Building an EAL teacher identity in Ireland: An arts-informed poetry project with new speakers

Abstract

This thesis examines which social, cultural, and personal factors impacted the identities of migrant English as Additional Language (EAL) teachers in Ireland. This study investigates the teachers´ migration process, aligning with social-cultural studies to examine their social and cultural contexts in the country. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four female EAL teachers. This study expands and develops hypotheses using the combination of constructivist grounded theory and narrative inquiry. The finding shows that social, cultural, and personal factors influenced their identity and decision to become teachers to differing extents and in different ways. The migration to Ireland influenced their identities as teachers in different ways, and that it was evident that for some, their other roles (e.g., as parent, daughter, spouse) affected the extent to which their identities are changed. All the teachers developed professionally as teachers and certainly benefited from the development of their identity in Ireland. Teacher 1, 2, and 3 improved and developed their teaching practices whilst teacher 4 developed her personal identity through the Irish nature. The results indicate that whilst teacher 1 and 2 fully consider themselves a part of the country, teacher 3 and 4 do not feel connected or integrated to it. To illustrate the findings of this study, poetry was used to provide the reader with an aesthetic interpretation of this study.