A Comparative Narrative Inquiry into the Influence of Academic Disciplines on Vietnamese EFL Teachers’ Professional Identity Construction

Using Wenger’s Community of Practice theory, this narrative inquiry compares how disciplinary backgrounds influenced two Vietnamese EFL teachers’ identity construction during their graduate education. Narrative interviews, a joint conversation, and outsider-nominated perspectives revealed convergent and divergent identity trajectories. Although participants shared commitments to pedagogical enhancement, their disciplinary legacies influenced how they belonged and what counted as belonging within the same community. Furthermore, graduate education did not homogenize identity but “refracted” identity into different ways of professional becoming.