Applying a psychological lens to educators' professional identity: The case of English for Academic Purposes educators

Abstract This paper advances the social identity approach as a valuable theoretical lens for interrogating teaching‐related professional identities, illustrating its analytical utility through a case study of English for Academic Purposes educators in higher education. Despite their pivotal role in supporting internationalisation agendas and student success, English for Academic Purposes educators often occupy structurally marginal and ambiguously defined positions, situated between academic and professional domains. Drawing on the two core components of the social identity approach—social identity theory and self‐categorisation theory—this paper offers a social‐psychological framework for examining how status, belonging and legitimacy are negotiated by English for Academic Purposes educators in roles historically undervalued within higher education academic hierarchies. The analysis carried out within this paper foregrounds key social identity processes, such as in‐group identification (how individuals locate themselves within communities), perceptions of boundary permeability (the perceived openness of group boundaries and opportunities for movement between communities), and the ideological positioning of teaching (how teaching is framed and valued within institutional hierarchies). In doing so, the paper demonstrates the utility of the social identity approach in theorising the structural and psychological dynamics that influence teaching identities in higher education, offering new insight into the identity struggles and strategies of this group of educators. Context and implications Rationale for this study: This paper advances the Social Identity Approach (SIA) as a valuable theoretical lens for interrogating teaching‐related professional identities, using English for Academic Purposes (EAP) educators in higher education (HE) as a case study. Despite their pivotal role in supporting internationalisation agendas and student success, EAP educators often occupy structurally marginal and ambiguously defined positions within HE, as they are often situated between academic and professional domains. This commentary contributes to a body of literature on EAP professional identity that has, to date, been led predominantly by sociological and critical theoretical frameworks. It extends this discussion by applying a social‐psychological framework—the social identity approach—to examining how status, belonging, and legitimacy are negotiated by EAP educators. Why this paper matters: This paper uses English for Academic Purposes educators as a case study to demonstrate the value of the SIA for understanding educator professional identities. While SIA has been used extensively and effectively in other fields such as organisational and health psychology, its application to educator identity remains limited. This work seeks to highlight the explanatory and predictive power of SIA for examining how educators negotiate, develop, and sustain their professional identities. Implications for researchers: This article explains a well‐established, empirically developed theoretical framework, advocating for its application to examining educator professional identities, and demonstrating its application through the case of EAP educators. In particular, the paper shows how the core elements of SIA can be mapped onto issues of status, belonging, and legitimacy in teaching‐focused roles, and suggests ways these insights could be used to strengthen professional cohesion and standing. While it has not been within the scope of this paper to design specific interventions, the predictive elements of SIA, particularly those relating to social influence and norm formation, offer a basis for developing context‐sensitive, theoretically grounded strategies to foster stronger collective identities. Although EAP has served as the case study here, the framework's utility extends far beyond this group, offering a powerful lens for understanding educator identities across diverse educational contexts.