Browsing by Author "Achame Haile"

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    An Investigation of Secondary School English Language Teachers' Professional identity, Professional Self-Esteem, and Job Satisfaction
    (Addis Ababa University, 2023-03) Achame Haile; Hailom Banteyerga
    This study aimed at investigating secondary school English language teachers‟ professional identity, professional self-esteem, and job satisfaction with reference to the Sidama National Regional State, Ethiopia. It specifically focused on exploring English teachers‟ initial motivation to join the field, identity formation, the types of professional identities claimed, and identity tensions. It also sought to examine the relationship between English teachers‟ professional identity, professional self-esteem, and job satisfaction. To achieve these objectives, a mixed-methods design and multiple theoretical frameworks, mainly the theory of community of practice, symbolic interactionism, and the looking glass self, were used. Cluster and availability sampling techniques were employed to select the schools and the participants, respectively. Accordingly, ninety-four (N = 94) English teachers were selected from 10 government secondary schools. Among these, 16 English teachers were selected purposively and participated in the qualitative aspects of the study. Narrative interviews and focus group discussions were used to generate the qualitative data. Quantitative data was collected through adapted professional identity, professional self-esteem, and job satisfaction questionnaires. The qualitative data was analysed following the grounded theory approach. Pearson‟s correlation analysis was used to examine the relationship between professional identity, professional self-esteem, and job satisfaction. In addition, structural equation modelling (SEM) was applied to test the direct and indirect effects of professional self-esteem and job satisfaction on professional identity. The findings revealed that English teachers joined the profession accidentally, and their professional identity formation process is a gradual, continuous, and complex one. Exposure to native speakers, inspiration from role model teachers, university courses, collegial discussions, and the day-to-day activities of teaching English were found to mediate the formation of identity. Some of the claimed professional identities of English teachers subsume subject matter experts, pedagogical experts, and didactical experts, particularly inspirers, socialisers, and actors. The findings also indicated that English teachers felt professional identity tensions related to fluency, pronunciation, subject matter, social status, and native speakerism. The results of the correlational analysis indicated that professional self-esteem (r = 0.81, P = 0.000) and job satisfaction (r = 0.70, P = 0.000) are positively and significantly correlated with professional identity. SEM analysis revealed that both professional self-esteem (β = 0.66, P ≤ 0.001) and job satisfaction (β = 0.27, P≤ 0.001) positively predicted professional identity. Consequently, it is recommended to pay a close attention to English language teachers‟ professional identity and put the issue at the forefront of the agenda in the English teacher education system and the ELT field in Ethiopia at large.