Live Histories, Critical Events, and Professional Identity Formation of Five Indonesian English Teachers: A Narrative Inquiry Mateus Yumarnamto 29th SLED Symposium October 23, 2015 ˙ Room 1225, School of Education The Department of Literacy, Culture, & Language Education Indiana University Bloomington

Why Narrative? Personal: “I love stories!” World & knowledge are socially constructed— mediated by language. It is narrative (language) that creates the world like we perceive it. It is narrative that makes our life meaningful (Ricoeur, 1991; McAdams, 2008, 2011). Narratives  pedagogical & transformational (Varghese et al., 2005; Johnson & Golombek, 2011; Huber et al., 2013)

The Epistemology Dewey’s experience & reflection. Habermas’ truth validity claims (objective, subjective, and conventional truth claims). Bakhtin’s dialogic enterprise (utterances/narratives are always in dialogues: responding to previous utterances/discourses0

Story vs History "A story is made, but history is found out. Story is language at play; history is language at work. The language of story is charged with power: it creates. The language of history is charged with knowledge: it discovers. Story is a literature of the imagination; history, though it [can] be imaginative, drives toward fact." (Titon,1980, p. 278)

Critical Events Our life is a series of events; narratives describe the events. Why an event is told? It serves the referential & evaluative functions (Labov & Waletzky, 1967). In short, because it is significant/important for the narrator. An important event in our life, marked our history, changed our life trajectory, transformed our perspective, taught a lesson for our own life, created a new knowledge.

Research Questions The major questions in this study are: What are the major critical events that have influenced the participants’ professional identity formation? How could the critical events affect the participants’ professional identity formation?

The Participants ParticipantBackground Participant 1 Alifa Female Site 1  K-12 education in Indonesia.  College degree in English Language Education in Indonesia.  Master’s degree in TESOL in Indonesia.  Affiliated with a state university in Java, Indonesia.  Arrived in The U.S. for Ph. D: 2010; I have known the participant since 2013 Participant 2 Barata Male Site 1  K-12 education in Indonesia  College degree in English Literature (in Indonesia)  Master’s degree in TESOL (in Australia)  Affiliated with a private university in Java, Indonesia.  Arrived in The U.S. for Ph. D: 2011; I have known the participant since 1998 Participant 3 Carita Female Site 1  K-12 education in the USA & Indonesia.  College degree in Agriculture  Master’s degree in TESOL in Indonesia.  Affiliated with a private university in Sumatera, Indonesia.  Arrived in The U.S. for Ph.D: 2011; I have known the participant since 1913

The Participants ParticipantBackground Participant 4 Diana Female Site 1  K-12 education in Indonesia  College degree in English Literature (in Indonesia)  Master’s Degree in TESOL (in Indonesia)  Affiliated with a private university in Java, Indonesia  Arrived in The U.S. for Ph. D: 2010; I have known the participant since 2010 Participant 5 Endang Female Site 1  K-12 education in Indonesia  College degree in English Education (in Indonesia)  Master’s Degree in Indonesia and in the U.S. (she holds two master’s degrees)  Affiliated with a state university in Sumatera.  Arrived in The U.S. for Ph. D: 2011; I have known the participant since 2010

Data Collection ParticipantLanguage Interview Date and Time Supporting Data Participant 1 Alifa Mostly English 4/25/ :00 AM-10:45 AM  short biography data  follow-up .  Field-notes Participant 2 Barata Mostly English 4/26/ :00 AM-12:00 PM  short biography data  academic papers  follow-up ,  Field-notes Participant 3 Carita Mostly Indonesian 4/25/ :00 AM-12:45 PM  short biography data  Follow-up .  Field-notes Participant 4 Diana Mostly Indonesian 5/15/ :00 PM-13:30 PM  short biography data  Follow-up .  Field-notes Participant 5 Endang Mostly English 5/17/ :00 AM-10:30 AM  short biography data  academic papers  Follow-up .  Field-notes

Data Analysis 1 Major DataAnalysisPurpose & Procedure Interview Data Episodic Analysis Purpose: to reconstruct the participants’ life history chronologically. Procedure:  Identify participants’ life episodes  Identify events chronologically  Reconstruct the narrator life history by highlighting major episodes & events.

Data Analysis 2 Major Data AnalysisPurpose & Procedure Interview Data Critical Event Analysis Purpose: To identify critical events from each participant’s narrative and its narrative structure. Procedure:  Identify important events appear in each participant’s interview data.  Identify the critical events that meet the criteria: significant, life changing or transformative.  Identify the structure of the critical event (Labov & Waletzky, 1967): Orientation, Complicating actions, Evaluation  Summarize the critical events of each participant.  Cross analyze the critical events of all the participants.  Summarize the critical events of all participants based on the similar resurfaced themes and their significance.

Data Analysis 3 Major Data AnalysisPurpose & Procedure Interview Data Identity Claims Purpose: To identity the identity claimed by each participant. Procedure:  Read the transcribed interview data and listen to the recorded interview data.  Identify Explicit and implicit identity claims.  Summarize the identity claims made by each participant based on three major identity themes: (1) Personal Identity, (2) Student/Learner Identity and (3) Professional identity.  Cross analyze the Identity claims from all participants and summarized them based on shared themes.

Results: Critical Events THEMECRITICAL EVENTPARTICIPANT Early TeachingTeaching English for the first time in a high schoolEndang Teaching at a training institution that prepared students to work in a cruise ship company. Diana Failure or success to secure a professional position Alifa was accepted as a full time lecturer at her alma materAlifa Failure to secure position as professor in his alma materBarata Failure to secure a job in her alma materCarita Family/personal crisis Family financial crisis: business had gone bad and the family cannot pay the loan from the bank Alifa Quitting the religious educationBarata Formal education path Applying for the graduate programEndang Deciding to continue her study in a teacher training institution.Diana Getting marriedGetting Married and Quitting the job as a banker/credit analystCarita

Results: Critical Events SIGNIFICANCECRITICAL EVENTParticipant Influencing the decision to choose a certain education path Family financial crisis: business had gone bad and the family cannot pay the loan from the bank Alifa Quitting the religious life/educationBarata Influencing the decision to get into the profession Alifa was accepted as a full time lecturer at her alma mater Alifa Failure to secure position as professor in his alma mater.Barata Getting Married and Quitting the job as a bankerCarita Failure to secure a job in her alma materCarita Teaching English for the first time in a high schoolEndang Applying for the graduate programEndang Changing the concept of becoming teacher- educator Teaching at a training institution that prepare students to work in a cruise ship company Diana Deciding to continue her study in a teacher training institution. Diana

Results: Professional Identity THEME ALIFABARATACARITADIANAENDANG Related to becoming teacher no intention to become public school teacher n/a* no intention to become teacher; wanted to be different from the parents no intention to become teacher no intention to become public school teacher Related to recruitment or entering the profession a victim of unfair recruitment (not a Sundanese/an outsider) a victim of unfair recruitment (not a Muslim/an outsider) a victim of an unfair recruitment sytem (background education in agriculture) n/a* the chosen one; being selected; special Note: n/a* indicates that the corresponding identity claims did not appear in the data (not articulated)

Results: Professional Identity THEME ALIFABARATACARITADIANAENDANG Related to subject matter/English competent English teacher competent English teacher (in the past, I was not good at English); Javanese teacher (as opposed to Chinese Indonesian students) competent English teacher Related to pedagogy competent teacher n/a* competent teacher competent teacher ( in the past, I did not know about pedagogy) competent teacher Note: n/a* indicates that the corresponding identity claims did not appear in the data (not articulated)

Results: Professional Identity THEME ALIFABARATACARITADIANAENDANG Related to teaching or teacher profession university professor-- not public school teacher teacher, political activist competent English teacher; respected and loved by students competent teacher, competent curriculum and materials designer/d eveloper full time university professor; competent teacher; smart teacher, leader, problem solver; TEYL teacher; Literature teacher Note: n/a* indicates that the corresponding identity claims did not appear in the data (not articulated)

Results: Professional Identity THEME ALIFABARATACARITADIANAENDANG Related to research/becoming researcher n/a* I am knowledgeabl e researcher. good researcher; knowledgeabl e about research Past professional identity n/a* a translator, consultant, a credit analyst Indonesian tutor, research assistant, English training instructor, lack of pedagogical knowledge private teacher, competent teacher, special, chosen Note: n/a* indicates that the corresponding identity claims did not appear in the data (not articulated)

Concluding Remarks Each participant had a unique professional identity formation as each of them had unique life history rich with unique experiences. The professional identity they claimed indicate the complexity of professional identity formation, shaped and reshaped in dialogue with various outside entities (institution policies, government policies). The identity formation of the participants in this study was also complex and determined by various factors, which can be subsumed into: (1) the issue of unwanted profession, (2) background education and pedagogy, (3) unfair recruitment, (4) English language competent, (5) being a teacher-researcher, and (6) other issues including race and religions.