<p>This study investigates how English teachers in North Macedonia construct their professional identities in relation to the state-mandated lesson planning policy, one of the most centralized and bureaucratic regulations in the region. Data were collected from 12 secondary school English teachers through semi-structured interviews and a self-portrait task. The analysis was guided by critical discourse analysis, drawing on multimodal elicitation to examine how identity functions as a site of policy appropriation. Findings reveal four recurring but fluid identity positionings—curriculum tailor, culture connector, holistic mentor, and civil servant. These stances illustrate how teachers simultaneously complied with bureaucratic demands and redefined lesson planning as a platform for adaptation, cultural dialogue, and holistic education. Even apparent compliance was a form of appropriation, reframing planning as symbolic rather than pedagogical. A scalar perspective further illuminates how teachers legitimized practices by shifting between micro-level student needs, meso-level cultural communities, macro-level state authority, and supra-level ideals of citizenship and moral development. The study demonstrates that teacher identity is both the mechanism and arena of language policy enactment, confirming that policies live in the discourses and subjectivities of educators rather than solely in official documents. By foregrounding the Macedonian case, the research contributes to broader debates on appropriation, discursive approaches, and scales in language policy, underscoring teachers’ agency as indispensable to meaningful reform.</p>