This paper reports the results of a qualitative study that examined the experiences of six preservice English language teachers in Hong Kong as they prepared for, engaged in, and reflected upon a compulsory research project during the final year of their Bachelor of Education degree program. Drawing upon in-depth interviews and using methods of discourse analysis, the study considers how the student teachers' expectations and experiences of a compulsory research project shaped and were shaped by the construction of their professional identities. The results illustrate the identity conflicts the preservice teachers experienced as their research engagement required that they cross institutional and educational boundaries to confront, question, and reject various identity positions, including 'student teacher', 'full-time teacher', and 'teacher-researcher'. Implications for how schools and teacher education programs that include a compulsory research component might support preservice teachers during such identity formation experiences as well as for future research are discussed.
[Copyright of Teacher Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13664530.2012.688677]

This article reports on a qualitative study that explored the experiences of eight Hong Kong teachers of academic subjects who undertook a full-time, short-term professional development course (PDC) designed to provide them with specialized knowledge and classroom skills required to teach content subjects through the English medium. Using a theoretical framework for understanding teacher identity, the study examined how these eight teachers believed the experiences of a short-term PDC shaped their ongoing identity construction, particularly upon completion of the course and subsequent return to their respective schools. Based upon in-depth interviews with participants and using methods of discourse analysis, the results suggest that while participants believed the impact of the PDC in terms of their own classroom teaching was positive, they faced significant challenges in realizing their preferred identity positions within the context of their whole school communities. The response of some participants to these difficulties indicated that their PDC experiences may have contributed to the establishment of a rigid division between different types of teachers within schools and that relations of antagonism appeared to exist between these different teacher identities. Implications for overcoming such divisions for the design of PDCs and for future research are discussed.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2011.576262]

This article discusses the results of a qualitative study that aimed to explore how one group of preservice English language teachers in Hong Kong constructed their identities as teachers. Using in-depth interviews to gain a rich understanding of participants' teacher identity formation in practice and discourse, the paper examines the perspectives of six preservice teachers about teaching and teachers at the completion of their undergraduate teacher education program. In contrast to the theorization of teacher identity construction, the results suggest that the participants often held rigid views about teaching and how they saw themselves, and others, as teachers. The paper argues that this rigidity may lead to antagonistic relations between these preservice teachers and their more experienced colleagues as the participants move into teaching and explores the implications for challenging this rigidity within the context of teacher education programs. Implications for future research are also considered.
[Copyright of Roeper Review is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2011.602207]

This article reports on a qualitative study that investigated the experiences of one group of English language teachers from the Chinese mainland who completed their teacher training in Hong Kong and have taken up full-time teaching positions in secondary schools within Hong Kong. Using the concept of teacher identity construction, and drawing upon the work of Wenger (1998) and Fairclough (2003), the study traced the trajectory of the participants' identity formation from their experiences as students in mainland China and as preservice teachers in a teacher education program in Hong Kong, to their employment as English language teachers in local secondary schools. The study examines the participants' discursive and participative practices to illustrate how their experiences, both as students in the Chinese mainland and as preservice teachers in Hong Kong, shaped their construction of teacher identities, as well as to show that their employment in Hong Kong schools represented a challenge to this identity formation process. Implications for attracting and retaining teachers for the Chinese mainland in Hong Kong are considered and implications for future research outlined.
[Copyright of Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2010.540893]

This paper reports on the results of a qualitative study that explored the experiences of one group of pre-service English language teachers in Hong Kong as they undertook an action research project as part of their undergraduate teacher training programme. Grounded in a theory of teacher identity construction as both practice and discourse, the paper examines how participation in an action research project by one group of pre-service English language teachers in Hong Kong shaped their experiences of becoming teachers. The study indicates that as teacher researchers, the trainee teachers contested previously held perceptions about their engagement in teaching, their images of teachers and teaching, as well as their alignment with some aspects of contemporary educational discourse. Implications for teacher education and future research are also discussed.
[Copyright of Journal of Education for Teaching is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02607471003651672]