Teacher identity construction is seen as crucial for professional development and in readiness for adoption of pedagogical innovation. Based on life-history narrative study of three experienced CFL teachers, this chapter explores how the three teacher participants account for their experiences of constructing successful professional identities. The three teacher participants shared their stories of over 20 years of teaching Mandarin Chinese to non-native speakers in both the national school context in Australia and the international school context in Hong Kong. Their collective reflection on the process of constructing successful professional identities in Western-based school contexts revealed the complex and shifting nature of identity construction. The study finds that the processes of constructing a successful professional identity in Western-based school contexts are reflected in narratives of an effective blend of Eastern and Western cultural values and pedagogical practices. This “middle ground” notion of constructing professional identity has important implications for CFL pedagogical innovation in Western-based school context. Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore.

This paper explores how two student groups, namely cross-boundary (CBS) and newly arrived students (NAS) from mainland China are assimilated or integrated in the construction of identity in Hong Kong schools and society as a whole. Research methods include in-depth individual interviews with the target students and their parents, and the administration of a picture-sociometric and writing exercise to explore their views on cultural and national identity. The findings reveal that these students principally defined their identities with respect to the references: (1) their birthplace, (2) their place of residence, and (3) the answers given by their parents. Relatively, NAS are more certain about their Hong Kong identity than the CBS. In addition, Hong Kong schooling is found to be one of the key acculturative agents for cultural assimilation. Drawing on the findings of the qualitative study of the students’ school experiences and perceptions of their national identity, this paper discusses the differences and similarities of these two student groups in the process of identity construction.
[Copyright © 2010 The Korean Association for Multicultural Education.]

This paper reports on a qualitative multiple case study that examined the implementation of innovations in English language education by three teachers in Hong Kong. Grounded in an analytical framework of teacher identity, in-depth interviews over an entire year provide a longitudinal understanding of the participants' experiences of simultaneously negotiating identity and implementing innovation in language teaching and learning within different schools in Hong Kong. Results point to a mutually constitutive relationship between identity and the implementation of these innovations. It is argued that the implementation of innovation underpinned the capacity of participants to both position themselves, as well as to be positioned by others, as particular types of teachers. The results also suggest that being afforded scope to explore their preferred professional identities, both discursively and experientially, is essential to the implementation of innovation. The analysis highlights that the implementation of innovation can be blocked or restricted if scope for the exploration of particular identities is denied to teachers, and that this may result in the marginalization of the identities teachers are seeking to construct. Implications for schools wishing to foster the implementation of innovation in language teaching and learning are discussed and suggestions for future research considered.
[Copyright of Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2012.750664]