A Narrative Inquiry Into The College English Teachers’ Professional Development From The Post-Method Perspective

It is clearly stated in the National Medium and Long-term Program for Education Reform and Development that teachers are the most important forces in cultivating competitive talents with international perspectives. However, there are serious problems in college English teaching. College English teaching reform is highly expected for the improvement of quality teaching. This paper proposes that from the post-method perspective, narrative inquiry will promote college English teachers’professional development.This research invited a college English teacher to be our participant. The methodology in this research was narrative inquiry. The research used classroom observation and interview to describe and analyze teachers’professional development as well as further investigate its deeper meaning.The researcher adopted post-method pedagogy to analyze W’s classroom teaching and academic research. The research result showed that post-method pedagogy had positive effect on research participant’s teaching and academic research development. We also found that post-method pedagogy corresponding to the aims of Chinese college English teaching reform. Both post-method pedagogy and narrative inquiry are effective ways to improve teaching quality and promote teachers’professional development. Meanwhile, from the post-method perspective, teachers became generators of their own practical theories. For some college teachers like the research participant, who used to be strong in classroom teaching but relatively weak in academic research, narrative inquiry is available for their own classes, and they can transform their classroom practices into theories. In which they can find a new path toward academic research, then finally gain the integrated professional development.