Strength Of Beliefs:Narrative Inquiry Into Teacher’s Beliefs Of A Rural Junior High School English Teacher

The best predictor of the decisions individuals make throughout life is their beliefs.Their beliefs influence teachers’ perceptions and judgments,impacting how they act in the classroom.Borg(2003)defined the teacher’s beliefs as beliefs about teaching,learning,students,subject matter,curricula,materials,instructional activities,and self.The English teacher’s beliefs refer to beliefs that a teacher engaging in foreign language teaching holds.The English teacher’s beliefs are formed based on their knowledge and experience,influencing their decisions in classroom teaching and management,and the development of his/her beliefs often marks teacher professional development.Many scholars,such as Xu(2014),Yang(2010),Wu(2008),and Chien(2020)et al.,generally agree that the development and change of the teacher’s beliefs are influenced by a combination of internal factors and the external factors of the teacher whose analysis stays at the level of theoretical analysis,without arguing how it acts on the teacher’s beliefs in real situations.Therefore the empirical research on the development and change of the teacher’s beliefs in real situations is still inadequate,which has research value.Additionally,previous research has primarily been conducted on teachers in provincial schools,and a few studies have been conducted on teacher’s beliefs in rural areas.The Opinions of the State Council of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Implementation of the Strategy for the Revitalization of Rural Areas(2018)clearly state that the focus of national social development should continue to be placed on rural areas and that resources such as public education should be tilted toward rural areas.The quality of the teacher is the key to raising the standard of rural education.This research investigates a rural middle school English teacher’s belief.The professional development of this teacher,who has been working for 13 years and is passionate about her job,may have implications for teachers in remote areas.Due to the implicit characteristics of the teacher’s beliefs,this research utilized narrative inquiry to present the story of the rural middle school English teacher.The various stories narrated by textual internalization and linguistic externalization are the primary ways of the existence of individual teachers’ experiences,and narrative inquiry is one of the best ways to understand human experiences.However,because teacher experience is characterized by uncertainty,diversity,complexity,and variability,it is better to approach the world of teachers’ lives through narratives that realistically represent the richness of teacher experience.Therefore,based on Xu’s Theory of English teacher’s beliefs and Constructivism,this research conducts a narrative inquiry of a rural middle school English teacher through in-depth interview and observation,supplemented by teacher’s teaching journals and social media interaction,aiming to explore the following questions:(1)What are the teacher’s beliefs of the research participant?(2)Which factors influence the formation and change of existing beliefs?(3)What are the pedagogical implications of this research for the teaching of English in rural areas?It was discovered that the research participant’s beliefs were complex,contextually influenced,and relatively stable but changeable.For the English Language,the research participant thinks English is a communication tool.As to English teaching,the research participant considers ways to get students involved in English lessons to be practical.However,as to English learning,research participant believes that students should spend more time on English to improve their scores due to the pressure of exams.Regarding the teacher-student relationship,the research participant believes that the teacher is the organizer of learning activities and the supervisor of students’ learning;the students are the active collaborators of the teacher in teaching activities and the active constructors of students’ knowledge.For teacher professional development,research participant believes that teaching is a professional job that requires a teacher’s professionalism.Both internal and external factors can affect such changes.External factors include family environment,the teacher professional landscape,and school culture;internal factors include teacher’s knowledge,teacher’s personality and her learning experience.Based on the above findings,the researcher puts forward some pedagogical implications from the aspects of the authorities,school leaders,and teachers.The authorities should address the practical issues and professional development constraints that rural English teachers must deal with.School leaders should provide relevant training to develop the teacher’s beliefs and care for the teachers to help them solve practical difficulties in life and work.In terms of teachers themselves,they should reflect on their experience to promote their teachers’ beliefs and increase their learning capacity.Teachers should get help from teacher learning communities.At the end of the paper,the researcher pointed out the limitations of this research and put forward feasible suggestions for future related research.