Becoming “Mr. English Teacher”: Narrative Identity Development of Indonesian Madrasah English Teachers in a Blended Professional Development Program

This narrative inquiry examines how English teachers in Indonesian Islamic schools narrate and negotiate their professional identities through a blended professional development (PD) program. Twenty teachers from madrasahs and pesantrens in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, participated in a five-month PD program combining online coursework with face-to-face workshops. Data sources included reflective notes, four focus group discussions, individual interviews, and classroom and PD artifacts. Using thematic coding, small-story analysis, and metaphor analysis, I constructed analytic vignettes foregrounding participants’ voices, relationships, and institutional contexts. Findings reveal five interrelated dimensions of identity work: identity claims, identity negotiations, identity trajectories, identity metaphors, and community identity. Metaphors such as “second parent” and “role model” foreground Islamic care ethics in boarding-school environments, while public recognition (e.g., “Mr. English Teacher”) signals hybrid moral-professional authority and belonging layered onto existing religious roles. Identity negotiations highlight how teachers integrate pedagogical choices within religious time and institutional rhythms. I argue that blended PD can function as a culturally embedded narrative space where language teachers reauthor moral-religious pedagogical identities, moving professional development beyond technical skill- building to transformative, identity-centered growth.