Recent scholarship within the field of applied linguistics highlights the fact that identities are not static but are fluid, multiple, changeable across time and space, and always constructed in relationship to interactions with others. In other words, identities are constantly in motion. This paper presents a framework for examining the notion of "identities in motion" as a core analytic construct in understanding patterns of educational success and failure. This framework is contrasted with the implicit frameworks that have operated in many countries that consign notions of identity negotiation to the margins and focus on "educational effectiveness" as a process of instructional and organisational efficiency in isolation from the historical and current social context.