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Navigating identity and agency within institutional norms: Chinese language teachers in Hong Kong's international schools through a bourdieusian lens
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DOI：10.1080/02188791.2026.2633221.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
Amid the global expansion of international education, Hong Kong presents a layered context shaped by postcolonial legacies, multilingual policies, and diverse educational logics. This study examines how Chinese language teachers in Hong Kong's international schools negotiate professional identity and agency across stratified institutional settings. Using Bourdieu's Outline of a Theory of Practice, it analyses how habitus, field, and symbolic capital interact to shape teachers' experiences in five culturally varied schools. Based on interviews with 24 teachers, the analysis identifies six dimensions of institutional norms: doxa rigidity, habitus alignment, symbolic violence, intra-group cohesion, leadership inclusion, and enabling conditions for agency. Findings show that agency emerges unconsciously through alignment or friction with institutional recognition. In Western-oriented schools, symbolic hierarchies constrained agency by framing Chinese pedagogical knowledge as less legitimate. In more inclusive environments, consistent values and cultural recognition enabled fuller participation through practices resonant with dispositions. The study extends Bourdieu's framework in international education, showing how institutional norms shape teacher identity and conditions that foster culturally grounded agency.
Keywords:
Teacher identity
teacher agency
international school
Bourdieu
Hong Kong
habitus
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