Cross-border pre-service teachers from mainland china in Hong Kong: Identity and integration

An increasing number of studies have researched teacher identity formation, yet few explore how cross-border teachers might deploy their own linguistic and cultural resources to construct their teacher identities in host countries or areas. This study explores how the teaching identities of a group of mainland Chinese cross-border pre-service English teachers who studied at a teacher education institute in the multilingual context of Hong Kong are discursively constructed. This study investigates the complex inter-relationships involved in the process of identity construction between marginal status in and legitimate membership of the community, between historical and cultural background, present practice, and future expectations, between social discourse and personal location. Discourse theory is used to analyse data derived from interviews. The study suggests that 1) the pre-service teachers negotiate their own positions within multiple positionings from peers, students on teaching practicum and prospective schools; 2) they discursively construct their teaching identity as 'English language teachers with particular linguistic and cultural backgrounds' to gain legitimacy. This study recognizes the social and political nature of meaning and suggests some potential strategies for addressing some antagonistic oppositions established in logic of equivalence. The study extends understandings of the interconnected relations of discourse and identity in such contexts.