ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 discusses the findings of the study based on three main themes that emerged from eight cases: (1) investments and expectations, (2) adaptation and agency, and (3) considerations of home. It examines pivotal factors and processes that affected the manners in which eight bilingual teachers construct their multifaceted professional and personal identities both inside and outside class in an English-speaking country. The chapter looks into how the bilinguals made strategic investments by changing certain facets of their identities to fulfil their expectations, while maintaining other aspects to maintain a sense of belonging and continuity amidst change. It discusses how the participants adapted to their environment when they faced various academic-related and non-academic-related difficulties, besides exercising agency to achieve their expectations in an English-speaking country. The participants also resisted positions that were ascribed to them and repositioned themselves when they were affected by perceived power relations within discourse connected to “native speaker fallacy” (Phillipson, 1992, p. 185). They positioned and repositioned themselves after being empowered and applying the knowledge gained from class. Finally, the chapter explores how the participants had constant reflections on their home contexts and reaped the positive returns from their investments abroad when they returned home.
