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Multiplicity for Survival: English Language Teachers’ Identity Performance in Iranian Private Language Institutes
Multiplicidad para la supervivencia: la expresión de la identidad de los profesores de inglés en institutos privados de idiomas en Irán
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v28n2.122727Keywords:
Dramaturgical theory, Post-structuralism, Teacher identity, Teacher performance (en)Identidad docente, Posestructuralismo, Representación docente, Teoría dramatúrgica (es)
This interpretivist multiple case study investigates how five teachers at Iranian private language institutes strategically perform their frontstage (classroom) and backstage (private) personas. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal that teachers consistently perform frontstage personas that contrast with their backstage selves, adjusting their identities to students’ demographics, institutional expectations, and economic pressures. Identity performance emerged as both a common challenge and pedagogical necessity, sustained through surface and deep acting. By reframing teacher identity as a contextual performance through a poststructuralist-dramaturgical lens, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the multiplicity of identities in English language teaching.
Este estudio de caso, de carácter múltiple e interpretativo, investiga cómo cinco docentes de institutos de lenguas privados representan estratégicamente sus personajes tanto en el aula como en el ámbito privado. Los datos se recopilaron mediante entrevistas semiestructuradas y se encontró que los docentes representan personajes en el aula que contrastan con sus identidades privadas. Así, sus identidades se ajustan a las características demográficas de los estudiantes, a las expectativas institucionales y a las presiones económicas. La expresión de la identidad emergió como un desafío común y una necesidad pedagógica, sustentada por representaciones superficiales y profundas. Al replantear la identidad docente como representación contextual desde una perspectiva posestructuralista-dramatúrgica, esta investigación contribuye a una comprensión más profunda de la multiplicidad de la identidad en la enseñanza del inglés.
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