A Research On Teachers' Professional Identity

Teachers' professional identity refers to a synthesis of the positive cognition, experience and behavior inclination related to their work and their internalized occupational role. As a teachers' positive attitude concerning their work, teachers' professional identity belongs to the objects of studies on teachers' positive occupational psychology. Studies on teachers' professional identity are still at an elementary stage both at home and abroad, and with flaws, such as the uncertainties in concept, the quantitative shortage in structural study, the disunity of relative studies and the emphasis on the qualitative research method. Based on a comprehensive analysis of these studies and the Chinese cultural background, this study, with its aim at solving the flaws in this regard, made a systematic research on the concept, structure, characteristics and influential model of teachers' professional identity from the perspective of educational psychology and with the integrated qualitative and quantitative research method. Specifically, through literature analysis, open questionnaire and interviews with teachers, the concept and structure of teachers' professional identity are established theoretically and the theoretical framework of the study is formed; by deploying the survey method, the item analysis, the exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, the structure of teachers' professional identity is tested and adjusted in practice, and the measuring instrument of teachers' professional identity is formed; with the newly formed measuring instrument, a large-scale sample survey is carried out among primary school and middle school teachers, and through this survey, the current situation of teachers' professional identity in China as well as its developmental characteristics is analyzed; and low professional identity teachers and high professional identity teachers are selected with the help of the teachers' professional identity scale, and then the different characteristics of encoding, recognition and priming effect among teachers with different professional identity levels are discussed by means of the research paradigm of social cognition; adopting psychological measurement, correlation analysis, regression analysis and structural equation model, the relationship between teachers' professional identity and its pre-variables (occupational values) and post-variables (job satisfaction and turnover intention) is discussed and an integrative influential effect model of teachers' professional identity is primarily constructed.This study deepens and enriches the study of teachers' psychology, and provides psychological evidence for the improvement teachers' professional identity, professional psychological quality and professional development and so on.This study contains three sections composed of seven studies on the structure, the characteristics and some factors relative to teachers' professional identity. Through this study, the following conclusions can be drawn:1. Teachers' professional identity is a multi-dimensional systematic structure, composed of one second level factor and four first level factors. The four first level factors are occupational values, role values, the sense of occupational belonging and professional behavior inclination, and and these four factors together combine into the second level factor (Teachers' professional identity).2. The "Teachers' professional identity Scale" formulated in this study is of fine reliability and validity; it meets the demand of psychometrics and is applicable to the measurement of the teachers' professional identity of primary school and middle school teachers.3. At present, primary school and middle school teachers in China as a whole are of high professional identity, but there is an unbalanced reflection of the four factors of teachers' professional identity. Teachers get a higher mark in occupational values while a low mark in role values.4. Teacher's professional identity is influenced by background variables such as gender, length of teaching services, education qualification, professional title and salary: female teachers have higher professional identity than their male counterpart; teachers of different length of teaching services differ in their professional identity and its factors except sense of occupational belonging; teachers with a masters' degree have lower professional identity than teachers without or with a college degree; primary school teachers with different professional titles differ in professional behavior inclination and sense of occupational belonging, while middle school teachers with different professional titles differ in professional behavior inclination and occupational values; teachers with different salary differ in occupational values; and there is no significant difference in teachers' professional identity in terms of different subjects.5. Teachers' professional identity is influenced by school background variables such as grade, location and prefecture: primary school male teachers have lower professional identity than their counterparts in middle school; town primary school teachers have lower professional identity than town middle school teachers; village teachers have lower professional identity than town and county teachers; teachers of different school in different districts differ in their professional identity.6. Teachers with high professional identity have a positive inclination in the process of encoding, recognition and priming effect of occupational events, while teachers of low professional identity have negative inclination.7. Positive correlation exists between teachers' occupational values and teachers' professional identity. To some extent, teachers' occupational values may positively forecast teachers' professional identity.8. Positive correlation exists between teachers' job satisfaction and teachers' professional identity. To some extent, teachers' professional identity positively forecasts teachers' job satisfaction.9. Negative correlation exists between teachers' turnover intention and teachers' professional identity. To some extent, teachers' professional identity negatively forecasts teachers' turnover intention.10. Teachers' professional identity not only directly influences teachers' turnover intention, but also indirectly influences it through job satisfaction; job satisfaction is the intermediate variables between teachers' professional identity and teachers' turnover intention.Deploying multiple methods and technologies, this study made a comprehensive and systematic research on teachers' professional identity. Moreover, this study made the following developments and innovations: 1 .This study initially probed and revealed the four-factors structure of teachers' professional identity. 2. This study formulated a "Teachers' professional identity scale" which meeting psychological measurement standard and suitable for teachers of primary and middle school in China. 3. This study analyzed the current situation of professional identity, revealed the characteristics of individual variables and school variables in professional identity. 4. This study introduced the social cognition experiments into the researches of this topic for the first time, and discussed the characteristics of social cognitive procession among teachers of different professional identity level. 5. This study revealed the correlation and influential mechanism among teachers' professional identity, occupational values, job satisfaction and turnover intention, and an integrated influencing effect model of teachers' professional identity is primarily constructed.