A Study of Professional Identities of Foreign Non-Native English Speaking Teachers

This qualitative study explores how foreign non-native English speaking teachers (FNNESTs) perceive themselves as English educators and how they exert agency to be better perceived as professionals. Given the close relationship between teacher identity and its implications for educational outcomes, this study is based on Norton's (2008) perspective on identity, which posits identity as dynamic, contradictory, and constantly changing across time and place. The data collection process included four semistructured interviews with two FNNESTs and four interactions on social networking sites. According to the results, the identities of FNNESTs were shaped through their initial language learning experiences, exposure to critically oriented scholarship in graduate school, their future anticipations, and mostly through their agency in the immediate professional context in which they currently teach. That is, four unique identities and one common identity were identified among the participants. In summary, FFNESTs do not perceive themselves as lacking but rather value their diverse language skills and past experiences as language learners.