The Contribution of Professional Identity Tension of Indonesian English Teachers in

Thailand to Retention, Attrition, and Mobility

Albertus Yordhana Arsanto
Albertusya@gmail.com
Sanata Dharma University

Research Background

As an English teacher, a person might have a chance to teach abroad and find new
experience in developing his/ herself. Moreover, new situation and environment might shape the
teacher’s professional identity while teaching abroad. Teaching abroad gives chance for the
teachers to deal with the different situation or environment which are not similar to their own
country’s situation. Due to the needs of English teachers in Thailand, there are several Indonesian
English teachers who get chance to teach in Thailand.

According to Mead (2009), identity also develops through the social interaction. When
they have interaction between his/ herself and the social environment, there are two factors which
might affect his/ herself to interact with others. The first factor which appears in his/ her interaction
is culture shocked. People will get culture shocked when they are in different place and country
because the situation is not similar. According to Triandis (1975), he divides an analysis of culture
into two different areas: “objective culture”, which is observable, for example clothes, food, music;
and “subjective culture”, which is largely hidden: values, beliefs and habits. Next, the most
significant area of the subjective culture is habit. Indonesian teachers will change their habit like
how they communicate to others and the way they teach the students. These factors might make
them confuse and stress. Added by Fennes and Hapgood (1997), the behavior of others from the
new culture causes us confusion or even distress.

Teaching situation which will challenge the Indonesian English teacher to teach the
students in different area or country. Teachers should be able to learn something new from the
teaching situation, so they understand how to teach the students. The acceptance that as teachers
working abroad, we need to be good learners (Leask, 2006). Learning the situation is sometimes
difficult for some people because they are not able to understand the diverse students in the
classroom. Unlike most business employees, teachers, including lecturers, do not get special
training for the shift in focus required for a new country and its culture, since it is presumed that
“teaching is teaching” (Getty, 2011).

Identity takes significant role in human behavior or teaching and learning process. Identity
is an analytic tool to understand for school and society. Many authors stated identity cannot be
seen as independent from context. It is pointed out that humans’ behaviors should be evaluated in
contexts rather than identifying them through fixed attributes of people such as gender, race and
social group (Gee, 2000). Li (2011) stated that the concept of identity reflects how individuals see
themselves and how they react in different situation. Bullough (2005) identity formation is not a
passive but dynamic affair. Gee (2000) stated identity is dynamic it can change from one context
to another, people can involve more than one identity in one context. Identity has many
applications in the field of education. It should be applied in the context of teaching process in the
classroom.

The previous work was only focused on the professional identity in the context of native
English teachers who teaching abroad in Turkey. A fundamental of issue of professional identity
related to tensions and it analyzed the tensions appeared in the teaching process done by the two
native-English teachers. In the light of recent events in the research, there is now considerable
concern about the teacher professional identity construction related to emotion and tension and its
relation to attrition, retention, and mobility.

The research seeks to address how the teachers’ professional identity constructions affect
the teachers’ retention, attrition, and mobility while teaching in Thailand. It does affect the teacher
professional identity due to the challenge that the teachers face in the learning process.

Research Problems

1. To what extent do teacher professional tension contribute to retention, attrition, and

mobility?
a. To what extent does teacher’s personal feeling about teaching abroad contribute
to retention, attrition, and mobility?
b. To what extent does teacher’s values about teaching abroad contribute to
retention, attrition, and mobility?
 c. To what extent does teacher’s beliefs about teaching abroad contribute to
retention, attrition, and mobility?
d. To what extent does teacher’s perception about teaching abroad contribute to
retention, attrition, and mobility?

Problem Limitation

Some

Research Objectives

The objectives of the study is to examine how teacher professional identity tension related
to teacher retention, attrition, and mobility. Teacher has its own perspective in solving the
problems within his/herself in order to enhance the professionalism. When teacher does not have
good or great professional identity related to tension, it will affect the teacher attrition, retention,
and mobility. Professional identity tension is related to tension appearing in the learning process.

Research Benefits

Teacher professional identity tension is presented as the continuing process as the

experience for the teacher in the working world. Teacher’s experiences can be different due to the
interaction within the teacher and students. Professional identity tension should be one of the
reasons why, as teachers, Tensions can be of great importance for the development of teachers’
professional identity (Alsup, 2006; Meijer, 2011; Olsen, 2010; Smagorinsky, Cook, Moore,
Jackson, & Fry, 2004). Smagorinsky et al. (2004) emphasize that beginning teachers should be
provoked by tensions to challenge their identities, thereby allowing them to question themselves
and their beliefs.

Furthermore, teacher professional identity tension is also related to the teacher retention,
attrition, and mobility. The findings of this study could potentially effect retention, attrition, and
mobility rates for new teachers in contributing to decrease of teacher absences, and support the
teachers in adapting and expanding teacher professional identity.

Definition of Terms

1. Teacher Professional Identity Tension

a. Personal feeling
 b. Beliefs
c. Values
d. Perception
2. Retention

Teacher retention is defined as teachers leaving the schools or school districts but staying
within the teaching profession. When teachers leave their schools, the result is a shortage of
actual teachers which in turn delays student learning (Cha & Vogel, 2001). Teachers that leave
the schools for different employment opportunities are characteristically more effective
teachers (Jacob, Vidyarthi & Carroll, 2012).

3. Attrition

Teacher attrition is defined as teachers who exit the teacher profession (Boe, Bobbit, &
Cook, 1993). It is well-recognized in the pitch that increasing demands of state assessments,
test scores, shortages in school funding, and growing school populations have placed a strain
on the educational system. Furthermore, When teachers report lower levels of job satisfaction
they are more inclined to leave the teaching profession (Strunk & Robinson, 2006).

4. Mobility