This study utilises the Identity Triangle Model (Dugas in Teach Dev 25(3):243–262, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1080/13664530.2021.1874500) to examine the experiences of one particular novice non-native Mandarin Chinese teacher at a university in New Zealand. A case study design was employed to track the identity negotiations of this European non-native Chinese speaker during 12 weeks of her first semester of teaching. Analysis of the data revealed nine subcategories within the psychological, behavioural, and relational domains according to the Identity Triangle Model. The findings suggest that this new non-native speaker teacher viewed her as an accidental teacher, exploring a teaching career without a strong instrumentalist aspiration or a clear career path in language teaching. Instead, she were more motivated by a desire for personal growth and the opportunity to reinvent themselves in a new cultural context. The results of this study offer theoretical implications for the adoption of a unified framework in future research on the identity of first-time language teachers, and practical implications for developing sustainable strategies aimed at recruiting and retaining non-native speaker teachers in foreign language education.

本研究利用身份三角模型（Dugas in Teach Dev 25(3):243–262, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1080/13664530.2021.1874500）来研究一位非母语普通话的特定新手的经历新西兰一所大学的教师。我们采用案例研究设计来跟踪这位欧洲非汉语母语者在她第一学期教学的 12 周内的身份谈判。根据身份三角模型，对数据的分析揭示了心理、行为和关系领域内的九个子类别。调查结果表明，这位新的非母语教师将她视为一名偶然的教师，在没有强烈的工具主义愿望或在语言教学方面没有明确的职业道路的情况下探索教学职业。相反，她更渴望个人成长和在新的文化背景下重塑自己的机会。这项研究的结果为未来研究中采用统一的框架来研究首次外语教师的身份提供了理论启示，也为制定旨在招聘和留住外语教育非母语教师的可持续战略提供了实际启示。