Status Quo of the Professional Identity of Teachers: A Quantitative Study of College EFL Teachers in China
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1312.34Keywords:
gender, status quo, the professional identity of teachersAbstract
The professional identity of teachers has been a recurring subject of research in recent years with most of the studies being theoretical or qualitative. However, there is still a lack in the number of quantitative studies done on the professional identity of teachers using a measured scale or inventory. Aiming to find out the status quo of the professional identity of college EFL teachers in the context of college English teaching reform, this study attempts to establish and validate a measure of the professional identity of teachers’ questionnaire. With good validity and reliability, the questionnaire consists of five constructs: occupational behavior tendency, value identity, English teaching reform, self-efficacy and job satisfaction. The findings of this study indicate that college EFL teachers have a relatively high level of professional identity with the constituting constructs of the professional identity of college teachers having scored from high to low as follows: English teaching reform, professional behavior tendency, job satisfaction, self-efficacy and value identity. Moreover, there is no significant difference in the professional identity level of college EFL teachers concerning gender. Finally, the implications of exploring the professional identity of teachers are also discussed.
References
Avalos, B., & Aylwin, P. (2007). How young teachers experience their professional work in Chile. Teaching and teacher education, 23(4), 515-528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.11.003
Avraamidou, L. (2014). Studying science teacher identity: Current insights and future research directions. Studies in Science Education, 50, 145–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057267.2014.937171
Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, C. L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: an overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge journal of education, 39(2), 175-189. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057640902902252
Beijaard, D., Meijer, P. C., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on the professional identity of teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2), 107-128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2003.07.001
Beijaard, D., Verloop, N., & Vermunt, J. D. (2000). Teachers’ perceptions of professional identity: An exploratory study from a personal knowledge perspective. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16, 749–764. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(00)00023-8
Cai Jigang, (2004). Two Major Breakthroughs in the Development of College English Teaching. Foreign Languages in China, (01), 17-20.
Cai Jigang. (2015). A Summary of the Four Positioning Debates in the History of College English Teaching inMy Country and Their Enlightenment. Chinese University Teaching, (10), 36-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(00)00023-8
Canrinus, E. T., Helms-Lorenz, M., Beijaard, D., Buitink, J., & Hofman, A. (2012). Self- efficacy, job satisfaction, motivation and commitment: Exploring the relationships between indicators of the professional identity of teachers. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 27, 115–132.
Day, C., & Gu, Q. (2013). Resilient teachers, resilient schools: Building and sustaining quality in testing times. Routledge.
Day, C., Elliot, B., & Kington, A. (2005). Reform, standards and teacher identity: Challenges of sustaining commitment. Teaching and teacher Education, 21(5), 563-577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.03.001
Day, C., Kington, A., Stobart, G., & Sammons, P. (2006). The personal and professional selves of teachers: Stable and unstable identities. British educational research journal, 32(4), 601-616. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411920600775316
Dionne, G., Dale, P. S., Boivin, M., & Plomin, R. (2003). Genetic evidence for bidirectional effects of early lexical and grammatical development. Child development, 74(2), 394-412. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.7402005
Edwards, F. C. E., & Edwards, R. J. (2017). A story of culture and teaching: the complexity of teacher identity formation. The Curriculum Journal, 28(2), 190-211. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2016.1232200
Fromkin V. & Rodman R. (1983). An introduction to language (3rd ed.). Holt Rinehart and Winston, New York.
Geert Kelchtermans. (2009). Who I am in how I teach is the message: self-understanding, vulnerability and reflection, Teachers and Teaching, 15, 2, 257-272, https://doi.org/10.1080/13540600902875332
Hamman, Doug, Kevin Gosselin, Jacqueline Romano, and Rommel Bunuan, (2010). Using possible-selves theory to understand the identity development of new teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 2010.26(7), 1349-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2010.03.005
Han, I. (2017). Conceptualisation of English the professional identity of teachers and comprehension of its dynamics. Teachers and Teaching, 23(5), 549-569. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2016.1206525
Hanna, F., Oostdam, R., Severiens, S. E., & Zijlstra, B. J. (2019). Domains of teacher identity: A review of quantitative measurement instruments. Educational Research Review, 27, 15-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2019.01.003
Hao Caihong, (2014). A Qualitative Study on College English The professional identity of teachers: Crises and Strategies. Chongqing, China: Chongqing University Press, 11(2), 258-260. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-011-0069-2
Holland, D., & Lachicotte, W. (2007). Vygotsky, Mead, and the new sociocultural studies of identity. The cambridge companion to Vygotsky, 101-135. https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521831040.005
Huang, Y. T., & Guo, M. (2019). Facing disadvantages: The changing professional identities of college English teachers in a managerial context. System, 82, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2019.02.014
Jian Tao, Xuesong Gao, (2017). Teacher agency and identity commitment in curricular reform. Teaching and Teacher Education, 63, (346-355). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.01.010.
Izadinia, M. (2013). A review of research on student the professional identity of teachers. British Educational Research Journal, 39, 694–713. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411926.2012.679614
Izadinia, M. (2014). Teacher educators’ identity: A review of literature. European Journal of Teacher Education, 37, 426–441. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2014.947025
Knowles, G. J. (1992). Models for understanding pre-service and beginning teachers’ biographies: Illustrations from case studies. Studying teachers’ lives, pp. 99-152. New York: Teachers College Press.
Korthagen, F. A. (2004). In search of the essence of a good teacher: Towards a more holistic approach in teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20, 77–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2003.10.002
Kremer, L., & Hofman, J. E. (1985). The professional identity of teachers and burn-out. Research in Education. Research in education, 34(1), 89–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/003452378503400106
Kumaravadivelu, B. (2012). Language teacher education for a global society: A modular model for knowing, analyzing, recognizing, doing, and seeing, London: Routledge. DOI:10.14746/ssllt.2012.2.3.11
Lasky, S. (2005). A sociocultural approach to understanding teacher identity, agency and professional vulnerability in a context of secondary school reform. Teaching and teacher education, 21(8), 899-916. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.06.003
Li Xiaoying, & Yan Hanbing, (2018). Modeling and Scaling of the professional identity of teachers. Journal of Teacher Education Research, 30(2), 72-81.
Martel J, Wang A. (2015) Language teacher identity. In: Bigelow M, Ennser-Kananen J. (eds). The Routledge Handbook of Educational Linguistics. New York: Routledge, 289–300.
McCulloch, G., Helsby G. & Knight, P. (2000). The politics of professionalism-Teachers and the curriculum. London: Continuum.
Pennington, M. C. (2014). Teacher identity in TESOL a Frames Perspective. In Y. L. Cheung, S. B. Said, & K. Park (Eds.), Advances and current trends in language teacher identity research (pp. 67-97). Routledge.
Richards, J. C. (2008). Second language teacher education today. RELC Journal, 39, 158-177. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688208092182
Rodgers, C. R., & Scott, K. H. (2008). The development of the personal self and professional identity in learning to teach. In M. Cochran-Smith, S. Feiman-Nemser, D. J. McIntyre & Association of Teacher Educators (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education: enduring questions in changing contexts (3rd ed., pp. 732-755). New York: Routledge.
Rots, I., Aelterman, A., Devos, G., & Vlerick, P. (2010). Teacher education and the choice to enter the teaching profession: A prospective study. Teaching and teacher education, 26(8), 1619-1629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2010.06.013
Tang Jin, (2013). Development of professional identity scale for college English teachers. Foreign Language World, (4), 63-72.
Tašner, V., Žveglič, M., & Čeplak, M. M. (2017). Gender in the teaching profession: university students’ views of teaching as a career. Center for Educational Policy Studies Journal, 7(2), 47-69. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26529/cepsj.169.
Tsui, A. B., & Law, D. Y. (2007). Learning as boundary-crossing in school–university partnership. Teaching and teacher education, 23(8), 1289-1301. University Teaching (10), 36-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2006.06.003
Van den Berg, R. (2002). Teachers’ meanings regarding educational practice. Review of educational research, 72(4), 577-625. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543072004577
Van Lankveld, T., Schoonenboom, J., Volman, M., Croiset, G., & Beishuizen, J. (2017). Developing a teacher identity in the university context: A systematic review of the literature. Higher Education Research and Development, 36, 325–342. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2016.1208154
Walkington, J. (2005). Becoming a teacher: Encouraging development of teacher identity through reflective practice. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 33, 53–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866052000341124
Wei Shuhua, Song Guangwen, Zhang Dajun. (2013). Study on primary, middle and high school the professional identity of teachers: structure and scale. Teacher Education Research, 25(1), 55-60.
Wu Gangping, Li Maosen. (2015). Research on teacher identity (2nd ed.).Beijing Normal University Publishing Group.
Xu, Y. (2014). Becoming researchers: A narrative study of Chinese university EFL teachers’ research practice and their professional identity construction. Language Teaching Research, 18(2), 242-259. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168813505943
Xu, Y., & Liu, Y. (2009). Teacher assessment knowledge and practice: A narrative inquiry of a Chinese college EFL teacher’s experience. Tesol Quarterly, 43(3), 492-513. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1545-7249.2009.tb00246.x
Xun Yang, Sun Li, Peng Fang. (2014). Formulation and Validation of a Teacher Identity Inventory for EFL Teachers. Shandong Foreign Language Teaching Journal, (5), 61-67.
Young, I. P., Place, A. W., Rinehart, J. S., Jury, J. C., & Baits, D. F. (1997). Teacher recruitment: A test of the similarity-attraction hypothesis for race and sex. Educational Administration Quarterly, 33(1), 86-106. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X97033001005
Yuan, R., & Lee, I. (2015). The cognitive, social and emotional processes of teacher identity construction in a pre-service teacher education programme. Research Papers in Education, 30(4), 469-491. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2014.932830
Zembylas, M. (2003). Emotions and teacher identity: A poststructural perspective. Teachers and teaching, 9(3), 213-238. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540600309378
Zhao, H., & Zhang, X. (2017). The influence of field teaching practice on pre-service the professional identity of teachers: A mixed methods study. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 1264. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01264
