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Language teachers’ identity research has grown exponentially over the past decade.Existing scholarship has proved that the construction of language teachers’ identity is a multifaceted and constantly shifting process which has been influenced by a wide range of personal, professional and contextual factors. Notwithstanding the copious research on language teachers’ identity, fewer studies have been conducted to examine secondary EFL teachers’ professional identity construction, and little is known about professional identity development of teachers in rural elementary or secondary schools in regions of multiethnic groups in China. In order to fill the gaps in literature, this study aims to explore secondary school EFL teachers’ professional identity development, and to examine the factors that might influence the process of teachers’ professional identity construction.

This study selects three English teachers from rural secondary schools in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture as research participants. Guided by an integrated theoretical framework (the Identity Formation Theory, the History-in-Person Theory, Identity-in-Discourse and Identity-in-Practice), this qualitative case study adopts stimulated-recall interview, non-participant observation, documents and field notes as research instruments to generate data.

Findings from case studies reveal that for the rural secondary school EFL teachers,their professional identity is an intricate, dynamic and formative process, which has been formed, developed, reshaped and enhanced in teachers’ personal and professional experiences. As for the personal dimension, teachers’ personal biographies, including critical events, significant others, teacher role models, personal hobbies, and earlier language learning experiences have direct connection with the formation of teachers’professional identity. Teachers’ professional experiences, including their practicum, reflective classroom practices, school-based peer coaching activities and their attempts in conducting action research have been discovered as powerful forces in shaping EFL teachers’ professional selves.

This study also identifies three major tires of influencing factors that affect the participant teachers’ construction of professional identity: the local socioeconomic situation and multiethnic cultural context as the macro-level; institutional environment,professional training programs and courses as the meso-level; teachers’ personal qualities including their linguistic competences, teaching beliefs and agentive quality micro-level of influencing factors. This study argues that these influencing factors act as both formative elements and powerful variables in creating and shaping the teachers’ professional identity. Findings of this study contribute to the understanding of the complexity of teachers’ professional identity development, and provide valuable information for language teaching and language teacher education research.