Abstract
Previous studies examining the incorporation of reading and writing skills into teacher professional development, particularly through narrative inquiry, have been underexplored. This article presents a narrative inquiry into university teachers’ experiences developing their instructional and research identities through impactful reading and writing activities. A complementary approach focusing on both the content and form of the narratives was employed. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with two teachers and an examination of their teaching portfolios and research publications. Narrative content analysis was conducted using the “emplotment” stage to construct reflective findings on how the lecturers’ experiences reflected their identity development as teachers and researchers. The narrative form was analyzed by re-narrating their stories, utilizing linguistic features, and identifying core events. Impactful reading articles immerse teachers in close textual analysis, fostering critical engagement with pedagogy and scholarly argumentation. Through this process, teachers refine their instructional strategies by internalizing evidence-based practices and integrating them into classroom routines. Such engagement also nurtures their research identity, as teachers begin to question, investigate, and reflect on their own practices in light of published studies. Regular exposure to academic discourse helps them adopt scholarly lenses, encouraging participation in professional conversations through teaching and research. Ultimately, these unique practices become a mirror and a model—shaping teachers as reflective practitioners and emerging researchers within the EFL/ESL field. Future researchers are encouraged to explore how sustained engagement with impactful reading articles influences the long-term development of teachers’ research identities and their active participation in scholarly communities within the EFL/ESL context.
Plain Language Summary
This narrative inquiry unveils how EFL teachers develop their teaching and research identity through reading research article as innovative teaching practices. Then, they disseminate the results of innovative teaching as research identity development.
Keywords
Background
Impactful reading and writing involve synthesizing key information from research articles, which is then adapted for the evolvement of teachers’ identities in research and teaching (Ali, 2020; Kim et al., 2024; Pang, 2019; Spann & Wagner, 2023). Teaching identities refer to the ongoing development and enactment of instructional strategies that are newly adopted or substantially refined, grounded in evidence-based findings from research literature, and implemented either directly or with contextual adaptation to address specific classroom needs (Pang, 2019; Spann & Wagner, 2023). The continuous integration of these approaches can enhance lecturers’ instructional identities, research, and article-writing skills, ultimately contributing to their professional development (Sato & Loewen, 2019; Whitney, 2016; Wong, 2014). Hence, research publications not only benefit lecturers but also make a tangible contribution to advancing knowledge for the instructional purposes.
Teacher identity in the context of reading–writing connections refers to how teachers see themselves as literacy practitioners who integrate reading and writing as mutually reinforcing processes to enhance students’ academic development, including their writing quality, critical thinking, and disciplinary literacy. It also encompasses a research-oriented mindset, in which teachers’ instructional decisions in reading–writing integration are informed by inquiry, reflection, and evidence-based practice, thereby strengthening their professional growth and research capabilities (Borg, 2011; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000). In EFL contexts, the development of such an identity is significant because it enables teachers to design pedagogically sound, language-rich, and research-informed reading–writing activities that better support learners’ challenges in academic English, promote higher-order literacy skills, and improve teaching effectiveness (Whitney, 2016; Wong, 2014).
Previous research on EFL reading and writing in connection to teacher professional development falls into three main categories. First, studies on professional reading habits predominantly examine teachers’ reading habits and the factors that support or hinder them. Numerous studies investigate the correlation between lecturers’ reading habits and teaching effectiveness. Second, research on writing skills, particularly research writing and publication, and its relevance to teacher professional development, often involves collaborations between novice and experienced researchers. Third, studies focusing on EFL teacher professional development explore the impact of various professional development programs, including face-to-face, online, and hybrid teacher professional training, conferences, workshops, lesson studies, and teacher education programs (Yuan, 2017; Hanafi et al., 2020; Elkomy & Elkhaial, 2022).
However, research on integrating reading and writing skills into teacher professional development, particularly through narrative inquiry, remains limited. This paper aims to contribute to understanding higher education institutions as centers of instructional and research evolvement, emphasizing the importance of integrating research findings into instructional practices, especially in English language education. Drawing on the framework of narrative inquiry (Susanto & Arifani, 2023; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Faryabi et al., 2024), this study explores the lived experiences of EFL lecturers as they integrate impactful reading and writing activities into their instructional (content and pedagogy) and research identities (research quality). The findings of this study can serve as a reference for instructional practices and as a means for lecturers to develop research-based teaching programs.
Literature Review
Teacher Identity: Theoretical Framework
Teacher professional identity in the context of English as a foreign language education is a dynamic process influenced by various factors, including reflective practice, professional development, and engagement in impactful reading (research articles and literature reviews) and writing (research on instructional practices or other relevant areas in English language education; Mora et al., 2016; Muchnik-Rozanov & Tsybulsky, 2021; Nguyen, 2022). Grounded in Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory, this study views teacher identity as a social construct shaped through interactions with texts, experiences, and professional communities. In this context, research articles and literature reviews in English language education are considered reading materials, and interactions with reviewers during the revision and improvement of research articles are considered interactions within an academic or professional community (Arifani et al., 2024; Yuan, 2017). Impactful reading and writing serve as mediating tools that enable teachers to construct meaning, reflect on their pedagogical beliefs, and engage in discussions about their professional identity development (Doubet & Southall, 2018). Furthermore, the narrative inquiry approach (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) is employed to explore the impact of reading and writing experiences on teachers’ professional identities. Teacher narratives reveal how their engagement with literature, research, and reflective writing fosters self-awareness, critical thinking, and pedagogical development. Through narratives, teachers make sense of their professional journeys, positioning themselves in relation to institutional expectations, linguistic ideologies, and personal teaching philosophy. Thus, impactful reading and writing become transformative acts that not only document but also shape teachers’ professional journeys (Howell et al., 2018; Nguyen, 2022; Whitney, 2016). Reading and writing are not merely passive actions but avenues for empowerment and self-assertion. EFL teachers who critically engage with texts develop a deeper understanding of language, culture, and power structures within education (Arifani et al., 2024; Nguyen, 2022; Shteiman et al., 2014).
Writing, in particular, allows teachers to express their professional voices, challenge dominant discourses, and contribute to academic conversations in English language teaching. This study argues that through continuous engagement with literacy practices, EFL teachers strengthen their professional identities, becoming more informed and effective educators. Meaning-making occurs through interaction with diverse voices and perspectives (Arifani et al., 2024; Bakhtin, 1981). When EFL teachers read various texts and write reflectively about their experiences, they engage in an ongoing dialog with themselves, their students, and the broader academic community. This process fosters a sense of belonging and professional agency, reinforcing the notion that teacher identity is a continuously evolving construct shaped by ongoing literacy engagement. Therefore, this study highlights the importance of reading and writing as essential practices in the development of EFL teachers’ professional identities.
Research on Reading-Writing and Professional Identity
Over the past decade, research on the integration of lecturers’ reading and writing activities and their impact on EFL teachers’ professional development has highlighted two main issues: the research focus and the methods and media lecturers employ to develop their professional identity. The first issue, concerning research focus, indicates that most prior research emphasizing reading skills for lecturers’ professional development has focused on English language teachers’ and lecturers’ reading habits, the factors that support or hinder these habits, and their correlation with teaching effectiveness. Research conducted by Broemmel et al. (2019) focused on teachers’ reading habits and their contribution to professional development. A national survey revealed a positive relationship between reading habits and teaching effectiveness. However, data indicated that teachers’ reading habits in the United States were limited due to time constraints, accessibility to reading materials, and high administrative burdens. Similar findings were reported by Spann and Wagner (2023).
A study by Reichenberg and Andreassen (2018) compared the professional reading habits of teachers in Sweden and Norway through surveys. The results showed that teachers in both countries considered reading an essential part of their professional development, but they differed in the resources and institutional support they received. Teachers with higher social capital, such as support from colleagues and professional networks, tended to have stronger reading habits, which in turn positively affected their teaching quality. The second issue indicates that efforts to enhance the professionalism of lecturers and teachers are predominantly carried out through two methods: collaboration with more experienced colleagues and participation in professional development programs designed to foster their professional identity. A case study by the Arifani et al. (2024) examined how lecturers from non-research-based, underfunded universities optimized their research and scholarly publication potential through collaboration with colleagues proficient in data analysis. This collaboration addressed their limitations in conducting research, enabling them to complete and publish research findings in reputable international journals within the field of English language education (Arifani et al., 2024). Lecturers’ professional capabilities in research and publication can evolve positively through intensive collaborative interactions between those experienced in publication and those who, while lacking publication experience, are skilled in quantitative data analysis. Other studies have similarly reported that collaborative research writing and publication enhance lecturers’ professionalism (Yuan, 2017; Howell et al., 2018; Li et al., 2025).
Furthermore, a subsequent case study by Xu and Zhang (2019) examined the experiences of two international students as they wrote their dissertations during their Ph.D. studies. The study aimed to investigate the experiences of Chinese doctoral students (English as a second language) in writing a dissertation at an English-speaking university in New Zealand. The findings revealed that both participants underwent significant developmental processes regarding their dissertation voice, influenced by their interactions with their supervisors (Xu & Zhang, 2019). This research also indicates that lecturers’ professional development can occur through collaboration with supervisors or through their academic pursuits. These various studies demonstrate that lecturers and teachers develop their research writing professionalism through collaboration with more experienced colleagues, advanced study programs, or professional development initiatives such as lesson studies, conferences, and teacher training, all of which support their professional identity development (Hanafi et al., 2020).
From these two issues, it is evident that research on integrating reading and writing skills into teacher professional development, particularly through narrative inquiry, remains limited. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by exploring the strategies and media lecturers use to enhance their professionalism. Consequently, this research aims to uncover the journeys of English language lecturers as they integrate impactful reading and writing activities to develop their professional identities (Doubet & Southall, 2018). Based on the identified research gaps, the following research questions were formulated:
How do lecturers develop their instructional identities through impactful reading and writing activities?
How do lecturers develop their research identities through impactful reading and writing activities?
Methodology
Design
This narrative inquiry study aims to explore individual teachers’ experiences in developing their instructional and research identities through impactful reading and writing activities. Employing a narrative inquiry design, a qualitative approach is used to explore individual experiences in learning. In this study, the focus is on the development of lecturers’ professional identities. It is achieved through personal stories or narratives, enabling the researcher to understand how experiences, identities, and social contexts shape their professional identities, specifically their instructional and research identities. This approach provides in-depth insights into the complexities and dynamics inherent in this process (Borg, 2011; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000).
Participants and Context
The participants in this study comprised two senior English language lecturers from a non-research-based university with minimal research funding, operating within an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context (Arifani et al., 2020). The selection of these key informants was based on a survey administered to the Indonesian Association of English Teachers (IAET) at the provincial level. The survey contained four primary criteria: the habit of reading research articles (Reichenberg & Andreassen, 2018), experience in implementing research-based teaching (Sato & Loewen, 2019), daily writing habits (Doubet & Southall, 2018), and the number of articles successfully published in reputable international journals indexed in the Scopus and SSCI databases. The survey results indicated that three teachers met these qualifications. However, only two agreed to serve as key informants. Table 1 presents the background information of the key informants.
Background Information of the Key Informants.
Data Collection and Analysis
This study explored impactful reading and writing activities that contributed to the development of instructional and research identities of two EFL teachers. The researcher conducted three interview sessions with each key informant. Each session lasted approximately 60 to 90 min and was completed within 2 weeks. The interviews were held face-to-face in the teachers’ respective workspaces at their schools, creating a comfortable, familiar environment for in-depth discussion. All interviews were conducted in Bahasa Indonesia to enable the participants to express their thoughts, experiences, and reflections freely without language constraints (Borg, 2011). In addition to taking field notes, the researcher also recorded each session using a digital voice recorder to ensure accuracy and completeness of the data. After the interviews were completed, the researcher personally translated all interview transcripts and field notes from Bahasa into English for analysis and reporting purposes. No external language specialists were involved in the translation process.
In terms of research ethics, the researcher provided each participant with an informed consent form that clearly explained the study’s purpose, their voluntary participation, and their right to withdraw at any time. The form also included information about how the data would be used and how confidentiality would be maintained. The researcher assured both participants that their identities would remain anonymous through the use of pseudonyms and that all data would be stored securely and used solely for academic purposes (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000).
The voice recordings and all related data were stored on the researcher’s personal computer, which was protected by a secure password. Transcription of the audio recordings was completed shortly after each interview session. The researcher used NVivo software to code and analyze the data (Borg, 2011). This software helped identify emerging themes and patterns in teachers’ reading and writing practices, and how these practices contributed to their instructional evolvement and academic writing for international publication.
The analytical rigor of this study would have been further enhanced by explicitly articulating whether re-storying techniques were employed to transform interview transcripts into coherent, temporally ordered narratives capturing participants’ professional trajectories across early career, mid-career, and future-oriented phases. Clarification is also needed regarding the systematic application of the three commonplaces of narrative inquiry—temporality, sociality, and place—during the coding process. When aligned with career-stage analysis, temporality enables the examination of how engagement with reading and writing evolved from initial identity formation in early career stages, through consolidation and pedagogical refinement in mid-career, to aspirational projections shaping future research and instructional practices. Sociality provides insight into how institutional expectations, academic communities, and collegial interactions mediated participants’ literacy-based identity work, while place situates these practices within specific instructional and research contexts. A more explicit account of how these narrative dimensions informed theme development would strengthen the analytical framework and yield deeper insights into how reading and writing practices shaped participants’ evolving research and instructional identities over time.
To enhance credibility and minimize interpretive bias, member checking was conducted following the initial thematic analysis. Preliminary findings, organized according to career-stage themes (early career, mid-career, and future projection), were returned to participants for verification. Participants were invited to confirm the accuracy of interpretations and to reflect on whether the identified themes authentically represented the role of reading and writing in shaping their professional identities. Feedback from this process informed refinements to the analysis, ensuring that the final interpretations were trustworthy, participant-validated, and grounded in lived experience. This iterative validation process strengthened the study’s credibility and reinforced the alignment between narrative evidence and analytical claims. Verbal consent was obtained and their personal information was documented before proceeding with data collection. All participants voluntarily agreed to participate after receiving the detailed explanation.
Narrative Findings
Focus on Narrative Content
Bobby: “The terms ‘teaching and research’ just make me feel completely overwhelmed and full of self-doubt.”
Early Career Teaching and Research Experiences
Bobby had negative experiences with teaching and conducting research. When he was asked to teach a vocabulary course and to write a research article for an international conference, he was a new lecturer. The following quotations indicate Bobby’s negative experiences with teaching and research:
“Teaching vocabulary in the third semester and realizing that lecturers are required to conduct research really tormented me and made me feel insecure, because of my poor teaching performance, coupled with limited references on vocabulary learning. All I knew was reading and doing vocabulary exercises, synonyms and antonyms, and idioms, as well as my low research skills.”
This discussion about identity crystallized his negative memories from his teaching position. In the first interview, Bobby recounted:
“I remember an incident that occurred in my vocabulary class: I was criticized by students for my monotonous teaching style, which always involved assigning students to do vocabulary exercises individually or in groups from a popular vocabulary book called ‘Word Power’, which contained numerous vocabulary exercises.”
Another criticism came from students who received poor grades in his course because of perceived unfair grading. This incident began when three students protested their lower vocabulary grades compared to other group members who were absent and did not participate in the group work, yet only presented the group’s results and received higher grades. From this incident, students in his class began to doubt his objectivity as the course instructor, as he seemed to assess students’ abilities solely on their presentation performance, without considering the group work they undertook outside the classroom. This experience saddened Bobby because of his monotonous teaching style and unfair assessment of group work. His depression deepened when he noticed that most students in his class often discussed vocabulary issues with other lecturers who did not teach the course but with whom they felt more comfortable and familiar.
Furthermore, Bobby had a similar experience with his research presentation at an international conference in Yogyakarta. He mentioned: “One of the participants criticized the quantitative data analysis in my article, stating that the data analysis using the Mann-Whitney U test was inappropriate because it did not require normality and homogeneity testing.” He expressed feeling disappointed with himself and embarrassed in front of the seminar participants due to his limited understanding of statistics. From these two incidents, the second interview revealed how Bobby reflected on his experiences and questioned himself as he mentioned:
“I wondered how other lecturers could teach vocabulary so well and enjoy it, to the point where students felt like ‘friends’ with them…”
Regarding his experience at the international conference, he also expressed deep disappointment with himself and wondered how other lecturers could master quantitative data analysis correctly. These two negative experiences truly made him feel “frustrated” about how to teach vocabulary and write good research. According to Bobby, most English lecturers at his institution did not understand the extent of his struggles in teaching and researching. Reflecting on these memories, Bobby believes that the most important trait of an English lecturer is the ability to continuously learn to improve teaching and research skills, which are their primary duties.
Bobby’s assessment was that teaching vocabulary was largely lecturer-centered, similar to his own experiences as a student when his lecturers used the same teaching model:
“First, I asked students to open their vocabulary books and assigned individual or group tasks. Students completed the tasks, presented their results in turns, and provided feedback. Then, I asked students to write difficult words on the whiteboard and find their meanings.”
From these unpleasant experiences, Bobby resolved to improve his teaching and research skills to match those of his colleagues.
Like Bobby, Donny also had negative experiences when assigned to teach the English for Nursing course by his supervisor at the language center of a reputable private university. He reported feeling greatly challenged by this task due to his lack of a nursing background and the absence of support from the university’s nursing program. Consequently, his instruction was primarily guided by his intuition and the English for Nursing textbook he co-authored with a team of other lecturers, as articulated in his initial interview:
“I felt that the quality of my teaching at that time was far from ideal. My background is in English language education, and I had never taught ESP before. Furthermore, my research interests were far removed from English language learning, as my focus was on analyzing Shakespearean novels. I felt ill-equipped to conduct research in this practical setting.”
When teaching speaking skills, Donny primarily covered general topics such as greetings and meetings, leave-taking, daily activities, describing people, situations in the hospital, and interactions at a drugstore, incorporating only a limited amount of nursing-specific vocabulary due to his limited knowledge. As a result, the nursing content delivered in his classes did not align with the intended objectives because of his limited expertise in the field. Compounding this issue, the students he taught were in their first semester. He therefore felt as if he was akin to “the blind leading the blind,” where everyone was bound to get lost (second interview).
On one occasion, while waiting at a hospital for a family member receiving treatment, Donny closely observed a nurse’s interactions with the patient, family members, and colleagues, noticing that the nurse seemed to adopt a more refined style of speaking when addressing doctors as superiors. These observations led him to realize that his approach to delivering the English for Nursing content had been far from optimal. Moreover, he felt that the ESP for Nursing textbook he had been using for instruction was also far from ideal (third interview).
In terms of research, Donny encountered problems similar to those Bobby encountered. Donny was disappointed because his research proposals were rejected more than five times in the annual lecturer research grant selection by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Indonesia at that time. His research grant proposals were considered to have no scientific contribution or problem-solving in the field of ESP, according to the topic he proposed at that time. The fourth interview showed his disappointment, as he stated:
“I was almost desperate in writing research because my thesis topic was about novel analysis so I had difficulty in writing field-based research in the field of ESP teaching and never passed the selection due to my lack of research ability.”
On the other hand, his friends who submitted research grants in the field of teaching always passed the selection process and received government funding. After that, he often wondered in his heart about his blurred identity as a lecturer and a researcher.
Mid-Career Experiences Implementing Research-Based Teaching and Research
Bobby: “Using flipped classroom techniques and collaborating with others has really boosted my teaching and research success.”
The experience of implementing research-based teaching began with his previous negative experiences (dissatisfaction with reading instruction and his presentation at an international conference). From these experiences, Bobby expressed a strong desire to improve his teaching and research. He decided to implement research-based teaching to enhance both (third interview). His first step was to read research articles on the implementation of the flipped classroom to improve collaboration skills in an EFL context, written by a Thai lecturer. He read the article over 25 times to understand 2 key points: his desire to adopt the flipped classroom principles in his vocabulary class, and his curiosity about the research methods and the article’s novelty, which led to its publication in a reputable international journal.
Bobby began by planning learning activities, downloading six different videos containing various collocations in English, preparing problem-based tasks on collocation issues for group discussions outside class, and adopting the collocation tests from the article for pre- and post-tests. Once he was confident with his preparation, Bobby introduced his teaching approach to his vocabulary students. The flipped classroom learning process was programed for one semester, including pre- and post-tests and one interview session with students. In the first meeting, Bobby confidently grouped his 40 students into 10 groups, then divided them into an experimental and a control group, each with 20 students (5 groups). In the experimental group, he asked each group to create a WhatsApp group and to send weekly videos covering collocation concepts and exercises, expecting students to understand the concepts before and after class. Conversely, in the control group, he played videos in class weekly and then asked students to discuss, present their findings, and provide feedback on the collocation concepts.
He found positive impressions by adapting the technology-based learning model. However, he was not satisfied and tried to add “novelty” to the in-class and out-of-class discussions, which had been subjective (after reading and synthesizing two articles on collaboration and engagement). He noticed that none of the articles on collaboration he read monitored the discussion process. He then created a simple rubric to capture the collaboration process, combining collaborative and engagement theories. In the subsequent learning sessions, Bobby felt more confident and focused in teaching vocabulary. He believed that vocabulary was clearly beneficial for enhancing students’ collaboration, critical thinking, questioning, and communication skills, provided the lecturer read research and adapted it creatively.
“I need to develop more research-based learning models, as universities are centers of research and instructional development. So, I will continue to implement research-based teaching.”
Bobby’s reflection at the end of his vocabulary research implementation showed a positive change in his view of himself as an English lecturer and a researcher. Bobby’s research experience also began with reading an article on the flipped classroom, a practice traditionally implemented in Thailand. He then adopted and adapted the strategies using a mobile application as suggested in the article. He added “a novelty” by creating a rubric to capture his students’ collaborative process, drawing on theories of collaboration and engagement. With this novelty, Bobby found it easy to articulate the research gap and his research’s contribution to collaboration theory, as all parts of his article, from the background, literature review, methodology (except data analysis), findings, and discussion, had novelty. Recalling his negative experience as a speaker at an international conference, Bobby collaborated with other lecturers more proficient in statistical analysis to guide and help him solve the problem.
“…Because I am weak in statistics, I ’consulted’ with several colleagues who are experts in this field for cross-checking to avoid similar mistakes as before.”
Eventually, Bobby felt more optimistic, confident, and pleased that his article had been published in a reputable international journal on technology-based English language teaching, something he had long desired.
In his effort to improve his ESP for Nursing teaching and research, Donny read many research articles on the Basic Psychological Needs (BPN) theory, initially developed for use in the workplace and in education outside the English language, and reflected on his ESP teaching. Based on observations of nurses’ duties at the hospital, he designed and implemented the BPN model in his teaching and research. Inspired by his dissatisfaction with teaching and failure in ESP for Nursing research, he rose from his setbacks. Using the BPN concepts of relatedness, competence, and autonomy from the articles he read and other experiences, Donny considered how relatedness was associated with nurses’ duties with patients, families, fellow nurses, and doctors as their superiors. He began implementing ESP content aligned with the actual nursing curriculum standards. He created his own materials related to these concepts. He ventured to teach beyond the textbook, which he considered far from ideal, especially in content. In speaking activities, he replaced general English topics with communication between nurses and patients, families, colleagues, and doctors in various situations so that students could communicate in accordance with nursing standard operating procedures and master real-world English relevant to their future profession.
“I feel I have found something new and better in ESP for Nursing teaching because the new materials I implemented are highly relevant to the future global needs of nurses. I believe that through the concept of relatedness, students will have competence (the second element of BPN), and they will become independent or autonomous (the third element of BPN). I hope they will be ready to enter the workforce with specific nursing content and specific English for Nursing skills that meet the normal context of their work as nurses and their interactions with various parties, as I mentioned earlier.”
It also indicates that Donny began to find his identity as a lecturer and to develop a research roadmap for ESP in Nursing by implementing teaching-based research to improve his teaching and research quality.
Donny’s identity as a researcher also grew as he improved his instructional practices through impactful reading and writing of his conception of BPN in ESP for Nursing. Writing the research article was easy due to the novelty of BPN and the less-than-ideal ESP conditions in most Indonesian universities, especially regarding lecturers’ backgrounds far from ESP and nursing standards. He wrote an article on BPN fulfillment of ESP for Nursing teachers, which was published in a reputable international journal, making him proud of his professional identity in teaching, research, and publication. After more than 5 years of regularly implementing teaching-based research, Donny, amid his busy schedule, used his free time to write while waiting for meetings, read during lunch, and write at least one paragraph daily. These crucial activities boosted his confidence in his research-based teaching and research, leading him to serve as a lecturer and research consultant at a foreign university for over 2 years and to receive the university’s Best Teacher-Researcher award.
Summary of Emplotment/Summary of the Narratives
Bobby and Donny had numerous significant negative experiences early in their careers as lecturers. In the first core episode, they narrated their distress over their inability to teach according to established principles and their limited research capabilities, which often led to unsuccessful grant applications. In Bobby’s view, most English lecturers did not understand the difficulties he faced in teaching vocabulary and conducting research on it. The monotonous approach to teaching vocabulary was influenced by his past study experiences, in which he observed his lecturers use a task-based model. Similarly, Donny’s less-than-ideal ESP for Nursing content was influenced by a lack of harmony between the language center’s ESP department and the nursing study program, resulting in suboptimal content in the ESP for Nursing book.
Additionally, his background as a lecturer, not from a nursing discipline, contributed to this issue. These perspectives ultimately changed after reflections from their classes (observing students preferring to consult with other lecturers despite not teaching their courses), reflections outside their classes (criticism of research methods from an international conference participant, accidental observations in a hospital setting, and feedback from research grant reviewers), prompting both to gradually improve their “identities” as a teacher and researcher. This label was achieved by implementing teaching-based research, using articles they read, adapting them, and tirelessly writing their findings amid other duties, eventually leading to their discovery of professional identities as lecturers capable of identifying and solving their own problems through teaching-based research paradigm, thereby impacting the field.
Connecting Biography Within a Theoretical Framework
In the final stage, I attempted to connect Bobby and Donny’s identity biographies as English lecturers and researchers with a broader theoretical framework for interpreting the narratives. A key phenomenon emerging from both biographies is the way the participants recognized challenges within their teaching and research, turned to relevant scholarly literature to make sense of these issues, addressed instructional difficulties in practice, and subsequently examined their own teaching through research-based instructional approaches (Ali, 2020; Bergmark, 2023), and document their findings in research articles for publication in reputable international journals. They consistently applied this approach.
Bobby and Donny used their past teaching and research experiences to define their current identities: their past is ever-present in their identity discussions. They engaged in a dialog with their past teacher and researcher identities, drawing on their study experiences and reflections (Borg, 2011). Simultaneously, their previous teaching and research beliefs and practices changed through new experiences and perspectives. However, it is important to emphasize that past experiences do not always determine future actions (Muchnik-Rozanov & Tsybulsky, 2021). In this phase, we can also consider their changes from a broader perspective of lecturers’ professional identity changes (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000).
Focus on Narrative Form
After presenting Bobby and Donny’s cases as examples of emplotment, I focused on how these two English lecturers narrated their life stories. This analysis addressed the following aspects of narrative form: (a) typology, (b) how individuals create coherence (e.g., using metaphors, referencing academic conceptualizations), (c) the use of other linguistic features (e.g., evidence of hope), and (d) rhetorical devices. Regarding typology, both teaching biographies can be described as narratives of change. More specifically, the beginning of the story (memories from early careers) presents a regressive narrative during a period of decline: “My teaching and research abilities were far from ideal.” The end of the biography (mid-career) illustrates a progressive narrative, resulting in positive changes.
Additionally, when they described early-career events in their study programs, their narratives featured many tragic elements. The turning point in their identities as lecturers and researchers occurred in mid-career onward. This turning point fundamentally altered the meaning of their past experiences. We can summarize their stories as “success through hard work”: they sailed in deep waters for a long time, but after hard work, things went well.
People create or add coherence to their stories in various ways. The following quote is from Bobby’s teaching portfolio, written after completing his research-based teaching experiment: “The role of a lecturer is to develop his or her instructional identities and create a quality, impactful learning atmosphere. Lecturers must conduct teaching-based research in every learning activity.” He recalled his experience when about to teach abroad, always being asked by the Head of the Study Program whether he would teach with research. His statement highlights the importance of research-based teaching in universities as a foundation for research. It indicates that Bobby uses academic conceptualizations, specifically his teaching practices and research implementations. It is an effective way to bring coherence to his plot (Elbaz-Luwisch, 2002). Another way to present coherence is through metaphors. Metaphors illustrate thought patterns by systematically experiencing and expressing one thing in terms of another (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Donny had many negative experiences in his early career teaching and researching ESP for Nursing. He recalled: ''I felt teaching ESP for Nursing was very difficult and far from ideal…When I saw other lecturers enjoying teaching and consistently getting research grants, I envied them and thought: 'Oh my, it must be nice to be in that situation."
Then, to establish that a change had occurred, I compared the metaphors before and after their careers and their transformations as teachers and researchers. Before teaching practices, Bobby and Donny’s views of themselves as lecturers and researchers were negative and uncertain, reflected in the use of the puzzle “to be or not to be a professional lecturer, that is the question.” Through this phrase, he questioned whether he could teach and research well in the future. After overcoming earlier negative experiences, participants employed a metaphor that reframed the lecturer as a catalyst for change, signaling a transformation in their perceptions. According to this metaphor, teaching and research are journeys in which lecturers continually seek to introduce new ideas into their teaching. The differences between the metaphors used before and after teaching research-based practices indicate a significant shift in the narrative. In analyzing the linguistic features of narratives, researchers focus on how language expresses emotions as people create texts within discourse conventions. Chaaban et al. (2021) analyzed the linguistic characteristics of autobiographical narratives that convey the process of overcoming negative emotions, such as fear and helplessness. The following are formal elements that may appear in emotion-laden narratives (Chaaban et al., 2021): adverbs such as “disappointed” and “desperate,” often characteristic of “evidence of hope.”
Muchnik-Rozanov and Tsybulsky (2021) stated that past experiences influence how narrators construct stories. They identified various types of linguistic evidence of hope, for example, omissions, repetitions, backtracking, hedges and other qualifying words or expressions, negative statements, contrastive connectives (e.g., “but,”“conversely”), indicating changes or shifts, generalizations, evaluative language, moral judgments, and additions (Susanto & Arifani, 2023; Borg, 2011), suggesting that hope shapes perceptions and determines how events are verbalized. I used these linguistic features in the analysis phase: for example, when looking for core episodes, handy quotes were those in which both research subjects used evaluative, negative, or repetitive language, contrastive connectives, or detailed descriptions. Bobby and Donny shared many positive experiences related to their teaching and research evolvement. Bobby described how he tried to develop a novel rubric to monitor collaboration processes through collaboration and engagement theories to analyze his students’ collaboration. “I felt more confident in teaching and researching; I was thrilled when my first article was published in a quality journal.” This simple example shows the use of linguistic features from core experience episodes in his career as a lecturer and researcher. Conversely, other linguistic features were also found in negative statements from the second subject, indicating the narrator’s cognitive structure (Yuan, 2017).
Discussion
Development of Teachers’ Instructional Identities Through Impactful Reading and Writing Activities
This study set out to examine narrative inquiry as a methodological lens for understanding how lecturers develop their instructional and research identities through impactful reading and writing practices. The findings demonstrate that sustained engagement with academic reading and writing functioned not merely as institutional or professional obligations, but as central mechanisms through which lecturers interpreted, negotiated, and reshaped their instructional identities. Both EFL lecturers described reading and writing as reflective practices that informed how they understood themselves as educators and emerging teacher-researchers. In line with previous research (e.g., Borg, 2011; Haug & Mork, 2021; Whitney, 2016), the findings confirm that engagement with academic texts played a pivotal role in shaping instructional decision-making, pedagogical awareness, and research orientation. Reading operated as an intellectual and pedagogical resource that supported classroom-based inquiry, while writing enabled lecturers to transform experiential reflection into scholarly knowledge production. Notably, unlike earlier studies that positioned teacher research engagement as predominantly institutionally driven or compliance-oriented, the lecturers in this study exhibited strong intrinsic motivation to read and write as part of their ongoing professional growth and identity construction. Their literacy practices were closely connected to a desire to enhance students’ learning experiences and to participate meaningfully in the broader ELT community through academic publication.
While both lecturers demonstrated a shared commitment to professional development, their instructional identity trajectories diverged in ways that reflected different orientations toward teaching and research. One lecturer positioned reading primarily as a pedagogical tool, selectively engaging with academic literature to inform lesson planning, instructional strategies, and classroom refinement. In this case, instructional identity development was closely tied to pedagogical responsiveness and classroom transformation. In contrast, the second lecturer adopted a more research-oriented instructional identity, engaging intensively with journal articles and conference proceedings to identify research gaps, align classroom practices with scholarly debates, and produce publishable manuscripts. This divergence illustrates that instructional identities are not monolithic but evolve along a continuum shaped by individual aspirations, professional stages, and patterns of engagement with academic literacy practices. These findings resonate with Whitney’s (2016) observation that teachers’ relationships with academic writing develop over time as their professional identities shift. Despite these differences, both lecturers perceived impactful reading and writing as interdependent practices that enabled them to move beyond the role of classroom practitioners toward identities as teacher-researchers with emerging scholarly voices.
The findings further illuminate the construction of narrative identities, whereby lecturers made sense of their professional development through stories of engagement with reading and writing. Drawing on narrative identity theory (Susanto & Arifani, 2023; Clandinin & Connelly, 2000), instructional identity emerged as a dynamic and evolving process shaped through reflection, challenge, and aspiration. One lecturer narrated her instructional development through pedagogical refinement and classroom change informed by sustained reading, while the other framed his trajectory around scholarly recognition and academic legitimacy achieved through writing. These narratives underscore that instructional identities are continually negotiated rather than fixed, shaped by contextual demands, professional goals, and self-perception. Importantly, reading and writing were not experienced as isolated technical skills, but as meaning-making practices through which lecturers exercised agency, reinterpreted their professional roles, and claimed legitimacy within both instructional and research communities. This narrative perspective highlights the importance of institutional environments that intentionally support reflective reading, sustained writing, and narrative articulation as integral to lecturers’ instructional identity development.
Development of Teachers’ Research Identities Through Impactful Reading and Writing Activities
Viewing narrative analysis as an emplotting process, as proposed by Borg (2011), provides a productive lens for examining changes in English lecturers’ professional identities as teachers and researchers, particularly as these identities evolve through sustained engagement with impactful reading and writing practices. Unlike conventional case study approaches, which often prioritize contemporaneous accounts, emplotting foregrounds retrospective sense-making, allowing lecturers to articulate how past reading and writing experiences informed their current instructional and research orientations. Such retrospective explanations are crucial for constructing coherent professional identity biographies of English lecturers (Yuan, 2017; Susanto & Arifani, 2023), especially when identity development is understood as cumulative and longitudinal rather than episodic. In this study, the emplotting stage focused on the construction of narrative texts that revealed how reading scholarly literature and engaging in academic writing functioned as reflective practices shaping lecturers’ evolving research identities.
To deepen the analysis, narrative form analysis—employed by both research participants—was used to capture diverse perspectives on lecturers’ trajectories toward professionalism. This analytical move enriched the depth and saturation of the findings by illuminating how lecturers positioned reading and writing as central mechanisms for professional growth. Examining identity development across early and mid-career stages revealed how lecturers’ goals, motivations, and actions were closely intertwined with their engagement in academic literacy practices. Linguistic features embedded in the narratives, such as evaluative language, temporal markers, and contrastive structures, further served to identify critical turning points in lecturers’ perceptions of their pedagogical and research practices. These turning points often coincided with moments when reading research articles prompted pedagogical reconsideration or when writing for publication reshaped lecturers’ sense of themselves as knowledge contributors rather than mere consumers.
This form of narrative inquiry extends beyond what is typically captured in conventional case study research, which rarely attends to how participants construct coherence across time. By focusing on narrative coherence—particularly when lecturers emphasized positive dimensions of their experiences—the analysis revealed how participants selectively highlighted impactful reading and writing episodes to sustain a meaningful professional storyline (McChesney & Aldridge, 2021). Importantly, narrative coherence did not imply uniformity or completeness. As Mora et al. (2016) note, autobiographical narratives are often only partially integrated into a single plotline. Consistent with Borg’s (2011) argument, this study found that a fully unified narrative voice was not necessary; rather, fragmented yet thematically connected plotlines were sufficient to generate rich, in-depth insights into lecturers’ identity development.
Several methodological and interpretive challenges associated with narrative research also warrant consideration. First, the accuracy of configurational plots remains complex, as lecturers’ narratives reflect selective memory, hindsight interpretation, and contextual constraints. Second, participants were acutely aware that professional identity development carries normative expectations of change, which inevitably shaped how they narrated their reading, writing, teaching, and research practices. This rhetorical dimension underscores the need to interpret lecturers’ narratives not as transparent reflections of experience but as socially situated accounts influenced by institutional and professional discourses (Susanto & Arifani, 2023; Sato & Loewen, 2019). Finally, the findings suggest that lecturers who initially perceived teaching or research negatively—particularly during early career stages—tended to prioritize surface-level instructional strategies or avoid sustained research engagement. When research was framed as burdensome rather than developmental, resulting outputs were often limited in impact and failed to meaningfully inform teaching practices, as illustrated in the cases of Bobby and Donny. These patterns reinforce the importance of cultivating positive, reading- and writing-mediated research identities to support deeper pedagogical and scholarly engagement over time.
Conclusion
The findings demonstrate that reading and writing are not isolated skills but interconnected processes that support teachers’ ongoing professional development. Teacher education and professional development programs should integrate reflective reading and academic writing into their training models, encouraging teachers to become critical consumers and producers of knowledge. Institutions should also recognize the varied pathways teachers take in developing their professional identities—some may prioritize classroom impact, while others pursue research publication. Support structures such as writing workshops, mentoring, and access to academic resources can help sustain teacher engagement with scholarly practices. By promoting long-term, research-informed professional learning, educational stakeholders can empower teachers to grow as both effective practitioners and active contributors to the field of English language education.
Limitations
One of the main limitations of this qualitative study lies in its limited generalizability. With only two EFL teachers participating, the findings provide in-depth, context-specific insights. However, they may not reflect the broader experiences of EFL teachers across different institutional, regional, or cultural settings. As qualitative research prioritizes depth over breadth, the results are not intended to be statistically representative. However, they do offer valuable narratives that can inform future inquiry and professional development practices. To strengthen the generalizability and applicability of future findings, further research could involve a larger, more diverse sample of teachers across regions and educational levels. Comparative studies across countries or educational systems could also shed light on how local contexts shape teachers’ engagement in reading and writing for professional development.
Future Research Direction
Future studies might also explore the evolving roles of teacher-readers and teacher-writers by examining teachers at different stages of their careers and across varying levels of research engagement. As seen in the differing orientations of the two participants in this study—one being more pedagogically focused, the other more research-driven—future research could further investigate how identity development influences reading and writing practices over time. Longitudinal studies would be instrumental in capturing these developmental trajectories, offering richer insights into how sustained engagement in reading and writing contributes to teachers’ growth as educators and researchers.
Ethics and Informed Consent Statements
Verbal consent was obtained from all participants, and their personal information was documented prior to data collection. Participants were provided with a detailed explanation of the study’s purpose, procedures, potential risks, and benefits. They voluntarily agreed to participate, fully understanding their right to withdraw from the study at any time without penalty or loss of benefits. Confidentiality and anonymity of participants are guaranteed throughout the research process.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the two research participants who generously contributed their time and effort to this study.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Data Availability Statement
Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.