Uncertain identities of non-higher-education-based EFL teacher educators: a third space theory perspective

ABSTRACT

Although research on teacher educators’ identities has received increasing attention in recent years, non-higher-education-based teacher educators’ professional identities are still under-researched. Informed by the third space theory perspective, this paper presents a study that investigated 139 non-higher-education-based English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher educators’ identities through the lens of metaphors. An analysis of the metaphors revealed four types of identities, namely, the willing communicators, the discontented jack-of-all-trades and master of none, the struggling professional leaders, as well as the caring supporters. These terms capture the participants’ self-images and specify their obligations and responsibilities as teacher educators. The paper concludes with some implications for teacher educators’ preparation and continuing development.

KEYWORDS:

• Non-higher-education-based teacher educators
• teacher educator identity
• third space
• metaphor

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the reviewers and the editor for their thorough feedback on previous versions of the manuscript. We are most grateful to the 139 EFL teacher educators, who voluntarily participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the MOE Project of Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences. [2019JT001].

Notes on contributors

Hong Zhang

Hong Zhang is Associate Professor in the National Research Centre for Foreign Language Education, Beijing Foreign Studies University. Her main research interests include second language teacher education, English language education, teacher culture, and action research. Her recent publications have appeared in TESOL Quarterly and Language Teaching Research.

Rui Yuan

Rui Yuan is an assistant professor in the Department of English Language Educationat the Education University of Hong Kong. His research interests include language teacher identity and teacher development. His publications have appeared in System, ELT Journal, and Teaching and Teacher Education.