Research on identity in teacher education and professionalism has been a significant issue for language teacher educators in terms of their trajectories and career development. Examining identity from contextual perspectives can assist teachers in establishing a professional self in order to facilitate them to better understand and negotiate their roles as both language teachers and language teacher educators. Therefore, it is worth exploring how language teacher educators position themselves through their career trajectories when facing new challenges and revealing various issues regarding disruptions to their identity development. This paper adopts an ecological perspective to investigate the interrelatedness of various environmental systems, ranging from the proximal environment (such as family) to broader societal structures (such as culture). This paper employs a duoethnographic approach to explore the authors' unique struggles and conflicts with their evolving identities as they construct and negotiate professional development within the context of higher education in China, drawing on over 15 years of working experience following the completion of their degrees in the UK. Through this self-reflective inquiry, the authors aim to comprehend the impact of their identity (re)construction and (re)negotiation shaped by their disparate backgrounds and life experiences. This paper concludes with further insights for language teacher educators on navigating identity reconstruction.