Language Teacher Motivation in Online Contexts: The Evolution of Possible Language Teacher Selves

Abstract

This study investigates the motivation of language teachers through the lens of possible language teacher selves (Kubanyiova, 2009) in the context of online teaching, exploring how motivation evolves over time. Using a longitudinal qualitative approach, the study utilised semi-structured interviews and teaching diaries with 14 secondary school language teachers in China. Findings reveal that teachers’ motivation towards online teaching was multifaceted, with all participants establishing well-elaborated future self-images and nurturing expectations for their roles in future online teaching contexts. The study highlights the temporal dimension of teachers’ motivation, focusing on the evolving, dynamic shifts in the transformative patterns of possible language teacher selves. Notably, agency developed as a result of the evolving motivational change between participants’ ideal, ought-to, and feared selves, driving teachers to take agentive steps toward online pedagogy and inclusive educational practices. This process created a reinforcing cycle, where agency not only emerged from the transformation of possible selves but also reciprocally influenced the development of participants’ possible selves. The findings suggest that possible language teacher selves could serve as a theoretical framework for designing teacher professional development programmes, emphasising the cultivation of ideal selves and the transformation of feared and ought-to selves in order to enhance teachers’ agency.