Language teacher identity research: An introduction

We hear over and over again that LTI is hard to defi ne, or that many defi nitions exist, or that we shouldn’t even try to defi ne it. Every time a defi nition pops up in the literature there are both those who critique it and those who agree with it and use it to frame their own research work. When my graduate research students embark on an identity-related research project, for instance, they often begin to panic when confronted with the challenge of fi nding an appropriate theoretical framework to inform the conceptualization and design of their study. What is clear, is that they want to focus on the topic of identity-they see it as important and useful in their professional lives, and they fi nd the idea of delving into people’s identities intriguing. But once they start to explore the theoretical and empirical literature, things become a bit murky and choices are hard to make.