Abstract:
Despite growing research into language teacher identity in the past two decades, identity (re)construction of preschool bilingual education (BE) teachers in a co-teaching configuration within predominately monolingual contexts has not been the subject of much research. This is, however, an important topic to investigate as the particularities of BE preschool co-teaching embedded in a predominately monolingual country could lead to demands and possibilities for new self-understandings and language teacher identity renegotiation. Thus, this presentation sheds light on a study of this topic in the context of Turkey, which utilised narrative inquiry and collected data from a co-teaching pair of language and homeroom teachers through oral narratives, follow-up written accounts, and an online pair interview. The questions of inquiry broadly targeted the teachers' induction into BE, their collaborative teaching practices, and their interactions with the context of their work. The findings in this presentation focus on the process of these teachers’ transition to a BE co-teacher identity influenced, among others, by external support (e.g., continued training/feedback, supportive leadership and parents) and teachers’ reflective comparisons of their current BE practice with their previous non-BE teaching. Additionally, there is a focus, in the findings, on the emergence of what was termed dyadic identity (i.e., a relationally mediated identity which characterised mutual trust and very close collaboration) as well as factors that facilitated dyadic identity construction between the co-teachers. Implications for language teacher identity research include how a successful shift to the identity of BE co-teacher, and ultimately dyadic identity, could potentially help address the issues facing co-teaching such as negative attitudes towards collaboration. Also, BE program development in terms of guided professional learning and opportunities for lesson co-planning and delivery in a supportive school environment are presented and can assist with system-level facilitation of BE teacher identity (re)construction.