Do Life Experiences Influence Professional Identity Construction? EFL Teachers’ Reflections from Vietnam and Indonesia

This study examined English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers’ reflections about the influences of their personal, educational, and professional experiences on the development of their teacher identity in the contexts of Vietnam and Indonesia. It also investigated the use of an autobiographical reflective process in the reconstruction of participants’ perceptions of their teacher identity. The data were generated from three Vietnamese and three Indonesian EFL teachers. In this case study, reflexive autobiographical journalling and in-depth interviews were adopted as data generation methods. Data was analysed using thematic analysis based on the sociocultural model of identity development by (Olsen, Teacher Education Quarterly 35:23–40, 2008; Olsen, Teaching for success: Developing your teacher identity in today’s classroom (2nd ed). Taylor & Francis, 2016) as the theoretical framework. The analysis revealed that external influences, past schooling experiences, and past professional experiences strongly influenced the construction of teacher identity. The results suggest that it is essential to explore teachers’ personal life experiences to gain a holistic understanding of the dominant but subtle factors that impact on the development of teacher identity; and, to identify the need for teacher education programs to raise teachers’ awareness of the importance of reflecting on their life experiences for them to develop a strong professional identity.