A Research On The Current Situation Of English Special-post Teachers’ Professional Development In Junior High Schools In Guangxi

In 2006, to strengthen the construction of teacher team and further balance the development of compulsory education, Ministry of Education(MOE), Ministry of Finance(MOF), Ministry of Personnel(MOP) and State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform(SCOPSR) jointly issued the Special Teaching Post Plan for Rural Schools under which graduates of universities are recruited to work for three years in rural schools of western China, mainly remote minority regions and educationally disadvantaged counties. Teachers’professional development directly influence their teaching level and thus affect education quality. Therefore, promoting teachers’professional development is the key to improve education quality. Special-post teachers, on one hand, possess the same characteristics of professional development as other teacher community. On the other hand, they have their own particularities due to some influential factors, such as different teaching environment, transitional post and temporary identity, etc.Enlightened by the researches on English teachers’professional development(ETPD) and special-post teachers’professional development(TPD), this paper adopts questionnaire and interview to investigate the current situation and influential factors of English special-post TPD in junior high schools in Guangxi, attempting to put forward some feasible suggestions for promoting English special-post teachers’professional development.52 English special-post teachers recruited from different junior high schools in Guangxi take part in the present survey. On the basis of Ye Lan et al.’s(2001) explanation of TPD, the internal and external factors influencing TPD, the questionnaire takes Middle School Teachers’Professional Standards(for trial) promulgated by MOE as reference, and combines the actual situation of English special-post teachers in junior high schools in Guangxi. It involves five dimensions:teachers’professional philosophy, teachers’ professional knowledge, teachers’professional competence, the approaches to teachers’ professional development, and influential factors. This thesis tries to answer the following two questions:(1) What is the current situation of English special-post teachers’ professional development in junior high schools in Guangxi? (2) What are the factors affecting English special-post teachers’professional development in junior high schools in Guangxi?After analysis and discussion, the results of this research are shown as follows:(1) On the whole, the English special-post TPD is at a medium level. To be more specific, the English special-post teachers’professional philosophy ranks the first. The professional competence comes next, while the professional knowledge is the lowest. (2) Five factors have great influence on English special-post TPD. They are consciousness of self-development, social environment, school platform, cooperation between teachers and school policies. The social environment has the greatest influence on English special-post TPD, and the consciousness of self-development is slightly weaker, followed by school platform and the school policies. And the collaboration between teachers is the weakest.Based on the above research results, this paper puts forward some suggestions for English special-post TPD in junior high schools as follows:(1) English special-post teachers should strengthen the consciousness of self-professional development and strive to improve their professional level. (2) The society should understand and identify with English special-post teachers’work. (3) Relevant departments should pump fund into the education of backward areas, and provide a good school platform to create a learning environment for English special-post teachers. (4) Teachers should strengthen cooperation, and build a learning community.(5) In terms of schools policies, schools should equally treat English special-post teachers and other formal teachers.