Negotiating Professional Identity among English Teachers in a Disadvantaged Mountainous School in Gia Lai, Vietnam

Abstract

This study investigates how English teachers in a disadvantaged mountainous area of Gia Lai Province, Vietnam, construct and negotiate their professional identities within the context of national educational reforms. While language policies emphasize communicative competence, standardized outcomes, and educational modernization, less is known about how teachers in remote ethnic minority settings experience and respond to these expectations. Using a qualitative case study design, data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with four English teachers at an ethnic minority boarding lower secondary school. The findings reveal that teachers continuously negotiate between institutional expectations and local realities shaped by linguistic diversity, poverty, limited student motivation, and restricted resources. Rather than defining professionalism through measurable achievement or innovation, participants associated professional success with endurance, care, flexibility, and the ability to sustain student engagement under difficult conditions. Teachers also exercised agency through practical classroom adaptations and emotional commitment to their students. Based on these four interviews, the study offers a context-specific account of how professional identity may be negotiated under structural and contextual constraints. The findings highlight the need for more context-sensitive educational policies, flexible assessment expectations, and stronger support systems for teachers working in marginalized communities. Future research could explore teacher identity across multiple disadvantaged schools using longitudinal and classroom-based approaches.