ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education p-ISSN 2301-7554, e-ISSN 2541-3643 Volume 9, Issue 1, December 2020 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE 47 THE ROLES OF CRITICAL INCIDENTS TO CONSTRUCT PUBLIC SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS’ IDENTITIES DEVELOPMENT Arima Renny Dayu Putri English Education Master Program, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia E-mail: rimarenny@gmail.com Paulus Kuswandono English Education Master Program, Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia E-mail: kus@usd.ac.id APA Citation: Putri, A. R. D. & Kuswandono, P. (2020). The roles of critical incidents to construct public senior high school English teachers’ identities development. English Review: Journal of English Education, 9(1), 47-60. https://doi.org/10.25134/erjee.v9i1.3778 Received: 27-06-2020 Accepted: 29-09-2020 Published:11-12-2020 Abstract: This study investigated the role of critical incidents (CIs) to construct Public Senior High School English teachers’ identities development. The researchers examined the meanings of CIs and how these developed their identities as Public Senior High School English teachers. To gain the data, the researchers conducted Open-Form Questionnaire and Open-Ended Interview toward eight Public Senior High School English teachers in Yogyakarta. The data were collected using narrative inquiry statements which displayed respondents’ life story in constructing teachers’ identities related to their CIs. The result of this research demonstrated that there were 12 CIs which were classified into 3 major categories of CIs namely: students’ misbehavior, smart student, and self-improvement. The meanings of these CIs were; motivating teacher to be reflective teacher, empower teacher to be agentic teacher in finding solution, developing teachers’ identities, supporting teachers to have better quality of teaching, and improving teacher confidence. Those meanings of CIs gave a great role to construct Senior High School English teachers’ identity. Keywords: Critical Incident (CIs); teacher identity; Public Senior High School English Teacher INTRODUCTION Experiencing critical incidents in teaching process can substantially help teachers develop their identities. Critical incidents (CIs) often take place unpredictably and they are crucial to change people’s lives (Schutz, Nichols, & Schwenke, 2018). CIs are useful for teachers to learn and reflect on their most meaningful experiences, both positive and negative experiences (Wijaya & Kuswandono, 2018). After experiencing CIs, instead of simply experiencing and forgetting it, the teachers would remember and scrutinize it as an insightful compass to a better envisage clearer direction as reflective teachers. It is crucial as CIs often happened as unexpected moments. Thus, it is fundamental that teachers continuously reflect on incidents to find ways to foster their professional identities. The efforts to be good and useful teachers for students will also shape teachers’ identities. Teacher’s identity is dynamic and formed by motivation and goals before becoming a teacher, which particularly involves a long and continuous process to develop (Schutz et al., 2018). It is constructed by the extent to which the teacher plays a role related to the tasks of the community and their profession in the future (Richardson & Watt, 2018). The willingness to embrace those professional tasks sincerely is the essential factor which can distinguish passionate and impassionate teachers from the perspective of professional calling. Likewise, it is through experiencing and reflecting critical incidents can teachers develop the capacity of their professional calling. Deciding teaching as a job, teachers are aware that they are holding teaching responsibilities for their whole life long. A teacher is concerned with teacher’s quality, belief, motivation, and skill to take the responsibilities as a teacher (Richardson & Watt, 2018). Teaching as a career involves, among others, teachers’ motivation, goals, agency, and self-efficacy to accommodate the society needs mailto:rimarenny@gmail.com mailto:kus@usd.ac.id https://doi.org/10.25134/erjee.v9i1.3778 Arima Renny Dayu Putri & Paulus Kuswandono The roles of critical incidents to construct public senior high school English teachers’ identities development 48 about education, as well reflection on critical incidents in classrooms. Teachers sometimes experience CIs while teaching, which in turn affect the teachers’ identities. CIs are beneficial to challenge or support teachers’ goals, values, and beliefs based on teachers’ attributions and emotional responses, and it is significant in authoring their identities (Schutz et al., 2018). The diagram below explains that CIs are related to teachers’ motivation, goals, emotion, self-efficacy, and self-agency to construct teachers’ identities. Diagram 1. The formulation of how CIs shape teacher’s identity Experiencing CIs, teachers need a sense of agency and self-efficacy to solve the problems and to make meanings of those CIs. In the journey of teaching English, teachers may have experienced several mandated versions of curriculum, a number of incidents in the class, many kinds of students’ character, and a large number of learning materials which should be delivered. Several problems might have happened and have been solved. Those problems require teacher’s agency, which is defined as teacher’s power to take better actions or transform their ideas to achieve their defined goals (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009). Agentic teachers are those who are active and able to shape their responsibilities to the challenging classroom (Biesta & Tedder, 2007). They define agency in three-dimensional pattern as a configuration of influences from the past condition, present situation, and future result. Agency is connected to teacher identity because a teacher is a person who applies agency continuously. It means that teachers always think about their teaching history, on-going teaching activity, and the goals of teaching in the future. Self-efficacy is people's beliefs in their ability to achieve goals that affect their life (Bandura, 2010). Believing that teachers can achieve their goals is the principal realization in constructing professional identity as English teacher. Without keeping the belief in them, teachers do not have ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education p-ISSN 2301-7554, e-ISSN 2541-3643 Volume 9, Issue 1, December 2020 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE 49 any expectation. Deriving the concept of Bandura (1982), Day (2018) indicated that empowered schools will usually focus on teachers’ sense of collective efficacy, on how they can take action to solve their problems and improve their teaching activities. While authoring their professional English teachers’ identities, they also at the same time develop the school’s identity. The better teachers’ identities are constructed, the better school’s identities are developed. In solving the problem, teachers need to remember their motivation and goals in order to regulate their identities. Richardson and Watt (2018) defined motivation as the energy to achieve defined goals. There is a solid connection between the self-identity and motivation by which teachers are motivated to take actions to control and make sense of their selves. Through motivation, teachers will build their identities as their desired goals. Nevertheless, without sufficient motivation, teachers who have extraordinary abilities cannot place appropriate strategies to achieve their desired goals (Hong, Day, & Greene, 2018). Motivation becomes the key point for teachers to regulate their identities to be always in line with their goals. It accompanies teacher to develop their professional identities. Accepting teaching as a job must be decided after somebody set their life goals. As confirmed by Schutz, Nichols, & Schwenke (2018), incoming goals, standard, and beliefs are significant points teacher used to measure their achievement in teaching. Teachers have set their teaching goals before starting their journey of teaching. These certain goals can be used as the level of their achievement. Furthermore, according to Garner & Kaplan (2019), purpose and goals are defined as the teachers’ knowledge and emotions about their personal purpose and objectives in teaching. Hence, it is essential that teachers set their goals before starting their career as teachers. Teachers’ emotions also play critical role in solving the occurring problems. Emotion is related to the discussion of teacher’s identity because it is a feature between teacher-self and a factor that influence his/her identity and the shaping of it (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009). How teachers manage their emotion when some CIs occurred in their teaching process can significantly influence their identities. The good emotion influences good result to students as the main focus that teachers care about students. Schutz et al. (2018) explained about the central value of emotional episodes that they involve conscious and unconscious judgments regarding perceived successes in achieving teacher’s goals or maintaining their beliefs. Related to teachers’ identities, teachers must control emotion to keep good image in front of students. Many studies about reflecting CIs as one way to develop teachers’ identities and professional teachers have been carried out. Wijaya and Kuswandono (2018) investigated the effectiveness of reflection with critical incident theory (CIT) framework as a form of teacher professional development. In their study towards six English teachers at a private school located in Cirebon, Indonesia, they found that by reflecting their CIs, all of the participants could understand their experiences deeper and making them meaningful. Furthermore, Farrell (2011) also conducted a study on the professional role identity of three experienced ESL College teachers in Canada as communicated in regular group meetings. In his paper, he found that ESL teachers can become more aware on their identities roles and reflect about how they have been shaped by being reflective teachers. In the same vein, Sisson (2016) conducted a study to explore the significance of CIs to develop identity and self-agency. The researcher presented CeCe stories about the relationship between her strong sense of life in the family, her troubling experiences in school and how these experiences developed her identity, and agency as a teacher. Reflecting between the CIs occurring in her studies and caring community she had with her family, she finally took action to promote caring relationship in her classroom. In this study, it can be drawn that the analysis of CeCe’s narrative stories created a powerful tool to shape her identity and agency. From those studies above, it is clear that CIs are of imperative in developing teachers’ identities. Why is this study crucial? Although many studies have been carried out to reflect CIs as one way to develop teachers’ identities as mentioned above, most of them were done outside Indonesia, which may share different cultural persepectives. Thus, it is fundamental to study CIs because CIs experienced by teachers have strong influences to the teachers’ behavior and their way of teaching. Arima Renny Dayu Putri & Paulus Kuswandono The roles of critical incidents to construct public senior high school English teachers’ identities development 50 The researchers are aware that it is crucial to conduct similar study in Yogyakarta, Indonesia because Yogyakarta is very popular known as an education city. In this city, there are a lot of reputable senior high schools. Hence, the researchers conducted a study investigating the role of CIs in teaching processes to construct English Teachers’ Identities development by interviewing Senior High School English teachers located in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Based on the background of the research, the problems are formulated as follows: 1. What were the meaningful critical incidents (CIs) identified from Senior High School English teachers? 2. How did the critical incidents (CIs) develop Senior High Schools teachers’ identities? METHOD Research method and participants This was a qualitative research where the researchers investigated the quality of relationship between CIs and teachers’ identities development. The researchers followed the theory of qualitative research from Fraenkel & Wallen (1993, p. 380), and Ary, Jacobs, Sorensen, & Razavieh (2010). In this study, the researchers analysed Public Senior High School English teachers’ stories about how CIs developed their identities by focusing on the total knowledge to get the depth understanding. To be specific, this study employed a narrative inquiry technique that focused on teachers’ meaningful experiences when they encountered unexpected situation. CIs become a learning moment for teachers to process their actions during the teaching and learning activities which ultimately can authorize their own teacher identities (Harrison, Lee, Harrison, & Lee. 2011). As mentioned by Ary et al. (2010), in narrative inquiry, the researcher analyses the knowledge of someone’s story. In this study, the researchers analyzed the story of teachers’ meaningful experiences as well as CIs occurring during their teaching process which were useful to develop their identities as Senior High School English teachers. The researchers investigated a small group of teachers from the population of Public Senior High School English teachers in Yogyakarta. A population is a group of individual that shares one or more characteristic in common (Best and Kahn, 2006; Fraenkel and Wallen 1993). From this population, the researchers invited eight Public Senior High School English teachers to share their experiences in teaching English and to identify the quality of relationship between CIs and teachers’ identity development. Data collection and analysis technique The researchers used three kinds of method in gaining the data. They are Open Form Questionnaire, Open–Ended Interview, and Classroom Observation. The researchers collected the data in January 2020 up to March 2020 and carried out data validation by member’s checking in April 2020. To analyse the data, the researchers prepared data transcription continued by data coding. The data collection and analysis technique were arranged by the following diagram. ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education p-ISSN 2301-7554, e-ISSN 2541-3643 Volume 9, Issue 1, December 2020 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE 51 Diagram 2. The formulation of data collection and analysis technique First, the Open Form Questionnaire was conducted to get prior information about how Public Senior High School English teachers defined and designed their identities as English teachers and whether CIs helped them to develop their identities. Second, the researchers completed the data transcription and data coding to develop the interview questions. The researchers followed the theory from Ary et al. (2010) about “coding” to develop the concepts from raw data. It was designed to categorize the differences and similarities found in the data collection. Third step, the researchers carried out individual Open – Ended Interview to gain deeper data about the story of teachers’ identities development and gained information about how CIs occurred, shaped, and developed their certain identities as Public Senior High School English teachers in Yogyakarta. Fourth, the researchers made the data transcription and data coding from the result of Open-Ended Interview. After finishing data coding, the researchers observed the teachers carrying out the learning process in the class and later on analyzed the respondents’ stories. Nevertheless, the process of classroom observation did not encounter CIs as precisely experienced by the teachers. The initial intention of classroom observation was to provide research triangulation. Next, the data collections were discussed with the supporting theories related to the teacher identity development and CIs theory. The researchers analyzed the result using narrative inquiry in which the researcher told the teachers’ story during their teaching process related with the function of CIs towards their identities development. The researchers followed the theory of Ary et al. (2010) that is in narrative inquiry, researchers examine and analyze someone’s stories. After writing the analysis, the analysis was sent to all respondents in order to get data validation (member check). The researchers conducted member check to all respondents so that the data can be categorized as trusted and valid data. In writing the discussion, the respondents’ names are all disguised to protect their privacy. Finally, from the data analysis, the researchers drew the conclusions. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION In total, there are twelve critical incident stories gathered from the public Senior High School English teachers to be discussed in this study. The stories were organized to answer the two research questions, namely the meanings of CIs as reflected by the teachers and the roles of those CIs to develop the teachers’ identities. The meaning of critical incidents for teachers The twelve stories of CIs were categorized into three major categories of CIs, namely students’ misbehavior, smart students, and self- improvement. Arima Renny Dayu Putri & Paulus Kuswandono The roles of critical incidents to construct public senior high school English teachers’ identities development 52 The researchers summarized the CIs stories in the three tables below. Students’ misbehavior Students’ misbehavior was improper behavior or unaccepted behavior for the teacher occurring in the teaching and learning process. The study found three kinds of students’ misbehavior, namely; “sleeping students”, “impolite words”, and “late arrival”. These students’ misbehavior suggested meaning for the teachers as mentioned in table below. Table 1. Students’ misbehavior No Teacher’s name Story / Number Meaning 1 Ms. Patricia Sleeping student (1) I have to make reflection about the teaching method and material. 2 Ms. Elsa Sleeping student (2) I have to discuss with other teacher to design our next step related to the students’ misbehaviour. 3 Ms. Anna Impolite words (3) This kind of incident helped me to change my identity from fun teacher to firm and discipline teacher by creating consequence related to the students’ misbehaviour. 4 Ms. Sofia Late arrival (4) I have to be a wise and caring teacher who is able to choose the right action related to the lateness of the student. 5 Mr. Henry Late arrival (5) I developed an identity as a caring teacher who was able to find the reason and solution about the student’s lateness. The public Senior High School English teachers in Yogyakarta experienced some students’ misbehavior in their teaching process. First, the cases of “sleeping students” (1, 2) were defined as CIs and experienced by Ms. Patricia and Ms. Elsa several times. These cases provided great meaning for both Ms. Patricia and Ms. Elsa. Experiencing some CIs like “sleeping students”, Ms. Patricia realized that she was given a big chance to evaluate or reflect her teaching techniques and material designed. Ms. Patricia’s case was in line with Joshi (2018) and Hall & Townsend (2017) that CIs are useful for teachers to learn and reflect on their most meaningful experiences for both positive and negative experiences. Ms. Patricia has done the right thing that she evaluated herself based on the case of “sleeping students” in her teaching process. Thus, the case of “sleeping student” provided a meaningful experience for teacher to conduct reflection about her teaching techniques and material designed. Second, Ms. Elsa’s case of “sleeping student” (2) took her to a related action which was conducting a discussion with the homeroom’s teacher and other teachers to find a solution. Her action was confirmed by Hall & Townsend (2017) that CIs become a meaningful learning moment for teachers to take related actions. In this case, Ms. Elsa defined that the case of “sleeping student” was a meaningful moment to find related useful action. Case number three, “impolite words” (3) were experienced by Ms. Anna and categorized as meaningful experience because it could change her identity. Ms. Anna’s awareness on her identity’s role was confirmed by Farrell (2011) that critical incident can generate teachers’ awareness of their identities’ roles. Ms. Anna changed her identity from fun English teacher to be a firm and discipline English teacher after designing consequences for students who produced impolite words in the school environment. Ms. Anna’s critical incident of “impolite words” was in line with Schutz, Hong, & Cross Francis (2018) and Gilstrap & Dupree (2002) that CIs often occur unpredictably and they are potential to change people’s lives as well as their development of identities. Thus, it is discernible that Ms. Anna’s case of “impolite words” was categorized as a meaningful experience because it was potential to transform the identity as an English teacher. Other cases of students’ misbehavior were the cases of “late arrival” (4, 5) experienced by Ms. Sofia and Mr. Henry. These CIs were meaningful moments to develop their identities as a genuine ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education p-ISSN 2301-7554, e-ISSN 2541-3643 Volume 9, Issue 1, December 2020 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE 53 caring teacher (Noddings, 2017). Both Ms. Sofia and Mr. Henry’s actions corroborated the arguments from Joshi (2018) and Hall & Townsend (2017). The arguments suggest that CIs are meaningful learning moment to develop teachers’ professional identities as they may guide teachers to choose related action to deal better with students’ problem or inappropriate behaviour. Both of them had to find the best action to deal with the late-arrival problem through critical discretion. It means that by arriving late, the students will not always deserve bad effect in their learning progress. Smart students Having smart students are meaningful to every teacher. They also become a distinct sign that meaningful learning process have occurred. On the other hand, smart students can create some learning problems leading to CIs as figured out in the following table. Table 2. Smart students No Teacher’s name Story / Number Meaning 1 Ms. Elsa Student’s feedback (6) Pronunciations mistakes help me to evaluate myself. I have to learn and prepare the material well before teaching in order to be a good example for my students. 2 Ms. Sofia Smart student (7) The students were smarter than me made me realized that I have to study hard in order to be a better teacher. 3 Ms. Sofia Ill-timed material coverage (8) I have to be more creative teacher in designing learning materials which are suitable for my students’ potential. Resulting smart students is the goal of every teacher. However, having smart students can be a rewarding CIs for some teachers. There were three stories about “smart students” in the classroom as reflected by Ms. Elsa and Ms. Sofia. Ms. Elsa’s case of “student’s feedback” (6) was a serious moment in her teaching career and it provided a substantial meaning to her. Being corrected by her student after having mispronunciations, she turned into deep embarrassment. It was a quite unpredictable and unforgettable moments for Ms. Elsa. This event was confirmed by Schutz et al. (2018) that CIs often happen unpredictably but they are significant to change people’s lives. Ms. Elsa’s case of having student’s feedback really took place in sudden and provide great opportunity for her to change her style of being a Senior High School English teacher. Ms. Elsa was motivated to prepare her teaching better in order to be a good model for her students. Her motivation to be better was confirmed by Richardson and Watt (2018) that motivation is somebody’s energy to achieve their defined goals. Furthermore, critical events are beneficial to challenge or support teachers’ goals, and it is principal in authoring teacher identity (Schutz, et al., 2018 ; Joshi, 2018). Ms. Elsa’s goal is to be a good model for her students. Therefore, by having wrong pronunciation in her teaching, she had to change her strategy in preparing and conducting teaching. So, it was assumed that “student’s feedback” provided a great meaning for an English teacher to be a better teacher by preparing and conducting teacher activities in a correct way. Case number seven, the story of having “smart students” (7) gave a great meaning for Ms. Sofia. In this case, she thought that her students were smarter than her since they could answer the task faster and better than her. The meaning of this critical incident was providing a learning moment for teacher to take related action as well as study hard to have better performance and knowledge in teaching English. She believed that teachers have to learn and learn over the time. As a teacher, she believed that studying harder will produce better teaching activities. Ms. Sofia’s meaningful experience was in line with Atai & Nejadghanbar (2015) that CIs become a meaningful learning moment for teachers to take related actions. It was clear that having smart students led Ms. Sofia to learn more as a teacher. Likewise, the case of “ill-timed material coverage” (8) contributed a great meaning for a better material designed. In this case, Ms. Sofia Arima Renny Dayu Putri & Paulus Kuswandono The roles of critical incidents to construct public senior high school English teachers’ identities development 54 experienced all materials that have already been delivered to the students before the semester ended. To cover the rest of the time, it was difficult for her to find materials to be delivered to the students. Atai & Nejadghanbar (2015) explained that CIs become a meaningful learning moment for teachers to take related actions. In line with their findings, Ms. Sofia assumed that critical incident gave her meaning to design more creative material and well time management in teaching. Self-improvement Teachers’ self-improvement is continuous development of teacher’s knowledge and teaching quality. It is the requirement to upgrade their quality to be better in their teaching profession. The table below specified some experiences of CIs supporting teachers’ self-improvement. Table 3. Self-improvement No Teacher’s name Story / Number Meaning 1 Mr. Christian High potential students (9) I have to upgrade my own quality in teaching and preparing the material for my high potential students. 2 Ms. Sofia High potential students (10) I have to learn how to design better material and to choose the better teaching methods to be applied in the new school. 3 Mr. Christian Going abroad (11) I felt that my English was tested during school visit in Australia. This experience improved my self- confidence. 4 Ms. Sofia Peer teaching (12) I developed my identity as a creative teacher who can design more interesting material for my students using technology as I learnt from the student-teacher. The last big major category of CIs in this study was “self-improvement” which was experienced by two respondents. Both Mr. Christian and Ms. Sofia experienced the case of “high potential students” (9, 10). Their CIs appeared when both of them faced high potential students on their movement in new public Senior High Schools. These new Senior High Schools as their new work places were categorized as favorite schools. The students there were very smart in comparison to their previous students in the previous schools. Both of them thought and experienced that to deal with smarter students, it is mandatory to prepare better teaching techniques and materials. Having such incidents, they realized that upgrading the quality of teaching must be done. Mr. Christian and Ms. Sofia’s actions were in line with Harrison et al. (2011) that CIs become a meaningful learning moment for teachers to take related actions. In this case, both Mr. Christian and Ms. Sofia were being agentic teachers to find solution in the challenging new classrooms. Biesta and Tedder (2007) argued that agentic teachers are those who are active and able to shape their responsibilities to the challenging classroom. In line with Biesta and Tedder (2007), Mr. Christian and Ms. Sofia took responsibility by upgrading themselves in terms of materials design and teaching methods. They were motivated to take responsibility so that they can be a good and appropriate teacher for high potential students. As Richardson and Watt (2018) defined motivation is somebody’s energy to achieve their defined goals, both of them had energy to have better teaching qualities. Thus, having high potential students provided great meaning for teachers to burn up their energy or motivation to upgrade themselves and have better quality of teaching. The next case concerning with self- improvement was the case of “going abroad” (11) experienced by Mr. Christian. He had an unforgettable experience on his first time visiting another Senior High School in Australia. Unforgettable experience is confirmed by Farrell (2013) that a critical incident is any unpredictable and unforgettable experience occurring both in the teaching process and outside class. Both Mr. Christian and the natives’ teachers found difficulty and misunderstanding conversation since they had different dialects. Thus, Mr. Christian struggled to have better communication. Even though having difficulty, Mr. Christian thought that his ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education p-ISSN 2301-7554, e-ISSN 2541-3643 Volume 9, Issue 1, December 2020 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE 55 experience was a critical incident for him to achieve a better value of himself as an English teacher. His great point of view in analyzing critical incident was in line with Schutz et al. (2018) that critical events are beneficial to challenge or support teachers’ goals, values, and beliefs and it is vital in authoring teachers’ identities. After visiting another Senior High School in Australia for about a month, he felt more confident to be an English teacher. In other words, his speaking English has been tested well by native speakers. It was clear that the case of “going abroad” provided special meaning for Mr. Christian for his English fluency improvement and his confidence in being Senior High School English teacher in a favourite school. “Peer-teaching” (12) was the last case of self- improvement category which also provided deep meanings. Ms. Sofia learned how to design material using technology from the students- teacher who practiced teaching in her classroom. By designing more interesting material and applying technology in teaching, she developed her identity as creative teacher. Her critical incident’s meaning is in line with Schutz et al. (2018) that CIs take place unpredictably, they are potential to change people’s lives as well as their development of identities. It was found that Ms Sofia positively assumed the meaning of “peer-teaching” as having self-improvement to be creative teacher and have a better quality of teaching. The roles of critical incidents to develop teachers’ identities Learning a larger study on teacher identity construction, those public Senior High School teachers as the research respondents provided the roles of CIs to develop their professional identities. The roles of CIs to construct teachers’ identities were analyzed based on three major categories of CIs. Students’ misbehavior Teacher identity is created during teacher’s life and the process of teaching. It means that identity can be developed by many factors, experiences, and conditions. Identity is defined as a continual and dynamic process which involves both a person and a context (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009). Students’ misbehaviors were useful context which provided chance for teachers to develop their identity. Ms. Patricia’s case of “sleeping students” (1) was useful for her to be a reflective teacher. The incident of “sleeping student” made Ms. Patricia reflected on her quality of teaching. It was found that Ms. Patricia preferred to evaluate her quality of teaching than to classify “sleeping students” problem as students’ mistake. It was in line with Schutz et al. (2018) that critical events are beneficial to challenge or support teachers’ goals, values, and beliefs based on teachers’ attributions and emotional responses, and it is essential in authoring their identities. The case of “sleeping students” was a challenging moment for Ms Patricia to develop her identity. It was assumed that Ms. Patricia chose more interesting teaching techniques and more creative material. The better quality of teaching was useful to develop students’ motivation in learning English. In this case, Ms. Patricia was an agentic teacher as she found solution related to the crucial problem in her English classroom. Ruohotie-Lyhty (2018) explained that an individual’s agency in a particular environment is crucial to identity development. She could design better qualities of teaching to support reaching her goal in teaching English trough self-efficacy. According to Bandura (2010), self-efficacy indicates the success of a person’s belief in his ability to achieve goals that affect his life. By reflecting her teaching quality and designing better English teaching activities, Ms. Patricia’s identity as Senior High School English teacher was developed to be interesting and creative teacher. The other case of “sleeping students” (2) could be regarded a role to develop teacher’s identity as experienced by Ms. Elsa. It was assumed that Ms. Elsa developed her identity as agentic and responsible teacher by creating solution dealing with students’ misbehavior. Choosing teaching as a career involves individual qualities, expectancies, values, beliefs, and talents, as well as accommodating required social roles, responsibilities, and expectations (Richardson & Watt, 2018, p.39). In line with Richardson and Watt’s (2018) theory that teacher’s quality deals with responsibility, Ms. Elsa realized that she has the responsibility to educate students. Therefore, she conducted discussion with homeroom teacher and other teachers related to the case of “sleeping Arima Renny Dayu Putri & Paulus Kuswandono The roles of critical incidents to construct public senior high school English teachers’ identities development 56 students” to find out the best solution. This was a challenging problem and demanded active teachers to find the solution. Agentic teachers are those who are active and able to shape their responsibilities to the challenging classroom (Biesta & Tedder, 2007). Evidently, Ms. Elsa seriously appreciated her profession as agentic and responsible teacher and consistently developed her identity. The case of “impolite words” (3) experienced by Ms. Anna gave beneficial function for her to develop her identity as a firm and discipline teacher. Ms. Anna’s first identity was a fun English teacher. She wanted to have successful English teaching by being a fun teacher. However, she found a critical incident in her teaching that her students produce impolite words. It was assumed that her students had low respect to her. After having such incident, Ms. Anna realized that she had to develop a better character as well as being firm and discipline teacher in order to fulfill the responsibility of educating students. She designed consequences for the students who produce impolite words. The development of Ms. Anna’s identity was in line with Ruohotie-Lyhty (2018) that identity development depends on the people who actively take action to construct their identity or how they create better identity over time. It was clear that Ms. Anna has developed her identity from fun English teacher to be firm and discipline English teacher because of having the case of students’ “impolite words”. “Late arrival” could create bad emotion for both the students and the teacher. However, it could be very useful for reflective teachers in developing their identities. Late arrival provided benefits for Mr. Henry and Ms. Sofia. They were identified as caring teachers. They always managed their emotion in facing late arrival students so that there is not bad effect appeared to all students in the class. Being able to control emotion is one of teachers’ identities developments. Emotion is related to the discussion of teacher’s identity because it is a feature between teacher-self and a factor that influence his/her identity and the shaping of it (Day, 2018). Both Mr. Henry and Ms. Sofia chose to control their emotion and care to the students who came late to the class. Emotion was an essential factor in the teachers’ identity development because it is a feature between the teachers and factors that influence their identities (Wolff & De Costa, 2017). Both Mr. Henry and Ms. Sofia chose to control their emotion and gave good attention to the students who came late to the class. Thus, it was shown that the case of “late arrival” contributed a great role in developing teachers’ identities as well as being caring teachers. Smart students Every student needs good teachers to obtain good education, particularly in the ways they guide students to generate meanings in their learning moments. Ms. Elsa and Ms. Sofia’s cases of “smart students” (6, 7, 8) are good evidences for teachers to develop their identity. The three cases namely “student feedback”, “smart students”, and “ill- timed material coverage” were in line with Richardson and Watt (2018) that choosing teaching as a career involves individual qualities, expectancies, values, beliefs, and talents, as well as accommodating required social roles, responsibilities, and expectations. Having mispronunciation during teaching process and being corrected by her students, Ms. Elsa was motivated to be a better teacher in order to be a good model for her students. Teacher’s identity is dynamic and formed by motivation and goals before becoming a teacher. It is constructed by the extent to which the teacher plays a role related to the tasks of the community and their profession in the future (Richardson & Watt, 2018). In this case, she was motivated to develop her identity to be a good model for her students as her goal in the beginning of being an English teacher. Furthermore, case number seven (7) was beneficial for Ms. Sofia to construct her identity. According to Ruohotie-Lyhty (2018), identity development depends on the people who actively take action to construct their identity or how they create better identity over the time. In these cases, she realized that she had to improve her quality of teaching and prepare more creative material for the students. In this study, it was found that teacher identity is a dynamic process. Every teacher could evaluate and improve their quality of teaching after having such CIs. Senior High School English teachers developed their identity during their teaching process from the existing CIs. ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education p-ISSN 2301-7554, e-ISSN 2541-3643 Volume 9, Issue 1, December 2020 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE 57 Self-improvement Personal growth and development can create teachers’ identities. To gain teacher’s personal growth and development, upgrading teaching quality will be one requirement in developing teachers’ identities. The cases of “self- improvement” (9, 10, 11, 12) were related to teachers’ personal growth to develop their identities as Senior High School English teachers. The case of “high potential students” (9 & 10) motivated Mr. Christian and Ms. Sofia to upgrade their teaching quality. Their motivations to upgrade their teaching quality upon their movement into favorite schools are confirmed by Richardson and Watt (2018, p.40) that motivation was extended to explain processes that empower people to engage in tasks to achieve goals. Teachers wish to create better identities for themselves through upgrading their teaching quality. In this case, both Mr. Christian and Ms. Sofia had high potential students that empowered them to take a decision as well as upgrading their teaching methods and material for the students. Similarly, the case of “going abroad” (11) provided Mr. Christian a great role to improve his confidence as an English teacher who was successfully having conversation with native English teachers in Australia. He thought that his first visit to Australia strengthened his identity as fluent speaking Senior High School English teacher. The last case, “peer teaching” (12) also provided a useful function to develop Senior High School English teacher’s identity. The critical incident experienced by Ms. Sofia as well as having peer teaching with student-teacher corroborated the notion from Meijer and Oosterheert (2018) that learning to teach for creativity can then be approached as a process of professional identity development. This study found that Ms. Sofia learned how to be a more creative teacher by applying some new application using technology to have more interesting teaching and learning process. Thus, Ms. Sofia developed her identity to be a creative teacher. In accordance with two respondents’ life experiences, both of them proved that teacher identity is dynamic and is continually developed by career motivations and goals, playing the roles required of a teacher related to social needs of teacher profession, and is committed to the career (Richardson and Watt, 2018). Both Mr. Christian and Ms. Sofia were undertaking self-improvement because of their CIs reflection in the teaching process. They were committed to have better quality of teaching in order to take up the responsibility of Public Senior High School English teachers. CONCLUSION Teacher’s identity is essentially a dynamic cycle of teacher’s experience during their teaching process. CIs in the teaching process occasionally occurred and actually contributed profound roles to construct teacher’s identity. In this study, there were 12 stories of CIs revealed and subsequently classified into three major categories respectively: student’s misbehavior (5 stories), smart students (3 stories), and teachers’ self-improvement (4 stories). The stories motivated the teachers to be reflective teacher, empowered themselves to be agentic teachers in finding solution, developed teachers’ identities, supported their confidence, and encouraged them to have better teaching quality. Those 12 stories constitute the evidences of significant reflections on the English teachers’ identity construction as Public Senior High School. The researchers perceive that this study can provide contribution to English teachers, English Education Study Program students, and other researchers. To English teachers, this study provides additional contribution to the existing varieties of CIs in developing teachers’ identities. To pre-service teachers in English Education Departments, this study is expected to provide clear information and knowledge concerning the role of CIs in teaching and learning process. Pre- service teachers can reflect the usefulness of CIs to improve their identities as professional English teachers in the future. To future researchers, this study suggests that the roles of CIs are not limited to teacher identity construction, but are also available to benefit students. By reflecting CIs in students’ learning experiences, for example, the teachers can help students to craft their agencies to be more autonomous and self-motivated learners. 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