Wenger states (1998, p. 151), “Who we are lies in the way we live day to day” and “our experience of life becomes one of identity”. That is, our identities are embedded in almost all aspects of our lives … “a lived experience” (Ibid). Thus, to study identity of a person is to study his/her lived experience. In education, our work as teachers shapes and is shaped by our being and then thinking about the formation of our identities is crucial for us in the field (Clarke, 2009, p. 186). In other words, studying teachers’ work cannot be separated from their identities.

       Researchers (i.e., Cui et al., 2025; Gao, 2010; Liu, 2025; Liu & Li, 2023; Ou & Singhasiri, 2020; Wang & Du, 2014; Xiang, 2017; Zhang, 2015) have conducted studies on (teacher/professional/language teacher) identities of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers who worked at (Hanban or Confucius institutes) universities or schools outside of China, i.e., the UK (Scotland and England), Netherlands, Denmark, Solomon Islands, the US, Australia and Thailand. However, participants in most of these studies were native Chinese speakers, and they did not do the initial teacher education programme in a university in the country where they worked. This study explores language teacher identities of novice Chinese teachers in mainstream schools in England to track how they became newly qualitied Chinese teachers and how they worked as in-service teachers, which has not been well studied yet, according to the up-to-date published literature in the domain of CFL teaching and learning in the UK and globally. The overarching research question is: How did novice Chinese teachers negotiate and renegotiate their language teacher identities at different stages of the first years in their teaching career? Sociocultural perspectives combined by Wenger’s (1998) social theory of learning: community of practice and Bucholtz and Hall’s (2005) sociolinguistic approach, is the theoretical and conceptual underpinning, which is to find out how CFL teachers work in mainstream schools in England.

        This study is a qualitative longitudinal multiple case study. Data were collected from multiple resources among novice Chinese teachers, both the pre-service and in-service or Early Career Teachers (ECTs), and people they worked with. The main participants were selected via  purposive and snowball sampling. Pre-service ones were on an initial teacher education programme, secondary Postgraduate Certificate in Education programme (PGCE) languages, particularly, Mandarin Chinese and another language (i.e., Spanish) and they had their placements in different mainstream schools in England. ECTs worked as Chinese teachers after their initial teacher education programmes in the UK in different mainstream schools in England and they account for the majority of the qualified Chinese teachers in England, even the whole UK. Multiple data collection methods were employed, which are audio recorded semi-structured interviews with novice Chinese teachers and people they worked with, observations in schools and at conferences and documents (i.e., portfolio generated by pre-service teachers on their PGCE programme, reports (i.e., Early Career teachers (ECTs) Induction assessment/ programme review) for ECTs and field notes). Data analysis method is intended to be discourse analysis, particularly poststructuralism discourse analysis underpinned by the theoretical and conceptual framework of this study, which is the focus of this submission.

        The study found that multiple identities of novice Chinese teachers emerged on their PGCE programme or at work, i.e., student, (English) learner, (Chinese/Spanish/IT/home) teacher, including metaphorical identities i.e., babysitter/sponge…, and their identities varied due to the changed contexts and other factors. Such findings might provide references for people who work in the CFL and other language education in European countries, i.e., practitioners and people they work with, researchers and policy makers.

This qualitative longitudinal multiple case study was conducted in over two years. To explore various dimensions of language teacher identities of novice Chinese language teachers, multiple methods were employed to collect data among them and people who worked with them (i.e., novice Chinese teachers’ mentor/line manager) or subsidiary participants, that is, audio recorded semi-structured interviews, observations and documents were employed. This is called “triangulation” and enables researchers to utilise a second methodological approach to systematically extend the possibilities of knowledge production (Flick, 2019, pp. 6–7) and is “the most popular ways of establishing internal validity in case study research” (Faltis, 1997, p. 150). Twelve main participants and eleven subsidiary participants participated in the study. The main participants were selected through both purposeful and snowballing sampling, with purposeful sampling as the major method. Snowballing sampling or “chain-referral methods” means that researchers identify a small number of individuals who have the characteristics they are interested in and then use these people as informants to help recruit further participants (Cohen et al., 2018, p. 220) and it helped to expand the quantity of participants in this study. Purposeful sampling refers to the researcher selects individuals and sites for a study since they can purposefully inform an understanding of the research problem and central phenomenon in the study (Creswell & Poth, 2018, p. 224) and it helped to recruit the specific type of participants in this study. Interviews among novice Chinese teachers were conducted from three to nine times, to track their real-time practice. Interviews among nine subsidiary participants was once or twice. Multiple observations in ten schools and two conferences in England and were conducted from once to three times for nine major participants who participated in observations in their schools. Discourse analysis (DA), particularly, poststructuralism discourse analysis, is employed to analysis collected data, since DA is an interdisciplinary approach and there are three different data sources. The term ‘discourse analysis’ refers to a cluster of approaches in several disciplines and theoretical traditions, for instance sociolinguistics, sociology and so on (Jørgensen & Phillips, 2011, p. 2; Taylor, 2014, p. 1), rather than “the old linguistic wisdom”: “one linguistic form has one function or meaning” (Blommaert, 2009, p. 237). I believe DA is suitable for data analysis in this study. Data analysis is also underpinned by sociocultural perspectives combined by Wenger’s (1998) social theory of learning and Bucholtz and Hall’s (2005) sociolinguistic approach.

The study found that multiple identities of novice Chinese teachers emerged on their PGCE programme or at work, i.e., student, (English) learner, (Chinese, Spanish, IT, home) teacher, including metaphorical identities i.e., babysitter, sponge, noticeboard…, and their identities varied due to the changed contexts and other factors. One interesting finding is that most native Chinese speakers who are not native English speakers mentioned English proficiency is very important for their CFL teaching (i.e., delivering lessons, interacting with internal and external colleagues, students, and students’ parents), while one non-native Chinese speaker who is a native English speaker did not have the same perception in interview data when they were asked the same question. Such findings might provide references for people who work in the CFL and other language education in European countries where CFL is taught in different stages in Education (i.e., primary, second schools and universities), i.e., practitioners and people they work with, researchers and policy makers. It is hoped that this study will enrich the literature pool of Chinese as a foreign language teaching and learning in English speaking countries or other parts of the world, since there is little research conducted among novice Chinese language teachers who attended local initial teacher education programme or worked as locally qualified Chinese teachers in mainstream schools globally. Second, this study will contribute to theoretical and conceptual frameworks in research on language teacher identities in education, particularly, (Chinese) language teacher education globally. Finally, this study is intended to inform policy makers when they review the Early Career Framework Reforms in the future, teacher educators and novice teachers of Chinese, other languages, or even other school subjects, especially those who experience educational reforms in England, elsewhere in the UK or globally.

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