ABSTRACT
Current scholarship on second language teacher education reflects increasing attention to the substantial role of sociocultural-educational factors that shape teacher development. Within this line of thinking, studying language teachers’ identities, emotions, agency, social-cultural capitals, motivation, and well-being has received exponential growth over the past decade. In line with this developing knowledge base, the present qualitative study explores the un(der)explored nexus between Iranian English language teacher well-being and professional identity construction. Grounded in a self-determination theory perspective, the study shows how institutional membership mediates the teachers’ positive and negative emotions and agentive experiences, and the role of such factors in teacher identity construction. Particularly, data analyses revealed three lines vis-à-vis teacher well-being and identity construction: competence (me as an (in)efficacious professional), relatedness (me as an influential, undervalued contributor to interpersonal connectivity), and autonomy (me as an impeded agentive professional). The study findings highlight how the teachers’ subjectivity clashes with institutional particularities to shape their well-being and the associated bearings for their professional identity construction.
