Reconfiguration of teachers’ identity from the implementation of inclusion policies

Abstract

This research project is aimed at knowing how language teachers’ identities are reconfigured when facing the guidelines of inclusion policies. The participants were five language teachers from different contexts: three teachers from a private university and two from a public school. The methodology implemented for this research was a narrative inquiry. The data were collected face to face through a structured interview, which inquired into three main categories: teacher’s identity, inclusion policies and special educational needs. As a result of all of this process, we found out that (1) when facing SSEN (Students with Special Educational Needs), language teachers were moved by their humanity rather than by government guidelines; (2) though the participants were from different contexts, all of them had similar perceptions about the inclusion policies; and (3) there is a recognition of the inclusion policies among the participants; however, the adaptation processes they made of the law are based on what they could do with what they had. Finally, we draw some conclusions about the influence of policies on language teachers’ identities and make some recommendations for future studies in the teaching identity field.