A Comparison Of Teachers’ Professional Identity Between Novice And Expert English Teachers In Junior High School

Over the years,the focus of second language education research has been primarily on language learners,while teacher research has been a subordinate.From the 1980 s,scholars gradually realized the important role of teachers in second language teaching and started the discussion of relevant theories.In the 21 st century,the pace of education reform in China has been accelerating.Teachers’ professional identity(TPI)has also been drawn much attention.In recent years,with the emphasis on education in our country,a series of new policies about education were published.At the same time,the status of junior high school English in basic education has also risen.Therefore,the study on the occupational identification of middle school English teachers has also become a hot topic.So far,most scholars mainly study the professional identity of rural primary school English teachers,junior high school English teachers,senior high school English teachers and free students,and most of them use quantitative research,which mainly based on questionnaires.This study attempts to use the combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to find out thesimilarities and differences of novice and expert English teachers as well as the major influential elements in junior high school.The author mainly compares expert and novice teachers in six dimensions,namely the understanding of profession,professional emotion,occupational expectation,the sense of occupational belonging,occupational values and professional awareness,also answers the following three questions:(1)What is the current situation of teachers’ professional identity between novice and expert teachers in middle school?(2)Is there any difference between novice and expert teachers’ professional identity? If yes,what are they?(3)What are the major factors affecting the occupational identity of novice and expert English teachers in middle school?In this thesis,quantitative research mainly adopted questionnaire,the questionnaire is based on Wei Shuhua’s(2008)doctoral dissertation questionnaire and some appropriate adjustments are made.The qualitative research mainly utilizes narrative inquiry.One novice teacher and one expert teacher will be interviewed respectively.The subjects mainly came from Bayannur region and its surrounding areas,370in-service English teachers are from different middle schools,including178 novice teachers,who have less than six years of teaching experience,and get the primary titles or without title.Also 192 expert teachers who have over 10 years of teaching experience as well as get the senior or special titles.The findings of this paper are as follows: First of all,the overall level of middle school novice and expert English teachers’ professional identity are relatively high,novice teachers’ professional identity is slightly higher than expert teachers’ as well.Among all six dimensions of teachers’ professional identity,the understanding of profession gets the highest score,however,teachers’ professional values falls in the lowest,which agrees with the results of qualitative analysis of expert teacher.The other four dimensions,namely occupational emotion,professional expectation,the sense of occupational belonging and occupational awareness are in the moderate level,which are higher than the critical value 3.Secondly,although junior high school novice and expert English teachers’ professional identity are relatively high,they are different in those six dimensions.From the perspectives of professional expectation and the sense of professional belonging,the overall level of novice teachers’ professional identity is higher than the expert teachers’ professional identity.In the qualitative analysis,the novice teacher’s professional identity is obviously higher than the expert teacher’s.All novice and expert teachers obtain the lowest score in professional values.Expert teachers get the highest score in occupational awareness.However,as for novice teachers,the level of the understanding of profession is in the highest level.Thirdly,the influential factors can be divided into three categories: individual characteristic factors,individual biographicalfactors,and teaching environmental factors.As for individual characteristics factors,female and male teachers have little differences in teachers’ professional identity.However,teachers in different ages have obvious influence towards teachers’ professional identity,especially in the dimensions of the sense of professional belonging and occupational values.Also teachers’ degrees have deep influence on teachers’ professional identity,the higher the degree,the lower the teachers’ professional identity.But teachers who obtain different ranks have little influence on their professional identity.In terms of individual biographical factors,critical events,significant others and teaching experiences are the vital elements in the formation of teachers’ professional identity.As for teaching environment factors,the relationship among colleagues and the attitudes towards school culture,as well as the students are essential influential elements.