A Study Of The Professional Identity Of English Teachers In Secondary Vocational Schools

The promotion of teachers’ professional identity can help teachers better understand,and love their profession.However,research on teachers’ professional identity at home and abroad is still in the primary stage.As a special even marginalized group,there are few studies on secondary vocational school English teachers’ professional identity.Under the favorable background that the state advocates vigorously developing and reforming vocational education and integrating it with normal education,it is more necessary for secondary vocational English teachers to recognize and love their profession.Taking Xiangyang secondary vocational English teachers as the research subjects,this study investigates and analyzes the professional identity of them based on social identity theory and self identity-theory with both quantitative and qualitative research methods,hoping to arouse the attention of society,schools,and secondary vocational English teachers to the professional identity and enhance the professional identity of secondary vocational English teachers.Through a questionnaire survey of 200 English teachers in 9 secondary vocational schools in Xiangyang and a semi-structured interview with 12 secondary vocational English teachers,this thesis aims to study three questions: 1)What are the overall level of secondary vocational English teachers’ professional identity? 2)Are there any differences between secondary vocational English teachers’ professional identities? If there are,what are the differences? 3)What are the influencing factors of secondary vocational school English teachers’ professional identity?The major findings are as follows: 1)The overall professional identity level of secondary vocational English teachers in Xiangyang is high.Professional recognition level of teachers in Xiangyang is the highest in all professional identity dimensions.While the mean scores of professional affection as well as professional sense of belonging are lower than the mean score of the overall identity level.2)There are significant differences in the professional identity of secondary vocational English teachers in Xiangyang in terms of age,professional title,years of teaching,monthly income,whether they have been trained,and whether they are authorized teachers.Different demographic variables show different significant differences in the specific dimensions of professional identity.There is no significant difference in identity between different gender and educational background.3)The influencing factors are complex and not only lie in the differences of individuals but also are affected by career security,social evaluation,interactive communication,and family factors.Among these influencing factors,most participants believe that salary and occupation development opportunities are the main factors.Finally,to further enhance the vocational identity of secondary vocational English teachers,this study puts forward three suggestions:Improving vocational security;Guiding the objective evaluation of secondary vocational English teachers;Establishing harmonious and effective communication between secondary vocational English teachers and all aspects.