Advocacy‐oriented language teacher educator identity as ethical self‐formation: A polyvocal exploration

Language teacher educators’ identity is a significant contributor to pedagogical and professional choices they make in their work. Utilizing Foucault's notion of ethico‐political self‐formation as adapted by Clarke (2009), the researchers explored the identities of six advocacy‐oriented language teacher educators (LTEs) working in the United States. In their polyvocal exploration, they focus on the ethical substance, authority sources, and self‐practices that contribute to the formation of advocacy‐oriented professional identities. Analysis revealed interactions between prior experiences, relationships, key theories, and self‐practices of reflection as formative to identities as advocacy‐oriented LTEs. The researchers discuss their findings in light of the relationship of identity formation to pedagogy and what collaborative self‐reflection reveals about the formation of an advocacy‐oriented LTE identity. The findings contribute to our developing understanding of advocacy within the context of language teaching and language teacher education.