VIETTESOL INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION 2025

Professional identity development is a slow and complex process of self-negotiation and re-negotiation. While the latter parts of this process tend to be stable, the initial parts seem to be more fluctuating and less predictable. This understanding urges a qualitative study to explore how EFL teachers shifts their profession identity from the early-career stage to mid-career stage. Factors contributing to their identification changes are also scrutinized. The study draws on an adapted theoretical framework which includes five sub-components of professional identity, namely roles and values, job motivation, satisfaction, commitment, and self-efficacy to examine the changes. An analytical framework with six influential stages of identification development is also provided to capture such adjustments. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews conducted with four EFL mid-career tertiary teachers in Vietnam, who have different academic backgrounds and career shifts. The researcher employs life-history method to analyze the four cases The findings reveal that teacher identity development is an on-going process, occurring in both negative and positive manner, and resulted from their lived experiences and intentional contemplation. In addition, changes in identity sub-construct may lead to modifications of overall professional identity of a teacher. Finally, the study provides a useful conceptual framework for research on identity.