Context of the study

Teacher educators are pivotal to the quality of future teachers (Loughran, 2006; Murray et al., 2011; White et al., 2020). Consequently, research on teacher educator identity has expanded, highlighting a complex and challenging becoming process (Berry & Forgasz, 2016). However, this scholarship predominantly focuses on practitioner-pathway teacher educators transitioning from schools to universities (Murray & Male, 2005; O'Brien & Furlong, 2015), paying far less attention to academic-pathway entrants like PhD graduates (Newberry, 2014; Yuan, 2020). This gap is critical given a global trend of recruiting teacher educators for their academic qualifications (Liang et al., 2025; Newberry, 2014; Yuan, 2016, 2020). While some studies have begun to examine identity construction during doctoral education (Murphy et al., 2014; Tucker & Adams, 2023), little is known about the complexities of prospective teacher educator identity development among doctoral students who have little or no formal school teaching experience. This study addresses this by examining the first author's experience. Situated as a doctoral student on the curriculum team for a self-study program for teacher educators, the first author experienced a liminal space, generating significant identity tensions regarding legitimacy of teacher educator identity. Using liminality as an analytical lens (Turner, 1969), this autoethnography explores this ambiguous identity development.

Theoretical framework

Developing from the work of van Gennep (1960), Turner (1969) used liminality to refer simultaneously to one phase of the multistep transition process effected through a rite of passage, the place within which that transition takes place, and the state of being experienced by the person making the transition (Cook-Sather, 2006). Turner (1969) used "betwixt and between" to capture the essence of his theory of liminality. The place within which the transition unfolds is an "in-between" place that bridges "what is" and "what can or will be" (Turner, 1981, p. 159). The state in which the initiand finds himself or herself during this transition is "ambiguous, neither here nor there" (Turner, 1974, p. 232). Liminality is thus transformed from a linear and concentrated process, bounded by simple notions of time and space, to one which is complex, multifaceted and flexible, but which still affords an opportunity for deep change and reorientation (Wood, 2012). Furthermore, liminality has been quite often used to explain and discuss the transition within the context of teacher education. Although teaching practicum/internship has often been conceptualized as a liminal period during which pre-service teachers transition from students to teachers (Cook-Sather, 2006; Hallaran et al., 2025; McCaw, 2021; Pierce, 2007; Wilkins et al., 2012; Wood, 2012), scant attention was paid to teacher educator identity. In the present study, we adopt the theory of liminality to further illuminate the dynamic nature of prospective teacher educator identity development. The specific context of this study—where the first author, as a doctoral student, contributed to a training program for teacher educators—constitutes a liminal space that highly aligns with the theory, embodying the "betwixt and between" characteristic.

Consequently, the central question guiding this study is: How does a teacher education doctoral student navigate and construct the prospective teacher educator identity in a liminal space? The study can contribute to the limited knowledge of the process of prospective teacher educator identity construction, particularly for those candidates without prior teaching experience, and offer practical insights for the preparation of teacher educators.

Method The present study aims to illuminate a doctoral student's lived experiences in the liminal space through an autoethnography approach. Autoethnography was selected because of its emphasis on a researcher's subjectivity and ‘reflexive self-observation’ (Bochner & Ellis 2016, p. 48). This study will thickly describe the tensions, struggles, challenges, seeking to illuminate the complexities of the first author's prospective teacher educator identity development within the ambiguous and formative context. Although self-study has become a signature methodology in the international teacher education community, it remains in its infancy in China. In this context, a university in Beijing has pioneered a "Self-Study and Professional Development Program for Early-Career University-Based Teacher Educators," scheduled to run from March 2025 to March 2027. The first author is working in this program as a member of the curriculum team. Data sources for this research will include materials the first author will generate during the program, such as: reflective journals on her professional identity development; records of interactions or field notes from her engagements with other participants (including fellow curriculum team members and program learners); and other self-observation materials that will thickly describe the development of her prospective teacher educator identity. To enhance the trustworthiness of interpretation, the data analysis process will be continually negotiated through critical dialogues with critical friend, who serves as the coordinator of the program and is also a university-based teacher educator. Such dialogic engagement will contextualize the data through multiple perspectives and stimulate alternative viewpoints for more rigorous analysis (Bochner & Ellis, 2016; Yung, 2020).

Anticipated conclusion First, the self-study training program acts as the liminal space for the first author to engage in the "rite of passage" of becoming a teacher educator. However, within this liminal space, the first author do not develop into a teacher educator or a teacher educators' educator in the true sense, but rather into a prospective teacher educator whose commitment is to become a teacher educator in the future, with a specific imagination and vivid details of ideal practice. Second, the liminal space within which the first author and other participants maintain their dialogue allows for a kind of contemplation of mysteries through knowledge sharing that helps the first author develop her identity. Third, identity formation processes unfolding within the liminal phase are made possible partly because of the reversal of established hierarchies of value and social status.

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