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Article published In:
Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education
Vol. 11:2 (2023) ► pp.204–228

(Re)construction of teacher identities in a soft-CLIL context

ORCID logo | Yeditepe University
| University of Stavanger
This study investigates 4 secondary school Turkish EFL teachers’ perceptions of their experiences in a new Soft-Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) context and explores whether these experiences led to the (re)construction of their identities. The data was collected through a focus group interview, netnography, and stimulated recalls and analyzed on the basis of inductive content analysis. According to the findings, role conflicts caused by lack of pedagogical knowledge on how to integrate content and language impeded a construction of an encompassing CLIL teacher identity. Therefore, ultimately, identity (re)construction was based on either content or language teacher identities. Adopting an interpretive paradigm, our study highlights the importance of investigating new CLIL teachers’ perceptions of their experiences in understanding their identity (re)constructions. It could thus offer implications for similar contexts, particularly by showing the importance of gathering teachers’ perceptions of experiences for CLIL teacher development.
Keywords: CLIL teacher identity, soft-CLIL, EFL teachers, netnography, identity reconstruction
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The many flavours of CLIL programs
    • 2.1Content-Driven CLIL or hard CLIL
    • 2.2Language Driven CLIL or soft CLIL
    • 2.3Variation in CLIL education
    • 2.4Who CLIL teachers are
    • 2.5Understanding (CLIL) teacher identity (re)construction
      • 2.5.1Subject areas
      • 2.5.2Teachers’ personal and professional experiences
      • 2.5.3Sociocultural context
    • 2.6Studying teachers in a soft-CLIL context
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Context and participants
    • 3.2Data collection methods
      • 3.2.1Focus group interview
      • 3.2.2Netnography
      • 3.2.3Stimulated recalls
    • 3.3Data analysis
    • 3.4Trustworthiness and reliability
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1Intensive content preparation
    • 4.2Trying to enact a dual role in CLIL lessons
    • 4.3Lecturing in lessons
    • 4.4Teaching through L1
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 10 May 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.20038.gul
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