Language Teacher Learning and Practice as Identity Work

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines how a teacher utilized emotional scaffolding to engender certain emotional responses in her students in order to enhance second language learning. The concept of language teacher identity has introduced a new framework to theorize and analyze the complex ways in which teachers learn to be and become teachers, grow as teachers, and exercise their practices situated in sociohistorical, cultural, and political contexts. The book explores intersectionality via illustrative examples from a collaborative case study. It shows that digital creative processes enable teachers to use their own “voice” and engage agency in identity construction and negotiation. The book provides multiple excerpts from multimodal identity texts to illustrate the reflective processes that ensued from the creation of said texts.