The Complex Construction of Female English Teachers’ Identity in Iran

Abstract

There has been a growing interest regarding the identity formation in the broader TESOL research field; however there is scares number of studies which examined the formation of the female teacher’s identity using a feminist poststructuralist framework. This study also attempts to help to grow the existing literature regarding the female teacher’s identity formation by seeking to explore the construction of an Iranian female English teacher identity and the related discourses that shape and reshape her identity through delving into the narratives, using data collected from interviews.  To investigate the participant’s main subject positions and the prevailing discursive practices that construct them, feminist poststructuralist conceptual framework was applied in this study. The research data, gathered from interviews indicates the teacher’s identity as multiple, complex, and contradictory construct. The findings reveal both gender and professional discourses impact the way which this woman tries to conceive a sense of coherent self. The normative, disciplinary, and individualizing nature of the gender and professional discourses was also revealed as the result of the analysis.