A Narrative Study Of The Identity Construction Of Shadow Teachers In Inclusive Education Settings

With the development of inclusive education in Chinese mainland,many special education students have begun to enter regular schools for education.Shadow teachers play an important role in supporting the integration of special education students into schools and classrooms.However,shadow teachers have not yet received corresponding recognition at the legal and school management levels.Given the special nature of the educational subjects and the mobility of the workplace,shadow teachers are in a marginalized position in regular schools,and their self-identity and identification with their profession are relatively low.Therefore,in order for the neglected and marginalized voices of shadow teachers be heard by the mainstream discourse system in a critical way,this study examines and compares the growth experience and professional development stories of shadow teachers from the perspective of the individual teacher,and explores shadow teachers’ understanding of their own experiences while speak up for the shadow teacher community.Narrative research method was adopted in this study,selecting three shadow teachers from Guangzhou city as research subjects,and using semi-open interviews to collect the experience of the three shadow teachers in the process of identity construction during inclusive education practice,with different majors,teaching experience,and schools.The main focus was on:(1)how did shadow teachers specifically construct their identities?(2)What factors influence the identity construction of shadow teachers? Starting from the individual narrative of shadow teachers,the main timeline is the emotional and professional development changes of the individual teacher before,during,and after entering the profession,while focusing on the interaction of shadow teachers with the outside world in different scenes inside and outside the school,and the process of establishing identity recognition as inclusive education teachers in the conflict and development of identity.Through the exploration of the experiences of the three shadow teachers,several findings were identified:(1)the identity construction of shadow teachers is a result of negotiation between reality and ideal.As a marginalized professional role,shadow teachers must constantly strive for legitimacy for themselves,and identity recognition or identity crisis is the ultimate direction of shadow teachers’ identity construction.(2)Shadow teachers construct many complex and unique identities,and many sub-identities are constantly flowing and changing.The identity construction of shadow teachers has the characteristics of autonomy,mobility,complexity,and struggle,and is jointly influenced by three factors: cultural(social and school culture),interpersonal relationships(important others,external evaluation),and teacher self(personality traits,personal experience,teaching beliefs,teaching philosophy).