Carrying identity across borders
A kit bag study of Chinese language teachers in Latin America
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19220697 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zhi Geng (0000-0003-1798-4475, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics), Xiuchuan Lu (0000-0002-5499-5758, Fudan University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 1-23 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-06 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Language Culture and Curriculum (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0790-8318 • E-ISSN: 1747-7573 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/07908318.2026.2685867 |
| OpenAlex | W7163744524 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 40 |
This study examines how Chinese language teachers in Latin America construct and negotiate their professional and personal identity in cross-cultural and resource-constrained contexts through everyday material practices. It employs the kit bag method as an embodied, object-based elicitation approach to examine how identity is materially carried, enacted, and negotiated across borders through everyday objects. Data were generated through participant-recorded videos and follow-up interviews conducted via social media (WeChat). The findings show that material objects actively mediate teachers’ identity work. Professionally, handmade posters, puzzles, and logbooks enable teachers to enact authority and negotiate their role as ‘cultural mediators’ under resource scarcity. Personally, cosmetics for role transition, a thermos and tea for affective shelter, and a notebook or stuffed toy for self-continuity anchor their ontological identity across time and space. These findings show that objects mediate identity construction, enabling a coherent sense of self across contexts. By foregrounding how teacher identity is enacted, negotiated, and sustained through material engagement, this study contributes to sociomaterial approaches to teacher identity research and demonstrates the value of the kit bag method for capturing the lived, embodied dimensions of cross-cultural language teaching.
Bilingual education · Chinese americans · Chinese language · First language · Identity (music) · Language education · Language planning · Latin Americans · Neuroscience of multilingualism · Global Education and Multiculturalism · International Student and Expatriate Challenges · Multilingual Education and Policy
Who I am in how I teach is the message
Sociomateriality and Learning
Sociomaterial Practices
Teacher Identity in Language Teaching
Teaching Foreign Languages in an Era of Globalization
Naming Research Participants in Qualitative Language Learning Research
Agency and professional identity among mobile teachers
Conceptualizing identity construction in language teacher education
Teacher resilience and triple crises
Reassembling the Social
Interculturality, Identity, and Power
The hospitality of objects and their travelling memories
Confucius institute teachers in the UK
Fighting fit
From barriers to breakthroughs
Early childhood teacher identity development for working with culturally and linguistically diverse students in Chile
From learner to ambassador
Materials use in language classrooms
Theorizing Language Teacher Identity
Language Teacher Cognition in Applied Linguistics Research
Elicitation using kit bag methods
Cultural Objects, Material Culture, and Materiality
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |