A kaleidoscope of I-positions: Chinese volunteers' enactment of teacher identity in Australian classrooms

This article explores the enactment of teacher identity by Chinese international students volunteering in Australian schools. Dialogical Self Theory offers a theoretical framework for understanding the intrapersonal and interpersonal nature of a teacher's identity, but lacks an analytical tool for describing self-dialogue. This article addresses this gap by focusing on language-in-use as the lens for investigating the inner dynamics of teacher identity. Descriptive discourse analysis highlights linguistic processes that shed light on self-dialogue, revealing a kaleidoscopic experience of I-positions emerging, receding, shifting and interacting within transitional identities. Findings suggest the dialogical relationships and movements between I-positions distinguish one individual's transitional identity from those of others. This article contributes to teacher identity research by illuminating idiosyncratic dialogical processes in the experience of international students becoming teachers and posits student volunteer programs as contexts within which to investigate and foster teacher identity construction.