A Case Study Of English Student-teachers’ Identity In Junior Middle Schools

In recent years,the national education policy is constantly updated and increasingly concerned about teacher education.On the one hand,it emphasizes the development of teachers’ professional skills,on the other hand,it emphasizes the identification of teachers’ thoughts and behaviors towards the profession.Teaching practice is a critical period for English student-teachers in junior middle schools to form the initial professional identity and professional belief.However,due to their limited teaching experience,English student-teachers in junior middle schools are under multiple pressures and challenges of the curriculum reform and the identity adaptation when they switch the identity from a student to a teacher.As a result,they can not adapt to the teacher identity,which led to identity crisis and directly affected the accumulation of their professional knowledge and skills.On the basis of social identity theory,self-identity theory and teacher education theory,three junior middle school English student-teachers from H Normal University were interviewed.By using narrative inquiry,case study and text analysis as the main research methods,and it experienced three research stages:theoretical material collection,research material collection and research material theorization.Through in-depth interviews: including pre-practice interview,to understand their journey to becoming a teacher and their beliefs;while-practice interview,to understand the formation and the construction of their identity,post-pratice interview,to understand the development and the change of their identity.At the same time,collected 65 practice logs,11 classroom observations and 34 reflection diaries during the practice period,coded the materials according to the type and the date for easy follow-up study.This study attempts to explore the following main problems: first of all,what is the current status of English student-teachers’ identity in junior middle schools? Secondly,what are the characteristics of English student-teachers’ identity in junior middle schools?Thirdly,what are the influencing factors of English student-teachers’ identity in junior middle schools?It is found that Miss C was in a puzzle about her teacher identity during the teaching practice.Fearing the subsequent professional life,Miss L was lack of positive self-identity.Miss Z always identify herself as a teacher.The development of student-teachers’ identity is a dynamically changing process,showing certain rules and characteristics in different stages of development,such as belonging and alienation,direction and confusion,passion and powerlessness.Combined with the reflection diaries of the three English student-teachers and the retrospective interviews,external support,school system and teacher ability are the main aspects that affect the English student-teachers’ identity in junior middle schools.Based on these factors,the junior middle school English student-teachers constantly renew and develop their own teacher identity.