Kuwaiti Women's Identity Construction and Negotiations as English Language Teachers:
[Thesis]
Vaccino-Salvadore, Silvia
A Narrative Inquiry
Park, Gloria
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
2020
230
Ph.D.
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
2020
This dissertation explored the lived experiences of three female Kuwaiti English language teachers working in English Foundation Programs, also known as intensive English language programs, in Kuwait. Specifically, the study investigated the identity construction and negotiations of these women through a positioning theory theoretical lens. Narratives for each participant were collected through a variety of data sources (timeline essays, interviews, reflection tasks, and researcher diary). The data sources were analyzed and interpreted narratively, culminating in a narrative reconstruction of each participant, highlighting how their language learning histories, their reasons for joining the teaching profession, their teacher training stories, and their professional practice experiences shaped and reshaped their language teacher identities (LTIs) at the intersection of gendered, native-speakered and religious discourses. This dissertation is divided into seven chapters, and each chapter is introduced by a personal vignette that relates to the content of the specific chapter. Chapter One introduces the study by providing contextual information about Kuwaiti language teachers working in Foundation Programs, the statement of purpose, research questions, my positionality as a researcher, and the significance of the study. Chapter Two presents an overview of the relevant literature focusing on identity and the dimensions of language teacher identity construction and negotiation. This chapter also discusses positioning theory as the study's theoretical framework. Chapter Three describes the methodological approaches including the data sources used and the methods of both data collection and data analysis. Chapters Four through Six present the study findings based on a narrative positioning analysis of my participants' reconstructed narratives. Namely, the findings offer a snapshot of the multiple ways in which the participants position themselves or are positioned by others as English language learners and language teachers, thus providing more support to the poststructural notion that LTIs are multiple, ever-shifting and context-driven. Lastly, Chapter Seven discusses four themes that emerged from a cross-sectional thematic data analysis, such as LTIs at the intersection of religious and gender identity dimensions, LTIs as sites of struggle, LTIs shaped by significant influencers, and LTIs shaped by ideological notions of what it means to be a language teacher in Kuwait. The chapter also offers study implications, proposes future research directions, and ends with some concluding remarks.