2018 Volume 16 Pages 115-135
There is a knowledge gap concerning how Japanese language teachers choose to work in primary and middle education institutions overseas. This paper, focusing on two Japanese language teachers working in primary and middle schools in the oblast of Sakhalin in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in Russia, attempts to analyse the process they used to determine their identities as Russian-born teachers of Japanese. Previous research on teacher identity has mainly concentrated on self-concept or feelings of self-esteem; therefore, this study analyses the identity-forming processes, finding common themes among the identity fluctuations. By using the Trajectory Equifinality Approach to analyse their identities, we found how each teacher formed his/her teacher identity. The analysis further found that overseas Japanese language teachers were passively affected by the regional linguistic policies, as well as by the national policy, while being influenced by individual factors as they formed their identities. In addition, the paper proposes useful language policies that could be used in the future to support Japanese language teachers overseas.
