The Role of Negotiation in instructional, disciplinary, professional, global, local, and sociocultural issues on Teachers’ Identity Development: An Interactionally Oriented Approach

Identity development of the second/foreign language teachers is a central issue in different respects such as their teaching profession. Hence, the purpose of the current study was to investigate the role of negotiation in instructional, disciplinary, professional, global, local, and sociocultural issues on TPSOL (Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages) teachers’ identity development. This paper followed a qualitative approach in which a narrative inquiry was adopted to collect and analyze the data. To that end, two TPSOL teachers participated in the negotiation sessions on instructional, disciplinary, professional, global, local, and sociocultural issues; then, they wrote their narratives with respect to the negotiated issues in different time intervals. The findings of the study indicated that negotiation about instructional, disciplinary, professional, global, local, and sociocultural issues had a constructive role in developing TPSOL teachers’ identity. Moreover, the findings revealed that the quality of negotiation, concentrating on the role of teacher-researcher, developing critical thinking, and paying attention to teachers’ motivation are among the factors which can develop TPSOL teachers’ identity through negotiation. Further analysis of data showed that the knowledge which the TPSOL teachers obtained in the negotiation sessions had a significant impact on their identity development. Thus, it can be concluded from the findings of this study that identity has a dynamic nature which can be constructed and reconstructed in different contexts. Given that, the policy and decision makers within the realm of TPSOL should provide negotiation programs for the TPSOL teachers to help them develop their identity.   Extended AbstractIdentity development of the second/foreign language teachers is a central issue in different respects such as their teaching profession. Consequently, identity development of second/foreign language teachers can lead to their professional development because a possible relationship can be established between the activities an individual does and the identity which that individual acquires. Very simply, identity may be defined as the way an individual sees the world around him/herself and creates his/her relationships based on what he/she perceives from his/her observations. Researchers have proposed many approaches to studying identity, three of which feature dominantly in research studies. The biological approach to identity suggests that identity is similar to other human characteristics like body size or skin color which are genetically transmitted. The socio-structural approach to identity is similar to biological approach, the proponents of which believe that identity is something predetermined, but it is different from the biological because it emphasizes the social factors. The poststructuralists believe in the mobility and dynamicity of identity in that the dialogic role of language is emphasized. Finally, the sociocultural approach to identity states that construction and reconstruction of identity can be fulfilled when one participates in social, political, and perceptional interactions. Although researchers have used these approaches to unpack complexities of identity in different settings, their choice primarily depends on the purpose(s) the researcher follow when conducting their studies.     The purpose of the current study was to investigate the role of negotiation in instructional, disciplinary, professional, global, local, and sociocultural issues on TPSOL (Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages) teachers’ identity development. More specifically, the study used interactional narratology as an analytical framework to assess how the teachers acquired a teacher-researcher identity through carefully implemented interview sessions in which they narrated their experiences of negotiated issues.   This paper followed a qualitative approach in which a narrative inquiry was adopted to collect and analyze the data. To that end, two TPSOL teachers participated in the negotiation sessions on instructional, disciplinary, professional, global, local, and sociocultural issues; then, they wrote their narratives with respect to the negotiated issues in different time intervals. It is worth noting that, in the analysis of the narratives, the researchers used ethnographic semantics. There are two types of narrative analysis: Biographical and interactionally oriented approaches (De Fina, 2015). The two approaches are different in the way that they look at life stories and interactions as the sources of data. One can state that the biographical narrative analysis is “based on the premises that the process of identity building has as its objective the production of a coherent self, and that the ability to create that coherence afforded by narrative has itself a positive effect on self‐identity” (Freeman 2015, as cited De Fina, 2015; p. 352). Nevertheless, Gregg (2011) stated that the interactionally oriented approach to narrative analysis regards self-development as a process with different interactions between the narrator and narrative analyst. The important point regarding interactionally oriented approach to narrative analysis is the significance of the social principles utilized to address the narratives based on their main issues. Additionally, interactions between the narrator and the narrative analyist make it possible to clear up any possible misunderstandings arising during the interview sessions.   The findings of this study indicated that negotiation about instructional, disciplinary, professional, global, local, and sociocultural issues had a constructive role in developing TPSOL teachers’ identity. The findings of the current study pointed to the dynamicity of TPSOL teachers’ identity based on which Persian language teacher educators can prepare some programs to develop TPSOL teachers’ identity. Moreover, the findings revealed that the quality of negotiation, concentrating on the role of teacher-researcher, developing critical thinking, and paying attention to teachers’ motivation are among the factors which can develop TPSOL teachers’ identity through negotiation. Further analysis of data showed that the knowledge which the TPSOL teachers obtained in the negotiation sessions about instructional, disciplinary, professional, global, local, and sociocultural issues had a significant impact on their identity development.   It can be concluded from the findings of the study that identity has a dynamic nature, which can be constructed and reconstructed, in different contexts and for different individuals including TPSOL teachers. This dynamicity of identity helps teachers to acquire a new teacher-researcher identity to critically reflect on the activities they use in their language classes to help language learners learn a languae. Given the conclusions of the study, the policy and decision makers within the realm of TPSOL should provide negotiation programs for the TPSOL teachers to help them develop their identity.