Conceptualizing Language Teacher Education Centered on Language Teacher Identity Development: A Competencies-Based Approach and Practical Applications

Language teacher identity (LTI) has become an increasingly central focus in language teaching recently, perhaps because identity is now defined as multiple, complex, shifting, socially constructed, and a site of struggle (Norton, 2013; Song, 2016)-and thus a construct that can and should be intentionally influenced (Varghese, Motha, Park, Reeves, & Trent, 2016). With greater understanding that social justice and a critical orientation to education are not only important but also the duty of educators to enact (Kubota & Miller, 2017), some advocate the placement of LTI development at the center of language teacher education (LTE; De Costa & Norton, 2017a; Varghese et al., 2016). However, the conceptualization of such intentional models of LTE needs development (Varghese et al., 2016). This article begins to conceptualize such an LTE program. The author theorizes LTI and the need for adopting an LTI that is transformative, agentive, and advocacy (TAA)-oriented, and proposes a competencies-based approach as a foundation for developing an LTE program centered on the development of a TAA-oriented LTI, suggesting key competencies to include in such an approach. She presents practical affordances and activities that could be helpful in developing these competencies. The article ends with questions aimed at furthering this emerging scholarly conversation in the field.