INTRODUCTION

In the TESOL field for over a decade, identity has been used as a concept to explore questions about the sociocultural contexts of learning and learners, pedagogy, language ideologies, and the ways in which language and discourses work to marginalize or empower speakers. Although there is also a substantial body of research on learner identity, studies on language teacher identity represent an emerging field (Cross and Gearon 2007; Singh and Richards 2006). This chapter aims to bring insights from identity theory as it is used in the TESOL field to a discussion of language teaching and teacher identity, and to provide an overview of recent research in the area. Such research reflects a theoretical and methodological shift from traditional cognitivist SLA perspectives on language teaching to a more nuanced critical and sociocultural framing (see Hawkins and Norton, Chapter 3), which place identity and discourse at the heart of language teaching and learning. In TESOL additional layers of complexity arise from the internationalization of language education and the globalization of English. A consideration of teacher identity and teacher education must therefore take account of issues such as the role of discourse in self-representation, the salience of sociocultural contexts, diversity and ethnicity, the native / nonnative binary, and beliefs about standard language.

Qualitative research into language learning and teaching using interdisciplinary and socially informed perspectives draws on a highly eclectic theoretical and epistemological base (Block 2003; Roberts 2001; Zuengler and Cole 2005). The range of theoretical approaches includes neo-Vygotskian sociocultural theory, language socialization theory, post-structuralist feminist theory, and critical applied linguistics. These interpretive social paradigms have much in common, including an interest in identity, agency, discourse, diversity, social interaction, local context, and lived experience. Gee (1996) brings these notions together in his introduction to Social Linguistics and Literacies. He writes, “It’s not just what you say or even how you say it, it’s who you are and what you are doing while you say it” (p. viii). How does this relate to teacher identity?

Where teachers were once viewed as technicians, defined by particular behaviors, knowledge, or language teaching methods in classrooms characterized by identifiable variables, teachers and their work are constructed in increasingly complex ways in recent research.