A Narrative Inquiry Into Teacher Identity In A Higher Education Institute

As teacher development has received prevailing attention in and abroad in the middle of last century,in which teacher identity formation is the most concern of many theoreticians and researchers.They are curious and would like to explore its dynamic formation process and whether it is influenced by some specific factors from the environment.Even recently in the Two Sessions of NPC and CPPCC of 2018 in China,great attention is given to teacher development issue that a more harmonious and positive macro social environment may be established for teacher professional identification.So the exploration of teacher identity is both theoretically and practically significant.The present study aims to explore how a novice teacher(trans)formed the teacher identity in two years’ teaching practice in a higher educational institute in Guangzhou through the framework of the three-dimensional concept of narrative inquiry proposed by Clandinin and Connelly(2000)to reveal its complex and dynamic(trans)formation process and its shaping factors behind.Two years’ teaching experiences and practice provide resourceful data for this research to be narratively inquired and analyzed to answer the research questions: 1)How is the teacher identity formed in the circulation of experience,reflection and practice? 2)How is the teacher identity formed in a specific teaching and learning community? 3)What are the internal and external forces shaping teacher identity in the community?The findings are a range of identities were formed in the narration of the teaching practice in the research field to demonstrate the transformation of teacher identity from a novice teacher to an experienced teacher under the joint force of internal forces like self-agency and the spiritual fulfilment and achievement and the external factors such as institutional culture and norms.