Navigating identity tensions of languages other than English teachers amid precarity in marketized higher education

Despite growing research on languages other than English (LOTE) education, limited attention has been paid to LOTE teachers' identity tensions and professional development under marketized higher education. This study explores how LOTE teachers experience and navigate identity tensions amid marketization and performativity in Chinese universities. Guided by an integrated teacher identity framework, the study adopts a qualitative multiple case study design. Drawing on data from semi-structured interviews, document analysis, field observations, and informal communications, the findings reveal that LOTE teachers' identity tensions were shaped by market-oriented logics, performative evaluation regimes, and their marginal institutional positioning. In response, they engaged in pragmatic adaptation and strategic compliance to sustain program viability, while mobilizing moral professionalism and resilient agency to preserve their professional integrity. The study highlights the constrained yet agentive nature of LOTE teachers’ identity negotiation and offers implications for supporting teacher development in marketized higher education.