A Study On The Changes In Pre-service English Teacher Identity Before And After The Teaching Practicum

With the growing demand for teachers’ professional competence development,teacher identity has become an important topic of academic research.Teacher identity has a great impact on teacher professional development.It is considered as the way teachers define themselves,a combination of self-identity and professional identity,and it is dynamic and shaped by the social context.Teaching practicum has a profound influence on pre-service teacher identity.It provides the conditions for pre-service teachers’ identity transition from imagined identity to the practiced identity.However,limited attention has been paid to this field.The study is to explore the changes in pre-service English teacher identity before and after the teaching practicum and the factors that cause the changes.The participants of the study are 23 postgraduate students of a two-year program of Master of English Education at a provincial 211-project university.The teacher identity theory and sociocultural theory are the theoretical basis of this study.The questionnaires,semi-structured interviews,and reflection reports are adopted as the research instruments of the study.The questionnaires are used to explore the changes in the pre-service English teacher identity and the interviews and reflection report are targeted at exploring the factors that cause the changes in pre-service English teacher identity in the teaching practicum.The findings of the study as follows.(1)There is a significant difference in pre-service English teacher identity before and after the teaching practicum.Before the teaching practicum,pre-service English teacher identity is at a high level.After the teaching practicum,the overall level of pre-service English teacher identity decreased.There are significant differences in two dimensions:major identity and situated identity and there are significant differences in two components:language proficiency and perceived organization support.(2)The factors that cause changes in pre-service English teacher identity include two aspects:individual factors of pre-service English teachers and practice school-related factors.Individual factors of pre-service English teachers include pre-service English teachers’ motivation,emotion,English proficiency,and self-reflection.Practice school-related factors include school culture,mentors and students.There are many sub-factors that caused the changes in pre-service English teachers’ identity,including the attitude of school leaders,office atmosphere,the feedback and performance of students,relationship with students,guidance and feedback from the mentors,and relationship with mentors.These factors have resulted in a decline in the level of pre-service English teacher identity.Based on the research results,this study puts forward some implications for constructing pre-service English teachers’ positive identity from the perspectives of pre-service English teachers,teacher education program,and practice schools.