Transforming Teacher Identity Through Affect

The formation of professional teacher identity has historically been scrutinized through cognitive andpedagogical lenses, often relegating the affective domain to a secondary or supportive role. However, thecontemporary educational landscape, characterized by neoliberal accountability measures, high-stakes test-ing, and increasing student diversity, demands a rigorous re-evaluation of how emotions, values, and atti-tudes constitute the core of the teaching self. This manuscript investigates the structural and phenomenolog-ical mechanisms through which the affective domain catalyzes the transformation of professional teacheridentity. By synthesizing Krathwohl’s taxonomy of the affective domain with Mezirow’s transformativelearning theory and Vygotskian concepts of perezhivanie, this paper proposes a novel theoretical model:the Affective-Professional Becoming (APB).