Turkish EFL lecturers' multicultural competence levels and their teacher identity construction through reflective practices: A case study

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Bahçeşehir Üniversitesi, Eğitim Bilimleri Fakültesi, Yabancı Diller Eğitimi, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2025

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: ZEYNEP EDA GÜLLER

Danışman: Pınar Başkan

Özet:

This present research aims at exploring Turkish English as a Foreign Language (EFL) lecturers' multicultural competence levels and their teacher identity construction through reflective practices, using teacher journals in a multicultural educational setting. The study was conducted with three lecturers who volunteered to participate. Quantitative data of the study was collected through the Multicultural Teaching Competency Scale in order to reveal lecturers' multicultural competence levels, including knowledge and skills subscales. The scale was administered to the three voluntary lecturers twice, for the first time before they completed their reflective teacher journals and the second time when the journals were collected. For the qualitative data, teacher journals were kept by the participants for a total of six weeks with the purpose of evaluating how working as a teacher in multicultural classrooms shaped their teacher identity. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the lecturers in order to explore their self-perceptions about teaching in multicultural classes before and after the implementation of the teacher journal writing process. The findings of the research revealed that there was an increase in the level of competence among the lecturers, and that multicultural teaching experience transformed lecturers to be more resourceful, to be more culturally sensitive and to adapt equity. The reflective teacher journals played a key role in teacher identity construction by encouraging self-awareness, critical thinking, and a more profound understanding of teaching practices in multicultural settings.