Exploring professional identity: The perceptions of legitimacy among Indonesian non-specialist primary school EFL teachers

Abstract

This study explores how Indonesian non-specialist primary English as a foreign language teachers negotiate perception of legitimacy and professional identity within constrained institutional contexts. Framed by Lave and Wenger's concept of legitimate peripheral participation and Wenger's 1 community of practice (CoP) framework, the study analyses interviews, classroom observations and document data from four teachers in public and private schools. Thematic analysis identified six mechanisms that shaped teachers’ legitimacy: internal and external validation; institutional recognition; subject-matter gaps; self-directed learning; societal attitudes; and multiple teaching roles. Legitimacy was locally enacted through practice and moral commitment rather than formal accreditation, mediated by access to institutional resources and sustained through individual agency. The findings extend current understandings of teacher identity by showing how legitimacy is negotiated within partial or isolated CoP. Context-specific implications highlight the importance of micro-level professional development, recognition structures and inclusive policy measures to support non-specialist teachers’ participation and identity growth.

Keywords

Teacher professional identity non-specialist teachers professional development English language teaching English as a foreign language

Introduction

Despite the extensive body of research on language teacher identity (Yazan, 2018), most studies have focused on specialist teachers – those formally trained in language pedagogy and certified to teach English (Dimitrieska, 2024). Existing discourse has largely examined non-native English-speaking teachers, particularly how their linguistic background affects their perceived legitimacy in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts (Cappaert and Wickens, 2023; Reis, 2011; Trent, 2016; Widodo et al., 2020). In contrast, comparatively little attention has been given to teachers who teach English without formal qualifications in the field, despite evidence that teaching outside one's expertise influences both teacher identity and student outcomes (Porsch and Whannell, 2019). The intersection of out-of-field teaching and perception of legitimacy in shaping professional identity in the EFL context remains underexplored and warrants further investigation.

The assignment of teachers to subjects outside their formal training is referred to by various terms, including: ‘out-of-field teaching’ (du Plessis et al., 2019; Hobbs and Törner, 2019; Ingersoll, 1999); ‘generalist teachers’ (Garvis, 2013); ‘multi-subject teachers’ (Murray and Passy, 2014); and ‘non-specialist teachers’ (Millar, 1988). In this study, the term ‘non-specialist EFL teachers’ is employed to denote educators who, despite lacking formal qualifications in English language teaching (ELT), are responsible for providing EFL instruction. This terminology was chosen to reflect both the linguistic specificity and the professional status of the teachers under consideration. This phenomenon is driven by systemic factors such as teacher shortages, unequal distribution of educators, scheduling challenges within schools, and teacher education systems that prioritize specialization over generalization (Hobbs and Porsch, 2021).

In countries where the demand for English education exceeds the supply of formally trained EFL teachers – such as Japan (Matsumura, 2022), Bangladesh (Alam and Asmawi, 2023), Malaysia (Romli and Abd Aziz, 2015), Mexico (Hernández and Izquierdo, 2023) and Indonesia (Hawanti, 2014; Zein, 2014) – non-specialist teachers often step in to fill this gap, particularly in primary and secondary schools. This widespread practice raises important questions about how non-specialist teachers develop their professional identities and establish legitimacy as English language teachers.

While teacher identity has been widely examined as an individual and sociocultural construct (Varghese et al., 2005; Yazan, 2018), this study interprets identity as participatory, which emerges through the everyday practices that confer or withhold legitimacy within a community of practice (CoP) (Wenger, 1998). Accordingly, the study explores how non-specialist primary EFL teachers construct professional legitimacy and participation trajectories, as a means of understanding how their professional identities take shape within institutional and social contexts. To address this, the study asks three interrelated questions focusing on practices, access, and agency as mechanisms of identity construction through participation:

Which concrete practices and forms of engagement conferred legitimacy on non-specialist primary EFL teachers, and how were those practices recognized or contested within their school CoP?

How did access to institutional resources and recognition shape teachers’ trajectories from peripheral participation toward fuller participation?

In contexts of constrained institutional support, how did individual agency mediate legitimacy-building processes?

Significance of the study:

It identifies the everyday practices through which non-specialist primary EFL teachers claim legitimacy and examines how these practices are recognized or contested within the school's CoP.

It demonstrates how macro-level policy decisions regarding English interact with institutional resources to shape and sustain teachers’ participation.

It offers practical, context-specific strategies that schools and teacher educators can implement to support the development of professional legitimacy.

The context of non-specialist EFL teachers in Indonesian primary schools

In Indonesia, the prevalence of non-specialist EFL teachers reflects systemic conditions such as curricular reforms, most notably the removal of English from the primary school curriculum in 2003, and the absence of specialized teacher education for English for young learners, and limited recognition or professional development (PD) opportunities for these teachers (Zein, 2014). Since 2003, English has been offered only as a local content subject in private primary schools or as an extracurricular activity in public schools, and it remains excluded from national examinations. Instruction is typically provided by generalist classroom teachers who teach all subjects in their assigned classes (Hawanti, 2014). While these teachers possess classroom management skills suitable for young learners, they generally lack formal training in English language pedagogy. The 2024 national curriculum maintains this policy, leaving decisions about English instruction to individual schools based on teacher availability and local community needs (Database Peraturan, 2024).

Studies reveal contrasts between public and private schools in the provision of English. Public schools in Indonesia often face larger class sizes, limited funding, and minimal institutional support, whereas private schools tend to benefit from stronger resources and parental involvement, linking English proficiency to social mobility (Muslim et al., 2020).

Professional identity

Given that identity is inherently context-dependent (Karimi and Mofidi, 2019), a teacher may embody multiple identities or ‘sub-identities’ (Beijaard et al., 2004), which are fluid and subject to change depending on the specific context in which they operate. These sub-identities are not static; rather, they are continuously shaped and maintained through ongoing processes of formation and negotiation. Furthermore, these sub-identities may interact in ways that are either complementary, functioning in harmony with one another, or contradictory, resulting in internal conflict (Hobbs, 2012). This dynamic interplay highlights the complexity of teacher identity as a multifaceted and evolving construct.

In the context of non-specialist EFL teachers, as these individuals teach outside their primary area of expertise, they are likely to engage in additional layers of identity negotiation, balancing their original professional identity with their evolving role as English language instructors. This dual positioning may give rise to a unique set of challenges and opportunities for identity development (Hobbs and Törner, 2019). In the broader context of EFL teaching, teacher professional identity involves how educators perceive and interpret their roles, negotiate their legitimacy as English language teachers, and establish their authority in the classroom (Hsiao, 2018; Richards, 2023).

Perception of legitimacy as EFL teachers

In Kanno and Stuart's (2011) study, perceptions of legitimacy are closely tied to teachers’ ability to perform fundamental instructional tasks competently. As they observed, ‘making obvious blunders in front of students’ can erode teachers’ confidence and sense of legitimacy. Thus, achieving competence in basic teaching skills is essential for claiming legitimacy as an EFL teacher (Kanno and Stuart, 2011: 245). Similarly, Tsui (2007), in her examination of a Chinese EFL teacher in China, found that institutional factors – such as support for PD and recognition of teaching efforts – significantly impact teachers’ perceived legitimacy and sense of efficacy, regardless of their native language status. These findings highlight the complex interplay between institutional recognition, access to teaching practices, and the influence of socioeconomic and hierarchical power dynamics in shaping teachers’ sense of legitimacy (Tsui, 2007). Furthermore, Pennington and Richards (2016) emphasize that second language teachers’ legitimacy is inherently linked to their possession of disciplinary knowledge and specialized teaching practices within Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, reinforcing its status as a distinct academic field. In this study, the perception of legitimacy refers to the degree to which teachers’ participation is recognized as valid and credible in their community.

Theoretical framework

This research draws on Lave and Wenger's (1991) concept of legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) and Wenger's (1998) concept of CoP to explore the identity formation and negotiation processes of non-specialist EFL teachers in primary schools. These theoretical frameworks highlight the critical role of social context, community, and practice in learning, providing insights into how non-specialist teachers perceive and negotiate legitimacy in their professional roles. The concept of LPP offers a lens to understand how non-specialist EFL teachers in this study entered the ELT domain from peripheral positions – assigned to teach English despite lacking formal qualifications or inclusion in professional learning communities. According to this concept, newcomers gain legitimacy and gradually transition toward fuller participation through active engagement in shared practices.

Wenger (1998) further elaborates on this process by framing learning as an inherently social practice. In his view, identity is co-constructed within ‘communities of practice,’ where individuals engage in shared activities, collectively construct meaning, and negotiate their roles and contributions. Within this perspective, identity is not a static attribute but a dynamic trajectory of participation. As individuals engage in shared practices, gain recognition, and negotiate access to valued activities, they continuously reconstruct their identities in relation to the community. Thus, legitimacy and participation lie at the experiential core of identity construction.

While Wenger's (1998) conception of a CoP emphasizes mutual engagement and shared repertoire, the schools in this study presented constrained or partial CoPs. Each teacher functioned as the sole English instructor, with minimal opportunity for horizontal collaboration. Thus, participation occurred primarily through interaction with students, informal recognition from administrators or parents, and self-directed professional activity. The constructs of LPP and CoP serve as analytical tools for examining the data (see Table 1). The analysis therefore treats CoP constructs as heuristic lenses for understanding how teachers negotiated professional identity within highly individualized practice settings rather than conventional, collaborative CoPs. In this study, teacher identity is examined through three interrelated dimensions: the practices that confer legitimacy; the access that shapes participation; and the agency that sustains legitimacy.

Table 1.

Operationalization of key constructs of the theoretical framework.

Construct	Theoretical definition	Operational indicator in data	Interpretive note/function in this study
Legitimacy	The socially recognized right to participate meaningfully in a community's practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991)	Instances where teachers’ work was acknowledged or valued (e.g., praise from principals, visible student success and parental approval)	Legitimacy served as the core analytic thread/the lens for understanding how non-specialist teachers claimed professional recognition despite lacking formal credentials
Participation	The process of engaging in shared practice that shapes identity and learning (Wenger, 1998)	Observable engagement in classroom activities, school events, or informal professional exchanges	Treated as situated action rather than group membership/teachers participated primarily through teaching practice and informal contribution
Access	Opportunities to engage with resources, tools and decision-making spaces that sustain participation (Lave and Wenger, 1991)	Inclusion/exclusion from meetings, training, or resource use; availability of materials; permission to innovate	A structural precondition for legitimacy/restricted access explained teachers’ persistent peripheral positions
Mutual engagement	The interactive relationships through which members negotiate meaning and maintain the community	Limited in this study: occasional interactions with colleagues or students rather than peer teacher collaboration	Redefined for partial CoPs/since each teacher worked alone, engagement occurred mainly with students, forming micro-sites of participation rather than full CoPs
Shared repertoire	The communal resources (language, routines and artefacts) accumulated through practice (Wenger, 1998)	Use of common teaching materials, routines, or adapted digital resources shared informally within schools	Functioned as local pedagogical artefacts that indexed belonging even without collaborative creation
Joint enterprise	The collectively negotiated purpose that gives coherence to a community's practice	Schoolwide or community goals (e.g., preparing students for competitions and improving school image)	Operated informally; legitimacy increased when English activities aligned with broader school or community goals
Identity	The evolving sense of who one is within a community of practice (CoP), shaped by participation, recognition and trajectory (Wenger, 1998)	Teachers’ self-descriptions as ‘real’ or ‘temporary’ English teachers; reflections on competence and belonging	Central integrative construct/captures how legitimacy, access and agency interact to form professional identity trajectories within constrained CoPs
Agency	The capacity to act purposefully and reshape participation/aligned with CoP learning as doing)	Self-initiated learning, classroom innovation and task improvisation	Mediating mechanism enabling teachers to convert personal initiative into visible competence, sustaining participation in the absence of systemic support

Methodology

This study adopted a qualitative case study approach, grounded in the ontological belief that reality is constructed through individual experiences and interactions within specific contexts (Creswell and Poth, 2018). As a naturalistic inquiry, the research observes non-specialist EFL teachers in their authentic teaching environments without intervention (Lincoln and Guba, 1985).

Setting and participants

This study employed purposive sampling to capture variation in institutional contexts and teacher backgrounds relevant to legitimacy construction. Four non-specialist primary school EFL teachers were recruited from two public and two private schools within the same district. The cases represented different configurations of institutional recognition and teaching experience (minimum 10 years) (see Table 2). Such variation enabled theoretical replication (Yin, 2014), allowing examination of how legitimacy and identity were negotiated across contrasting contexts rather than aiming for statistical representativeness. The participants were provided written informed consent prior to interview, observation and document collection, and were informed of their right to withdraw at any stage without penalty.

Table 2.

Demographic information of the participants.

Name (pseudonyms)	Background of education	Teaching experience	Type of institution	Location of school	Status of English
Joi	No formal English language teaching (ELT) qualification (Teacher Ed)	12 Years	Public primary school	Urban	Extracurricular
Intan	No formal ELT qualification (Primary Teacher Ed)	10 Years	Public primary school	Rural	Extracurricular
Tina	No formal ELT qualification (Primary Teacher Ed)	12 Years	Private primary school	Rural	Local content
Ana	No formal ELT qualification (Primary Teacher Ed)	11 Years	Private primary school	Urban	Local content

Data collection

Data collection spanned six months (one academic semester) through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and collection of documents (Lincoln and Guba, 1985) (see Table 3 and Table 4). Interviews were conducted in Indonesian and transcribed verbatim. Translations presented in the manuscript were made by the author and double-checked by a bilingual colleague to ensure conceptual fidelity. Where cultural/linguistic nuances mattered, the original Indonesian excerpt is available on request.

Table 3.

Corpus of data collection.

Data type	Count	Typical duration	Purpose/notes
Semi-structured interviews	12 (four participants × three interviews each; first, second and third referenced in manuscript)	60–90 min each	Explored identity, legitimacy, professional development; conducted in Indonesian; audio recorded, transcribed
Classroom observations	12 sessions (approximately three per participant)	45–60 min (one full lesson)	Lesson enactment, teacher–student interaction; fieldnotes taken
Documents/artefacts	Lesson plans, student work samples, reflective journals, school policy/communication	variable	Triangulation of classroom practice and institutional context (examples cited in Findings)

Table 4.

Sample of operationalization mapping themes.

Construct (legitimate peripheral participation / community of practice)	Operational indicator in data	Example excerpt	Theme
Legitimacy	The extent to which teachers’ participation is recognized as valid and credible by others in their community.	Excerpt 1, excerpt 2	Internal and external validation

Data collection proceeded iteratively. Interviews, classroom observations, and collection of documents were conducted and preliminarily coded after each round of fieldwork. The decision to conclude data collection was guided by thematic saturation in which no substantially new codes or categories emerged across participants (Guest et al., 2006). After the third interview and third observation cycle, coding comparisons indicated redundancy in categories such as institutional recognition, self-directed learning, and role multiplicity. A final follow-up interview with each participant was conducted to confirm and refine these themes, establishing that further data collection was unlikely to yield additional insights.

Data analysis

Data were analysed through iterative coding, employing both inductive and theory-informed approaches guided by three interrelated questions that focused on: (a) the practices that confer legitimacy; (b) the institutional conditions that shape participation; and (c) the agentive strategies through which teachers sustain their identities. Initial descriptive codes were derived from participants’ language and classroom artefacts, followed by pattern coding to cluster related meanings. Six cross-case themes were then developed through axial comparison (see Figure 1 in Online Appendix B for the coding tree). Online Appendix A presents the top-level codebook, and Online Appendix C provides two excerpt-to-theme chains illustrating how interpretation moved from raw data to thematic claims.

Trustworthiness

To enhance the trustworthiness of this study, credibility was ensured through member checking, where participants reviewed thematic summaries and confirmed the accuracy of interpretations. Peer debriefing with the supervisory team occurred regularly (approximately monthly) to challenge coding decisions and refine analytical focus. The first author led coding, with supervisors reviewing theme development to ensure coherence and reduce interpretive bias.

The first author, a teacher educator from the same region, acted as a partial insider familiar with participants’ contexts yet remained analytically detached. Access was gained through formal permission and consent. Neutral questioning and unobtrusive observation minimized steering and power imbalance. Reflexive notes tracked assumptions during coding. Rival explanations (policy, socio-economic and proficiency factors) were examined through triangulation and confirmed via member checking, enhancing interpretive transparency and trustworthiness (Merriam and Tisdell, 2016).

Findings

Guided by the research questions, the findings are organized into six interrelated themes clustered around the analytic foci of legitimacy, access and agency (see Table 5 and Table 6). Each subsection presents illustrative excerpts from interviews and classroom observations, followed by interpretive commentary that identifies the relevant LPP and CoP constructs.

Table 5.

Organization of the findings.

Research questions	Research question focus	Themes	Main constructs
Which concrete practices and forms of engagement conferred legitimacy on non-specialist primary English as a foreign language teachers, and how were those practices recognized or contested within their school community of practice?	Legitimacy through practice	Internal validation and external validation, institutional recognition, societal attitude	Legitimacy, mutual engagement, shared repertoire, access
How did access to institutional resources and recognition shape teachers’ trajectories from peripheral participation toward fuller participation?	Structural and knowledge access	Subject-matter gaps, taking ownership of practice	Access, identity, joint enterprise
How did individual agency mediate legitimacy?	Agency and identity work	Multiple teaching roles	Agency, legitimacy

Table 6.

Crosswalk of themes connecting empirical themes to theoretical constructs and practice levers.

Theme/mechanism	Excerpt(s)	Legitimate peripheral participation /community of practice construct(s)	Practical lever/implication
Internal and external validation	1, 2, 3, 4	Legitimacy; participation; shared repertoire	Support teachers to collect/display student progress (assessment templates; classroom evidence boards)
Institutional recognition and structural access	5, 6	Access; legitimacy; participation; identity trajectory	Reinstate formal recognition and access to training for primary English teachers and integrate English into the national curriculum
Subject-matter gaps and uneven access to expertise	9, 10	Access; legitimacy; identity trajectory	Provide targeted language-enhancement and mentoring to close content−knowledge gaps and promote confidence
Self-directed learning as agency for legitimacy	11, 12	Agency; access; legitimacy	School micro-professional development sessions to share materials that teachers find (peer-led)
Societal validation and the cultural value of English	7, 8	Joint enterprise; legitimacy; participation	Develop school–community communication strategies (e.g., parent workshops and public showcases of student English work) to align parental expectations with school language goals
Role multiplicity as identity work under constraint	13, 14, 15, 16	Agency; legitimacy; identity trajectory	Balance workloads and formally recognize multi-role contributions to sustain morale while protecting professional identity

Note: Each lever translates a construct’s mechanism into a concrete school or policy-level action that can support legitimacy building among non-specialist primary school English as a foreign language teachers.

Internal and external validation

Construct: Legitimacy, mutual engagement, shared repertoire

Excerpt 1 – Interview (Joi)

‘For me, teaching isn't just about money. I don’t get paid extra to teach English, but I want to share the knowledge I have, even if it's not much.’

Excerpt 2 – Interview (Intan)

‘Basically, I like English; it feels like a calling for me. Besides, no other teacher can teach English at this school.’

Excerpt 3 – Interview (Tina)

‘I feel like I’ve achieved my dream. When they can read English vocabulary and really get what they need to know, it makes me feel so happy. Even if they read incorrectly, at least they try to read and speak.’

Excerpt 4 – Fieldnote observation (Tina)

‘…students appeared enthusiastic as they repeated animal names after her during the lesson.’

The teachers’ commitment to ‘sharing what I have’ signalled an intrinsic moral stance that compensated for absent formal credentials. Observable student engagement, which is recorded in fieldnotes, functioned as external evidence of competence recognizable within the school community. These internal and external validations created a localized sense of ‘being a real teacher’ grounded in classroom artefacts rather than institutional endorsement. These shared classroom artefacts formed part of the shared repertoire that others could recognize as evidence of competence. Intrinsic commitment and observable student learning act as locally accepted artefacts of competence, sustaining peripheral legitimacy within CoP.

Institutional recognition

Construct: Access

Excerpt 5 – Interview (Joi)

‘Since English was made extracurricular, students and teachers lost enthusiasm. There's no standard (English curriculum) anymore… Now, everything is done individually, with no support anymore.’

Excerpt 6 – Interview (Ana)

‘Here, English is still given a place as a local subject… Although we do receive support from our institution, there's no backing from the government. Consequently, we never receive any offers to attend government-sponsored training programmes.’

Institutional structures mediated teachers’ opportunities for legitimate participation. When English was positioned as a non-core ‘local subject,’ access to PD, materials, and formal recognition was curtailed. Teachers’ exclusion from government initiatives symbolically positioned them at the periphery of both national and school-based communities of practice. In this context, restricted institutional access and limited curricular recognition reinforced fragile forms of legitimacy.

Societal attitudes

Constructs: Joint Enterprise, Legitimacy and Identity

Excerpt 7 – Interview (Intan)

‘The issue is that English isn't part of the national exams, so many parents don’t recognize its importance… this negatively impacts children's motivation to learn English.’

Excerpt 8 – Interview (Joi)

‘English has no support from parents; they think it will be useless. The important thing is to pass the national exam.’

Social undervaluation positioned non-specialist teachers at the periphery of the joint enterprise of schooling, weakening both learner motivation and teachers’ perceived legitimacy. In contrast, private-school contexts provided an opposite dynamic. Classroom observations showed high student enthusiasm (Excerpt 4). These contrasts illustrate that societal attitudes function as external participation structures that can either sustain or constrain teachers’ trajectories toward fuller legitimacy. When community validation aligns with institutional goals, teachers move closer to central participation; when absent, they remain legitimate only in the moral sense, not the social one.

Subject-matter gaps

Constructs: Access, Legitimacy, Identity Trajectory and Participation

Excerpt 9 – Interview (Intan)

‘Sometimes I feel insecure because my background isn’t in English.’

Excerpt 10 – Interview (Tina)

‘My background isn’t in English, and I’m still learning how to teach it. Luckily, this school provides great books for teaching English.’

Teachers’ limited formal training in English generated enduring subject-matter gaps that shaped their professional confidence and legitimacy. Intan's expression of insecurity highlights the vulnerability of teachers working outside their disciplinary expertise, particularly in public schools with minimal institutional support. Similarly, Tina's account, corroborated by school documents showing the provision of supplementary materials, suggests that local scaffolding can partially mitigate the absence of formal ELT qualifications. Across cases, subject-matter expertise emerged as a key mechanism of access within the teaching community: those with institutional backing could engage more fully in pedagogical discourse, while others remained peripheral despite strong commitment. Ultimately, legitimacy in EFL teaching is co-constructed through the interplay of individual learning trajectories and institutional affordances.

Self-directed learning

Constructs: Agency and Access

Excerpt 11 – Interview (Intan):

‘I learn by myself. I find materials from the internet, YouTube, and books because there's no training from the school.’

Excerpt 12 – Interview (Ana):

‘I often talk to myself in English while riding my motorbike because I don’t have anyone to practise speaking with. To improve my listening skills, I usually listen to English podcasts.’

In the absence of structured PD pathways, teachers engaged in self-directed learning as a key strategy for maintaining both competence and legitimacy. Intan's account reflects an adaptive response to institutional neglect. She developed personal repertoires through digital and print resources. Similarly, Ana's practice demonstrates the persistence of agency in isolation. Ana transformed everyday routines into informal learning spaces, compensating for the absence of collegial interaction. These acts of self-instruction served both practical and symbolic purposes. The teachers gained access to new pedagogical knowledge while signalling dedication to the teaching role. Through such initiatives, teachers constructed a sense of legitimacy rooted in personal agency rather than institutional recognition. From a CoP perspective, self-directed learning functioned as an alternative pathway to participation when formal access was restricted. It shows how agency can compensate for structural limitations and sustain professional identity at the periphery.

Multiple teaching roles

Constructs: Agency, Legitimacy and Identity

Excerpt 13 – Interview (Ana)

‘English here is only a local content subject, so I have no choice but to divide my priorities (teaching other subjects), especially in teaching preparation.’

Excerpt 14 – Document (Ana)

‘The school-issued teaching schedule, showing that Ana's instructional duties encompass subjects other than English.’

Excerpt 15 – Interview (Tina)

‘My role in this class is like a parent to them. Sometimes, when they cry, I comfort them; when they fight, I mediate; when they are impolite, I correct and teach them manners.’

Excerpt 16 – Fieldnote observation (Tina)

‘A greater portion of instructional time in Tina's classroom is dedicated to the teaching of moral values, as opposed to English language content.’

This multiplicity of roles constituted a form of identity work, whereby teachers continually negotiated their professional selves and redefined what counted as good teaching’ in contexts where English occupied a marginal position. Their agency manifested in sustaining visibility and moral authority through diligence, care, and commitment. From a CoP perspective, these teachers held legitimate yet peripheral positions. They were recognized as valuable contributors to the school's functioning, though not central members of the EFL teaching community. It illustrates that within constrained CoPs professional identity is sustained through adaptive role negotiation rather than disciplinary expertise.

Discussion and conclusion

Drawing on the frameworks of LPP (Lave and Wenger, 1991) and CoP (Wenger, 1998), the findings show that legitimacy was locally enacted through everyday practices rather than institutional accreditation. Teachers maintained participation through three interrelated mechanisms: legitimizing practices; access to structural and knowledge resources; and agentive identity work.

The first cluster of findings illustrates how legitimacy was both enacted and validated through practice. Teachers’ intrinsic commitment and visible student progress, what they called ‘sharing what I have’ functioned as internal and external markers of competence. These micro-level validations substituted for formal certification, reflecting Wenger's (1998) view of legitimacy as participation-based rather than credential-based. Legitimacy as EFL teachers was grounded in ethical responsibility and intrinsic motivation, aligning with studies that highlight the role of emotions in shaping teacher identity (Shahri, 2018; Zembylas, 2003). This emotional resilience functions similarly to self-esteem, which Richards (2023) links to teachers’ perceived value, status, and attribution of teaching as a profession. External validation was derived from evidence of student progress, resonating with Richards’ (2021) conception of self-efficacy as a marker of professional competence and with Usher and Pajares (2008) argument that student achievement reinforces teachers’ confidence. This also echoes Kanno and Stuart's (2011) assertion that instructional competence is integral to claiming legitimacy. However, such legitimacy remained fragile, as it was rarely institutionalized through policy or recognition. Identity depends not only on competence but on its public validation within the institutional ecology (Pennington and Richards, 2016; Tsui, 2007).

The second set of the findings highlighted that access to professional learning and recognition was a decisive condition for legitimacy. Teachers in public schools, where English was categorized as extracurricular, faced restricted access to core teaching practices, training and resources. In contrast, private-school teachers benefitted from some institutional scaffolding that mitigated their sense of insecurity. These differences indicate that professional identity formation is mediated by structural affordances determining who can move from peripheral to fuller participation (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). Moreover, the societal undervaluation of English in public schooling amplified teachers’ marginality, while stronger parental valuation in private contexts temporarily enhanced their legitimacy. Consistent with Lave and Wenger's (1991) and Wenger's (1998) accounts of participation as structured by access and legitimacy, these findings show that access and recognition operated as intertwined layers of inclusion and exclusion shaping teachers’ professional trajectories (see also Tsui, 2007; Varghese et al., 2005).

The final cluster demonstrates how teachers exercised agency to sustain legitimacy despite limited systemic support. Through self-initiated learning, they appropriated digital and informal resources to develop personal repertoires of practice, transforming everyday routines into learning opportunities. Such behaviour highlights the role of agency in identity construction (Tao and Gao, 2017). Their commitment to self-directed learning also illustrates a sense of vocation (Pennington, 2014) and personal investment in their roles (Norton, 2013). Yet this agency was often channelled into moral and relational labour which maintained belonging but diluted disciplinary identity as EFL teachers. In Wenger's (1998) terms, teachers achieved moral legitimacy within their schools’ joint enterprise while remaining peripheral to the wider professional community of EFL educators.

Taken together, these mechanisms reveal that non-specialist EFL teachers’ professional identities emerge not from formal qualification but from doing, being recognized, and persisting under marginal conditions. Legitimacy is a negotiated accomplishment sustained through the interplay of practice (what teachers do), access (what structures allow) and agency (how teachers respond). The findings extend understandings of LPP by showing how legitimacy can be constructed within constrained CoP.

These findings should be interpreted as case-bound to four non-specialist primary EFL teachers within one Indonesian district. They illustrate how legitimacy and identity are negotiated under specific institutional and policy conditions, specifically where English is classified as extracurricular and access to formal PD is limited. While the mechanisms identified may be analytically transferable to similar low-resource contexts, they are not statistically generalizable (Merriam and Tisdell, 2016). Policy and institutional implications should therefore be viewed as locally grounded inferences rather than universal prescriptions. At the policy level, the findings describe rather than prescribe a system in which structural recognition of English shapes teachers’ sense of professional identity. The study does not claim nationwide effects but suggests that in comparable contexts modest policy adjustments, such as reinstating English as a formal subject or providing micro-level PD, could enhance teachers’ professional inclusion. Future research could extend these insights through multi-site or mixed-method studies to examine whether the observed mechanisms hold across regions or under differing language-policy regimes. Longitudinal research could also trace how legitimacy evolves over time as institutional recognition changes.

Supplemental Material

sj-docx-1-rel-10.1177_00336882261419944 - Supplemental material for Exploring professional identity: The perceptions of legitimacy among Indonesian non-specialist primary school EFL teachers

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-rel-10.1177_00336882261419944 for Exploring professional identity: The perceptions of legitimacy among Indonesian non-specialist primary school EFL teachers by Rudha Widagsa, Fatiha Senom and Fonny Dameaty Hutagalung in RELC Journal

Supplemental Material

sj-docx-2-rel-10.1177_00336882261419944 - Supplemental material for Exploring professional identity: The perceptions of legitimacy among Indonesian non-specialist primary school EFL teachers

Supplemental material, sj-docx-2-rel-10.1177_00336882261419944 for Exploring professional identity: The perceptions of legitimacy among Indonesian non-specialist primary school EFL teachers by Rudha Widagsa, Fatiha Senom and Fonny Dameaty Hutagalung in RELC Journal

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Professor Handoyo Puji Widodo (King Abdulaziz University, KSA) and Associate Professor Andrzej Cirocki (University of York, UK) for their insights and constructive feedback, which contributed to the development of this study.

ORCID iDs

Rudha Widagsa

Fatiha Senom

Fonny Dameaty Hutagalung

Ethical considerations

This study received ethical approval from the University of Malaya Research Ethics Committee (UMREC) under Reference Number: UM.TNC2/UMREC_1431.

Consent to participate

Informed written consent was obtained from all participants prior to their involvement in the study. Participants were provided with comprehensive information about the research objectives, their role, and the measures in place to ensure the confidentiality and anonymity of their data.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Data availability statement

In compliance with UMREC guidelines, the data supporting this study are the property of UMREC and the Principal Investigator. The data are securely stored and will be responsibly disposed of following the publication of this article.

Supplemental material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

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