Linguistic, English Education and Art (LEEA) Journal Volume 7 Nomor 1, Juli-Desember 2023 e-ISSN : 2597-3819 p-ISSN : 2597-9248 DOI : https://doi.org/10.31539/leea.v7i1.6242 1 EXPLORING PRE-SERVICE TEACHER’S PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY USING METAPHORS: IMPLICATION FOR EDUCATION CURRICULA Mira Patlasari1 State University of Surabaya mira.19024@mhs.unesa.ac.id Pratiwi Retnaningdyah2 State University of Surabaya pratiwiretnaningdyah@unesa.ac.id Slamet Setiawan3 State University of Surabaya slametsetiawan@unesa.ac.id mira.19024@mhs.unesa.ac.id1 ABSTRACT This research aims to reveal professional identity formation as a key idea in education; little is known about the procedure from the viewpoint of the students. The goal of this study is to evaluate the limitations of the metaphors used by Indonesian first-graders studying education to characterize teachers in the context of developing a professional identity. The method is both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the data were done. The result has shown that four conceptual themes were comprised of a total of 39 well-articulated metaphorical pictures. In conclusion, despite some restrictions, the use of metaphors to create and explain professional identities can be useful in reflecting the values and beliefs of matriculating to education school, as well as in providing some insight into the personal beliefs and values of matriculating assistance with and suggestions for curriculum conception. Keywords: Education Curriculum; Education Students; Metaphors; Professional Identity INTRODUCTION Professional identity is a continuing process in which individual and professional phases of becoming a teacher are continuously integrated. This conception confesses teachers as persons and professionals at the same time who https://doi.org/10.31539/leea.v7i1.6242 mailto:mira.19024@mhs.unesa.ac.id1 2 live and work under the great influence of numerous elements inside and outside the school (Ko & Kim, 2021). Teachers' professional careers are impacted by how they interpret their professional identity. In this regard, promoting teacher identity may aid in the creation of teacher preparation programs. Cognitive, social, and professional components make up the concept of teacher identity (Karabay, 2016). The status that teaching holds in teachers' and teacher candidates' beliefs, points of view, emotions, and opinions, as well as how pre-service teachers and in-service teachers view themselves and rationally comprehend their appointment, can be understood by looking into this formation. The understanding of the teacher-self as a direct policy practitioner predicts the success or failure of new pedagogies or policies, making the study of professional identity essential for curriculum improvement (Han, 2021). Language teachers have multifaceted beliefs concerning teaching and learning, and these beliefs have an influential impact on teaching practice (Farrell & Ives, 2014). Because teaching experiences are so extensive, unpredictable, and thus contextualized (Farrell, 2011). Language teachers are not only prepared with pedagogical content knowledge and subject but also to be able to act in response to reality which will be varied and unpredictable. Identity as a professional English teacher Identification and negotiation of one's self-roles, prior learning and teaching experiences, and the roles supported by institutional and societal practices all go into the building (Chien, 2020). By using metaphor, pre-service teachers will be considered to increase their awareness about their future job dealing with the teaching and learning process. Metaphor is known as more than just a linguistic tool. Metaphor supports the person to think differently about an occurrence (Gomez, 2021). Moreover, Kaasila argued metaphors help in adding coherence to the descriptions of personalities, especially when looking back at their biography (Lutovac & Kaasila, 2014). Metaphor is a narrator's tool to help interconnect their meanings, feelings, and understandings of communities and their standing in society (Gomez, 2021). Metaphors can also help pre-service teachers express and create to raise awareness of professional activity through depictions of themselves and their experiences. This perspective may help us better understand how pre-service teachers in various sociocultural contexts perceive themselves as individuals, their patients, their work, and their teaching (i.e., What is it like to be a teacher? ) by observing a variety of metaphors about pre-service teachers. From a curricular perspective, students' expectations and behaviors can assist create or arrange the learning environment appropriately if they are specified early in the process. However, although metaphor should be at the heart of any study that aims to explain language and communication generally, the significant debates surrounding language and the implications that metaphor raises are not even 3 mentioned. In general, metaphors are conceptualized and comprehended with the same ease as our usual literal vocabulary. The difficulty lies in explaining how we understand metaphors, not in comprehending them. Pre-service teachers had to understand their professional identities as teachers, which entailed both their thoughts and actions. Pre-service and in-service teachers' views about who they are have an impact on both their thoughts and behaviors. Their beliefs have an impact on how readily they accept and implement English teaching strategies, techniques, and activities. According to Clarke, Hyde, and Drennan (2013), research on teachers' professional identities is relatively new in education, despite its long history in other fields and professions (Clarke, 2013). There is still a lack of research on the professional identities of Indonesian teachers of English as a foreign language. Additionally, Ahmad et al. (2020) have found that assessing how teachers comprehend their own identities can give teacher educators more insight into their student teachers, enabling them to create materials that can support teachers' education plans. The importance of this research being carried out is to find out the understanding of pre-service teachers about the teaching profession they will carry out in the future. When pre-service teachers know what a teacher's profession looks like, it will make it easier for them to understand the next material given to them so they can work professionally as a teacher. According to arguments made in favor of these advantages, both teaching effectiveness and student learning outcomes may benefit (Ahmad et al., 2018). In light of this, Ahmad (2015) further recommended that EFL educators create their professional identities as early as feasible in teacher education programs. Based on previous research that has not revealed the comprehension of pre-service teachers about the teacher profession, this research was conducted to fulfill material that was unrevealed in previous research. LITERATURE REVIEW Teacher Professional Identity (TPI) The idea of TPI is connected to the claim that one's career has a substantial impact on one's identity (Runcieman, 2018). The term "teacher identity" describes the idea of the professional personality that develops for a career. Cognitive, social, and professional components make up the teaching identity (Karabay, 2016).TPI has been widely viewed in sociological perspectives, including first, macro- sociological theory, which identifies TPI as an outcome of a person's being a part of the administrative and economic scheme; second, a structural-functional method, which believes that people inevitably adjust their TPI through a progression of professional training, taking on and performing a specific role or profession in society and its responsibilities; and third, symbolic interactionism method, which believes that people adjust their TPI through a process of symbolic interaction. 4 Although research on TPI is always expanding, researchers have put forth several theories regarding the phenomenon and the methods used to study it. However, a summary of the nature of the idea that the current study is based on can be created. TPI, or teacher professional identity, first refers to how a teacher perceives oneself within the influences of personal identity and as a professional within a particular educational context (Pillen et al., 2012). Second, TPI is dynamic as a result of the complicated context in which it is produced. Teachers might thus notice that they have more than one TPI (Mockler, 2011). Third, TPI develops under the effects of a network of variables, including pre-service to in-service orientation, job and life experience, personal identity, emotion, and self-image (Prabjandee, 2019). Fourth, TPI has an impact on teachers' professional growth, judgment, and performance both inside and outside the classroom (Abednia, 2012). The above- discussed broad ideas of TPI are represented in attempts to conceptualize and explore EFL TPI. Reviews of the literature on teacher identity are complete, yet precise definitions are elusive. There are many descriptions of the teacher's identity in literature. It is widely accepted that developing one's professional identity is a continuous, dynamic process in which people examine their internal and external beliefs to make sense of who they are and what they are doing as educators (Pillen et al., 2012). Additionally, a teacher's professional identity can be defined as a self- qualified concept that is built through experiences teaching in a variety of professional contexts, and that attests to what it means to be a teacher (Lasky, 2005). Teacher identity, or conceptions or pictures of oneself, can be simply stated as how teachers view themselves and their profession. Metaphors Value of Metaphors in Education The word metaphor gets its meaning from a Greek verb that means "to carry across." Metaphors may be a useful tool to help pre-service teachers understand who they are as professionals and to connect this understanding to their professional development and evolution, according to research (Iswandari, 2017). According to the literature, the use of metaphor may aid in increasing pre-service teachers' awareness of implied, insensible beliefs they hold. This may help pre-service teachers: a) Explore their beliefs and apply them to classroom action; b) Understand the impact of their beliefs as they teach and are open to new content and teaching methods; and c) Appreciate how their beliefs change throughout their professions (Han, 2021). Additionally, metaphors are used to support the growth, development, and assessment of teachers' professional identity and may have an impact on how teachers define themselves and how they describe others, such as their students. Metaphors have evolved into a powerful tool for examining teachers' professional expertise and way of thinking. Unexamined implicit knowledge and ingrained ideas may endure underdeveloped and continue to reinforce educational 5 procedures that may not be informed by current theories and dependable methods. Making implicit information apparent can be achieved by including pre-service teachers in an elicitation method that prompts them to come up with metaphors that summarize their views about teaching and learning (Nickel & Crosby, 2021). Building an awareness of a teacher's professional identity requires participation in an organized and continuous investigation of preexisting attitudes and beliefs. Several studies that investigated pre-service and in-service teachers' beliefs to uncover how they conceptualize teaching and learning and teacher identity development used metaphor as a research tool. The attitudes of pre-service and in- service teachers toward classroom activities, interactions between teachers and students, and the development of teachers' views about teaching and learning were the subjects of much of this research. The Role of Metaphors in the Cognitive Construction of Belief Metaphors were seen in conventional social psychology as the disposable stylistic creation of the imagination and a lovely manner of communicating unarticulated thoughts. But just as beliefs are now understood to be ascribed processes rather than merely linguistic products, metaphor is now understood to be a cognitive as well as linguistic process that unites two domains, or "mental spaces," in a single linguistic phrase. There is always room for slippage between source and destination due to the terseness of metaphor. Traveling can be enjoyable or unpleasant, leisurely or competitive, long or short, straight or meandering, with or without a defined objective. As a result, not every feature of travel can be mapped into language acquisition, and different readers interpret the same metaphor differently at different points in time. To put an unarticulated belief into words transforms it, which is why linguistic anthropologists like Hanks (2000) can make that claim. Because in addition to what is "said," there are numerous presuppositions, entailments, implicates, and contextual inferences that could all be argued to have been formed in my utterance. To put it another way, it is not the case that a learner's description of the experience of learning a language as similar to exploring new places reflects his enduring belief about the experience of learning a language, nor is it the case that travel means the same thing to him now as it will in a year, nor is it the case that it does to him and the researcher. The so-called issue of numerous metaphors for concepts can be readily resolved, according to Gibbs (1998, p. 109), if we think of concepts as transient, dynamic, and context-dependent representations rather than as fixed, static structures (Nickel & Crosby, 2021). A Metaphor is a cognitive space that goes beyond an expressed figure of speech, such as "My love is a rose" or "Learning is traveling." It can also be expressed more broadly in the varied aspects of the literary mind, which, according to Turner (1996), is how people generally understand the world. As I'll demonstrate 6 later, metaphor can arise in the shape of fables, parables, or allegories, as well as in commonplace ways of speaking or writing about one's experience learning a language. It appears as metaphor works best for expressing ambiguous attitudes and views. It may easily capture conflict, paradox, and incompatibility between the target and source domains since it combines two mental regions into one (Nickel & Crosby, 2021). RESEARCH METHOD This research uses qualitative research design to answer the research questions. This design was selected to get an extensive exploration of coping with the difficulty, which, in this example, the pre-service teachers' mindset closer to professional identity about their future job. The study population consisted of all first- year student teachers enrolled in the faculty of education. The sample is made up of 20 pre- service EFL teachers. The sampling technique that will be applied is convenience. Since participants are selected based on availability and willingness to take part, they have participated voluntarily in the study. Participants who have the time and willingness to participate in this research find it easier to express their opinions and views on the professional identity of a teacher. In addition, participants who voluntarily participate in research produce sentences that are pure from their thoughts without any coercion from others. In this study, data were collected using a structured, self-administered questionnaire containing the prompt: A teacher is like________because_________. The participant was informed about the nature of the study and permission to use anonymously) material from their essays is obtained. To gather data, a blank sheet of paper with the aforementioned prompt has been given out, along with the straightforward directive to fill it by concentrating on a single metaphorical image. At the bottom of the page, there are a few closed-ended demographic questions as well. The words "like" and "because" are used to stress the similarity between the "metaphor topic" (i.e., instructor) and the "metaphor vehicle" (i.e., source domain). Participants were asked to write about a metaphorical image that embodied their professional thinking to express their latent beliefs. The researcher gives the participants 15 minutes to finish this activity because they aim to generate quick responses to the "teacher" prompt rather than lengthy essays on the subject. The methodology for data analysis is metaphor analysis. Although it is primarily a qualitative research methodology similar to content analysis, metaphor analysis also enables researchers to use quantitative techniques on categorical data that result from the participants' underlying meanings and justifications for each metaphorical link. The researcher follows the data analysis stages and actions set forth as follows: (1) naming and labeling; (2) sorting (clarification and elimination); (3) deciding the unit of analysis; (4) sample metaphor compilation and categorization; (5) establishing inter-rater reliability; and (6) quantitative data 7 analysis. The analysis uses inductive content analysis. Four major conceptual categories are identified. Inter-coder reliability of the qualitative data is assessed using Miles and Huberman’s formula (Reliability = Agreement/Agreement + Disagreement x 100). Reliability is also assessed through the use of the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), which provides an estimate of the level of rater agreement as well as rater consistency. Lastly, we calculated counts (n) and percentages (%) of metaphors in each category. In brief, all the metaphorical images supplied by the participants are reviewed independently by the researcher. FINDING Study subjects included 99 education students enrolled in the Faculty of Education, 40% of eligible participants. Based on quantitative findings (counts and percentages) from the open-ended responses, a total of 99 study participants produced 39 recognizable "teacher" metaphors, which were then positioned within four underlying conceptual themes, including (1) the teacher as a figure of compassion and assistance; (2) the teacher as a superior figure; (3) the teacher as a source and the way of information; and (4) the teacher as a helper. A brief explanation is in Table 1. Table 1. Classification of Metaphor No. Meaning Metaphor Total Sentence Percentage 1. The teacher is a symbol of compassion and assistance 1. Mother 2. Parents 1 1 5% 2. The teacher is viewed as a superior, idealistic, and authoritative individual. 3. Gardener 4. Master of Educator 5. Influencer 6. Tour guide 1 1 1 1 10% 3. The teacher is a source and way of information. 7. The light 8. Root 9. Book 10. Candle 11. Lantern 12. Key 13. Bridge 14. Door 15. Street Sign 6 1 1 2 3 1 3 2 2 53.8% 4. The teacher as a helper 16. Angel 17. Hero 1 1 30.7% 8 The teacher is a symbol of compassion and assistance The most common image of a teacher was that of a person who was "kind and helpful." This conceptual theme was made up of 2 individuals (5%) and two metaphors, with the major themes being a mother (1) and parents (1). The following sentences describe this group of metaphors' major traits: A teacher is like a mother because she is caring and always willing to help. A teacher is like parents because they give their knowledge with sincerity. The teacher is viewed as a superior, idealistic, and authoritative individual. Overall, four students (10%) conveyed this conceptual topic, with the metaphor gardener (1), master of educator (1), influencer (1), and tour guide (1) being used. The main characteristics of this category of metaphors include the following: A teacher is like a gardener because he/she will cultivate, give water to plants every day. A teacher is like a master of educators because they can educate, teach, and guide students. A teacher is like an influencer because he/she can influence students. A teacher is like a tour guide because he/she guides the students to their destination. The teacher is a source and way of information. This conceptual theme included a total of 21 pupils (53,8%) and nine metaphors, with the light (6), root (1), book (1), candle (2), lantern (3), key (1), bridge (3), door (2), and street sign (2) being the most frequent. The primary qualities of this category of metaphors include: A teacher is like the light because they give students enlightenment. A teacher is like the root of a tree because a teacher always wants to keep his students up like tree leaves. A teacher is like a book because they are full of knowledge. A teacher is like a candle that illuminates students from a dark life to a brighter life. A teacher is like a lantern because a teacher gives us light in the darkness. A teacher is like a key to get success in our life because teachers make a lasting impact on students' life. A teacher is like a bridge because they give us a way to cross over to success through the knowledge they provide. A teacher is like a door because they always lead us to enter various doors to success. 9 A teacher is like a street sign because they give us directions to our destination. The teacher as a helper This conceptual theme consisted of 12 pupils (30,7%) and two metaphors, with the metaphors of angel and hero being the most prevalent. The following were the primary traits of this group: A teacher is like an angel because they guide students to be better and always on the right path. A teacher is like a hero because they help students to get knowledge by spending their time and their power. DISCUSSION Through the use of metaphors, this study investigated how first-graders conceptions of the teacher profession compared to other occupations. This provided crucial information about the structure of the current Indonesian education school system. Furthermore, Ahmad et al. (2020) discovered that evaluating how teachers conceptualize their own identities might help teacher educators gain a deeper understanding of their student instructors and help them develop materials that can support teachers' education plans. This research found that the students' self- generated metaphors demonstrated that they had generally favorable opinions about a teacher. For instance, the two most common pictures among Indonesian students were "compassion and assistance" (5%) and "superior: idealist and authoritative" (10%). These results also imply that many teacher candidates perceive their professional obligations to education-related concerns outside of their core educational practices to be personal obligations manifested through community involvement. These results are in line with a professional philosophy that holds that teachers should support the society that affords them professional standing. The efficacy of teaching and student learning outcomes may both improve, according to the arguments in favor of these benefits (Ahmad et al., 2018). Ahmad (2015) further advised EFL instructors to develop their professional identities as early as possible in teacher education programs in light of this. Related to those findings, this research found fifty-three percent of participants (53,8%) thought of teachers as superior, idealistic, and authoritative figures. Here, it's possible that the classroom setting affects how pupils think and behave. First-grade education students’ fourth metaphor of a teacher was as a ‘helper’ (30,7%). A student must receive one of the top scores on the university admission exam in order to be accepted into the Indonesian educational system. Education students are therefore regarded as an elite group in Indonesian society 10 even before they become teachers in terms of mental prowess and knowledge. The perception of a teacher as a helper, on the other hand, may be linked to friendliness and assistance: Teachers should assist their pupils by imparting knowledge or by responding to their inquiries regarding their newly acquired knowledge and the difficulties of other students. Teachers are trusted by students with their knowledge and sometimes their lives. However, while shifts in the implicit beliefs of first-grade education students are desired and should be anticipated as a result of their training, consideration must also be given to the direction of curriculum change. By assessing if the desired change in the learner's attitudes, knowledge, or abilities has been attained, curricular evaluation can assess whether the goals and objectives of a course have been reached. CONCLUSION Considering that the four conceptual themes explored in this study were 'externally devised' by reviewers rather than created by the participants themselves, they should be viewed as somewhat speculative. The boundaries between some subjects may therefore appear unduly arbitrary. Last but not least, it is unclear from the approach utilized whether individuals supplied their ideal views of teachers or an image based on experience. The first grade is a crucial year in the education curriculum. By recognizing their underlying assumptions at this level, pre-service teachers can consider how well they now comprehend the field and identify aspects that either advance or impede their learning. The roles they envision for themselves, together with the perceptions that support them, may endure through time and eventually evolve into false beliefs that are resistant to change: metaphor Students can identify and test implicit beliefs and presumptions using analysis as a reflective technique, which may lead to modifications education procedures. Additionally, it can increase self- awareness, which eventually encourages students and professors to make well- informed educational decisions that go beyond conventional norms for cognition and situation. REFERENCES Abednia, A. (2012). Teachers’ Professional Identity: Contributions of A Critical EFL Teacher Education Course in Iran. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(5), 706–717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2012.02.005 Ahmad, H., Latada, F., Wahab, N., Shah, S., & Khan, K. (2018). Shaping Professional Identity Through Professional Development: A Retrospective Study of TESOL Professionals. 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