A Narrative Inquiry Into The Teacher Practical Knowledge Of A High School English Teacher

The thesis is a research on teacher’s practical knowledge of a high school English teacher. The research method adopted is narrative inquiry and the data is collected by class observation, interview after class (including herself, her students, and her colleagues) and the collection of real objects. Through the narration of Ms Wang’s personal life history, her teaching experience and her participation in school research activities, the thesis aims at answering the following questions:With the help of her real-life stories, what specific practical knowledge does this high school English teacher mainly exhibit? What are the factors that influence the formation and development of this high school English teacher’s practical knowledge? How does the teacher develop and update her practical knowledge based on the actual situation of X high school?As for the research of teachers’practical knowledge home and abroad, there is much less empirical study than theoretical study; and most of the researches put more stress on "it should be" than "it is". What’s more, the research objects most studies choose are teachers in general; and also, few researches have been done on teachers of specific courses, such as English teachers. Based on the above, the present research adopt Professor Chen Xiangming’s definition and six components of TPK as theoretical framework to analyze the specific practical knowledge this high school English teacher mainly exhibit, influential factors and its development suggestions.According to Ye Lan’s statement about the "suitability" between research method and research questions,"narrative methods can be considered real-world measures that are appropriate when real life problems are investigated". Therefore, narrative inquiry offers a proper way to study TPK. It can both explore the educational meanings by narrating the stories happening in the teaching life and also understand the implied teachers’practical knowledge by interpreting those meanings in stories. So on the one hand, it will enrich the deep research and exploration on teacher professional development; on the other hand, it will be beneficial to understanding, improving and evaluating teachers’ own teaching career.The research procedure of the thesis is as follows:the first step is conducting fieldwork. The attention is concentrated on the data collection of the English teacher in X high school for three months. The second step is composing field texts. All collected materials are classified, organized and transcribed. The third step is conveying research results. The high school English teacher’s TPK is analyzed, influential factors are discussed and development suggestions are summarized.Through the analysis of the results of narrative inquiry, it reveals that both the internal factors, such as Ms Wang’s school learning experience, her personality, teaching experience, her belief in teaching and the external factors, such as school culture, students’ English level in X School, the condition of X school have close relationships with Ms Wang’s TPK and also produce a significant impact on the development of Ms Wang’s practical knowledge. Eventually it leads to Ms Wang’s own practical knowledge.