Ethnic Duty and Other Obligations? Negotiation of Identities of Ingrian Finnish Language Teachers in Russia

This paper is based on an ethnographic research on Finnish language teachers ’ professional identity conducted in 1996–1998 in two schools in North-West Russia, and later completed in a follow-up study in 2005-2006. The focus of the paper is on how the teachers of Finnish in Russia conceptualise Finnish language and its meaning into their identity and what kind of theoretical discussion these views may invite to the connection between language and identity. The notions of language and identity are discussed in the framework of the dialogical philosophy of language, specifically the potential contribution of dialogism to the contemporary discussion on language and identity. Key word