A Study Of Influence Of Volunteer Teaching Practicum On Teachers’ Identity Construction Of English Normal University Students

As talent resources of foreign language teachers in China,English normal university students are always the formidable and innovative force in school education.Teaching practicum has long been the critical period for normal students to construct the identity in such aspects as cognition,beliefs,attitudes and behavior.Great number of researches have been completed in this field,and it is generally believed that teaching practicum not only helps normal university students to determine their professional orientation,but also promotes their development of future career.This thesis aims to understand the development of normal university students’ identity cognition and identity construction based on socio-cultural theory proposed by Vygotsky(1986).A narrative inquiry is conducted on three English normal university students in Shanxi province who volunteered to teach village middle-school students in Hebei province from September,2020 to January,2021.The research focuses on three questions:(1)What kind of cognitions do normal students have about teachers’ professional identity before and after teaching practicum? What kind of changes might take place in terms of professional orientation,teaching orientation,self-efficacy and teaching commitment?(2)Based on cognition of teachers’ professional identity,how do volunteer students construct their professional identity as student teachers in the process of practicum?(3)What are the factors influencing the construction of professional identity of them during their practicum?Narrative research method is employed to analyze the stories of the three normal university students before and after teaching practicum by means of interviews,classroom observation,and reflective journal.The findings are as follows:(1)Differences exist in the cognition of teachers’ professional identity among English normal university students before and after volunteer teaching in professional orientation,teaching orientation,self-efficacy and teaching commitment.Before volunteer teaching,the volunteer teachers’ cognition of teachers’ professional identity is mainly based on personal experience such as family members and previous teachers,etc.During the practicum,teaching context has a great effect on their cognition such as instructors,students,etc.Cognition crisis and challenge also accompany them throughout the practicum period,which is mainly reflected in the weak sense of self-efficacy in student management and the lack of knowledge and applications of teaching methods.(2)The process of identity construction is a dynamic process,which is the result of constant negotiation between teachers and society,environment and others.The professional identity of the three students is constantly recognized,confirmed,debugged constructed and formed in the process of volunteer teaching.It can be concluded that the process of professional identity construction of English volunteer teachers is “pre-identity concept(or cognition)-negotiation-identification-identity construction”.(3)The main factors influencing the construction of teachers’ professional identity are analyzed from individual and situational perspectives: individual factors include individual learning experience,educational practice,teaching knowledge and reflection,and situational factors involve the influence of their instructor,their students,and other non-teaching tasks.Based on the above findings,suggestions are put forward from the perspectives of normal universities,schools and normal university students,aiming to strengthen the cognition of teacher professional identity of English normal university students,and promote the construction and development of professional identity of them.