Research shows that the prior experiences of career changers have considerable influence on their developing sense of self as teachers (Freeman & Johnson, 1998). Professional and personal identities held earlier in life are often reflected in the ways in which teachers plan and carry out instruction and interact with students and colleagues (Goodson, 1992; Goodson & Walker, 1991; Williams, 2010; Zeichner & Gore, 1990). In this chapter, I describe the study participants' reactions to concepts covered in the teacher training program and how their prior knowledge and experiences help them make sense of this new information. I examine how they see themselves as teachers of English learners and reconcile the various professional identities they have constructed in other careers. We will glimpse the inner conflicts they experience as they cross seemingly irreconcilable disciplinary boundaries and transition from being experts in their previous careers to being novices in TESOL. Based on these discussions, I will make a case for recognizing the wealth and diversity of career-change teachers' experiences and show how doing so contributes to both individual professional development and advancement of the TESOL field as a whole.

Communities of Practice

How do people become teachers? What kind of learning is necessary to become an effective teacher? Educational theorists, Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, coined the term 'situated learning' to show that learning is a social process that is embedded within activity, context and culture (Lave, 1996; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). Like other sociocultural theorists (e.g. Vygotsky, 1978), Lave and Wenger conceptualize learning as a fundamentally social phenomenon, which occurs in interaction between people rather than simply in the minds of individuals. They view learning as a process of increasing participation in different 'communities of practice', that is, groups of people with a common interest in particular areas or domains. Lave and Wenger (1991) maintain that newcomers to a community of practice are 'legitimate peripheral participants' who construct an identity within the community by being immersed in its practices. They argue that learning is a process of identity formation.