Teacher Identity Development through Digitally Mediated Experiences

In recent years, language teaching and learning have experienced a transformation, integrating digitally mediated experiences into the process of becoming a teacher. In this chapter I discuss the underexplored connection between these experiences and teacher identity, exploring how the understanding, use, and integration of technology can contribute to the reconstruction and transformation of language teacher identity. This process acts as a catalyst for developments in teacher identity, changing the nature of relationships, as well as the temporal dimension of identity development. In the online realm, teachers often assume a facilitator role, encouraging continuous knowledge discovery where meaning-making processes are embodied through a number of synchronous and asynchronous activities engaging students in various modalities to learn. I examine the contextual, relational, dynamic, and meaning-making aspects of such digitally mediated experiences in teaching and learning. I argue that digitally mediated experiences have the potential to lead to the reconstruction of teacher identity through critical reflections and a transformative process enacted in various ways through pedagogical integration and engagement in digitally mediated experiences.