Keywords
Teacher Identity
Ecological Systems Theory
EFL Instructors
Novice-experienced Teacher
How to Cite
Abstract
Professional development (PD) has long been examined through a technical and instrumental lens, with emphasis placed primarily on enhancing teachers' pedagogical competencies. However, the role of PD in constructing, negotiating, and repositioning teacher identity across different career stages and institutional contexts remains insufficiently explored. Drawing on ecological systems theory and sociocultural conceptions of identity as its theoretical framework, this study investigates how and in what ways participation in professional development activities affords opportunities for identity construction among novice and experienced EFL instructors working at the university level. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. The findings suggest that the construction and negotiation of teacher identity is shaped not solely by participation in PD, but also by engagement with ecological systems operating at macro, meso, and micro levels. Whereas novice instructors tend to perceive PD as a structure that shapes, regulates, and legitimizes their professional identities, experienced instructors approach it as a more strategic, selective, and at times distanced experience. Institutional expectations and policy-driven discourses emerge as powerful mechanisms that determine how PD is perceived and internalized at the individual level. Taken together, the findings indicate that PD should be understood not merely as a pedagogical learning activity, but as an act of identity work embedded within and mediated by ecological contexts.
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