Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy At The University of Northampton 2020 Developing a Learning Identity: A Narrative Study of Algerian Women EFL Students WAFA ZEKRI © Wafa Zekri 26th March 2020 This thesis is copyright material and no quotation from it may be published without acknowledgement. i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are a number of people whose support, assistance and encouragement enabled me to produce this piece of work. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my dissertation supervisors, Dr. Dave Burnapp who provided me with invaluable insight, patience, guidance and valuable feedback in these four years. Many thanks should also be dedicated to my second supervisor and Director of Studies, Dr. Sonya Andermahr, for her guidance and support. Together, the feedback from Dave and Sonya encouraged me to develop my academic rigour. I am lucky to be sponsored by the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education, whom I would thank for their funds of my PhD project. I want to thank the Algerian Consulate for looking after my well-being. I would thank the University of Northampton for supplying a peaceful learning environment. I am glad I have met with people from different countries, we have created a supportive community of researchers during the four years. This project could have not been conducted without the University of Tlemcen, Algeria that gave me access to the English Department. I am also thankful to my former teacher Hadia who helped me to make the first contact with the participants. Special thanks are dedicated to the group of women who volunteered for the fulfilment of this thesis. I also thank all the people who inspired me whilst undertaking this research, the people whom I met in conferences, workshops, and in the virtual world. Moral support and prayers have been particularly needed throughout this study, and for this reason, I would like to thank my mother for her eternal love and encouragement, my late father who celebrated my every success in life and wished me luck at the outset of my doctoral journey. He would be the happiest father today. I am most grateful for my brothers, and sister for motivating me during my difficult moments in this journey. I thank my fiancé for his care and deep love. ii DEDICATION To my beloved mentors, Mustapha Zekri And Khadidja Sadouki Early in my life, they inspired in me a sense of joy for learning, and my successful completion of this work is in a large part due to them. 1 ABSTRACT This research aims to understand how English as a foreign language (EFL) learners develop their learning identities. While there has been interest on second language (L2) Self in immigrant contexts, not much has been investigated in EFL contexts. This research is conducted with a group of ten women who are second year bachelor students in Tlemcen University, Algeria. The students’ learning process: their past, and present learning experiences, and their future imagined identity. This research investigates how they have been influenced by their sociocultural backgrounds, and how the social factors contributed to the development of their learning identities, hence how these factors helped them reshape their EFL learning identity. This thesis discusses the key theoretical perspectives on identity through the sociocultural theory. The literature gives a theoretical understanding of narrative, which informs about the key concepts in language learning: identity, agency, investment and imagined identity. A narrative perspective is merged with a broad meaning of experiential learning, scaffolding, and ‘process writing’ to engage the students in a reflective narrative activity. A narrative approach has been used in two ways: (1) the narrative was used as a methodology, within which a narrative model was designed to assist the students to reflect on their learning experiences in the mentioned periods. (2) Students’ written narratives were collected for data analysis. Focus group discussion is employed as a method to further investigate the themes which emerged from the narratives. My original contribution to the methodology is the applicability of process writing with narrative writing. The results of this research provide insights into the social factors which are presented as ‘mentors’ and ‘marks’. My original contribution to the theory is the representation of ‘mentors’ and ‘marks’ as socio-cultural influencing factors which contributed to the emergence of students’ learning agency in their early learning. This means that agency pre-existed in the past learning experiences, and it is expanded on in the present through language learning. Students’ agency is also discussed as a process of continuity and change. These social factors enable them to develop new self- images. The future is discussed in relation to both the past and the present experiences, and it reveals the students’ ability to imagine their future identities when they will become teachers. Experiences of the past have not constrained the students’ agency, but they have created a salient impact which involved multiple social identities: learning identity, religious identity, language identity, and future imagined/teaching identity. 2 Key words: Agency, social support, self-images, investment, learning identity, and future imagined identity. 3 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................................... ii DEDICATION ........................................................................................................................................ 1 ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................ 2 CHAPTER 1 ......................................................................................................................................... 12 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 12 1.1. Personal motivation ............................................................................................................................ 13 1.2. The ‘Licence Master Doctorat’ system in Algeria ................................................................................ 14 1.3. Overview of the research methodology .............................................................................................. 15 1.4. Research questions ............................................................................................................................. 17 1.5. Research aim....................................................................................................................................... 17 1.6. Research objectives ............................................................................................................................. 18 1.7. Conceptual frameworks ...................................................................................................................... 18 1.7.1. Gender, learning and identity ........................................................................................................ 18 1.7.2. Sociocultural theory ....................................................................................................................... 20 1.7.3. Narrative writing and reflective learning ....................................................................................... 20 1.7.4. Reflective learning ......................................................................................................................... 23 1.8. Summary of the chapters .................................................................................................................... 23 CHAPTER 2 ......................................................................................................................................... 24 WOMEN’S EDUCATION IN ALGERIA ......................................................................................... 24 2.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 25 2.2. Pre-colonial period .............................................................................................................................. 25 2.3. Women’s education in the colonial period ......................................................................................... 27 2.4. Women in the revolutionary period .................................................................................................... 31 2.4.1. Zohra’s narrative ............................................................................................................................ 32 2.4.2. Agency and learning in Zohra’s narrative ...................................................................................... 35 2.4.3. National identity ............................................................................................................................ 36 2.5. Post-independence.............................................................................................................................. 37 2.5.1. Ahmed Ben Bella (1963-1965) ....................................................................................................... 37 2.5.2. Houari Boumedienne (1965-1978) ...............................................................................................