{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,1]],"date-time":"2026-09-01T05:16:57Z","timestamp":1788239817337,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,1]],"date-time":"2026-09-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788220800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Internationalization requires returned academics to reconsider pedagogical commitments developed across different educational contexts. This study explored how two returned university art theory teachers in southern China negotiated professional identities while adapting their teaching to changing classroom conditions.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>A duoethnographic design brought one teacher\u2019s contemporaneous reflections into dialogue with the other\u2019s retrospective accounts of comparable early-career experiences. Dialogues, reflective accounts, observation notes, and teaching materials were examined through reflexive thematic analysis.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The analysis identified learner, explorer, and pedagogical enactor as overlapping identity positions that the teachers entered and revisited through reflection and practice. Classroom responses unsettled existing assumptions and prompted further inquiry into theoretical explanation, participation, and student agency. Through dialogue, the teachers developed more contextually responsive approaches that combined conceptual scaffolding with opportunities for discussion and culturally situated interpretation.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The findings present professional identity negotiation as a recursive and situated process in which dialogic reflection connected teacher learning with pedagogical decision making. Farrell\u2019s reflective domains helped interpret how the teachers\u2019 concerns connected educational purposes, pedagogical commitments, classroom practices, and wider sociocultural conditions. The study provides a context-specific account of how two returned art theory teachers reconsidered overseas pedagogical commitments in Chinese higher education.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1922669","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,1]],"date-time":"2026-09-01T04:26:59Z","timestamp":1788236819000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["A Duoethnographic study of professional identity negotiation by two returned art theory teachers in Chinese higher education"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Sijie","family":"Fan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Great Bay Area Shipping Research Institute, Guangzhou Maritime University","place":["Guangzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jianwei","family":"Wei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College English Teaching Department, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies South China Business College","place":["Guangzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tingting","family":"Wen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Rao Zongyi Culture Research Institute, Shenzhen University","place":["Shenzhen, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"160940691769674","DOI":"10.1177\/1609406917696741","article-title":"Homeland integration: an academic returnee\u2019s experiences in Chinese universities","volume":"16","author":"Ai","year":"2017","journal-title":"Int J Qual Methods"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"524","DOI":"10.1108\/ET-09-2023-0363","article-title":"Discovering and developing the vocational teacher identity","volume":"66","author":"Antera","year":"2024","journal-title":"Education Training"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"574","DOI":"10.1080\/19415257.2025.2554742","article-title":"Practising middle leadership in improving teacher professional development: evidence from a centralised education setting","volume":"52","author":"Bas","year":"2026","journal-title":"Prof. Dev. 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