This book provides a multifaceted, multilayered examination of the processes and challenges language teachers face in constructing their professional identities in multilingual contexts such as Hong Kong. It focuses on how professional and personal identities are enacted as individuals cross geographic, educational, and socio-cultural boundaries to become English language teachers in Hong Kong. It explores the construction of language teachers' professional identities from multiple perspectives in multiple settings, including pre-service and in-service teachers from Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Western countries. Understanding the difficulties and challenges these language teachers face in their identity and professional development is of relevance to teachers and teacher educators, as well as those interested in becoming language teachers in multilingual contexts.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. It is Not a Bad Idea for Me to Be a Language Teacher! .- 3. Cross-Border Pre-service Teachers in Hong Kong: Identity and Integration.- 4. Journeys towards teaching. Pre-service English language teachers' understandings and experiences of teaching and teacher education in Hong Kong.- 5. Language Teachers and the Falling Language Standards in Hong Kong: An Internet-based Inquiry.- 6. A Comparative Study on Commitment to Teaching.- 7. The construction and reconstruction of teacher identities: The case of second career English language teachers in Hong Kong.- 8. Learning, teaching, and constructing identities abroad: ESL pre-service teacher experiences during a short-term international experience programme.- 9. Identity construction in a foreign land: Native-speaking English teachers and the contestation of teacher identities in Hong Kong schools.- 10. Political Conspiracy or Decoy Marketing?: Experienced Chinese teachers' perceptions of using Putonghua as a Medium of Instruction in Hong Kong.- 11. An Ethico-political Analysis of Teacher Identity Construction.-Conclusion: Crossing boundaries and becoming English language teachers in multilingual contexts.