Feedback talk as a means of creating, ratifying and normalising an institutionally valued teacher identity

Abstract

This article examines language teacher identity negotiated in situated, work-based talk. Using a linguistic ethnographic approach, micro analysis of extracts from post observation feedback between experienced teachers and supervisors is supplemented with ethnographic data. Analysis reveals that during feedback talk, one particular identity is co-constructed, ratified, and prioritized by teachers and supervisors: a teacher proficient in and enthusiastic about technology. This identity is related to a broader, macro context of government and institutional initiatives. Feedback talk operates to fashion and normalise this identity, and the repeated identity production reifies institutional priorities and helps maintain popular macro discourses favouring technology in education. The prioritised identity is realised through talk, teacher development, and teaching practice, as teachers make evident processes of learning connected to educational technology and describe using technology-related classroom activities. Teachers are complicit in co-constructing this favoured identity, showing a connection between teacher agency and broader power structures.