Identity Tensions of EFL Teachers in Navigating GenAI‐Empowered Language Teaching: A Case Study of Two Secondary School Teachers in China

ABSTRACT Given the advancements in generative AI (GenAI) technology in education, how teachers interact with such tools to promote professional development becomes crucial. This case study seeks to enrich our understanding of EFL teacher identity tensions in GenAI in a Chinese secondary education context where two EFL teachers navigated GenAI‐empowered language teaching and articulated their lived experiences. Drawing on multiple data sources (e.g., interviews, fieldnotes, policy documents and classroom observations), we found that the two participants’ identity tensions in GenAI‐empowered language teaching were nested in power dynamics permeating the multifaceted dimensions of their professional lives, including students’ academic standing, aspired teaching practice and belief, and interactions with GenAI developers and algorithm knowledge. Although our participants recognized the role of GenAI in deliberating their aspired teacher identities, their practiced teacher identities, positioned by stakeholders in secondary education, engendered tensions in their participation in GenAI for language teaching. Part of their identity tensions also stemmed from their negotiations with knowledge production in the GenAI era. This study provides insights into EFL teachers’ identity tensions in their navigation of GenAI‐empowered language teaching in the secondary education context, attending to the previously under‐researched population of EFL teachers. It also bears important implications for GenAI development for more effective language teaching and preparation of EFL secondary teachers to work with GenAI tools.