Becoming a teacher educator: The multiple boundary-crossing experiences of beginning teacher educators

This article reports on a qualitative study that investigated the identity construction experiences of one group of beginning English language teacher educators in Hong Kong. Drawing upon a theoretical framework that incorporates both identity-in-practice and identity-in-discourse, and using in-depth interviews, a narrative approach was adopted to examine participants’ identity trajectory as they crossed multiple boundaries from language learners, to language teachers, to language teacher educators. The study suggests that the challenges teacher educators faced at different stages of their professional identity construction reflected the negotiation of past experiences, future ideals, competency, agency, and marginalization. Implications for schoolteachers, teacher educators, and educational authorities, as well as for both future applied research and for understandings of identity, are discussed. Copyright © 2013 American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.