Exploring Novice Teachers’ Professional Identity in the Indonesian EFL Context

Abstract

The professional identity of the teacher is formed from habitus, capital, and field, and that formation is important but not easy, especially for novice teachers who are low-skill, inadequate, or even with different interest backgrounds. In discussing the field, the environment and community also have a shaping role, and this study reports on it. It explains the process of forming the professional identity of a new English teacher in Indonesia, and one of the cities becomes the object by using interviews from sources as data with analysis using the framework of Bourdieu and Gee theories. The purpose of this study is to find out how new English teachers can become ideal teachers in a small town where English teachers are underperforming. The results of the study reported that the teacher's background, religion, community, training, and peer sharing helped the development and formation of professional identity.