The contemporary research on the development of teachers' professional learning and professional identity for a large section of teachers in English as a foreign language (EFL) is woefully underdeveloped. Where previous research focuses on traditionally trained teachers, this project works with teachers trained and certified by private language schools. It examines their perception of development in learning and identity through the lens of Lave and Wenger's theories on professional learning and identity. The data comes from three in-depth interviews from a pilot project of a larger doctoral research project. The primary research questions are: (1) How do non-traditionally trained EFL teachers construct their professional identity? And (2) How do such teachers construct their professional development? The findings push back against and add nuance to the current framework for the development of learning and identity through practice as this teaching population come to and stay in teaching for reasons different yet related to their traditionally trained counterparts.
Teacher identity is one of the key factors influencing the form and quality of educational processes. The aim of our literature review is an analysis of research on teachers' narrative identity in primary and secondary education. We used the Web of Science database and selected studies from 2010–2020 in English. The analysis shows that the area of teacher identity can be viewed from the points of personal and professional identity and their interplay. The data about teacher identity were collected mostly as narratives showing teachers' experience of their profession and their selves. Professional identity is investigated in terms of diversity in classroom discourse, curriculum, and professional development. Research on a teachers' personal identity focuses primarily on gender, parenting, sexual orientation, ethnicity, culture, political orientation, and national identity. The study illustrates an interplay of professional and personal identity.