Unveiling identities: exploring emotional self-expression and bilingualism through digital storytelling in teacher education

Abstract

This article examines how teachers can facilitate professional identity development through digital composition. We describe how two teachers use multimodal digital storytelling to reflect on their histories and advance their professional development. The study uses qualitative case study methods and employs a new analytical framework for analyzing multimodal products like digital stories. Data include semi-structured interviews, digital stories, and classroom observations. We analyzed the digital stories using a multimodal analytical framework informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics. This framework illuminates how the teachers express themselves along four dimensions: representational, interpersonal, compositional, and sociocultural. In both cases, the teachers gave a longitudinal view of their own development from childhood and described how their facility with the symbolic systems of dance and folk art was central to their sense of self. The opportunity to share these stories facilitated emotional self-expression and professional identity development.