Mobilising intersectional teacher identity work in professional development of secondary teachers of emergent bilinguals in the US

Our study examines how in-service secondary content-area teachers draw on their intersectional identities to navigate language ideologies and enact equity-focused pedagogies in multilingual classrooms. Situated in a graduate-level professional development (PD) programme in South Texas, we explore how educators develop ideological clarity, redefining their roles through reflexivity and justice-centered practice. Guided by intersectionality and teacher identity, we analysed multimodal data, including digital language stories, identity wheels, and collaborative coaching cycles from 49 teachers. Through thematic analysis, three key findings emerged: (1) teachers engaged reflexively, transforming their intersectional understandings of emergent bilingual (EB) students’ experiences; (2) they exercised agency by drawing on their own intersecting identities to enact resistance and advocacy; and (3) they constructed language-teacher identities informed by their positionalities within systems of power. Findings suggest that intersectional, geography-based identities in a region characterised by linguistic and racialized marginalisation enabled educators to challenge monoglossic norms, foster advocacy, and validate students’ linguistic and cultural repertoires. By conceptualising language as a site of identity, power, and resistance, teachers resisted dominant ideologies and reimagined equitable instruction for EB students. This study contributes to research on teacher identity and intersectionality by highlighting how critical PD supports transformative praxis in linguistically diverse educational settings.