Using Metaphor To Explore The Professional Identity Development Of College EFL Teachers In Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture

Teacher professional identity (TPI) is an important concept of teacher professional development and recently has become a hot issue in the research field of teacher development and education. From a sociocultural perspective, TPI reflects how teachers see themselves and how they enact their professional identities in the interaction to the students within different settings. Its development is closely bound up with the specific teaching context and teachers’social cognition activities within the context. These features suggest that metaphor as a cognitive vehicle can be adopted to explore this process. In recent years, metaphor has pervaded in a large body of research abroad which investigate teacher’s beliefs and teaching behaviors. However, in China, such research is at the infant stage. Although a few studies on EFL teachers’TPIs have emerged out, they seldom concern the TPI development of college EFL teachers in ethnic minority regions.From the sociocultural perspective, through metaphor, the present study pictures a qualitative case study on the TPI development of three EFL teachers in a college of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture (XTMAP), as well as the influential factors of their TPIs development are discussed. Three research questions are:(1) what typical stages of professional development do these teachers experience?(2) How do their TPIs change during these stages?(3) What are the factors that impact on their TPIs’development? To answer these questions, three concrete instruments:pre-interview inventory, semi-structured interview and teachers’weblog are used to collect data and construct a "triangulation". In the interview, three teachers are asked to describe how they view their TPIs at their professional development stages metaphorically. It applies narrative to present their stories. Then, according to the data analysis, the development of their TPIs and the influential factors are discussed.The findings declare:(1) three teachers have experienced deferent stages of professional development. However, the initial stage of them can be featured by their active adaptation to the career and autonomous learning to be a college EFL teacher;(2) they have various understandings of their TPIs during the professional development. In general speaking, their TPIs gradually turn to "guides" or "nurturers", paying more attention on students’all-round development. These changes reflect their students-centered teaching beliefs.(3) There are personal, professional and contextual factors which can affect the TPI development of these teachers.By the investigation, we can find out that these teachers have the obvious feature of autonomous learning. The development of their TPIs shows that they gradually set up the teaching belief of guiding and cultivating the students’all-round development. It is an implication requesting us to advance teachers’development in this region. Moreover, metaphor is an effective approach to research teachers’beliefs, which is also a tool for teachers to reflect their TPIs. Then, it also imply that the minority regional differences have hardly any impact on these teachers’ TPI development, partly for the reason that the Chinese government draws much attention to cultivating EFL teachers in ethnic minority areas. It accelerates the reform of local educational situation. Although the professional development of EFL teachers in the region lags behind relatively, it presents a pleasure rise.