Examining teacher-researcher identity construction of a novice teacher from dialogical perspectives

Internationally, there has been much research interest in constructing and reconstructing teachers' professional identities. In Vietnam, little is known about how EFL teachers construct and reconstruct their professional identity, especially teacher-researcher identity. This retrospective narrative inquiry, grounded on Hermans' (2008) dialogical self theory, explored the teacher-researcher identity construction of a Vietnamese novice female EFL teacher before and after conducting a master's thesis. Qualitative data was collected via a semi-structured interview with the main participant and outsider-nominated interviews with her thesis supervisor and one trusted colleague. Subsequently, transcribed data was analyzed using the three-dimensional space narrative inquiry framework coupled with broadening, burrowing, and storying/restorying. Results indicated a dynamic process of teacher-researcher identity construction and reconstruction. The participant developed different I-positions oriented toward the past, present, and future. Three identity development trajectories, from I as a traditional pedagogue to I as a research-apprentice, from I as a qualitative thesis conductor to I as newly emerging teacher-researcher, and from I as a novice teacher-researcher to I as a future Ph.D. student, were temporally configured in the participant's teacher-researcher identity. This study elaborated on how internal dialogues stimulated teacher-researcher identity development. It also proposed pedagogical implications for university management and novice EFL teachers to integrate teacher-researcher identity into teachers' professional selves to sustain continuing professional development.