From Language Teachers to Mentors to Language Teacher Educators: Negotiating Personal Pedagogies, Power, and Mentorship Identity

Although school‐based mentors perform core language teacher educator functions, such as modelling pedagogy, scaffolding professional learning, and mediating between theory and practice, they remain largely absent from the literature on language teacher educator identity. This study examines how 11 foreign language teacher mentors (English, Spanish, and French) in the second phase of German teacher education (Vorbereitungsdienst) conceptualize their work and position themselves within school‐based and broader institutional contexts. Using narrative‐episodic interviews analyzed through reflexive thematic analysis and positioning theory, the study identifies four interconnected positioning patterns. Mentors “slide into” their role through structural necessity rather than a deliberate professional transition, enacting language teacher educator identities before claiming them. They position themselves as pedagogical guides who make tacit knowledge visible, while constructing mentoring as a reciprocal learning relationship. Their personal pedagogies function as an implicit curriculum. Finally, mentors occupy a structurally liminal position—pedagogically central but institutionally marginal—from which they exercise what is termed “liminal agency”. This study contributes to research on language teacher educator identity by extending existing frameworks beyond formal teacher education settings. It also highlights the hidden curriculum operating in the gap between institutional instruction and school‐based mentoring practice.