Language teacher identities

The Namibian perspective

Abstract

This article explores the identities of Namibian English second language teachers from different perspectives – social, personal, material as well as technological. A group of 8 in-service English language teachers from the “O” three regions of Namibia completed a qualitative online questionnaire to give their perceptions regarding their identities from different components – social, personal, material as well as technological, which is based on Barkhuizen’s second facet of language teacher identity definition (2017). Other language teachers’ identities and the reasons for such identifications as well as societal identities given to teachers of the English language were also explored in this study. Therefore this article also aims to establish how the teachers’ identities affect their work ethics. Participants of the study were purposely sampled. The study’s findings indicate that language teachers’ identities are constructed based on what they know, their skills as well as their roles as teachers. Results also show that their work ethics are affected by their identities positively. This study fills the gap that currently exists in terms of teacher identity formation in Namibia as well as how language teachers are faring in this era of artificial intelligence.