Conceptualizing Language Teacher
Education Centered on Language
Teacher Identity Development: A
Competencies-Based Approach and
Practical Applications
MARIAH J. FAIRLEY
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Indiana, Pennsylvania, United States
The American University in Cairo
Cairo, Egypt
Language teacher identity (LTI) has become an increasingly central
focus in language teaching recently, perhaps because identity is now
defined as multiple, complex, shifting, socially constructed, and a site
of struggle (Norton, 2013; Song, 2016)—and thus a construct that
can and should be intentionally influenced (Varghese, Motha, Park,
Reeves, & Trent, 2016). With greater understanding that social justice
and a critical orientation to education are not only important but
also the duty of educators to enact (Kubota & Miller, 2017), some
advocate the placement of LTI development at the center of lan-
guage teacher education (LTE; De Costa & Norton, 2017a; Varghese
et al., 2016). However, the conceptualization of such intentional
models of LTE needs development (Varghese et al., 2016). This arti-
cle begins to conceptualize such an LTE program. The author theo-
rizes LTI and the need for adopting an LTI that is transformative,
agentive, and advocacy (TAA)-oriented, and proposes a competen-
cies-based approach as a foundation for developing an LTE program
centered on the development of a TAA-oriented LTI, suggesting key
competencies to include in such an approach. She presents practical
affordances and activities that could be helpful in developing these
competencies. The article ends with questions aimed at furthering
this emerging scholarly conversation in the field.
doi: 10.1002/tesq.568
TESOL QUARTERLY Vol. 0, No. 0, 0000
© 2020 TESOL International Association
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