Professional Identity and Imagined Student Identity of EIL Teachers in Islamic Schools

Abstract

This paper contributes to the critical studies literature on English as an International Language (EIL) teacher professional identity. It examines the competing values associated with competencies in language teaching, national curriculum, and school contexts to determine how teachers’ beliefs on what it means to be a professional teacher are shaped. Literature related to language teachers’ professional identities is presented in order to analyse how EIL teachers determine which particular responsibilities constitute professional teachers. This study investigates reports from five teachers working in four privately-funded Islamic schools regarding their professional responsibilities as they recontextualise Indonesia’s competency-based curriculum and values education policies in their EIL classes. The findings suggest that the teachers consider their professional identity to be more focused on that of caregiver and moral guardian rather than as an English teacher. It also demonstrates that teachers’ professional identity informs teachers’ hopes/ambition for their students’ futures or teachers’ imagined student identity.