Chapter 3: “They See Me as a Real Teacher Now”: ESL Teacher Identity in Collaborative Contexts

I began my career in education as an English as a second language (ESL) teacher in the mid-1990s in North Carolina, and I can relate to the idea of wanting to be treated “like a real teacher.” I had a teaching license and a master’s degree, but my “classroom” had four wheels instead of walls and was jokingly referred to as the “language buggy.” The language buggy housed all the essentials for a traveling ESL teacher: bilingual dictionaries, CD player, crates of pens, markers, and other art supplies, as well as tissues, water bottles, my lunch box, and other personal items. I was not completely homeless though; each period I relocated to a different space, taking advantage of colleagues who would willingly give up their classroom during their planning period. While my knowledge about language pedagogy and second language acquisition were appreciated, when it came to physical resources and professional credibility, ESL was peripheral. My colleagues valued me-especially when they needed someone to translate-but, as evidenced by my four-wheeled classroom, I was not an equal.