Bilgen, Fatos Eren (2013) Negotiating professional identities in higher education during redundancy and uncertainty : narratives of TEFL teachers in Northern Cyprus. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Framed within the ‘narrative turn’ in the human sciences, this thesis aims to explore the negotiation of professional identities in higher education during a time of uncertainty and redundancy. Drawing on narrative interviews with ten English language teachers at a higher education institution in Northern Cyprus, the lived experience of redundancy is explored from the perspectives of the redundant teachers, who had to leave their institution after redundancy, and the retained teachers, who remained at the institution after redundancy. Narratives constructed before and after redundancy shed light on the socially constructed and dynamic nature of negotiating professional identities and reveal that while individuals’ identities are shaped within their communities of practice, the institutional and group identities are also mutually reconstructed during this complex and continuous process. In this respect, this thesis is a story of collective becoming of a community of practice which experienced disintegration as a result of redundancy and uncertainty.

In this thesis I argue that the experience of losing one’s job can have a profound influence on both professional and personal identities and may result in identity shifts as well as the rejection of a new identity. The lived experience of redundancy and what happens to a community of practice when it experiences disintegration are both under-researched areas in applied linguistics, English language teaching (ELT) and studies in higher education (HE), yet at a time when the impact of the economic crisis on higher education around the world is being keenly felt, they are particularly relevant. In addressing this gap in the literature, the thesis offers insights that will be of value to teacher trainers and managers in both ELT and HE.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	L Education > L Education (General)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	English teachers -- Cyprus, Northern -- Case studies, Employees -- Dismissal of -- Cyprus, Northern -- Case studies, Identity (Psychology), Narrative inquiry (Research method), Communities of practice
Official Date:	December 2013
Dates:	Date Event December 2013 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Centre for Applied Linguistics
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Richards, Keith, 1952-
Extent:	320 leaves
Language:	eng

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