Teacher identity: An investigation of personal and professional experiences of turkish efl teachers

The aim of this study is to investigate personal and professional experiences that influence teacher identity of Turkish EFL teachers and to explore how much factors like teacher knowledge, professional development, teacher anxiety and morale have an influence on teacher identity of Turkish EFL teachers.The population of the study is Turkish EFL teachers employed by state schools and the sample size is four female teachers teaching at state schools. Participants had a different background and teaching experiences from 3 to 25 years. Due to qualitative nature of the research, it was decided to apply narrative inquiry. The research instrument of this research was in-depth interview that was conducted with each participant individually. The interviews were conducted in Turkish for a better self reflection. The interviews were tape recorded, converted into verbatim transcript, and translated into English. Data analysis was done from English versions of the transcripts highlighting its main and interesting themes.The main findings of the research revealed that personal and professional experiences the participants had during school and university years had a significant influence on their identities as Turkish EFL teachers: participants had beautiful and young English teachers to whom they admired and wished to resemble them. All participants had turning points that influenced their teacher identities. They have experienced impressive events that happened in the university years and played a crucial role in their teacher identities. Factors like teacher knowledge, teacher anxiety and morale had significant influence on participants? teacher identity.