This paper reports on the findings of a qualitative narrative study. Its aim was to analyze what student-teachers’ narratives unveiled about the construction of their identity as language learners, and the connections made with being future in-service teachers. This study, which was carried out with undergraduate students from a public university in Tunja, was the product of permanent interaction and dialogue with student-teachers in their initial teaching experiences. Narratives, in-depth interviews, and journals were used as data collection instruments. Data were analyzed using the grounded theory approach. The results suggest that student-teachers construct and re-construct their identities as language learners and future teachers across classroom interactions and their empowerment through teaching and reflection

This paper reports the findings of a qualitative narrative-inquiry study aimed at exploring what English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) student-teachers’ life stories revealed about their identity construction as future teachers. The project was carried out among eighth-semester student-teachers from a public university in Tunja, Boyaca (Colombia). Hence, the data collection drew upon written life stories and in-depth interviews. Findings suggest that there are some critical factors that helped student-teachers construct their identities as future EFL teachers. These factors are all tied to previous experiences of student-teachers as language learners themselves, a connection and affiliation they establish with their teacher educators as projected images they have of themselves as future teachers. Moreover, real teaching experiences were opportunities for student-teachers to make sense of the myriad issues education involves, which made them, develop positions towards education as future teachers.