Identities of non-English-dominant teachers-in-training: written discursive representations

Abstract This study examines how English language teachers-in-training from non-English-speaking countries undertaking language teacher education in an Australian university discursively represented their language teacher identities in their academic writing. Talk-around-text data, comprising excerpts from academic assignments and interviews about these excerpts, were collected from ten teachers-in-training. Six representations of language teacher identity emerged from the analysis: teachers as research-informed practitioners, teachers as facilitators, teachers as language learners, teachers as empowered first language users, teachers as lifelong learners, and contextually responsive teachers. The analysis revealed that the academic assignments provided discursive spaces for the teachers to represent their language teacher identities, which they largely did in disciplinarily-valued and professionally desirable ways. A variety of discursive strategies, such as self-mention, overt mention of identity positions, and use of binary oppositions, were used. Implications are discussed for using academic writing as a pedagogical tool for supporting teachers-in-training in developing reflective and critical language teacher identities.