ELTR Journal, e-ISSN2579-8235, Vol. 2, No. 1, January 2018, pp. 1-8 English Language Teaching and Research Journal http://apspbi.or.id/eltr English Language Education Study Program Association, Indonesia 1 TEACHER IDENTITY EXPERIENCED BY MR. BARTHES AS DEPICTED IN DETACHMENT MOVIE Paulus Tri Nugroho Putro Sanata Dharma University paul.mastermindthoughts@gmail.com DOI: doi.org/10.37147/eltr.2018.020101 received 15 December 2017; accepted 16 January 2018 Abstract This paper investigates teacher identity which exists in the main character in a movie called Detachment. Mr. Henry Barthes (Adrien Brody) who is a substitute teacher and now he is teaching in a high school. While he is teaching, he has to encounter some distractions from Erica (Sami Gayle) a prostitute, one of his students, Meredith (Betty Kaye), and his colleague Ms. Madison (Christina Hendricks). While he faces the distractions, he has to deal with his childhood memory about the suicide of his mother and the death of his grandfather. All of distractions he faces at the end of the day he is able to handle the distractions and his teacher identity is a proof that his students adore him. The analysis data of the method is data analysis by watching the movie and the findings can be found in the movie in a form of how the teacher explains the material to the students, the teacher’s thoughts, and the teacher’s actions. Keywords: Detachment movie, Mr. Barthes, teacher identity Introduction This study aims to describe the process of the main character in “Detachment” movie in shaping his identity as an English literature teacher. Recently, the research on teacher’s identity is scarce. In the other hand, teacher’s identity is a topic which needs to be investigated more since it gives the insights for the teachers in supporting them in their development of being agentic professionals (Kayi-Aydar, 2014). Varghese, Morgan, Johnston, and Johnson (2005) stated, the teacher is not “a neutral player in the classroom, but on the contrary, her positionality in relation to her students, and to the broader context in which the teacher was situated” (p. 22) is vital, without teacher or somebody who can guide the students will be lost or if the teacher cannot come up with the idea of fun learning, I am sure the students will find it boring. Teacher is the important key for students’ learning as the students will need guidance for the learning purposes and how they maintain their performance in class. As teachers, it is also important to develop the identity besides the skills. It is corresponding to Singh and Richard had stated. Teacher-learning involves not only discovering more about the skills and knowledge of language teaching but also what it means to be a language teacher.