An ethnographic exploration of language policies and language teacher identity entanglements in a transnational university

Abstract

As identity is increasingly conceptualized from a postmodern view, language teacher identity (LTI) is framed as a dynamic and multifaceted construct. In line with this perspective, most LTI studies rely on teachers’ narratives to examine their perceptions of so-called external influences. However, it remains unclear whether these influences are imposed by institutional structures and only encountered by teachers, or they are ideologically co-constructed by institutions ‘and’ teachers. The current study adopts an ethnographic approach to explore the possibility of such co-construction in a transnational university in China. Our 18-month emic research relies on extended observations, collection of artifacts, and formal and informal interviews to examine how university language instructors act upon institutional policies and ideologies in forming professional identities. Qualitative data analysis of diverse bodies of data illustrated two major language policies within the institution: ‘100 percent English’ and ‘the English problem.’ Facing these institutional expectations, language teachers demonstrated multiple positions in defining their own identities: a total follower, a partial follower, a radical proponent, and a questioner. These findings offer an ecological understanding of LTI formation and uncover less-addressed complexities of interconnections between structural influences and teachers’ agentive alignment in this regard.

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