In teacher education (TE), teacher identity development studies can be seen as an emerging study area. There is much already written and published in the related literature on teacher education programs however, there isn’t much on teacher education policy, contextual factors, and teacher identity formation in relation to teacher education institutions and habitus. Individuals have a central identity composed of all identity statuses and different sub-identities such as professional, parental, sexual, and ideological identities (Gür, 2014). Identities are combinations of knowledge, emotion, competencies, and experiences with regard to a social role, described in this study as teacher identity (Giddens, 1991). Identity formation in a professional domain is “an ongoing process of integration of the ‘personal’ and the ‘professional’ sides of becoming and being a teacher” (Beijaard, Meijer, & Verloop, 2004, p.113), and becoming a teacher involves the construction of a person’s identity (Danielewicz, 2001). Through an in-depth analysis of the program in relation to institutional habitus, this study explores the complexity of teacher identity formation in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) undergraduate context. It aims to portray the identity formation process of EFL prospective teachers in a public research university where the medium of instruction (MoI) is English in Turkey. In addition, the study uses Bourdieu's field theory and its toolkit as its theoretical perspective in examining the institutional habitus concerning teacher identity development.

Institutional habitus can significantly impact the formation of a teacher's identity because teachers, often internalize the expectations and beliefs of the institutions they belong to. The institutional habitus may influence how teachers view their roles and responsibilities in an undergraduate education program. It may affect their beliefs about teaching and learning, and their relationships with students and colleagues. This can shape how they develop their professional identities as teachers. Programs should also provide opportunities for teachers to engage with various perspectives and reflect on how these may impact their professional identities. As for term definitions, Bourdieu (1992) defines habitus, field, and doxa terms. Habitus is the learned set of preferences or dispositions by which a person orients to the social world. It is a system of ‘durable, transposable, cognitive ‘schemata or structures of perception, conception, and action’. Field is defined as a playground. Doxa: rules and (dis)positions in that playground (in the field).

Additionally, TE programs should provide ongoing support and professional development for teachers to help them continue to grow and evolve as professionals. Bourdieu’s concept of habitus is embedded in the theory of action that questions how regular patterns of practices are formed in social and cultural locations. Social actors inscribe the “structured structures” and play a role in their transformation into “structuring structures” (Bourdieu, 1992, p. 53). Teacher educators and prospective teachers are agents in such a habitus, and they play a role in “structuring the structures” in their institutions. Habitus refers to the internalized dispositions and practices that individuals develop due to their socialization within a particular group or field. An individual's experiences, and interactions shape habitus, and perceptions within a group or field, influencing how they perceive and interact with the world around them. The research questions are as follows:  

 1. How is EFL teacher identity developed through the pre-service teacher education program in a public research university context in Turkey?

2.   How do teacher educators foster the development of teacher identities in prospective EFL teachers?

3.   How do prospective EFL teachers in the selected cases define their professional identity development process?

4.   How does institutional habitus influence the identity development process of prospective EFL teachers?

This study is designed as a single case study (Yin, 2018). As Patton (2002) and Yin (2018) suggested, multiple data sources have been used to ensure data credibility. The opinions of two experts were specifically solicited on the interview forms. A pilot study was conducted with two teacher educators and one prospective teacher before the main data collection phase. Research context (case): When EFL teacher education programs are analyzed in Turkey, only a few institutions offer the EFL program in the English language for all the courses offered. Besides, the university was selected as a research university by the Higher Education Council of Turkey in 2017, (HEC, 2017). In addition to being a public research university, it is also ranked among the top 200 universities in the world according to the results of the World University Rankings 2020 by subject: education, and it might be called unique in such aspects. There are a variety of teacher educators in the department with PhDs from fields including English language teaching, English literature, and applied linguistics. Data collection tools: Two interview forms were developed. The researcher developed a semi-structured individual interview form for teacher educators and a semi-structured individual interview form for prospective teachers. After creating the forms, expert opinions were obtained, and relevant changes were applied before piloting. Approval was received from the institution’s ethics committee. Interviews were conducted face-to-face or online (Zoom & Webex), voice recorded, and transcribed verbatim. Interviews were conducted during Covid-19 restrictions primarily online, and after the ease of restrictions, face-to-face interviews were also done. Data sources: Five prospective EFL teachers (senior grade teacher education program students), nine English Language Teaching Department teacher educators, and five teacher educators from Educational Sciences who are offering courses in the program were interviewed; the interviews each took approximately one hour. While selecting the participants, the maximum variation sampling technique was utilized. Documents are composed of the curriculum of the department (courses, content, etc.), field notes taken by the researcher, and the vision and mission statements of the department. Data Analysis: Content analysis (Creswell, 2014) has been employed for analyzing data gathered from interviews and documents. The steps of qualitative data analysis (Creswell, 2014, p. 247) have been followed in analyzing the data collected. Coding procedures were followed in MAXQDA software. After selective coding, themes emerged from the data analysis.

Preliminary themes based on the data analysis emerged as; ELT as a field, the Institutional Habitus (doxa and habitus of the institution), the Teacher Education Program, English Language Teacher Educators, Educational Sciences Teacher Educators, and Prospective English Language Teachers. The paper presentation will provide detailed codes, subcodes, and direct interview quotations. The interviews and the fieldnotes show that prospective students develop their identities in a social context rather than a vacuum, and the institutional habitus has a significant role in this development. For instance, the department defines itself as a program that trains individuals who gain various specializations in language teaching, English literature, and linguistics, besides pedagogical courses. Teacher educators also claim that the program aims to provide a context in which global teachers flourish. Understanding prospective teachers' positions in the process of teacher identity development and the role of institutional habitus within it by asking questions such as how they envision themselves as teachers, what kind of attributions they hold about the teaching profession, and how they define themselves as teachers/teacher candidates, might bring invaluable contributions to teacher education programs and help practitioners and policymakers in understanding how these institutions across Europe establish themselves, create an appropriate context, and foster their students' university life. Discussion of the critical elements of the institutional habitus in developing teacher identity might yield transferable results to similar contexts throughout Europe. Considering that this small-scale study is confined to only one context and that context's properties bound its results, the study's results should be interpreted keeping this in mind.

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