Transformative experiences of EFL lecturers' professional identity in online education

To prepare for an online classroom, EFL lecturers may have to relearn and develop a new normal while maintaining their instructional pedagogy and professional identity. Correspondingly, this study investigated the relationship between EFL lecturers' transformation of their professional identities and attitudes towards online teaching and the influence of sociodemographic differences (age, gender, educational background, working experience) on the perspectives of EFL lecturers on technology use in language education. The impact of online teaching on EFL lecturers' professional identities was analysed depending on how they approach the transition from face-to-face to online classrooms and the kind of contextual factors that assist teachers' professional identity during the online teaching process. The sample of the research consists of 130 EFL lecturers working at a state university and a foundation university in Turkey. The data of the study were gathered from Attitudes of EFL Teachers towards ICT and their Use of Technology and the Internet in ELT Questionnaire by Karakaya (2010), Teacher Professional Identity Scale adapted from Cheung (2008) and a semi-structured interview by Simon (2012). Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to summarize the data and to explore if there is a meaningful relationship between dependent and independent variables. The qualitative data collected by semi-structured interviews were separated into pattern coding and analyzed with content analysis. The results showed that the research participants who received training on EduTech during their undergraduate education or as professional development had an impact on their attitudes of online education that accordingly affected their perception of professional identity during the transition to internet-based online language teaching.