Research On The Indentity Of Eiglish Language Teachers In Shadow Education From Perspective Of Positioning Theory

The thriving shadow education leads to a surge in quantity of teachers working in it,but there is a paucity of research on teachers in private tutoring.This study,by tracking four English tutors in Shanghai for a year,aims to present and analyze the composition,changes and influence factors of teacher identity under the basis of positioning theory and discourse analysis.Hopefully this study can make humble efforts to the study of the teachers’ professional development in shadow education.This research is divided into six parts.Chapter one,Introduction,briefly describes the research background and the research significance.The following chapter,Literature Review,defines the concepts of shadow education,teachers in shadow education and teacher identity,and summarizes and reflects on the relevant studies on English tutors and English teachers’ identity at home and abroad.On this basis,combined with the research purpose,specific research questions have formed,which will be investigated through the theoretical framework composed of identity theory and positioning theory.Chapter three,Research Design,not only introduces the basic information of the interviewed teachers,but also explains the research design from three aspects:research methods,data collection and data analysis.Chapter four,Findings,presents the identity of four English teachers in case study.In terms of module and evaluation from Fairclough’s discourse analysis,as well as the positioning theory including of self-positioning,others-positioning,first and second order positioning,each teacher’s understanding and identification of his or her own identity is analyzed,and the reasons behind are also analyzed.This study finds that a different identity which is reluctantly accepted by interviewees.The writer named it the 3/2 positioning order.Chapter Five,Discussions,comprehensively analyzes the identity of the four teachers and their influencing factors,and summarizes the characteristics of their identity in tutoring institutions.Firstly,the positioning of their identity is diversified.This study mainly finds the positioning of English teachers,service providers and employees.Secondly,it is dynamic,that is,it is constantly changing and constructing under the influence of individuals and the outside world.Thirdly,there is interactivity,that is,different positioning will influence each other.It also finds that the identity of English teachers in tutoring institutions is mainly influenced by personal and social factors.Chapter Six,Conclusion,summarizes the main findings of this study and reflects on the limitations of the study.