Facing Rootlessness: Language and Identity Construction in Teaching and Research Practices Among Bilingual Returnee Scholars in China

Abstract

This qualitative study examines Chinese returnee scholars’ language practices in teaching and research and their identity construction during their early career years. Using interviews and drawing upon poststructuralist identity theory, it examines the adaptations of twelve Chinese bilingual returnee scholars to new academic communities in English language departments, their teaching and publishing language choices, and their identity construction throughout this process. The findings showed these scholars constructed their professional identities through negotiating English as a teaching language in ways interwoven with students’ needs, institutional policies, and their past experiences. The Chinese returnee scholars were found to be “rootless” in terms of possessing inadequate social and cultural capital locally, resulting in limited collaboration and difficulties developing sufficiently robust language competency to publish bilingually. Some scholars, however, employed accumulated capital to exercise agency in bringing about changes in their new academic environments. Implications for bilingual returnee scholars and university policymakers are discussed.

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