Filipino J-1 Teacher Identity

Refined research title

Negotiating Professional Identity Narratives of Filipino J-1 Teachers in American Classrooms

Possible research focus

This study could examine how Filipino teachers on J-1 exchange visas construct, express, and renegotiate their professional identities while working in U.S. schools. It may focus on how their identities are shaped by migration, culture, language, teaching expectations, race, visa conditions, and interactions with students, colleagues, administrators, and parents.

Central research question

How do Filipino J-1 teachers negotiate their professional identities within American classroom and school contexts?

Supporting questions

1. How do Filipino J-1 teachers describe their professional identities before and during their U.S. teaching experience?
2. What cultural, institutional, and interpersonal experiences influence their identity narratives?
3. How do they respond to differences between Filipino and American educational practices?
4. How do language, accent, race, and perceptions of foreignness affect their classroom experiences?
5. How do their narratives reflect agency, adaptation, resistance, or belonging?

Possible theoretical lenses

• Professional identity theory — how teachers develop and redefine their sense of self as educators.
• Narrative identity theory — how individuals construct identity through the stories they tell about their experiences.
• Transnationalism — how teachers maintain connections between the Philippines and the United States.
• Intersectionality — how nationality, race, gender, language, migration status, and profession interact.
• Cultural-historical activity theory — how identity is shaped by institutional practices and social interactions.

Possible thesis statement

Filipino J-1 teachers negotiate their professional identities by navigating cultural differences, institutional expectations, racialized perceptions, and linguistic challenges in American schools. Their narratives reveal not only processes of adaptation but also agency, cultural affirmation, and the reconstruction of what it means to be a Filipino teacher in a transnational educational setting.