A Empirical Research On The "Identity Construction" Of Excellent English Teachers In Middle School

Research on Identity is to make clear the question-“Who am I?” The focus on identitystudy is about the personality of individual as well as the similarities of the social groups thatthe individual belongs to. The core value of identity construction lies in how people canperfect his/her personality and improve his/her career constantly. Individual’s social identity isalways changing; however, we should construct and develop the various identities from itsestablishment to the complement by ourselves. Thus our life and career can be more and moreglorious. If we are used to the expectation and rules given by others, ignoring the innerconstruction of self-identity, our life will be very passive and sluggish. The basic educationcurriculum reform put forward higher demands on both teachers’ professional developmentand their ethics. Research on teachers’ identity construction is not only the significant issue inthe current curriculum reform but the vital way for teachers’ professional development andethics construction. With the deepening reform of education, teachers’ identity constructionproblem has been becoming more and more important. How can we shift focus from outsideexpectations of teachers to the teachers’ understanding of their own professional identity value?And how can we help them construct their own professional identity and social statues fromtheir inner aspects other than the external world? All these two questions are worthy ofconsideration.There are five parts in this dissertation: part I is the Preface. This part mainly putsforward the necessity of this dissertation from the perspective of middle school Englishcurriculum reform background, the need to improve teachers themselves and the researcher’sinterest and concerns. Apart from this, this part introduces the main content, research methods,the aims and the significance of this paper. Part II is the related literature review, including theelaboration of the connotation of "identity" and the current about identity both at home andabroad. Part III is the study on teachers’ identity. It outlines the identity construction ofexcellent English high school teachers from the perspective of teacher himself, his studentsand the social environment by adopting the case study method. Besides, the main methodsinclude the literature, interviews, questionnaires and classroom observations. Part IV is thecore part of the whole paper. Based on the existing research about teachers’ identity construction both at home and abroad, this paper tries to find the deficiency and come up withthe specific connotations of middle school teachers’ identity construction on the basis ofunderstanding the "Compulsory education English course standard2011". The five aspectsare middle school excellent English teachers’ concept on language knowledge, language skills,emotional attitude, learning strategies and cultural awareness. The third section of the fifthpart elaborates outstanding high school English teachers’ growth process from the vertical andhorizontal system by interviewing seven middle school English teachers, questionnairestudents and analyzing the questionnaire. In addition, Ms. Wu is chosen as the case study inthis part to further explore the growth of excellent English teachers. The last part is theconclusion part. It reviews the whole research and tries to find the deficient part and the futuresolution to it.Teaching Ethics is the soul of education. Teachers’ personal ethics will influence studentsdeeply and it plays a very important role in shaping students’ personalities and growth. Basedon social identity theory, this dissertation investigates the connotation of constructingexcellent middle school English teachers’ identity on the basis of a large number of empiricalstudies on real cases. It provides valuable reference for ordinary middle school Englishteachers who want to become excellent ones.