Intersectional conflicts and strategic agency: Female English teachers in post-conflict Libya

Abstract

This study examines how female English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in post-conflict Libya construct and negotiate their professional identities amid intersecting pedagogical, institutional, and sociocultural challenges. Using a theoretical framework that integrates Gendered Professional Identity Theory, Social Identity Theory, and Intersectionality, the research employs Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of in-depth interviews with twelve female Libyan EFL teachers. The findings reveal the profound emotional and ideological labor demanded of these educators, leading to four novel conceptual insights: 'cultural boundary' work, where student resistance acts as socio-political identity assertion; 'intersectional emotional labor', highlighting the compounded emotional demands shaped by gender, surveillance, and conflict fragility; 'proclivitic conformity', reflecting strategic compliance for self-preservation; and 'gendered professional invisibility', where teachers minimize public visibility to conform to societal norms. These findings challenge dominant Western-centric views of teacher identity and emotional labor, emphasizing the need for culturally responsive educational policies and teacher development programs in fragile, conflict-affected contexts. This study contributes to scholarship on teacher identity, language education, and educational development in Libya.