Multilingual Refugee Pre‐Service English Teachers Negotiating Their Professional Identity Through Translanguaging

Abstract

Although research on teacher identity has expanded significantly in today's globalizing world, the lived experiences of refugee teachers within broader discussions of multilingualism, identity, and educational policy are underexamined. Addressing this gap, the present study explores how multilingual refugee pre‐service English language teachers in Türkiye construct and negotiate their professional identities. Grounded in translanguaging theory, trauma‐informed pedagogy, and raciolinguistic ideologies, the study adopts a narrative inquiry design within a multiple‐case framework. Data were generated through interviews, narratives, field notes and analyzed thematically. The findings reveal that refugee pre‐service English language teachers employed four interconnected translanguaging orientations, i.e., compartmentalized, relational, transitional, and affective translanguaging, to negotiate identity. Furthermore, participants transformed experiences of translanguaging identity dissonance into forms of agentive linguistic repositioning. Implications are discussed.