A Comparative Study Of Middle School English Teachers’ Professional Identity Between Urban And Rural Areas

In the field of modern English teaching, there has been an increasing importance attached to teachers’professional development and the degree of English teachers’professional identity. Teachers’professional identity means a teacher’s perception and understanding on this occupation, which plays a significant role in English teachers’development. Previous research discussed a lot the degree of English teachers’professional identity; nevertheless, in China, there is a big gap between urban and rural areas in politics, economic and culture. So it is meaningful to make a comparison of middle school English teachers’ professional identity between urban and rural areas under such background, which not only can enrich the comparison results of English teachers’ professional identity between urban and rural areas, but also can provide the support for the development of English teachers in theory and practice and offer some advice to middle school administrators for reference.This study involves an investigation of English teachers from urban-rural middle schools. The data were collected through questionnaires adapted from previous studies. The questionnaire includes two parts:part 1 is a professional identity scale which contains 4 dimensions; part 2 is to investigate some influence factors of English teachers’professional identity. By using SPSS 16.0, stepwise one-way ANOVA is served to reveal the difference of English teachers’ professional identity between urban and rural areas.The results of this study are presented as followed:1. the degree of middle school English teachers’professional identity is at the high level; 2. there are significant differences in English teachers professional identity between urban and rural areas, which performances in professional values, role values and professional behavior inclination dimensions; 3. The differences of English teachers’professional identity are still reflected in teachers’gender, which shows in teachers’role values and professional behavior inclination. The development of English teacher’professional identity is not an isolated process. According to the analysis results, we should gradually bridge the gap of English teachers’ professional identity between urban and rural areas in three aspects of government, school and teachers themselves.