The spatiality of pre-service language teachers’ funds of professional identity

ABSTRACT

Purpose

The aim of this study was to interrogate pre-service language teachers' professional identity formation in relation to their funds of identity (FoI) and the agentive influence of space.

Design

The study was conducted with 20 pre-service language teachers in Argentina in 2022. As part of a core module's coursework, the participants were asked to complete tasks that would enable them to (1) envision their (present and/or future) professional self and (2) plan the FoI that would help them achieve that vision. Data were collected through class discussions, dioramas (teachoramas), and pre-recorded presentations.

Findings

Content and visual analysis shows that space may exercise a powerful influence on pre-service teachers' FoI. The participants identified themselves as teachers as leaders or facilitators. To construct those identities, they combined the following FoI: geographical (e.g. outdoor spaces), disciplinary (e.g. knowledge of English language teaching), cultural artifacts (e.g. digital devices), anticipatory (e.g. imagined future learners), and valuative (e.g. gender inclusion). These FoI show that the spatiality of pre-service teachers' FoI and projected professional self integrate physical, digital, and cognitive planes.

Originality

The study advances a model of the spatiality of FoI which can help language teacher education programmes include a discussion of space in the curriculum.

KEYWORDS:

• Space
• funds of identity
• disciplinary knowledge
• teachorama

Introduction

With the aim of leveling the playfield field in education, the Funds of Knowledge (FoK) approach is often adopted to interrupt systemic inequity among students (González-Patiño and Esteban-Guitart 2021; Llopart and Esteban-Guitart 2018; Moll et al. 1992). FoK could be broadly defined as the ‘historically accumulated and culturally developed bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-being’ (Moll et al. 1992, 133) that bring in meaning and sense to families’ lives (Esteban-Guitart and Moll 2014). This notion seeks to capture the cultural ‘toolbox’ that teachers, students, and their families utilise to build their own curriculum on the basis of their background, trajectories, and personal learning events.

When combined with identity, FoK has led to the term Funds of Identity (FoI) to describe how people use their FoK to make sense of who they are and/or who they would like to be (Esteban-Guitart 2012, 2016; Hogg and Volman 2020; Saubich and Esteban-Guitart 2011). Investigating FoI can support teacher education programmes to create conducive educational experiences which allow pre-service teachers to identify, capitalise, and translate their past and current FoK and FoI into meaningful and socially-situated teaching (e.g. Charteris, Thomas, and Masters 2018; Subero, Vujasinovic, and Esteban-Guitart 2017; Tsbulsky and Muchnik-Rozanov 2023; Verhoeven et al. 2021). In the present study, particular attention is given to the role that space has in FoI in an effort to help teachers recognise the power that the where has in the teaching profession.

Conceptual background

This study concatenates two potent concepts: FoI and space. In a critical discussion of FoI, Esteban-Guitart (2021) acknowledges that the boundaries between knowledge and identity in learning are fuzzy since different materialisations of knowledge can help people make sense of their self, which in turn contributes to their learning. Aligned with this view, in this study, I understand FoI as:

The historically accumulated, culturally developed, and socially distributed resources that are essential for a person’s self-definition, self-expression, and self-understanding. Funds of knowledge – bodies of knowledge and skills that are essential for the well-being of an entire household – become funds of identity when people actively use them to define themselves. From our point of view, identity is made up of cultural factors such as sociodemographic conditions, social institutions, artifacts, significant others, practices, and activities. (Esteban-Guitart and Moll 2014, 31)

This definition is in line with contemporary notions of (language) teacher identity since there is recognition of the complex, multifaceted set of factors and resources that influence pre- and in-service teacher professional identity development (e.g. Banegas et al. 2022; Cappaert and Wickens 2022; Li 2022; Preece 2020; Tsbulsky and Muchnik-Rozanov 2023).

FoI has gained traction in the field of pre-service teacher education since, as Charteris, Thomas, and Masters (2018) have demonstrated, pre-service teachers may draw on existing FoI to (1) construct new FoI, and (2) inform their projected teacher identity as well as influence their ‘future pedagogical values’ (16). Along these lines, Villacañas de Castro (2017) has shown that English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) pre-service teachers’ identity is not restricted to language teaching; it includes education in general. In addition, Villacañas de Castro (2020) concludes that EFL pre-service teachers could expand their identity as resourceful teachers by translating their FoI into powerful pedagogical proposals, particularly when they make connections between their FoI and lived experiences during the practicum. These studies reveal that exploring pre-service teachers’ FoI has the potential to become a core element in teacher preparation. Thus, investigating the relationships between FoI and EFL teacher education programmes becomes paramount as the following study demonstrates.

With the aim of understanding pre-service teachers’ FoI attending an EFL teacher education programme in Argentina, Banegas et al. (2022) conducted a four-year longitudinal study to capture in what ways different elements of the programme influenced the participants’ FoI as future language teachers. The study showed that pre-service teachers’ FoI can (1) remain constant, (2) shift from past to present and future FoI, or (3) shift from external to internal FoI as the programme itself and teacher educators begin to play a major role in professional identity and knowledge development. More importantly, the study has put forward an expanded list (Table 1) of professional FoI drawing on Esteban-Guitart’s (2014) classification of FoI.

Table 1. Pre-service English language teaching teachers’ funds of professional identity (adapted from Banegas et al. 2022).

Funds of professional identity	Examples
1 Social	Classmates, family, language assistants, teacher-educators, boyfriend, students.
2 Institutional	Language institute, schools, language teacher education programme, practicum.
3 Geographical	Buenos Aires, schools
4 Cultural artifacts	Books, TED talks, TV programmes, coursebooks, novels, resources, coursework.
5 Practical	Travelling, studying, learning, journal writing.
6 Valuative	Reflection, justice, inclusion, God.
7 Disciplinary	English language proficiency, knowledge of English language teaching, knowledge of the language, teaching experience.
8 Anticipatory	Future colleagues, future students, professional development.

As shown in the studies reviewed above, language teacher education programmes can become potent sites for FoI construction and operationalisation. Notwithstanding, such studies have not tapped into possible links between pre-service teachers’ wide-ranging myriad of FoI and the multiplicity of settings, both within and beyond the physicality of a teacher education programme, in which these FoI are embedded. While the classification of FoI (Table 1) includes one specific type of fund related to space, geographical, other FoI can also point in the direction of the role that space can have in the mobilisation of FoI. A few scholars (Benade 2021; Cuenca and Gilbert 2019; Foucault 1986; Lefebvre 1991) have indicated that there has been a spatial turn in social sciences as a result of a deeper recognition of the mutually influential interactions between social relations and space. From this perspective, space is socially produced, and as such, it consists of objects-as-space (Benson 2021). The objects are arranged into assemblages, i.e. a composition of objects, such as a classroom, usually the archetypal space of education (DeLanda 2016).

In the case of language education, Benson (2021) has discussed the spatial settings in which language learning occurs and how learners make sense of the (im)material resources available to them in a range of contexts such as a classroom, a street, or online environments. Inspired by such spatial perspectives on language education, Banegas (2023) conducted a study with a group of pre-service teachers and teacher educators at an EFL teacher education programme to understand the effects that space had on their learning and teaching practices as they navigated emergency online teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic and the ‘return to campus’. The study advances a model of the spatiality of language teacher education. Influenced by individual, political, curricular, and socio-cultural forces, the space of language teacher education consists of four overlapping assemblages: institutional building, personal spaces, online environments, and community sites. The study shows that as the participants indirectly identified FoI, these seemed to be connected to specific spaces, thus hinting that there are agentive interactions between FoI and space. In addition, it suggests that the role of space in identity construction in online environment is worth examining because it pushes the boundaries of educational spaces.

Against this background, the aim of this paper is to interrogate pre-service language teachers’ identity formation in relation to their professional funds of identity and the influence that space has on these funds of identity. One research question guided this study: How does space influence pre-service teachers’ FoI and professional identity construction?

Method

This study sits within an interpretivist paradigm to educational research (Cohen, Manion, and Morrison 2018) since it can allow for a situated, in-depth, and relational understanding of the spatiality of professional FoI among language student teachers. Within this paradigm, the study adopted qualitative and ecological approaches (details below) since the aim was to examine the participants’ FoI in the formal environment of language teacher education.

Context and participants

The study was conducted at a four-year online EFL teacher education programme in Argentina in the 2022 academic year, which prepares English language teachers to exercise their professional practice in kindergarten, primary, and secondary education. The programme is targeted at pre-service teachers; however, many of them may gain teaching experience vis-à-vis the programme due to a shortage of qualified teachers in their communities.

In Year 4, among other modules, the pre-service teachers complete a core module called Specific Didactics for English Language Teaching (ELT) in Secondary Education. The module runs from March to November and it includes these main topics: diversity and inclusion in ELT, contextualised teaching, language awareness, integrating language skills and mediation, materials development, assessment, ELT approaches, lesson planning, teacher identity and reflective practice. The last three topics run throughout the module as a unifying thread. I was the online tutor of this module in 2022, which positions me as an insider reconciling teaching and researching.

The study was conducted with 20 pre-service teachers who took the module in 2022. For ethical reasons, they granted written consent at the start of the academic year. They were assured confidentiality and anonymity, hence, the use of pseudonyms in this paper. To mitigate research burden, data were only collected through pedagogical tasks included in the module coursework. Due to my dual role as tutor and researcher, the programme director had a supporting role should the participants feel coerced to participate. The 20 pre-service teachers were all Argentinian women, had Spanish as their L1, and had a mean age of 24 (SD: 3.19). Of the 20 participants, 10 had between 1 and 6 years of teaching experience (M: 4.33, SD: 0.87). By the time they completed Specific Didactics, they were also attending another module called Professional Practice, which mainly consisted of micro-teaching experience, seminars, and a three-month practicum.

Data collection

Data were collected following an ecological approach (e.g. Stelma and Fay 2014), i.e. data were gathered within the system of pre-service language teacher education. Specifically, teacher learning and reflection-oriented activities designed and implemented in the core module described above acquired a dual purpose: (1) as module tasks, and (2) as data collection instruments. Below I describe the four instruments/tasks used between April and October 2022. The recorded discussions and pre-recorded presentations were orthographically transcribed for data analysis.

Group discussion. In a recorded synchronous online session via Zoom of 50 min, the pre-service teachers were randomly assigned into breakout rooms. Each group (four participants per group) had to share and reflect on their conceptualisation of teacher identity. They also had to write together a shared brief definition. Based on their exchange of ideas, in the main Zoom room, a representative from each group was asked to put forward their definition.

Teachorama. As described elsewhere (Banegas 2023), a teachorama is a diorama used to represent a teaching situation or event. In this study, each pre-service teacher was asked to make a teachorama to represent themselves as language teachers prompted by this question: How do you see yourself and how would you like your students to see you? As an example of visual methodologies (Kalaja and Pitkänen-Huhta 2018), this three-dimensional representation was to be informed by the discussion of teacher identity described above. There were no specific requirements; thus, the participants could select any materials or context to represent themselves. I recognise that the spatial dimension across FoI may have been prompted by the teachoramas since the tool itself entails the use of dimensionality to represent in-context professional identity.

Pre-recorded presentation. Each pre-service teacher was asked to record themselves explaining their teachorama and identifying the funds of identity needed to construct their professional identity. To scaffold this task, they were provided with Banegas et al.’s (2022) typology of funds of professional identity (Table 1). However, they did not have to restrict themselves to it. The presentations (mean length: 6.14 min) were uploaded onto a shared online space (Padlet) for them to watch and comment on others’ presentations. For research purposes, screenshots of the videos were taken to record the teachoramas for analysis. I conducted a preliminary analysis prior to the following task for pedagogical reasons, and I noted that all the students made spatial references to refer to their (funds of) professional identity as language teachers.

Class discussion. In a recorded 50-minute synchronous session on Zoom, I asked the participants to verbalise their thoughts on these questions: How are funds of identity important to you? I noted that all of you connected your (funds of) professional identity to different places, what role does space play in the selection and operationalisation of your funds of identity?

Data analysis

Data from the discussions and presentations were subjected to thematic analysis (Cohen, Manion, and Morrison 2018) on Atlas.ti version 8, which became an iterative process of reading and rereading the data. The process combined inductive (forms of spatiality across FoI) as well as deductive (FoI in Table 1) individual and later axial coding to understand the participants’ FoI and the spatiality attached to them. Also, the teachoramas were analysed from visual research methods (Kalaja and Pitkänen-Huhta 2018) and multimodality (combination of images and words) (Kress and Leeuwen 2001) perspectives. Attention was given to the composition of each assemblage in terms of objects, people, words, pictures, photos, and planimetric composition, i.e. spatial configuration (Leeuwen 2020). With a codebook in place for the data sets, a colleague alien to the study coded 50% of the data to ensure rigour, transparency and trustworthiness (Lincoln and Guba 1985). We discussed our identification of FoI following the typology shown in Table 1 until we reached agreement.

Findings

The findings are organised from the participants’ general understanding of teacher identity and types of FoI recognised, to the particular influence of space on such FoI and projected professional future selves.

On teacher identity

Obtained from the group discussion, the teachoramas, and the pre-recorded presentation, the participants’ views of teacher identity conflated the personal and the professional. For example, Sabina said:

To me, my teacher identity is about me, who I am as a person, where I come from, my family, my city. I cannot separate the teacher from Sabina, and even if I am an educator, I want to see myself as a person who works as a teacher of English, so my personal history precedes and is the basis of myself as a teacher. (Sabina, Extract 1)

Extract 1 shows that as the participants began to articulate their conceptualisation of teacher identity, they saw themselves as individuals first, and as teachers second, which extends Villacañas de Castro’s (2017) study on teacher identity by adding an individual layer to those of educator and language teacher. This sequence of identity planes brought about the recognition of the multiplicity of factors which shape teacher identity. All the participants acknowledged that their teacher identity rested on their professional knowledge of English and of language teaching together with the ethos underpinning their work. For instance, a pre-service teacher said:

My identity as a teacher consists of what I know, about my teaching skills, my English language skills, but more broadly, my values, my principles. I believe that education should be inclusive, for all, that it should be equitable. I believe that languages are powerful tools to repair injustices, to bring people together. (Cristina, Extract 2)

It is worth noting that, as in previous studies (Charteris, Thomas, and Masters 2018; Tsbulsky and Muchnik-Rozanov 2023), allowing pre-service teachers to reflect on identity could contribute to the development of their envisioned professional identity, future values, and emancipatory definition of language (‘inclusive … equitable … powerful tools to repair injustices’), which echoes Banegas et al.’s (2022) valuative FoI. Extract 1 also depicts other FoI: social (‘my family’), geographical (‘my city’), and disciplinary (‘my teaching skills, my English language skills’). This shows that the participants viewed their professional identity construction and FoI as inseparable.

Types of FoI

The participants’ projected teacher identities led them to plan and combine different FoI. Thematic analysis confirmed Banegas et al.’s (2022) FoI (Table 1). Table 2 condenses the FoI and examples.

Table 2. Participants’ self-identified FoI.

FoI	Examples (placed in order of frequency)
Disciplinary	Knowledge of ELT approaches, collaborative learning, feedback, thinking skills (Bloom’s Taxonomy), grammar, creativity, knowledge of inclusive and socially just education.
Valuative	Gender and sexuality diversity and inclusion
Anticipatory	Future students and colleagues
Cultural artifacts	Digital devices, the internet, Coursework, books, recorded lectures,
Geographical	classrooms, homes, digital sites, combination of classrooms and homes
Practical	hiking

With the aim of offering a closer understanding of FoI, Table 3 documents each FoI across the participants.

Table 3. FoI distribution across the participants.

Participant	Disciplinary	Valuative	Anticipatory	Cultural artifacts	Geographical	Practical
Alejandra		X			X	x
Ileana	X		X	X	X
Cecilia			X		X
Estefanía		X	X
Valeria	X		X
Rebeca	X		X
Johana	X
Lorena		X	X	X
Daiana	X	X	X		X
Erica		X		X
Larisa	X			X	X
Naiara	x	X	X
Milena	x	X	X
Sabrina	x	X		X
Juana	X	X
Roberta	X	X	x
Lucila	X	X		X
Natalí	X	X			X
Adriana	x	X		X
Carina		x		x	x
TOTAL	14	14	10	8	7	1

Figure 1 illustrates how the pre-services teachers represented FoI in their teachoramas.

Figure 1. Larisa’s teachorama.

Larisa’s teachorama (Figure 1) depicts three FoI. In her description, she indicated that disciplinary FoI defined her identity (Banegas et al. 2022; Cappaert and Wickens 2022). This FoI was represented through bubbles on the floor and different colours symbolising a variety of teaching approaches. She also signaled the importance of cultural artifacts in cementing her identity; hence the presence of a bookshelf (with books) and a laptop computer on the right-hand side of the teachorama. Last, her understanding and use of geographical FoI was depicted through the integration of physical and digital spaces. Larisa indicated that she wished to see herself as a ‘hybrid teacher’ in the sense that she wanted to teach in-person as well as online. She elaborated by saying:

I think the teachorama shows in fact a learner’s view, so it’s more about how I’d like to be seen. The learners would have me in class [right-hand side of the teachorama], we’d be working together [round tables], but then they’d be going home [left-hand side] and I’d be posting videos [screen with video on the left] for them to engage in other more independent activities. But these two spaces are connected, this is why there’s a door. So. I wanted to combine the classroom space, the learner’s home, and the digital space used for teaching and learning. (Larisa, Extract 3)

As in previous studies (Banegas et al. 2022; Cappaert and Wickens 2022), the findings confirm the multiple resources that comprise FoI in pre-service teachers’ development of their professional future selves. In addition, the FoI as represented through the teachoramas also provides a nuanced understanding of the different factors that are connected to identity construction and spatiality. For example, Larisa (Figure 1) extends the boundaries of the classroom as an archetypal space by complexifying the assemblages that play a role in learning (DeLanda 2016). In her account, three spaces merge: the shared institutional space (the classroom), the personal space (the learner’s as well as the teacher’s), and the shared digital space. Below, I dig deeper into the spatiality of teacher identity and FoI.

The influence of space on FoI

As shown above, the participants depicted the influence of space on their professional identity construction. Below, I demonstrate the impact of space on specific FoI.

Geographical FoI

Table 3 confirms that seven participants explicitly acknowledged space through geographical FoI. Alejandra was the only participant who articulated connections between geographical and practical FoI (Figure 2), both located in outdoor spaces.

Figure 2. Alejandra’s teachorama.

Alejandra, who identified herself as an amateur hiker, explained that she wanted her learners to see her as a teacher who also had a passion outside school and that she could use her interest in hiking as practical FoI to expand the contexts of learning. In the class discussion, she reflected:

To me language is everywhere, so ELT cannot be only relegated to the classroom; it’s all around us, and I love nature, and being outdoors, so this is who I am. I want to carry out projects where I take the kids outside and learn to use English in outdoor situation, in contact with nature. I may even tempt them to spend more time outside and even take up hiking. (Alejandra, Extract 4)

Extract 4 on Alejandra’s understanding of English education as a holistic, meaningful, and authentic experience shows how FoI can be translated into pedagogical possibilities (Villacañas de Castro 2020). The extract also demonstrates that geographical FoI may comprise indoor as well as outdoor settings, which may add authenticity and permeability to the ecology of language teaching and learning since these are not limited to the classroom. As in Banegas (2023), the pre-service teachers’ understanding and deployment of FoI recognised that the spatiality of language education includes the harmonious coalescence of classrooms, homes, outdoor spaces, as well as the digital plane (Figure 1). Hence, by spatialising FoI, the participants acknowledged the ubiquity of language learning and teachers’ professional development as a core component of their professional identity.

In tandem with the reconciliation between spatiality and geographical FoI, the recorded presentations and the class discussion demonstrated that spatiality was imbricated across all the FoI the pre-service teachers used to construct their professional identity as EFL teachers. Below, I illustrate how the findings reveal connections between FoI and spatiality (space and matter).

Disciplinary and cultural artifacts FoI

These FoI became prominent tools in the participants’ identity development and it was represented through different literal and metaphorical locations in the teachoramas. The participants associated disciplinary FoI with the classroom since it was the space in which they could display their professional knowledge, understood as the integration of declarative, procedural, and experiential knowledge of ELT. In addition, disciplinary FoI were metaphorically spatialised by being the basis (Figure 1, colour bubbles) or the columns of a classroom (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Naiara’s teachorama.

It could be thus reasoned that disciplinary FoI are located ‘out there’ and teachers go to them to construct their identity. In this displacement from the teacher to the sources of professional knowledge, cultural artifacts play a mediation role; books (e.g. Figure 3, placed in bookshelves to the sides) and laptop computers (e.g. Figure 1) are academic conductors of knowledge about pedagogical approaches and strategies.

One participant, Roberta, added another layer to the spatiality of disciplinary FoI by extending them to her personal cognitive space, which she illustrated by placing an open folder on top of her head (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Roberta’s teachorama.

In the class discussion, Roberta’s words, which received the support of her peers, explained the role of space in the operationalisation of disciplinary FoI:

All that knowledge that we need, that we want to have to see ourselves and be seen as professionals is in the lectures, the books, my phone, the practicum, what happens in the classroom. I also feel is inside me, it occupies a flexible and expansive space in my head. Where is my own understanding, my memory, my reflections, my connections in praxis? In here [taps her head] and so it’s about what’s out there as well as in my head. So, when it comes to knowledge, I think that disciplinary and cultural artifacts funds inhabit the same spaces and so I need to make space for them in my classroom, my home, and my own head by studying and reflecting more. (Roberta, Extract 5)

Roberta’s words indicate that the spatiality of disciplinary FoI comprises the interconnectedness between external (e.g. lectures, knowledge of ELT) as well internal/cognitive spaces. The latter is perhaps associated with reflective and critical thinking emanating at the intersection of external and internal sources of knowledge. In other words, the internally located disciplinary FoI may refer to teacher cognition.

Anticipatory and valuative FoI

These FoI were usually combined in relation to the participants’ future learners and colleagues. Also, disciplinary FoI were linked to valuative FoI as the participants sought to develop their understanding of the values they wished to imbue in teaching. Out of the 20 teachoramas, 10 included learners and one included colleagues. In the case of future learners, the participants coincided in associating them with their interest in gender inclusion and diversity as a manifestation of their valuative FoI. For example, Figure 3 shows a table with the colours of the rainbow, in allusion to the LGBT Pride Flag. Learners are sitting around it, which illustrates the participants’ interest in creating collaborative and inclusive learning environments. In this case, anticipatory and valuative FoI are located in the classroom, as a safe space, and in iconic objects of collaboration. In addition, Figure 3 also portrays a future colleague, represented by the participant (the female teacher) talking with another teacher to one side of the classroom. When asked about the role of space in her understanding and use of FoI, Naiara explained:

To me I can think of my future learners and colleagues as embodiments of my valuative and anticipatory FoI and because they’re not mythical creatures, they certainly occupy a place in space, so they’re an important part of the context of my future teaching, in fact they’re the core part of it. (Naiara, Extract 6)

In a similar fashion, Roberta’s teachorama (Figure 4) also combines valuative and anticipatory FoI through her imagined future learners, who are represented as LGBT proud beings. In this case, she appears surrounded by them. In the class discussion, Roberta explained:

I don’t mean that all my learners will be LGBT, I mean they could be straight and still by LGBT allies. In terms of place, I envisage that my anticipatory and valuative FoI are not only inside me but also projected and found in my learners and they are everywhere, and I’m bringing them together to work and learn English. Inclusion needs to be part of the everyday context, of the classroom. We need to fight until it is normalised, until it’s not special anymore, that’d be true inclusion. (Roberta, Extract 7)

In sum, the findings show the pre-service teachers’ acknowledgement of the agentive role that space (and matter) had in their preferred FoI. The influence of space on the participants’ FoI also extends to their spatial expressions of teacher identity as depicted below.

Space and teacher identity

As the participants imbued FoI and teacher identity in the teachoramas, different trends emerged in the metaphorical representation of teachers, i.e. teachers as … , and the spatio-material crystallisation of those representations. Concerning metaphorical representations, the 20 participants could be grouped as: (1) teachers as leaders (6 participants) and (2) teachers as facilitators (14 participants). Despite this difference, they all coincided in equating their identity to an enabling role.

Figure 5 illustrates the representation of teachers as leaders. Spatially, the six participants placed themselves either at the centre of a classroom (2 participants) surrounded by students, standing by a whiteboard in centre of the back wall of the teachorama (3 participants), or as in Figure 5, at the centre and above the ground in an open space.

Figure 5. Cecilia’s teachorama.

Cecilia expressed that she wished to see herself and be seen as a leader whose skills rested on her disciplinary knowledge of English (language education), which reminds us of Esteban-Guitart’s (2021) discussion on the fuzzy boundaries between knowledge and identity (see also Banegas et al. 2022). Cecilia added:

I want to lead my students to aim higher in the world, hence the world-like hot air balloon. My role is to guide them using my professional knowledge. I want to be seen as an enabler in my leading role, because that’s my job, my drive. (Cecilia, Extract 8)

The 16 participants who represented themselves as facilitators exhibited a wide range of material decisions. For example, 11 participants placed themselves statically to one side in the classroom, which became the dominant assemblage (DeLanda 2016) represented across the teachoramas (but see further below on FoI). Naiara, the author of the teachorama portrayed in Figure 3 explained:

As a facilitator, I wanted to picture myself to one side talking to another teacher. We’re all sharing the same space, but the kids are at the centre. It’s a reminder of the need to enact a learner-centred curriculum. (Naiara, Extract 9)

Two participants represented themselves in motion (Figure 6), walking while the students are seated.

Figure 6. Valeria’s teachorama.

On Figure 6, Valeria explained:

Because I want to facilitate learning, to enable the kids, to facilitate learning, I wanted to see myself moving around, attending to my students’ needs. (Valeria, Extract 10)

One participant’s teachorama (Figure 7) deserves special attention since the classroom does not feature students or teachers.

Figure 7. Johana’s teachorama.

In the presentation of her teachorama (Figure 7), Johana explained that since her focus was on the context of teaching and learning and the disciplinary knowledge informing her vision and identity she did not need to portray the people in it since it was a given.

Vis-à-vis the location in space, it is worth highlighting the many visual representations selected by the participants such as photos of themselves (Figure 6), 3-D figurine (Figure 5), or a drawing/picture of an adult (Figure 3). The class discussion revealed that the 16 participants who did not use a photo of themselves did not need to literally see themselves in the teachorama as they felt confident with the ways in which their professional identity was evolving. In contrast, the four participants who included a photo of themselves seemed to indicate that they were less certain of how their identity was, as a participant put it, ‘shaping up’. For example, Valeria (Figure 6) said:

I went for a photo of myself not only because the task was about myself and my identity but because I think I still need to confirm with further reflection, knowledge, and practice that this is who I want to be. Sometimes I struggle and I get lost in my own head, but here I put myself in a place, and moving. Here I am. This is me. (Valeria, Extract 11)

As in previous studies (e.g. Banegas et al. 2022; Charteris, Thomas, and Masters 2018; Tsbulsky and Muchnik-Rozanov 2023), the findings reveal that the participants construct teacher identity at different paces and through the deployment of varied FoI. This last aspect reinforces Esteban-Guitart’s (2021) view of (teacher) learning as an identity-forming experience. More importantly, this study shows that attention to space permitted the participants to delve into the complexity and affordances of FoI as well as their projected future selves.

Discussion and conclusion

The research question guiding this study aimed at understanding the influence of space on EFL pre-service teachers’ professional FoI and identity construction. As demonstrated above, space is ubiquitously agentive not only to teacher learning (Banegas 2023; Benson 2021) but also to teacher identity construction and concomitant FoI. The latter adds a new layer to our knowledge of FoI research as synthesised in the literature (e.g. Esteban-Guitart 2016; Hogg and Volman 2020). Figure 8 is the representation of such an influence, where the circles emphasise the complex ecology of each overlapping space. The findings reveal that pre-service EFL teachers’ FoI, which constitute a powerful and defining toolbox (Esteban-Guitart and Moll 2014), are located at the intersection of three macro overlapping, porous and agentive (Benade 2021) planes: the physical, the digital, and the cognitive.

Figure 8. The spatiality of pre-service teachers’ FoI.

The physical plane encapsulates a wide range of assemblages where not only objects (Extract 5) but also educational actors such as learners (Extract 10) and teachers (Extract 9) constitute space. Hence, Benson’s (2021) conceptualisation of objects-as-space in (language) learning environments can be extended to objects-and-people-as-space, which may reinforce the agentive and relational nature between space, matter, socio-educational practices (Lefebvre 1991), and identity (Esteban-Guitart 2014). After all, educational actors are made of matter is the same way that a whiteboard or a desk are. Such assemblages include indoor sites such as a classroom (Figure 6), a home (Figure 1), or outdoor settings (Figure 2). Simultaneously, these assemblages also exhibit the intricate connections between personal (e.g. a home) and social (e.g. a classroom) spaces in the construction of professional identity through a variety of FoI. The physical plane seems to be fertile ground for the development and use of disciplinary, practical (Extract 4), and geographical FoI. It is important to note that disciplinary FoI seem to dominate space through highly iconic objects such as a whiteboard, desks, and bookshelves (e.g. Figure 6). In some cases, some objects, such as tables (Figure 3) can also illustrate the spatialisation of valuative FoI such as collaboration and inclusion.

The digital plane shares several features with the physical plane as they could be personal and social. The digital plane can also be ‘home’ to disciplinary FoI. Another shared feature is the presence of cultural artifacts both as FoI in their own right and as the conductive materialisation of disciplinary FoI. As in recent studies conducted during/after the Covid-19 crisis (e.g. Banegas 2023; Tsbulsky and Muchnik-Rozanov 2023), the importance of digital spaces and technological devices such as laptops (Figure 6) and mobile phones (Extract 5) became paramount among the participants. It should be remembered that they attended an online teacher education programme and navigated the Covid-19 pandemic, which may explain the reliance on digital devices and sites.

Last, the cognitive plane refers to the space that teacher cognition, skills, experience, and reflection appear to occupy in the pre-service teachers’ brain/mind. While from a material perspective, this is the smallest space when compared to physical and digital spaces, its mental boundaries and complex architecture are less specific. This last plane needs to be approached with caution since it was only articulated by one participant (Extract 5).

The model (Figure 8) proposed not only remarks the value of enabling future language teachers to identify and exploit FoI for their professional (identity) development (Banegas et al. 2022; Charteris, Thomas, and Masters 2018; Villacañas de Castro 2020); it also serves as a springboard to discuss an inherent element often taken for granted or even invisibilised in the discussion of language education: space. As the model shows, space does not only entail matter but also digital environments and cognitive sites as defined by teachers.

Limitations

The study is not without limitations. The data collection methods were pedagogical tasks, which may have prompted the participants to display a wider range of knowledges, skills, and insights as successful completion of coursework would guarantee them to sit for the module’s final exam. Nevertheless, the focus on space was not an issue included a priori in the practice and study; it only became evident when the pre-recorded presentations were analysed.

Implications

In language teacher education, attention to the spatiality of pre-service teachers’ professional FoI can enhance curriculum, pedagogy, and research.

The language teacher education curriculum may need to consider the social production of space (Lefebvre 1991) since this study as well as others (e.g. Banegas 2023) show that it exerts a powerful influence in future teachers’ understanding of language education as well as in the construction of their professional identity. Where teacher learning takes place is as important as the content and activities that shape the curriculum. Initially, a discussion on space could be included in modules connected to pedagogy, approaches, and educational resources and materials. Hence, as part of the pedagogy of teacher education, activities can encourage pre-service teachers to utilise different spaces and objects for teaching and reflect on how the deployment of different spaces and matter can help them define, enrich, and problematise their own identity and cognition.

In terms of research, future studies can further explore the spatiality of teachers’ FoI to throw light on the connections between space, matter, and professional identity. For example, future research could concentrate on the transition from being pre-service to becoming novice teachers as there is a change in the spaces teachers inhabit professionally. In addition, research can delve into digital and cognitive spaces, since these may open new territories that can agentively interact between people, their identities, and social practices. Such potential lines of inquiry can combine narrative inquiry, visual tools, and netnography to capture the complexity and dynamicity underpinning FoI in language teaching particularly in relation to digital and hybrid spaces.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Darío Luis Banegas

Darío Luis Banegas is Lecturer in Language Education at the University of Edinburgh. He leads a course on second language teaching curriculum and contributes to courses on TESOL methodology and research methods. He is the convener of the Towards Intersectionality in Language Teacher Education Research Group. His main academic interests are language teacher education, social, justice, action research, and CLIL.