Age and professional identity: EFL teachers at tertiary institutions in Japan

This qualitative study, which uses a narrative inquiry approach, presents data from in-depth interviews with seven participants working in EFL at tertiary institutions throughout Japan. This thesis contributes to the field of language teacher identity by expanding it to include a focus on the construct of age as a key component of identity. It was found that the participants’ age identities were co-constructive of their professional development; that they constructed their age contextually, relative to the ages of their students and other teachers; the participants’ age identities were chronologically framed by their institutions and used to manage their professional opportunities.