A burgeoning body of research on teacher identity has gained momentum in education, emphasizing teachers’ learning, performance, and cognition (Beauchamp and Thomas, 2009; Miller, 2009; Akkerman and Meijer, 2011). In view of recent studies, teacher identity has been conceptualized in different ways. Most scholars emphasized the teacher identity as dynamic, evolving, multiple, and pertinent to intrinsic interpersonal relationships with others (Leigh, 2019; Golzar, 2020). Some others employed a dialogical approach to look at identity as influential to the teachers’ mentality and practices (Akkerman and Meijer, 2011). Some scholars emphasized the place of emotion in a richer understanding of identity development (Zembylas, 2003; Shapiro, 2010; Schutz and Lee, 2014; Kocabaş-Gedik and Ortaçtepe Hart, 2021). Song (2016) argued that the emotional responses allow us to trace the subjectivity of language teachers to its institutional and social contexts.

Several factors contribute to developing teacher identity in the classroom, including demographical indexes (age, gender, and education); sociocultural, economic, and institutional dynamics (Duff and Uchida, 1997; Lin et al., 2002; Olsen, 2008; Danielewicz, 2014; Li, 2020), as well as discriminatory behavior toward non-native English speakers inside the inner circle or beyond and marginalizing them based on the existing binary (Kachru, 1986; Jenkins, 2006). Furthermore, both culture and teacher identity play a significant role in shaping effective teaching practices, which can be best explained through the emotional and social dynamics of the classroom (Good et al., 2009). Perceiving the implications of teacher identity is pivotal for improving and sustaining teaching standards (Day et al., 2006; Kayi-Aydar, 2015; Barger, 2022). In addition, “professional competence came to the fore being the best mediator to gain awareness of professional teacher identity” (Richards, 2021, p. 204). Understanding different aspects of teacher identity can be employed as a framework through which researchers can investigate teaching processes and methods to incorporate skills into many relevant identity tensions in the workplace (Olsen, 2008).

Considering its significant effects on teacher education, many researchers employed different methods to study identity formation in terms of discourses the teachers yield and get involved in Alsup (2006); of effects of the contextual factors (Van Lankveld et al., 2017), and of narratives which the teachers construct to describe their inner and professional worlds (Park, 2012; Li, 2020). The selection of a theoretical framework for examining teacher identity depends on several factors, including inherent sociocultural processes, the researchers’ beliefs, the complexity of the construct, use of various research methods, and further insights into that particular framework (Ahmad et al., 2019). Some scholars proposed different frameworks for investigating language teacher identity development (Kaplan et al., 2015; Trent, 2016; Yazan, 2018). Trent (2016) maintained a poststructuralist view toward identity—integrated time and space as latent sites of incongruity and conflicts; emphasized the role of discourse to understand an individual’s self, identity, and agency. Kaplan et al.’s (2015) teacher identity framework was comprised of four unique yet interrelated constituents: (1) epistemological and ontological views; (2) aims and goals; (3) self-image; and (4) perceived possibilities of practice. Yazan (2018) proposed a multidimensional framework consisting of teacher’s learning, cognition, participation in communities of practice, relevant contextual factors, biographies, and emotions. However, teacher identity appears to be demanding to fully represent. It is “a complex mélange of influences and effects in which macro- and microsocial histories, contexts, and positionings combine with the uniqueness of any person to create a situated, ever-developing self that both guides and results from experience” (Olsen, 2011, p. 259). In this regard, a single theory is not enough to conceptualize this complex and multifaceted construct. Moreover, examining relevant contributing factors and constituents has been given a short shrift by research scholars. The holistic understanding of teacher identity development requires proposing a more inclusive and well-grounded conceptual framework (Zembylas, 2018; Ahmad et al., 2019).

This paper aims to conceptualize teacher identity pursuing a more comprehensive approach by reviewing existing scholarship. We also trace identity through psychological as well as sociological perspectives. Ultimately, we introduce a new framework to obtain a more holistic understanding of teaching identity dimensions while developing a transformative perspective toward sense-induced emotions and its cognitive load on identity formation. This framework includes core constituents, such as (a) mirrors of power, (b) discourse, (c) imagination of reality, (d) investment, and (e) emotioncy, and (f) capital (see Figure 1).

Identity is a concept that has been studied in various ways within the bulk of research. In the essentialist view, identity is a set of personal peculiarities exclusively connected to a specific person. It entails an inner core that appears in childhood and comes to the surface as life goes on, yet it does not change (Hall and Du Gay, 1996). This core identity includes personal attributes and characteristics of the individual (Jones and McEwen, 2000). These attributes are self-descriptive and associated with identity categories that determine the self (Deaux, 1993). According to Waterman (1985), identity refers to “having a clearly delineated self-definition, a self-definition comprised of those goals, values, and beliefs which the person finds personally expressive, and to which he or she is unequivocally committed” (p. 6). In constructive view, however, self exists in two spaces simultaneously: I and other; they have a semiotic relationship and work constantly to shape the self (Bakhtin, 1990). Identity should be conceptualized as an image of self-living and developing through social activities (Holland et al., 1998; Pishghadam et al., 2013b). Therefore, essentialist frameworks consider identity as measurable, fixed, linear, and predetermined within classifications, such as gender or ethnicity. However, constructivist models viewed identity as fluid and constructed within a complex network of social interactions (Norton, 1997).

Structuralism was coined and advanced by various prominent scholars, such as de Saussure, Lévi-Strauss, Lacan, and Foucault, in the late 20th century. It is an intellectual approach that aims to examine a specific area as a complex system, comprised of interconnected constituents. It is also interested in the relationship between these components and “where objects are defined by the set of relationships of which they are part and not by the qualities possessed by them taken in isolation” (Barbosa de Almeida, 2015, p. 626). It pursues to cognize and clarify social reality in the sense of social structures (Heydebrand, 2001). Structuralism, therefore, holds a view in which all human activities, including behaviors, perceptions, and beliefs, are constructed and not natural. However, it has been criticized for its unwarranted rigidity and its emphasis on deterministic structural forces regardless of the individual subject’s aptitude to perform his role in the context. Challenging the tenets of structuralism, poststructuralism was developed as an intellectual approach to criticize the structuralist binary oppositions and rigid nature. It considers identity as a continuous process and contested construct of positioning, discourses, and power relations (Zembylas, 2003). See Table 1 for a summary of identity theories.

With the emphasis on social influence, identity is considered a construct positioned in mind and within a social context (Heisey, 2011). Gee’s (1999) conceptualized identity as enacted through multiple ways of thinking, acting, and interacting so that it became recognized as a certain kind of person. It is also developing in a process and is context-specific, shifting from context to context (Hall, 2000). People negotiate their identities depending on whom they interact with and the environment in which these interactions take place and identity is relational. For instance, the role of a teacher depends on the role of their students or their supervisors (Carter and Mireles, 2015).

Moreover, identity is multifaceted, plural (Cummins, 2011), and “dynamic rather than stable, a constantly evolving phenomenon” (Beauchamp and Thomas, 2009, p. 177), and it is also bound to multiple internal and external factors (Yazan, 2018; Fairley, 2020). Identity also plays a pivotal role in developing teachers’ professional learning (Buchanan, 2015). Therefore, identity functions as a bridging concept that facilitates the study of individual learning, socially situated experiences, and their relationship (Farnsworth, 2010).

Many scholars have examined identity development through psychological perspectives. Erikson (1968) also established and introduced a model for psychosocial stages of identity development. A person’s identity is developed through a continuous process through which the individual explores different choices in his/her lifespan and then makes a commitment toward each particular decision. Performing such adult tasks requires individuals to create a shared synergic relationship with the community and sustain a sense of continuity within the self. If a person fails in his/her commitment, identity diffusion occurs as a polar outcome of this psychological crisis (Erikson, 1963). Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development also delineated eight stages from infancy to adulthood. A crisis exists in each stage that an individual is required to handle. If the person successfully performs during a particular stage, it enhances individual competence. In other words, mastery leads to ego strength. If not, it creates a sense of shortfall within the self. Erikson (1968) employed the term crisis “in a developmental sense to connote not a threat of catastrophe, but a turning point, a crucial period of increased vulnerability and heightened potential” (p. 96). Identity versus role confusion is one of the crises that occurs in adolescence. Role confusion creates a variety of experiences in the individuals. A person may interrogate one of his or her main personal peculiarities, his perceptions of self as well as the surrounding world (Bosma et al., 1994). Such experiential events cast doubt on his existence and role in the context in which he interacts with others.

Building upon Erikson’s theory of identity, Marcia (1993) argued that identity development starts with a combination of beliefs, values, identity indexes, and childhood skills that offer persistent cohesion with past experiences and delineate routes for the future. Marcia (1966) categorized four major positions within the identity formation process: identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, moratorium, and identity achievement. He believed that people experience a series of crises or turning points which function as catalysts provoking changes, internal encounters, and emotional turmoil within the process that, in turn, lead to questioning one’s value system. The aftermath of these crises shapes a specific identity by exploring a variety of possibilities to establish new beliefs and make various decisions. Opposite of Erikson’s theory, Marcia argued that an adult could experience his identity status move in several directions. For example, suppose a teacher experiences emotional havoc during his career. In that case, the event can result in a reappraisal of previously held beliefs, either going back to the former position or upgrading to a new one as he adopts new values. Inspired by Marcia’s (1966) identity statuses, Sayah et al. (2014) validated the identity scale by running Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). They examined the participants’ age, gender, and school differences across two contexts (English institutes and public schools). Through Principle Component Analysis, they found four interrelated factors: religious identity, social interpersonal identity, cultural identity, and political identity. Sayah et al. (2014) also found that the participants obtained a higher score in perceiving the four statues in English institutes compared to public schools. Moreover, the study revealed that English institute’s students were moratorium and identity achievers at social interpersonal construct compared to public schools. It entailed a delocalization notion in which participants’ natural tendency toward a foreign culture situates them within identity change unswervingly.

In this regard, Waterman (1985, p. 57) argued, “adolescents differ with respect to the number of identity elements they consider within any particular domain, the vigor with which they explore the limits of each and degree of personal investment they feel in the options eventually adopted.” Emphasizing the role of society and context on identity development, Erikson (1959) argued that the relationship between an individual and society is convolutely interwoven and vigorously associated with a constant shift.

A conceptual framework is a structure that researchers employ to explain the development of a phenomenon (Camp, 2001). It helps the researchers recognize and clarify what they know, be concerned about, and respect the main facets of research and ultimately tie them with other constructs (Ravitch and Riggan, 2016). A conceptual framework also maps out the main dynamics of a study, variables, and features and then postulates the connections among those aspects (Miles and Huberman, 1994). Considering the above functionality, the remainder of this article depicts and discusses a conceptual framework for better understanding teacher identity development (see Figure 1). The framework includes the following components: (a) mirrors of power, (b) discourse, (c) imagination of reality, (d) investment, (e) emotioncy, and (f) capital.

Developed based on a literature review of existing studies and theories, the new framework facilitates understanding of teacher identity development through an analytical approach. Teacher identity is a social phenomenon because its construction, negotiation, and development occur and situate within institutional sites, including teacher education programs (Varghese et al., 2005). Therefore, these settings appeared to be ideal starting points for integrating and employing the conceptual model into practice. Our proposed teacher identity development framework highlights the complexity of teacher identity and addresses various aspects of teachers’ professional development, wellbeing, classroom practices.

When developing a curriculum or syllabus, teacher educators could include scholarly articles highlighting the relationship between the six identity core components and illustrating how these constituents affect the teacher identity construction. Teachers could also be mindful of the activities they incorporate into their teaching practices, keeping the effects of the six identity constructs in mind. Such inclusion will provide space for identity negotiation and equip prospective teachers to shape a critical mentality toward their professional identity and prepare them for managing identity tensions, uncertainty, and dilemmas in the classroom and beyond while striving for a sense of continuity and coherence.

The teachers could also employ this conceptual framework to build a reflectivity toward contextual idiosyncrasies, institutional policies, their dynamic self-conception, and participatory practices within the imagined communities, and ultimately exercise their agency in the teaching profession more constructively. Our proposed framework could also be used for the pathology of teacher identity construction. Like needs analysis, the framework could be used as identity analysis in teacher education programs. It would allow them to discover different aspects of teachers’ professional identity process and open avenues for thoughts on how teachers’ identities impact their teaching practices. The practice would provide teachers with greater awareness of their multiple identities, supporting teachers to better understand themselves and recognize institutional mandates affecting their identity formation. In this respect, similar to the following questions, teacher educators could create various identity analysis questions for each of the six mentioned facets.

The above six identity analysis questions could be employed as possible examples to inform teacher educators and teacher candidates of the forces that influence and shape relevant identity construction.

The framework guides the researchers to make informed decisions about the constructs they could include in their studies. It also sets the stage for a systematic and attentive investigation of teacher identity development. Moreover, it helps researchers to situate their studies within the existing literature. Therefore, the scholars could achieve a more inclusive and comprehensible understanding of teacher identity construction. However, little is known about the relationship between the core components: (a) mirrors of power, (b) discourse, (c) imagination of reality, (d) investment, (e) emotioncy, and (f) capital. Moreover, no research can be found that included the above constructs altogether. Future researchers could focus on developing a teacher identity scale considering the new framework and then examine the correlations between the constructs and variables. The framework can also open up space for researchers to investigate what changes language teacher identity bears when the teachers perform different roles as program managers/researchers across contexts.

The conceptual framework attempted to develop another perspective to examine teacher identity development, particularly for language teachers, as EFL contexts are considered fertile for studying identity (Richards, 2006). We hope this framework could support researchers as they investigate identity shifts, tensions, and emotional burdens teachers’ experiences in the classrooms.

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, and further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

RP has developed the conceptual framework for the study, reviewed the manuscript, provided feedback, and also contributed to the manuscript revision, proofreading, and editing. Under the supervision of RP, JG, and MM wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All the authors contributed to the article and the development of the research design and approved the submitted version.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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