Becoming a writing teacher: Using “identity” as an analytic lens to understand EFL writing teachers’ development

Using ‘identity’ as an analytic lens, and drawing upon data gathered from interviews with teachers and their classroom research, the study investigates how four EFL teachers construct and negotiate their identities as they learn to become teachers of writing. The cases of the four teachers show that writing teachers’ identity is discursively constructed (identity as discourse and practice), and it is an activity that is mediated by the social, cultural, and historical relations in which teaching is performed (identity as activity). The study highlights a number of factors that influence teachers’ negotiation of identities as writing teachers in their work context, showing that identity is a dynamic, shifting, and unstable concept. The article concludes that writing teacher educators can encourage teachers to be cognizant of their multi-faceted identities, the factors that influence identity formation, and ways to develop more robust preferred identities, so that when they leave the teacher education program they will be less susceptible to external threats that pose hazards to their identity development.

► Writing teacher identity is discursively constructed.
► Sociocultural dimensions are a powerful source of influence on writing teachers’ identity.
► Identity is a dynamic, shifting, and unstable concept.
► Writing teacher identity is an important issue to explore in L2 writing teacher education.