pants’ written narratives without taking any notes or even under-
lining anything since the goal was to immerse ourselves in the
participants’ stories trying to feel and connect to what they were
saying, capturing reflections or just writing “memos that reflect the
mental dialogue occurring between the data and [us]” (Corbin &
Strauss, 2008), p. 168). Then, we discussed emerging ideas found
in these two written narratives and determined some initial
categories.
The second step centered on the reading and discussion of the
other participants’ written narratives and a progressive refinement
and expansion of the preliminary categories. In this step, we looked
for compelling threads in all the written narratives and decided to
preserve some excerpts that vividly represented each category and
to verify their exclusiveness.
The third step focused on analyzing participants’ oral narratives
and identifying common categories as contrasted and examined
against those identified earlier in the written narratives.
Fig. 1. Data collection process.
 D.F. Macías Villegas et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 91 (2020) 103055
Interestingly, participants’ oral narratives provided further and
more in-depth details while revealing aspects that participants had
not discussed previously.
The fourth step involved following a similar procedure with the
practicum journals, that is, we read, discussed and expanded on
emerging categories. Although one of the goals was to find further
categories through the analysis of these journals, we also sought to
enrich participants’ narratives and highlight features of self-
reflection on their experiences through the teacher education
program.
The fifth and last step covered the triangulation of the analysts’
opinions and an in-depth discussion to determine the final cate-
gories. This five-step process is illustrated in Fig. 2.
This study makes no claims to replicability or generalizability of
findings considering the nature of narrative inquiry. Participants
were asked to check our interpretation of their narrated experi-
ences as STs in order to provide credibility to our study, due to the
fact that “the trustworthiness of the narrative research lies in the
confirmation by the participants of their reported stories of expe-
rience” (Webster & Mertova, 2007, p. 99). This technique, Lincoln
and Guba (1985) claim, can be considered “the most critical tech-
nique for establishing credibility” (p. 314). Finally, as researchers we
were actively engaged with the setting and participants for a period
of about five months. During this time, we worked on building trust
and rapport with participants while gathering the data through the
different sources.
3. Findings
3.1. Teacher identity as a socially-constructed narrative
We faced a pragmatic challenge when we were to define how to
present the construction of teacher identity. With all the categories
on the table, we realized that some of them, probably the most
salient, were guiding us on their own arrangement. Then, we chose
to describe the construction of teacher identity from the perspec-
tive of the main elements of narrative as a literary term, that is,

nouement. The first two
setting, characters, conflict, plot, and de
elements e setting and characters e constituted the core around
which this narrative developed, yet the actual sequence that un-
veils the construction of teacher identity began with the intro-
duction of the third element e conflict. Thus, this conflict led to a
Fig. 2. Data analysis process.
5
sequence of events e the plot e that illustrated the characters’
paths to resolve their own conflicts in the process of teacher
identity construction. Finally, this narrative concluded in its final
act: a time-framed de
nouement; that far from depicting a final
conflict resolution, it displayed how the characters in this narrative
temporarily overcame the conflicts and continued to build their
professional identity.
Correspondingly, after the data were analyzed for presentation
and organization of the findings, we considered three essential
principles (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2017) to be aligned
with the elements of conflict, plot and de
nouement. The first
principle addressed preconceptions generating tension (in alignment
with conflict); it embodies the preconceptions that STs brought
with them when entering the teacher education program. The
second principle focused on knowledge building and reflecting (in
alignment with plot); it refers to the construction and reflection on
teacher knowledge and practices within the teacher education
program. Finally, the third principle attended to a conceptual
shifting (in alignment with de
nouement) that resulted from the
mediation of the second principle over the first one. Throughout
the different events STs faced in their teacher education program,
including their teaching practicum, they embraced initial conflicts
reinforced by their context while constructing their own concepts
of what teaching and being a teacher were. It was this epistemic
deed what allowed them to negotiate and question their enrolling
conflicts.
3.1.1. Setting
The setting is the time and location in which a narrative takes
place. Commonly, all stories require a setting to be able to begin,
and its importance lies in the aid it provides to initiate the backdrop
and mood for the narrative. Thus, this narrative of teacher identity
construction relies on the setting to help embrace the context
where the other elements of the story are interwoven and enacted.
Particularly, this narrative took place in an undergraduate English
teacher education program at a public university in Colombia.
Participants had been constantly enrolled in this teacher education
program for four and a half years. The milieu included other public
primary and secondary school classrooms and practicum sites.
These particular locations contributed to generate conditions for
participants to construct a teacher identity.
6 D.F. Macías Villegas et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 91 (2020) 103055
3.1.2. Character
In general terms, characters, all with distinctive personalities,
are involved in the events described in this narrative. Throughout
its development, student teachers, acting as the protagonists,
interacted with secondary characters who provided them with
knowledge about teaching, educational experiences, feedback and
opportunities to reflect; which helped STs to advance throughout
the plot. We were able to identify secondary characters such as
professors, classmates, cooperating teachers and practicum super-
visors, all of whom interacted in different events with the STs and
supported them actively. Moreover, we perceived student teachers
as dynamic characters, considering how they interacted and
experienced the process of identity construction.
3.1.3. Conflict (Preconceptions generating tensions)
In the context of narratives, conflict is the challenge or struggle
the main character deals in the pursuit of certain goals. The type of
narrative conflict we have recognized in student teachers’ experi-
ences is character vs self, which represents the internal conflict of
the protagonist challenged by his own will or fears over the de-
cisions to make. The student teachers enrolled in the English
teacher education program held previous conceptions of a teacher
education program and the teaching profession. To illustrate,
Antonio stated that he “didn’t know a teacher education program was
focused on teaching” (Antonio, ON1, 12) while Lucas’ understanding
of the teaching profession was that “it is not too bad after all, well, we
[teachers] obviously have some disadvantages [compared to other
professions]” (Lucas, ON1, 113). Such views later turned into the core
of their internal conflicts. We have classified these conflicts into
three areas: the teacher vocational dichotomy, target language
proficiency, and the misconception about the teacher education
program.
3.1.3.1. Teacher vocational dichotomy
Participants associated teacher vocational dichotomy with an
unclear desire to become teachers. They held this view upon
entering the English teacher education program which continued
to be boldly present during almost the first two years of being in the
program. Lucas illustrated this by saying, “since I started the pro-
gram, I was aware that the degree I was going to obtain was that of a
teacher of English, anyways, I did not like teaching” (Lucas, WN1, 2).
Juanita similarly claimed:
In my family there are some teachers, in fact, my father was an
educator many years ago … So, as I knew something about this difficult
field, I never thought about being a teacher; actually, it was the last
thing on my bucket list. (Juanita, WN1, 2).
3.1.3.2. Target language proficiency
The conflicts found regarding target language proficiency relate
to experiences when participants a) feared reactions of those they
interacted with in English or b) reconsidered their professional
future as teachers of English. Such conflicts were disclosed when
participants narrated to us their concerns when using the target
language. For instance, Luisa stated: “Well, it is the first time I have an
experience teaching English. I’ve always said that there is like a barrier,
a certain fear about my English performance because it is not that
good” (Luisa, ON3, 45). Such difficulties prevented them from
participating actively in some classes, affecting their self-image as
prospective teachers, to the point that it generated in some STs the
idea of dropping out of the program. Commenting on this aspect,
Juanita stated:
At the very beginning I heard comments and rumors that I didn’t
like, people were saying that it was unbelievable that being in the final
year of the program, I had such a bad level of English … I cried after
hearing that, and I also thought about dropping out of the practicum
because of that. (Juanita, WN3, 7).
3.1.3.3. Misconception about the teacher education program
Participants declared having a previous misconception about
the English teacher education program. They showed an unclear
conception of the purpose of a teacher education program. Inter-
estingly, some STs realized they were in a teacher education pro-
gram by the fifth semester. This meant that STs realized they were
being prepared as English teachers after they had spent two years
in the program. As noted by Antonio, “One enrolls in the [teacher
education] program a bit unmindful because I did not know this was
for teaching, simply, teaching English. I thought it was for learning
English, that’s it. Learning English and then I will travel around the
world” (Antonio, ON1, 58).
Laura’s initial perception of the teacher education program
constitutes further evidence of this conflict. From her experience as
an assistant in the evaluation committee of the English teacher
education program, she affirmed that “the fifth semester was when
dropouts reached the highest number because this was no more about
grammar or English, but it was about how to teach a language” (Laura,
ON2, 405). She considered that it was at this point (fifth semester)
when STs became aware that the program was not simply about
learning English but how to teach it, and some were inclined to quit
the program for this reason.
As in the case of narratives from a literary perspective, the
purpose of the conflict is to move the characters forward to the plot
and contribute to the development of their values and selves.
Consequently, the conflicts described above by participating STs
typified the same purpose in their construction of teacher identity.
3.1.4. Plot (Knowledge building and reflecting)
The plot is the sequence of events happening in a narrative
which are somehow bound to affect the character’s personality in
pursuit of his goals. In this way, the relevance of the plot in the
narrative of teacher identity construction lies, on the one hand, in
the different experiences that allowed STs to construct a teacher
identity; and on the other, in the chance to arrange such lived ex-
periences in a structural sequence form towards a more fine-
grained understanding of the process. We argue that the plot in
this narrative consisted of three major events: interaction with
members of the teacher community, gains of the teaching practi-
cums, and experiences with(in) the teacher education program
curriculum, which potentially brought knowledge building and
reflection. Nonetheless, these events acted as in frame narrative -
stories within a story - not as independent or isolated events.
3.1.4.1. Interaction with members of the teacher community
The first event of interaction with members of the teacher
community involved the dialogic encounters STs held with pro-
fessors, classmates, cooperating teachers, practicum supervisors, or
with any other active member of the community. Evidence suggests
this interaction led to knowledge building and, occasionally, to
generate a positive image of the teaching profession. Antonio
commented: “More than teaching English, all the basics of English, he
[the professor] motivated me. He was excellent at motivating people.
He said things like … ‘Look, you are good at this, you should do this, try
changing this, follow this’ (Antonio, ON1, 66). Regarding the same
professor, Luisa stated:
He motivated me and told me that I could do better every day. So,
that is very important in the formative part of the student, not only
what knowledge I can give, as a teacher, but how I can act in favor of
your personal development. Occasionally, he told me he was proud of
me. (Luisa, ON1, 254).
 D.F. Macías Villegas et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 91 (2020) 103055
Although this interaction was sometimes unfavorable, as stated
by some participants, the negative interactions often allowed STs to
reflect upon the kind of teacher they did not want to become. To
exemplify this, Lucas recalled his experience with one of the pro-
fessors in the general English courses and stated, “I felt like an empty
recipient that needed to be filled with grammatical structures, but not
with the didactics or love for teaching, not even the development of
critical thinking” (Lucas, WN2, 31). Besides, Lucas stated this pro-
fessor did not inspire him, and added “I decided to drop out of the
course in the middle of the semester and take a break and reconsider
my future goals. Sometimes, teachers have a direct influence on one’s
decision of becoming a teacher or not” (Lucas, WN2, 37). The classes
and the overall interaction with this professor made Lucas reflect
upon what constituted a good teacher and weighed on the
importance of motivating students through “good advice and of-
fering students guidance” (Lucas, ON1, 264).
3.1.4.2. Gains of the teaching practicums
The teaching practicums equally allowed STs to interact with
cooperating teachers, practicum supervisors and students, and
benefited directly from the teaching contexts and practices. Some
STs recognized in these teaching practicums a great contribution to
their formative process. For instance, Juanita stated: “I won’t say this
first practicum was easy, it was really challenging, but I gained
experience which is the most important aspect. At the end, I learned
from my mistakes, which was worthy for my second practicum”
(Juanita, WN3, 15). Likewise, Antonio noted that “being a student
teacher is a priceless opportunity to get a first-hand view of what
being a teacher really involves” (Antonio, TP2, PJ7). Teaching prac-
ticums can be crucial for STs to gain teaching experience since it is
the first encounter they have with real teaching situations. In this
sense, Antonio affirmed, I believe that the last two semesters are
crucial for the creation of teachers’ identity since it is where the
teacher education program gives STs the opportunity to put into
practice all the theoretical contents learnt throughout the program.
(Antonio, WN3, 13)
3.1.4.3. Experiences with(in) the teacher education program
curriculum
Finally, participants’ experiences lived throughout the program
coursework were substantial grantors of knowledge building and
reflection, which consequently led to the construction of their
teacher identity. In this regard, Laura claimed the following:
Second language learning theories and principles of learning and
teaching were the first pedagogy and didactics courses, and at the
beginning it was hard to learn a lot of concepts by heart. However, in
the course of time, I understood several approaches and techniques
that teachers take into account and use them in accordance with
students’ styles and behaviors. (Laura, WN2, 27).
In summary, the importance of the plot remains in that without
it, there is essentially no story of a teacher identity construction.
The events that happened in this narrative of a teacher identity
construction allowed us to get a broader understanding, primarily
because more than the what, the plot explains the why the events
happened. Therefore, these three major events: interaction with
members of the teacher community, gains of the teaching practi-
cums, and experiences with(in) the teacher education program
curriculum led to comprehend the significance of STs’ experiences
when undertaking their conflicts.
3.1.5. Time-framed d

enouement (Conceptual shifting)
The de
nouement is the resolution of a narrative in which the
complexities of the story and the characters’ conflicts are resolved.
7
As opposed to an open narrative, this narrative of teacher identity
construction offered some clarifying events. However, we decided

nouement in that it presents the
to refer to this as a time-framed de
conclusion for the narrative limited to the duration of the teacher
education program, but it is not definitive, for STs are going to
continue to shape and reshape their narratives of teacher identity
construction in upcoming settings. However, vital to the

nouement of this narrative was a conceptual shifting that sup-
de
ported the resolution of the conflicts STs displayed upon entering
the teacher education program. This conceptual shifting was evi-
denced, again, in three main areas: recognition as a teacher, active
meaning-making of English language teaching, and awareness of
opportunities for development.
3.1.5.1. Recognition as a teacher
When the STs were recognized as teachers by their students or
colleagues, they experienced a conceptual change regarding the
teaching profession; their attitude towards becoming a teacher
reflected more confidence and made STs reconsider the importance
and responsibility of teachers as members of society. Antonio, for
instance, stated that “it felt weird to wear a teacher’s white coat and
to hear students calling you teacher. It is good to feel that I am actually
becoming a teacher, since then, I will play this role with all the factors
it implies” (Antonio, PJ3, 1). In a similar way, Raúl referred to his
students in the practicum site as follows: “in one way or another,
those kids made me change the perspective about being a teacher, we
should try to contribute a little more to their reality, so they won’t
continue living bad situations” (Raúl, ON3, 33). By being recognized
as teachers, they took a different role and defined their re-
sponsibilities as active members of the society they lived in.
3.1.5.2. Active meaning-making of English language teaching
Some of these clarifying events granted STs the opportunity to
make sense of English language teaching at first hand. Luisa real-
ized during her teaching practicum that “students prefer challenging
activities; activities in which they learn something new and strengthen
their knowledge. Those activities could increase students’ motivation
and engage them in their own learning” (Luisa, PJ2, 2). In a similar
manner, Lucas asked his students why they thought they had failed
English, to what his students responded it was because of the
negative points the previous teacher gave them. So, Lucas decided
to make an agreement with them and realized that “it is better when
students and teachers build that relationship by establishing class-
room rules” (Lucas, PJ3, 11). As opposed to learning from others’
experiences (i.e., as instructed in books or talks), STs developed
understanding of English language teaching from their own expe-
riences and evoked considerations on how they should approach
English teaching.
3.1.5.3. Awareness of opportunities for development
Finally, concluding events displayed in the de
nouement allowed
STs to be aware of opportunities for development; they recognized
in the acts of teaching, situations that allowed them to reflect and
seek improvement. In this regard, Lucas noted:
At the end of the lesson, I realized that being a teacher is a difficult
job. There are many tasks to develop and aspects to take in mind. What
I have to do from now on is to think of the issues I face in the lesson,
and work on them to resolve them. (Lucas, PJ1, 18).
The de
nouement of the process of teacher identity construction
revealed how STs’ conflicts were resolved, at least partially. On the
whole, the final outcome or de
nouement of the narrative approach
helped us observe and understand the construction of teacher
identity of those student teachers in an English teacher education
program. As evidenced through the data, we observed STs began
8 D.F. Macías Villegas et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 91 (2020) 103055
the process of teacher identity construction once they disclosed
their conflicts upon enrolling in the teacher education program.
Then, it was the experiences they gained through the program,
what allowed STs to embrace their conflicts. Consequently, it was
with the resolution of such conflicts that we could identify a con-
struction of teacher identity. The following diagram (Fig. 3) cap-
tures the essence of teacher identity construction in relation to the
main elements of a narrative.
We evidenced that teacher identity construction began with
some conflicts STs exposed at the beginning of the teacher educa-
tion program; such conflicts turned into tension initiators. Then,
the teacher education program offered STs experiences for knowl-
edge building and reflection through events where they a) inter-
acted with members of the teacher community, b) profited from the
experiences of the teaching practicums and c) engaged with(in) the
teacher education program curriculum; these events consolidated
the plot of this narrative of teacher identity construction. By the
end of the teacher education program, there were some time-
framed concluding events that helped STs resolve their initial
conflicts, those they unveiled at the beginning of the teacher edu-
cation program. STs recognized themselves as teachers, they
reconsidered their conception of English teaching and became
aware of opportunities for development as part of their ongoing
teacher preparation process.
4. Discussion and conclusions
The construction of teacher identity involves an ongoing process
that is transformed through social practice (Danielewicz, 2001;
Fajardo, 2014; Izadinia, 2013; Johnson & Golombek, 2016; Liu & Xu,
Fig. 3. Teacher identity construction in an English teacher education program.
2013). In this regard, we observed that STs took on a more agentic
identity as a result of the experiences gained in the process of
learning to teach and through the interaction with members of the
teacher community and immediate out-of-school community
(Herna
ndez Varona & Gutie


rrez Alvarez, 2020).
The findings revealed that the construction of teacher identity is
a dynamic process that entails a permanent construction of who we
are and who we might become as a result of our involvement with
social actors (Wenger, 1998). “Teacher identity stands at the core of
the teaching profession. It provides a framework for teachers to
construct their own ideas of ‘how to be’, ‘how to act’ and ‘how to
understand’ their work and their place in society” (Sachs, 2005, p.
15). For participants in the present study, the process of teacher
identity construction started with some conflicts triggered by a
disavowal against becoming English teachers, a misinterpretation
of the goals of the teacher education program, and a concern with
their target language proficiency. Despite the presence of the pre-
vious conflicts, STs went through a process of acceptance as they
completed their teaching practicums; conducted microteaching
sessions in some of the methods courses; took courses such as
reflective teaching, globalization and language teaching, among
others; and interacted with the teacher community. From the
previous experiences, participants’ teacher identity was informed,
formed and reformed as STs developed over time and through the
interaction with others (Cooper & Olson, 1996).
As we mentioned before, the construction of teacher identity is
embedded in social practice. Thus, the support of various stake-
holders and social actors such as former and current teachers,
practicum supervisors, cooperating teachers, students, and peers
played a crucial role. In this vein, Wenger (1998) claims that
 D.F. Macías Villegas et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 91 (2020) 103055
individuals take on a new identity as they become valid members of
a community of practice where learning happens in collaboration
with others. In this research study, we evidenced that STs con-
structed their teacher identity from the interaction, and support
from practicum supervisors and cooperating teachers (Díaz, 2013;
Izadinia, 2013) since their feedback upon their teaching practice
allowed STs to reinforce their self-image as teachers and valued
their competences (Salinas & Ayala, 2018). Professors in the English
teacher education program equally affected the construction of
teacher identity (Quintero Polo, 2016). From them, STs integrated a
model of being, felt inspired to become teachers, and refined their
perceptions on how to teach.
Understanding the factors that contribute to shape teacher
identity helps prepare prospective teachers for the challenges of
constructing professional identities in positive ways (Beauchamp &
Thomas, 2009). Teacher education programs require overt attention
to the importance of this issue in order to instill an awareness of the
need to develop teacher identity.
This narrative research has reaffirmed the construction of
teacher identity as a never-ending process that requires participa-
tion in social practices. Similar research initiatives should be con-
ducted longitudinally as participants traverse and complete the
teacher education program curriculum in order to gain a deeper
understanding of the factors that shape the construction of teacher
identity. It is equally crucial to undertake more research regarding
teacher identity construction in the context of initial teacher edu-
cation (pre-service teachers and EFL teachers), particularly prior to
the completion of the practicum period, as an issue that has been
under-researched in Latin America (Archanjo, Barahona, & Finardi,
2019; Clarke, 2008). Finally, we suggest research on language
teacher identity that involves an intervention or action plan in
teacher education programs in order to reduce teacher attrition at
the early stages of entering the teaching profession.
Funding
The authors received no specific funding or support for the
research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declared having no potential conflict of interest to
declare.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Diego Fernando Macías Villegas: Conceptualization, Method-
ology, Formal analysis, Writing - review & editing. Wilson
Herna
ndez Varona: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal
analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing - original draft,
Writing - review & editing. Ange
lica Gutie

rrez Sa

nchez: Concep-
tualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data
curation.
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