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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
LIU Yuwei
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DOI:10.17265/2161-623X/2025.12.002
Zhaoqing University, Zhaoqing, China
This narrative inquiry examines how a pre-service English teacher, Lin (pseudonym), constructed her professional identity while supporting eighth-grade students in a five-week project-based learning (PBL) course in southern China. Drawing on three interviews, five emotion diaries, and classroom observations, the seven-week study traced how emotionally significant moments shaped Lin’s sense of becoming a teacher. Four identity positions emerged: tentative beginner, overextended coordinator, supportive collaborator, and boundary negotiator. These identities reflected Lin’s shifting emotions as she navigated uncertainty, managed divergent group needs, experienced relational affirmation, and confronted institutional constraints. The findings highlighted the emotionally mediated and contextually situated nature of identity formation and emphasized the need for teacher education programmes to prepare pre-service teachers for the emotional complexity of practice, particularly when implementing PBL in exam-oriented EFL settings.
pre-service teacher identity, teacher emotion, project-based learning
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