‘Frustration drives me to grow’: Unraveling EFL teachers' emotional trajectory interacting with identity development

Abstract This study explores EFL teachers’ identity and emotion interaction across their career span from an integrative perspective. Based on the Dynamic System Model of Role Identity, qualitative interviews with three EFL teachers working in Chinese universities reveal a pattern of surviving, striving, and thriving career stages. Teachers develop from an enthusiastic companion frustrated with teacher-centered teaching, through an ambivalent motivator striving to be an expert teacher, to a fulfilled life coach. Action anchor, temporal dimension, and contextual mediation are discussed for the interplay between emotion and identity development. The study provides a more nuanced understanding of language teacher identity development.