Ethnic Identification and Identity Exploration Among Persian Heritage Language Learners in Australia

ABSTRACT This qualitative study explores ethnic identification and identity exploration among primary‐aged Persian heritage language (HL) learners in four community language schools in Sydney, Australia. Using sociocultural theory and the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure‐Revised (MEIM‐R) as analytical guides, it draws on focus groups, interviews, and classroom observations to examine how learners label and explain their ethnic identification across home, peer, and community‐school contexts. Findings show that identity labelling was diverse and context‐sensitive, shaped by peer affiliations, home environments, language use, place of birth, media, and travel to Iran. Exploration was expressed through engagement with culture, history, rituals, food, and school‐based learning, with family practices, teacher‐led cultural instruction, peer/social participation, and classroom experiences playing important roles in learners’ accounts. The analysis shows that Persian heritage learners’ ethnic identity development was not simply reflected in the labels they selected, but emerged through situated participation, adult mediation, peer affiliation, and moments of resistance or ambivalence. The study highlights the complexity of ethnic identity as co‐constructed within HL ecologies and points to the need for identity‐supportive pedagogies in community language schooling. It contributes to HL research by providing a multi‐voiced account of an under‐researched Persian‐speaking community and by showing how MEIM‐R dimensions of self‐categorisation and exploration can be used qualitatively to examine learners’ reported identity meanings and cultural participation.