Novice language teachers steer their emotional vulnerabilities toward exercising agency: A dialogical-community of practice study

Abstract

This study longitudinally tracked how a CoP focused on sharing emotional vulnerabilities contributed to three novice language teachers’ agencies across the three dimensions of belonging (engagement, imagination, and alignment). Multi-stage analyses of data sources (interviews, reflective journals, observations, and online interactions) revealed that the CoP provided a space for the teachers to engage in dialogism that mitigated the negative effects of emotional vulnerabilities on their growth and enhanced their ability to better exercise agency. We show how personal attributes shaped CoP membership, which in turn reshaped those personal attributes toward the desirable goals of openness to vulnerabilities, dialogism, and enhanced agency.