Preservice Language Teachers’ Identity Construction During Covid-19: Positioning Analysis of Online Practicum Experience

Abstract

This study investigates the identity construction and negotiation of four preservice English language teachers enrolled at a state university in Turkey during COVID-19 lock down within the theoretical framework of positioning theory and explores their digitalised practicum experience. The data collected through learning journals written by each participant about their clinical experience on a weekly basis, online semistructured interviews conducted with each teacher candidate at the end of their practicum period and the researcher’s observations of participants’ teaching practices was subjected to qualitative data analysis with Atlas.Ti software to analyse it systematically. The findings revealed that the participants constructed multiple reflexive positional identities some of which contradicted with their teaching practices. It was also observed that the participants distanced themselves from their mentor teacher while claiming interactive positional identities which was associated with their personal interpretative framework. The study further provided findings about the relational aspect of positioning theory especially when the participants were attaching positional identities for their supervisor.