TESOL Journal - 2024 - Zhu - Exploring Teacher Identity Development Asian Teaching Assistants Experience at A U S

Received: 28 August 2023
| Revised: 7 April 2024

| Accepted: 20 April 2024
DOI: 10.1002/tesj.836
E M P I R I C A L F E AT U R E A RT I C L E
Exploring teacher identity development:

Asian teaching assistants' experience at a U.S.
university
Yangyang Zhu | Janet Alsup
Purdue University
Abstract
This study explored the teacher identity development
of Asian teaching assistants (ATA) at a U.S. university.
The researchers used a qualitative design with two semi-
structured interviews with each of the three participants.
Findings suggest that ATAs were unprepared for
racial diversity and experienced anti-Asian sentiment
in the classroom during the COVID- 19 pandemic.
They struggled to make sense of the content of the
courses they were teaching due to a lack of systematic
training. Some constructed teacher identity through a
challenging process: moving from being self-doubting,
nervous, and frustrated to being comfortable, confident,
and even creative. The findings suggest that universities
should pay attention to the preparation of international
teaching assistants (ITA) for teaching in a multicultural
U.S. context with unfamiliar student expectations for
teaching and learning.
1 | I N T RO DU CT ION
In the 2022–2023 academic year, the number of international students reached 1,057,188 at U.S.
universities, accounting for 5.6% of the total student population, and increasing from 948,519 (by
12%) in the previous year (IIE Open Doors/International Students, 2023; Korhonen, 2023a). Among
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them, 467,027 (44%) were graduate school students (Korhonen, 2023b) and many worked as teach-
ing assistants. According to National Center for Education Statistics (2022), 31.5% of teaching assis-
tants (TAs) were nonresident aliens, that is, international students, at U.S. universities in fall 2021.
A large number of international teaching assistants (ITAs) have been employed by U.S. universities
as a measure to allow faculty to focus on research, as well as to attract talent from all over the world
with teaching assistantships as part of the funding package (LoCastro & Tapper, 2006). ITAs play a
significant role in teaching at U.S. universities. Their responsibilities range from grading students'
assignments, holding office hours, providing tutorials, and leading labs, to teaching entire courses.
As a Chinese doctoral student and teaching assistant at a U.S. university, I (the first author)
have experienced the huge differences in classroom cultures between China and the United
States. In many Asian cultures, teachers are seen as authorities, class is lecture-based, and stu-
dents are expected to remain silent in the classroom (S.S.-J. Kang, 2005). However, in U.S. class-
rooms, professors expect students to engage orally (Yi, 2020). I have had both the pressure of
being a “silent” graduate school student who dares not speak up in front of my classmates and
of being a “talkative” teacher when I taught an undergraduate course. In both cases, my behav-
ior was opposite to the culture of a U.S. classroom. My teacher identity has been changing as I
navigate these experiences. This drives me to learn more about ITAs who may have undergone
similar experiences to mine at U.S. universities.
2 | L I T E R AT U R E R E VIE W
2.1 | ITAs' teacher identity
Identity, according to Sahling and De Carvalho (2021), is “a process of becoming” (p. 35). Teacher
identity is complicated and multilayered and is influenced by many factors, such as one's histori-
cal experiences, cultural backgrounds, and personal and professional experiences (Alsup, 2006;
Chien, 2019; Cross, 2017; Sahling & De Carvalho, 2021). Cross (2017) uses the terms hyphen,
praxis, and conscientization to stand for three aspects of teacher identity formation—that is, hy-
phen for negotiating different subjectivities, praxis for integrating thinking and social practice,
and conscientization for critical reflection (p. 223).
For ITAs, their teacher identity development is arguably more complicated, as their roles tend
to be more varied. They are often simultaneously a teacher, a graduate student, a second or for-
eign language learner and user, and a person from a different culture. Their identity, first and
foremost, tends to be affected by their speaking English as a second or foreign language; the com-
munication problem of ITAs was referred to as a “foreign TA problem” in the past (Bailey, 1983, p.
309). In one study, researchers explored ITAs' language use in the classroom and found the ITAs'
monotone and accented English weakened their self-confidence in the classroom. Regretfully,
ITAs were overly concerned with their English competency, which diverted their attention from
their expertise in the content knowledge (Wang & Mantero, 2018). Similarly, Yu (2024) found
that ITAs' anxiety about their language competence reduced their confidence in their content
knowledge in front of their students, and they, therefore, underwent “identity paradox” as both
a language novice and content expert, and a second language teacher and user (p. 3). ITAs ex-
perienced anxiety in speaking English in class and were concerned with how their students saw
their spoken English with an accent (Adebayo & Allen, 2020). Such problems may relate to the
perceived bias towards nonnative TAs among students, as a result of which ITAs faced insecurity
in their teaching (Kasztalska, 2019).
ZHU and ALSUP | (3 of 19)
In another study, which investigated conversations between five ITAs and five U.S. college
students, respectively, during the ITAs' office hours and included interviews with the five stu-
dents, Chiang (2016) explored the phenomenon of sentence completion by college students, who
tended to view ITAs' pauses as speech production problems during their conversation. The ITAs'
professional identity, therefore, is not guaranteed, but negotiated and even challenged. Their
mastery of content is acknowledged, but their professional identity is negatively influenced by
their being language novices. Some college students' negative perceptions of their ITAs may
explain why they challenged the ITAs (e.g., Adebayo & Allen, 2020; Arshavskaya, 2015; Avsar
Erumit et al., 2021).
2.2 | ITAs' challenges
Many researchers have investigated the experiences of ITAs and the challenges they have
met at U.S. universities (Arshavskaya, 2015; Avsar Erumit et al., 2021; Chiang, 2016; Hebbani
& Hendrix, 2014; LoCastro & Tapper, 2006; Wang & Mantero, 2018). Researchers found that
ITAs met cultural, linguistic, instructional, contextual, and classroom management challenges
(Arshavskaya, 2015; Avsar Erumit et al., 2021). The medium of instruction is the greatest chal-
lenge in ITA's teaching as they try to communicate successfully and effectively in English in
class (LoCastro & Tapper, 2006). For example, ITAs were not able to follow their students when
they spoke quickly or used informal language (Arshavskaya, 2015). It was difficult for ITAs to
make jokes or understand jokes from their students. The discursive terms related to the content
they taught in the United States were different from what ITAs learned and used in their home
countries (Avsar Erumit et al., 2021).
In addition, ITAs face difficulties in classroom management, as they reported that
their students came unprepared for class activities and showed disrespect toward them.
Regarding instructional challenges, ITAs were struggling to make their class interactive
(Arshavskaya, 2015). They did not know how to integrate critical thinking into their class
(Wang & Mantero, 2018). Swan et al. (2017) found that 84% of the ITAs in their study reported
being unfamiliar with the U.S. educational system, and they had to change their expecta-
tions and mindset because the teacher–student relationship was different from their cultures.
Master's and doctoral ITAs may face different challenges from one another also, as Hebbani
and Hendrix (2014) found that master's ITAs tended to have less confidence in their public
speaking in English, whereas doctoral ITAs were more concerned about their content delivery
in class.
2.3 | Research purpose and research questions
As the minority group, the needs and voices of international teaching assistants (ITAs) have not
been well considered by many universities, and researchers have called for more attention to
be paid to ITAs (Arshavskaya, 2015; Chiang, 2016; S.-J. Kang, 2005; Robertson & Yazan, 2022).
Though quite a few studies have focused on ITAs at universities, few have explored the experi-
ences of ITAs with teaching experiences both in their home countries and in the United States.
In this study, I explore how three Asian teaching assistants (ATAs), a subset of ITAs, who had
teaching experience in their home countries before they came to the United States to pursue
doctoral studies, have approached their teaching at a large public U.S. Midwestern university,
and how their teacher identities have been influenced by the context. The research questions are
as follows:
• What challenges do the ATAs face in their teaching?

• How do they narrate their experiences in the United States in comparison to their experiences
in their home countries?
• How have the ways they view themselves as a teacher changed?
3 | M ET H ODOLOGY
3.1 | Narrative inquiry
The researchers used narrative inquiry in this interview-based qualitative study. As Clandinin
and Huber (2002) noted, “identity is a storied life composition, a story to live by” (p. 161), while
narrative, “as in all storytelling, is a reconstruction of experience” (Clandinin & Connelly, 1990,
p. 245). Narrative inquiry is both a “phenomenon and method” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990,
p. 2), which allows researchers to “see experience narratively” and “study experience narra-
tively” (Clandinin & Huber, 2002, p. 162). Narrative inquiry uses storytelling as a source of data
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016), and yet is more than telling stories (Bell, 2002; Kim, 2016; Savin-
Baden & Niekerk, 2007). It extends beyond individual stories and examines the underlying as-
sumptions that influence the formation of those stories (Bell, 2002).
Narrative inquiry has been a powerful method to provide insights into the construction of
the professional identities of preservice and in-service teachers in several studies (Alsup, 2006,
2019; Teng, 2020; Tsui, 2007). Through narrative inquiry, Tsui (2007) described how Minfang had
formed his professional identity as an English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher at a main-
land university in China. The process of Minfang's identity formation was quite complicated,
but narrative inquiry provided a lens to illuminate the whole process, as his experience of being
a student from a marginalized group and not believing in communicative language teaching
(CLT) influenced his teaching as an EFL teacher, but he finally embraced his identity as a CLT
teacher after gaining more competency. In another study, Teng (2020) used narrative inquiry to
explore how a doctoral student constructed his identity as a seasoned researcher while negotiat-
ing his participation and membership in the academic community. Alsup (2006, 2019) explored
the development of preservice teachers' teacher identities by analyzing the narratives told by the
preservice teachers themselves.
Therefore, narrative inquiry uses “first-person accounts of experience told in story form” as a
source of data (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016, p. 34), and can help illuminate how the participants have
formed their professional identities, and how their experiences have influenced that formation.
3.2 | Conceptual framework
Beijaard et al. (2004) reviewed existing research on teacher identity development and identified
key areas for future study. The current study takes two of Beijaard et al.'s (2004) four essential
features as its theoretical framework: “Professional identity is an ongoing process of interpreta-
tion and re-interpretation of experiences (Kerby, 1991)” and “Professional identity implies both
person and context” (pp. 122–123). Quite a few studies have explored the experiences of ITAs
and the challenges they met at U.S. universities (Arshavskaya, 2015; Avsar Erumit et al., 2021;
Chiang, 2016; Hebbani & Hendrix, 2014; LoCastro & Tapper, 2006; Wang & Mantero, 2018), but
most focused on cultural and linguistic factors, particularly challenges ITAs met because of their
limited English proficiency (Arshavskaya, 2015; Chiang, 2016; LoCastro & Tapper, 2006; Wang
& Mantero, 2018). Building on these existing studies, this study, however, focuses on ATAs' ex-
periences (a subset of ITAs) and pays more attention to the role of context in teacher identity
formation.
The study explores the experiences of three ATAs, and the challenges they have been facing in
their teaching at a U.S. university. It particularly looks into the role context plays in their teacher
identity formation, and the changes they have made in teaching in a context different from that
of their home countries. Narrative inquiry is used based on two one-on-one semi-structured in-
terviews with each of the three ATAs, who tell stories of both teaching experiences in their home
countries and current teaching experiences in the United States.
3.3 | Setting and participants
This study was conducted at a U.S. Midwestern university which, according to official statistics
released by the institution, had 49,639 students in 2021. The student population was predomi-
nantly White, but there were 8,956 international students, with a majority from China, India,
South Korea, Colombia, and Brazil. Among these, 4,796 were graduates and professional stu-
dents, accounting for 41% of the graduate population. For an international graduate student to
become a teaching assistant at this university, there are certain English proficiency standards
that must be met. They need to achieve 27 or higher in speaking in TOEFL, or 8 or higher in
speaking in IELTS, or 50 or higher in the university's Oral English Proficiency Test (OEPT).
Many tend to choose to take the university's OEPT which is free if they do not meet the speaking
requirements of TOEFL or IELTS. However, if they do not score 50 or higher in OEPT, they are
not eligible for a teaching assistantship, and the test could only be taken once a semester. If they
score 40 or 45 on the OEPT, they can take an English course targeted at helping international
graduate students improve their spoken English and communication and presentation skills;
they are required to give four presentations as one of the main assessments of taking this course.
Students are allowed to take this course up to three times. By passing the English course, they
become eligible to work as a teaching assistant.
In this study, I (the first author) used snowball sampling to find participants who had teach-
ing experiences both in their home countries and in the United States, as their perspectives were
different from those who had never worked as teachers in their own countries. I first approached
ATAs that I knew and was then connected to other ATAs the initial participants knew. Ultimately,
three doctoral ATAs (see Appendix 1 for details) were chosen for the study.
ITAs' responsibilities included grading students' assignments, holding office hours, provid-
ing tutorials, overseeing exams, and teaching a course at US universities. In this study, all three
participants were independent instructors who had to teach a course as well as grade students'
assignments. The syllabus and teaching materials for the course were ready to use. They had the
freedom to adjust the teaching materials (such as adding more), and to design various activities
to deliver the content, but were not allowed to change the course assignments.
Michael, a PhD candidate, had worked as a full-time teacher at a public high school and
then at a private school in his home country. He had no experience teaching or studying in an
English-dominant country before he came to pursue his doctoral degree in the United States.
He considered himself a creative and confident teacher who had the freedom to customize his
teaching. He hoped to gain more expertise and be more competent in teaching by pursuing his
doctoral studies in the United States.
Emma, also a PhD candidate, had worked as a university professor and advisor of master's
students at a university in her home country for 18 years before she came to pursue her doctoral
studies in the United States. She came to the United States as a visiting scholar for one year. She
saw herself as a qualified and good teacher who got along well with her students in her country.
She intended to gain more expertise and learn how to design a curriculum and develop more
skills in teaching by studying in the United States. All her educational background was in her
home country.
Jack was a PhD student who had taught at elementary school, high school, and college levels
in his home country and had also worked as a teacher educator. He regarded himself as an inno-
vative teacher as well as a motivator for his students, many of whom had come from poor family
backgrounds. He was motivated to work hard for a better future in his country. He intended to
advance his professional experience as well as gaining more expertise in the field that interests
him. He had studied and worked as a TA during a second master's degree program at another U.S.
university before he came to this university for his doctoral degree, so his teaching experiences in
the U.S. context included attendance at two other universities.
3.4 | Positionality
In narrative inquiry, researchers should do reflexivity and check on their subjectivities and how
they influence their research (Kim, 2016). Specifically, it is imperative for narrative research-
ers to recognize their own presence, voice, and actions throughout all stages of narrative work
(Barkhuizen & Consoli, 2021). Self-reflexivity should show how narrative researchers connect
with their subject matter, their study participants, and the overarching meanings that propel and
enrich their research. Therefore, as the major designer of this project, I (the first author) checked
my own positionality and how it may affect the research.
I am a Chinese female PhD student and TA at this university. Before I came to the United
States to pursue my doctoral studies, all my educational background and teaching experiences
were in China, where teachers were the dominant and absolute authority in a classroom, and
students listened to the teachers' lectures throughout the whole class in most cases. Learning
was based on drilling exercises and rote memory to prepare students for exams; the high-stakes
college entrance exam affected teaching and learning in K-12 schools. As an ATA at a U.S. univer-
sity, I taught an undergraduate course as an independent instructor, and so I had similar experi-
ences to my ATA participants, with teaching experiences both at home and in the United States.
My identity and teaching experiences made me an insider among the population being stud-
ied and helped me empathize with the ATAs, likely eliciting more in-depth responses from my
participants. I saw the participants as co-researchers and intended to build a rapport with them
by being open to sharing my own experiences. For example, one of my participants appreciated
me sharing my teaching experiences as a high school English teacher in China and told me
that this helped him recall his own teaching experiences in his home country. A disadvantage,
however, was that I could have assumptions about their experiences and not be able to see their
experiences from an outsider's view, which could cause me to lose some perspective. This reso-
nates with what Holmes (2020) wrote about research positionality in qualitative research: that
insider-positioned researchers may be too familiar with their own culture and lose an external
perspective. For example, because I could relate so easily to my participants' experiences, I could
become emotional in the interview, and my emotions may have influenced my participants' shar-
ing. In addition, I had expectations about the responses of my participants' answers, based on
my own experiences, and found myself unprepared about how to follow up when I received
unexpected answers. Overall, however, my self-reflexivity helped me understand how my role as
a researcher could influence the research process. At the same time, I was aware that my posi-
tionality is a fluid state that will change over my research career (Holmes, 2020).
3.5 | Data collection and analysis
With approval from my university's institutional review board, I (the first author) conducted two
semi-structured interviews with each participant (see Appendix 2). The first interview focused
on their learning and/or teaching experience in their home countries and the second on their
teaching experiences in the United States. I did all the interviews in English on Microsoft Teams
and audio-taped and transcribed them verbatim. All the quotes below are adopted directly from
these transcripts. All names are pseudonyms.
After interviewing each participant, I wrote a research memo describing the background in-
formation, the general characteristics of the participant, and issues and ideas that stood out to
me in the interview. Memos can help researchers record their thinking for a later review and
extract meaning from the data (Birks et al., 2008). Then I coded each transcript. According to
Saldaña (2013), “a code is a research-generated construct” and researchers generate a linguistic
code to “capture a datum's primary content and essence”; and a code is similar to the title of a
book, film, or poem (p. 4). I read and reread the transcripts and wrote down codes in the margin
of the printed copies of the interview transcripts. Then I compared the codes with the other
researcher (the second author), who coded the same transcripts and discussed the codes. Next,
I incorporated all the transcripts and codes into NVivo and did a second round of coding. The
purpose of the second-round coding was to check if I had left any necessary content uncoded
and to eliminate or collapse codes. I added new codes, deleted overlapping codes, and combined
codes into larger categories. Then I generated themes based on the categories in alignment with
the research questions and drew findings based on them.
4 | F I NDI N G S
4.1 | Challenges met by ATAs
This section answers the first research question and discusses the challenges ATAs met in the
cultural, instructional, and linguistic aspects of their teaching (Arshavskaya, 2015; Avsar Erumit
et al., 2021).
4.1.1 | Anti-Asian sentiment under COVID-19
COVID-19 has impacted ATAs' experiences, which concurs with existing studies that “profes-
sional identity implies both person and context” (Beijaard et al., 2004, p. 122) and that context
plays a significant role in graduate TAs' teaching and the tensions they experience (Robertson &
Yazan, 2022). All three of the study participants taught during the COVID-19 pandemic. Michael
described the discrimination he experienced from his students:
You know, during the COVID, there was definitely some sentiment about Asian
hates, right? because people thought virus came from the Asia, right? … And when
I go to the classroom, I'm the only Asian and they're usually, like, white students …
I mean they wouldn't say, but … there was definitely some, umm, unpleasant feeling
for me whenever I enter the classroom.
(Michael, May 27, 2022)
The isolation and discrimination Michael felt from his students may have much to do with
the U.S. context outside the classroom, as racism against Asians increased with the pandemic
(Gover et al., 2020; Wu et al., 2021). Although there was no verbal offense from his students,
Michael's description of the way they behaved in the classroom, sitting far away from him and
not paying attention, showed his frustrations and insecurity from his students' behavior. Under
this circumstance, ATAs are subject to additional pressure as they may face discrimination from
their students and have to worry about their safety. As Michael said,
…because before in my, during the pandemic, I was also scared, because, you know,
I'm the only one in the US and there is no one, like no family to like, I guess, take care
of me if I'm sick, so I had to be really super cautious about everything, so I was also
really scared to like go close to students or talk a lot in the classroom.
As students seemed to sit distantly from Michael and were unwilling to talk in class, Michael's
concern for his own safety for fear of virus transmission also made him reluctant to get close to
or talk much with students. At this stage, Michael was vulnerable both physically and mentally,
as he was worried about his health in a country far from his own family, as well as being isolated
by his students without psychological support.
4.1.2 | Unprepared for racial topics and being cautious in a different culture
Another challenge faced by the participants was the mental pressure they felt in an unfamiliar
culture. As an ATA, Michael's identity had transformed from being a racial majority in his home
country to a minority, and he was not prepared for that:
One thing I wasn't prepared about. One thing I think I want. Uh, I would have ap-
preciated it about was some racial, things like racial topics … Until I came here, and
where, before I was put in a classroom, where I'm the only Asian … I think I wasn't
not prepared for it at all, so I have to struggle a lot.
What Michael experienced may be true for many ITAs teaching undergraduates at U.S. uni-
versities. Prior studies of ITAs seemed to focus on the difficulties ITAs experienced because of
their limited English proficiency (Arshavskaya, 2015; Chiang, 2016; Wang & Mantero, 2018),
and they tended to ignore ITAs' mental pressures and insecurities when facing a classroom of
students who are mostly White people. Similarly, Emma showed her concerns about teaching in
a culture different from hers:
I just think I would be more cautious in this culture … I would seek advice from
the coordinators, mentors and advisors … if there is some complicated issues in the
teaching or in the relationship with the students.
(Emma, July 5, 2022)
Emma's strategy of being “cautious” in her teaching indicates her mindfulness of self-defense.
This accords with a finding that ITAs tended to be unnecessarily serious and were afraid of mak-
ing mistakes (Avsar Erumit et al., 2021), and that they face a sense of insecurity and illegitimacy
as a nonnative English speaker (Colliander, 2020; Ghanem, 2015). This may also be due to the
collectivism of some Asian cultures, through which people tend to obey rules in order not to
cause trouble for themselves (Yu, 2024).
4.1.3 | Lack of training in content
Another challenge was making sense of the curriculum. All three ATAs had pursued their bach-
elor's and master's degrees in their own countries and were not familiar with teaching in another
context before they came to the United States and taught an undergraduate course. Though all
of them had teaching experience in their home countries, teaching a course to native English
speakers was new to them. Furthermore, they had taught mainly language courses in their home
countries, whereas they were teaching content courses in the United States. Michael and Emma
struggled to make sense of the assignments and explain them to their students as the courses
were not designed by them:
You know some assignments … why they have the instructions like that or why they
have the rubrics umm in that way? So you have to figure out everything and to make,
otherwise that would not make much sense.
Apart from the confusion with the assignments, Michael thought the curriculum was not co-
hesive but was not allowed to make big changes to the syllabus. While Jack did not feel confused
with the curriculum, he struggled to design activities that would engage students in a meaningful
conversation:
And I don't know what could help us. Maybe the more discussion about some in-
structional activities or how to design more interactive activities or how to embed
some interactive digital tools to make classroom interaction more participatory.
(Jack, October 1, 2022)
As classes tend to be more discussion-based and student-centered in the United States, as

opposed to teacher-centered lectures in the ATAs' home countries (S.-J. Kang, 2005), a major
challenge in their teaching was to make the class interesting and engaging for the students. This
also echoed a finding that ITAs tried to make changes by having a more interactive and hands-on
teaching approach at U.S. universities (Avsar Erumit et al., 2021). All three study participants
indicated a lack of systematic training in the content before they started teaching, which Michael
described as a “sink or swim” experience. This echoes studies finding that ITAs lack effective
training and support (Jones et al., 2020; Kasztalska, 2019), and that U.S. universities' ITA pro-
grams predominantly depend on a hierarchical training model, typically manifested as extensive
orientations or workshops held before the semester, spanning from one day to more than a week
(Zhou, 2009).
Overall, ATAs were under great physical and psychological pressure during COVID-19, as
some of them experienced discrimination from their students. As a racial majority in their home
countries, they were unprepared for being a minority in the class or teaching racial topics, as they
were unfamiliar with them. Lack of training on the content they were teaching posed another
challenge to them because they had to make sense of the curriculum as well as make the class
interactive and engaging for their students. As ATAs tried to overcome these challenges, they
were adapting to the U.S. classrooms and developing their teacher identity.
4.2 | Teaching identity construction
This section answers the second and third research questions and discusses how ATAs viewed
the differences in the way of teaching in their home countries and in the United States, and how
their teacher identities have evolved. This is consistent with Beijaard et al.'s (2004) understand-
ing that “professional identity is an ongoing process of interpretation and re-interpretation of ex-
periences (Kerby, 1991)” (p. 122). The differences and challenges ATAs experienced have helped
reshape their teacher identities.
4.2.1 | From being nervous to confident again
The change in Michael was significant, as he compared his teaching in his first year in the United
States with that of his second year:
I was very frustrated with students like cold response and like students, um cold
attitude, and it hit the like a climax within my last day class meeting because nobody
showed up into the classroom … that's definitely frustrating, with all like majority of
the students are in zoom and then they don't answer. Like whenever I ask a question,
either they just don't answer at all, or they would be like, “oh, what was the ques-
tion?” Like it's not like they were listening to me at all. And then like that happened
to me like it really in my first year.
In his first year of teaching in the United States, Michael experienced anti-Asian sentiment
and noticed students not paying attention to what he lectured in class. Particularly discouraging
and frustrating was when none of the students showed up for the last class. This shows that
how students interact with their instructor matters a lot in building an instructor's confidence.
Yu (2024), who described similar experiences in his autoethnography as an ITA, built his confi-
dence gradually by seeing students take notes during his lecture and receiving positive feedback
to his teaching during the second semester. Fortunately, Michael made changes in his second
year and regained his confidence as a teacher:
After my first year, I thought about what are the things that I really want to talk
about and I really want to touch base with my students in the class, so I taught like
the half the amounts. I would like no, I guess it was more like I knew which key
points to discuss in class and that would still make the class a good class. Instead of
like going through all pages of the textbook, I would just cover three key points from
one chapter, something like that.
Students' not paying attention pushed Michael to make great changes to his teaching in the
second year. This major change was largely due to his efforts and reflections in preparing the
course, as he realized it was impossible to cover all the content from the book. When he felt more
comfortable and more in control of what he was teaching, he returned to being the confident
teacher he used to be in his home country.
4.2.2 | More cautious of teacher–student relationships
All three participants indicated that teacher-student relationships were widely divergent be-
tween their home countries and the United States. Whereas their relationships with their stu-
dents seemed to be more personal and closer in their home country, in the United States it was
more professional and formal and restricted to in-class interactions. Emma indicated how teach-
ers felt free to have close relationships with their students in her home country, but she tended
to be more cautious with the students in the United States:
Uh, I think here, they have more rules and regulations. And we need to be aware
of that. Don't cause yourself problems and like. … you need to keep the record and
everything uh to be very uh, professional and to have very formal record and try to
contact students only with emails, so that you can track uh, your conversations and
stuff.
Emma shows that it is important for ATAs to keep evidence of their interactions with their
students to protect themselves. This may have something to do with possible misunderstandings
due to cultural differences. Similarly, Jack formed closer relationships with his students in his
home country than with those in the US.
The culture is completely different. The teachers are, how the teachers are treated
by students. In our culture, back in … (his home country), it is very different. The
students are very respective. They are always they, they always love to talk outside
of the classroom whenever they see the teacher. I always enjoyed out of the class
interaction with the students. But here we don't have that one…
Although they viewed their relationships with their students professionally, they were willing
to provide help and accommodate their students when needed. Jack revealed different relation-
ship dynamics with students in his home country and those in the United States. This implied a
sense of frustration and may have affected how they saw themselves as instructors. Studies have
shown that ITAs are less likely to build rapport with their students compared with their U.S.
counterparts, and that ITAs have mixed feelings about how much they should invest in their role
as instructors (Zhang, 2019).
4.2.3 | Evolution of teaching philosophy
The ATAs in this study changed their practices after experiencing the different classroom cul-
tures in their own countries and the United States. This change was shown by their view of what
kind of teaching approaches they would like to adopt or what goals they set for their students:
I think, um, I could better balance the you know the American ways of instruction
and the the … way (her home culture). …
It is interesting to see how Emma changed her mindset about teaching. She did not refuse
her home country's or U.S. ways of teaching, but saw the advantages of certain elements of both
ways. And she saw the combination of the two cultures of teaching as a better way. The most
obvious change in Jack was how he turned from being strict to being flexible, open-minded, and
accommodating towards students' needs:
When I started teaching for the first time in the US, I was very strict in terms of grading
and classroom organization. I was not very open-minded or not very flexible. I remem-
ber I was very harsh in the grading for my students. But now I am more open minded.
I'm more flexible. I'm more open to address the student problems and their concerns
and give the opportunity if they want to improve their grade, doing something extra.
Jack's change was largely due to the feedback he received from his students, his own experi-
ence as a graduate student, and the evolution of his teaching philosophy. He indicated that he
became more flexible with students when he realized the main purpose was for students to work
hard and learn.
4.2.4 | Becoming more understanding of minority students
As an ethnic minority among the students they teach in the United States, the participant ATAs
became more cognizant of the difficulties of marginalized people. Her experiences as a racial mi-
nority gave Emma a new perspective and provoked her to resonate more with the marginalized
students that she taught in her home country.
… in … (my home country), those students are from different background or different
minorities … the American education just make me realize so like the equality or
diversity or inclusion, so and those students, they were different from other students
and we cannot just assume with efforts, with their own efforts, they can just achieve
same achievement …
Emma realized that the minority students in her home country also needed differentiated in-
struction, like those in the United States. Michael echoed her sentiments in understanding more
of the minority experience in the United States:
So personally, the more I think about language, and also being in America, where
I'm like, racially,… linguistically kind of minority, I definitely think more about,
umm, English language learners or teaching English language as a political activity,
and also definitely value more of students bilingual or multilingual assets.
Michael reveals how being in a minority himself made him resonate more with minorities in
general and value bilingualism/multilingualism as an asset. In addition, seeing “teaching English
language as a political activity,” he implied the marginalization and assimilation of the minority
into U.S. culture. This echoes that “the teaching of English has never been a neutral act” and we
should support the marginalized people by interacting with current policies (Gerald, 2020, p. 24).
Similarly, Jack saw advocating for the minority and immigrants as his mission:
…, so I am advocating for inclusive or equitable, pedagogical practices for specially

minority students or these students of color or immigrants and refugee students. So
what I'm thinking is how as a teacher educator or as a teacher, I can draw on the
multiple linguistic, cultural or historical resources of the students in the classroom.
Jack sees his role as a teacher to advocate for minority people and value the assets they have
brought. The experiences of being in a minority seems to have magnified these ATAs' under-
standing of minorities and their commitment to helping them in the United States.
Overall, the participant ATAs' teacher identities have been evolving, as has their teaching
philosophy. This study shows that they tended to keep a more formal relationship with their stu-
dents in the United States than in their home countries. They valued their U.S. students' feedback
and tried to improve their classes by making them more interesting and meaningful. Being in a
minority in the classroom made them more aware of the experiences of minorities in the United
States as well as those in their home countries. All three ATAs in this study adapted to U.S. class-
room cultures and were learning to integrate the teaching styles of both their home countries and
that of the United States.
5 | DI S C USSION AN D CON CLUSION
As an ATA myself, I have experienced the struggles my ATA participants have had and under-
gone changes in my teacher identity. I had to constantly negotiate multiple identities: an Asian
graduate student, an Asian teaching assistant (a course instructor in this case), a research assis-
tant (I work both as a TA and a research assistant [RA] according to my stipend requirement), a
learner and user of English as a second language, and an Asian adapting to a different culture.
I need to do my assignments, my RA work, and my research, as well as teach a course. Among
these obligations, I make my teaching my priority, as I feel responsible for the students in my
class. However, these different roles and obligations are challenging to manage simultaneously,
as I may need to switch between my identities daily, even hourly. This shift has given me more
challenges yet presented me with opportunities to learn. I appreciated my professors' hard work
and became more attentive in class. I observed the way my professors dressed, talked, and taught
in class and tried to emulate their “U.S.” way of teaching and designing class activities. On the
other hand, my “graduate student” identity increased my understanding of my students, and I
wanted to meet their needs. I was influenced by my students, my classmates, my professors, and
the context at large, and my identities, accordingly, changed in the process. For example, my
class with predominantly White students made me value diversity more (I had 24 students in
my class, with 21 White students and 3 Latinos), and I made efforts to learn U.S. culture and at
the same time share with them my own culture, hoping to develop inclusiveness in my students'
minds.
In conclusion, the major contributions of this study lie in its findings that the participant
ATAs' struggles lay mostly in the culture and context rather than in the English language and
that their experience as a minority in the United States shaped their teacher identity construc-
tion. Specifically, their minority experience in the United States made them more aware of the
minority people and motivated them to advocate for marginalized groups. They were unpre-
pared for racial topics and, unfortunately, some met anti-Asian sentiment during the COVID-19
pandemic. In addition, they became aware of how different the nature of the teacher–student
relationship was between their home countries and the United States—all three ATAs indicated
a closer personal relationship with students at home and more professional ones with those in
the United States. Overall, all three ATAs evolved as teachers who held a more inclusive view of
teaching after experiencing diverse cultures at a U.S. university.
The limitations of my study include the small sample size, with all participants working at the
same U.S. university. The participants' experiences may not resonate with all the ITAs at U.S. uni-
versities. However, their experiences may reveal some common concerns among ITAs. In sum-
mary, this study contributes to current insights about the experiences of ATAs at universities in
the United States, or in Western countries at large, whose needs deserve more attention and con-
sideration as a minority group. Therefore, I offer the following recommendations to stakeholders.
First, systematic multicultural and diversity training is essential for both ITAs and undergrad-
uate students. In the context of U.S. universities, ITAs who come from a minority group may not
be familiar with U.S. cultural norms and classroom discourse, while the undergraduates, most
of whom are White Americans, may not have an open and tolerant perspective towards foreign
cultures and their ITAs (Chiang, 2016; O. Kang et al., 2015). Therefore, it is important that both
ITAs and undergraduates attend cross-cultural training (Nagai & Everhart, 2022). Instructors can
promote world English perspectives and problematize monolingual perspectives in their classes
(Jain, 2022). Such systematic training would allow all parties to gain perceptions and apprecia-
tion of cultural differences and see them as assets instead of barriers.
Second, this study suggests that training, modeling, and mentorship from faculty and their
peers are crucial to ITAs' success as teachers. Specifically, I recommend workshops to discuss
ITAs' identity construction issues, as ITAs have multiple layers of identity, and the development
of their identities is complicated and challenging enough without guidance. This is consistent
with Yazan (2019), who proposed using critical autoethnographic narratives to help teacher can-
didates with their teacher identity construction, and Yu (2024) who called for administrators to
help ITAs with their identity-related issues. In addition, Robertson and Yazan (2022) suggested
new graduate TAs working with experienced TAs to have a better understanding of teaching.
Training in course content and classroom management skills can help ITAs with their teaching,
and thus opportunities should be provided for them to systematically observe other professors'
and instructors' teaching (Arshavskaya, 2015).
Overall, the success of ITAs is also the success of a university. Given that U.S. universities host
many international graduate students serving as teaching assistants, they should provide more
training and support for them to ensure their success. This study delved into ATAs' teacher iden-
tity construction and unmasked the realities facing ATAs at a U.S. university. It provides insights
for university policymakers and other stakeholders working with ATAs and ITAs to better help
and support them, and thus make U.S. universities more equal and inclusive. Further studies
could research the training programs of ITAs across universities in the United States, and explore
perceptions toward ITAs from the various stakeholders, including university administrators, fac-
ulty, and undergraduate students.
ORCID
Yangyang Zhu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4029-2680
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00, e836. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.836
APPENDIX 1
Overview of information on participants.

Teaching Teaching
Teaching experience at experience responsibilities
Name Gender Country home in the US in the US
Michael Male East Asia 6 years in high school 2 years Course instructor
Emma Female East Asia 18 years in a university 1 years Course instructor
Jack Male South Asia 15 years teaching in K-12 and 2.5 years Course instructor
college level
APPENDIX 2
Interview protocol
Questions 2–7, 13, and 21–25 are copied or adapted from Richardson and Alsup (2015). Approval
was requested before using this work in the study.
Interview 1
1. Can you tell you me about your educational backgrounds?

2. Did you have teaching experience before you came to America? If so, can you tell me a
little about the course(s) you taught? How long did you teach?
3. Did you enjoy teaching back then? Why or why not?
4. How would you describe or view yourself as a teacher when you were teaching in your
country?
5. What type of teacher did you aspire to be when you were teaching in your country?
6. What are the most important characteristics that you feel will make you a successful in-
structor in your country?
7. What would you consider a really good experience you had in a class in your country? Can
you provide an example?
8. What would you consider a really bad experience you had in a class in your country? Can
you provide an example?
9. What is the class culture like in your country?
10. What is a teacher's principal role in the classroom in your country?
11. Has the teacher's role changed much from the time when you were a student to that when
you became a teacher in your country?
12. How did you see yourself as a student and a teacher? Has the way you were taught influ-
enced how you teach?
13. Here are the instructions of the visual metaphor. Please finish it and bring it at our sec-
ond interview next week. Do you have any questions with the instructions for the visual
metaphor?
Interview 2
14. Can you tell me a little about the course you are teaching currently? How long have you
taught the course(s)?
15. What are the similarities and differences teaching in your country and in America?
16. Do you enjoy teaching the course(s) so far? Why (not)?
17. Did you get any training before teaching the course? If so, please describe. If not, what
kind of support did you get from teaching this course? How was it helpful?
18. What kind of support did you expect to get before and during teaching this course?
19. What are the biggest challenges you have met in your teaching? How did you overcome
them?
20. Do you have experience of teaching in an English-dominant country before you came to
America?
21. How is the teacher's role different in your country and in America?
22. How do you view yourself as a teacher now?
23. What type of teacher do you aspire to be now?
24. What are the most important characteristics that you feel would make you a successful
teacher?
25. Describe a really good experience you had in teaching this course. How and why was it a
positive teaching experience?
26. Describe a really bad experience you had in teaching this course. How and why was it a
negative teaching experience?
27. Compared with the time when you started teaching the course(s), have you made any
changes to the way you teach the course(s) so far? Please describe.
28. If you had two pieces of advice to give to a new international student teacher who is going
to teach the course(s), what would they be? What would have been helpful for you to
teach the course(s) when you started?
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
Yangyang Zhu is a doctoral candidate in Literacy and Language Education at Purdue

University. Her research focuses on international teacher identity, teacher education, English
language learners, narrative inquiry, feminism theory, ESL/EFL teaching and learning. Before
her doctoral studies, she worked as a high school English teacher and then a TA at a university
in China.
Janet Alsup is a professor of English education and Department Head, as well as a former
high school English teacher in a rural school. Her research interests include teacher education
and professional identity development, the teaching of composition and literature, critical
pedagogy, and qualitative and narrative inquiry.

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Received: 28 August 2023

| Revised: 7 April 2024

Exploring teacher identity development:

Yangyang Zhu | Janet Alsup

TESOL Journal. 2024;00:e836. ﻿ wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/tesj | 1 of 19

2.1 | ITAs' teacher identity

2.2 | ITAs' challenges

2.3 | Research purpose and research questions

• What challenges do the ATAs face in their teaching?

3.1 | Narrative inquiry

3.2 | Conceptual framework

3.3 | Setting and participants

3.5 | Data collection and analysis

4.1 | Challenges met by ATAs

4.1.1 | Anti-­Asian sentiment under COVID-­19

4.1.3 | Lack of training in content

As classes tend to be more discussion-­based and student-­centered in the United States, as

4.2 | Teaching identity construction

4.2.1 | From being nervous to confident again

4.2.2 | More cautious of teacher–student relationships

4.2.3 | Evolution of teaching philosophy

4.2.4 | Becoming more understanding of minority students

…, so I am advocating for inclusive or equitable, pedagogical practices for specially

5 | DI S C USSION AN D CON CLUSION

Overview of information on participants.

1. Can you tell you me about your educational backgrounds?

Yangyang Zhu is a doctoral candidate in Literacy and Language Education at Purdue

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TESOL Journal. 2024;00:e836. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/tesj | 1 of 19

4.1.1 | Anti-Asian sentiment under COVID-19

As classes tend to be more discussion-based and student-centered in the United States, as