A Study Of The Trajectory Of Teachers’ Identity Development And Its Influencing Factors In The Perspective Of Life Course Theory

The literature available on teacher’s development haven’t paid much attention onthe cases of teachers of different generation or born at different ages. The life courseparadigm studies the development of life of people of different ages and generationswhen they are faced with similar social and historical events. Researches on teachers’identity development under the life course paradigm help to clarify teachers’ identitywhile they’re coping with social and cultural change and provide insights andstrategies to enable them to keep sustainable development. Selecting the teachers bornin the1960s and1970s in5middle schools in Guiyang, the provincial capital ofGuizhou, as the study objects, obtaining information through in-depth interviews andreorganizing their life story line, this thesis analyzes the identity of these two groupsof teachers, its track and the factors which affects them and probes into the relationsbetween the track of development of teachers’ identity and life events of theseteachers, and the relations between the development of teachers’ identity and socialand cultural change.The main contents of this thesis are as follow:The introductory part deals with the study origin and study problems, defines theconcept of teachers’ identity, and overviews the theoretical basis of this study, the lifecourse paradigm. These are the basic premise of this research, which confines theperspectives and methods of this thesis.Chapter1is the literature review section, which reviews the relevant researcheson teachers’ development, the definition of teachers’ identity and the development ofteachers’ identity and comment on the shortage and problems of the existingliterature.Chapter2focuses on the research design, which discusses the methodology andthe specific method of this thesis, and the method of sorting data.Chapter3deals with the teachers’ identity in the view of teachers. In this chapter,the identity of teachers given by these teachers while they are recounting the events oftheir own life course is presented as the first stage of the research on the track ofteachers’ identity development, to pave the ways for the next stage. This thesis findout that “satisfaction” and “a job which calls for one’s conscience” is the dimensionof emotional experience and moral line for these teachers to construct their identity.Chapter4discusses the types of the track of teachers’ identity development. Byanalyzing the interview data and the life story line of teachers’ identity development,combining the direction and intensity of the track of teachers’ identity development,this thesis classifies the track of teachers’ identity development of two groups ofteachers into four types: fluctuating-level, gradual upward, fluctuating-upward andgradual downward. As a whole, the direction of teachers’ identity development of two groups varies remarkably. The identity of teachers born in the1960s shows adownward and low level tendency while that of teachers born in the1970s declinesslightly at first and then goes up persistently. By comparing the trend with the timeserial of teachers’ identity development, we can come to the conclusion that identityof teachers born in the1960s shows apparent premature senility.Chapter5, based on chapter4, combining historical time and social time and theindividual life time of these teachers, discusses the turning point in the track ofidentity development of two groups of teachers. Viewed from the turning point afterthey take duties, the social time at which the turn point are liable to show for teachersborn in the1960s is in turn10to15years,1year,15to20years,5to10years,20to25years and2to5years after they take duties,while that for teachers born in the1970sis5to10years,2to5years,1year,10to15years and15to20after they take duties.When the historical time is in early1990s and early2000s and the teachers’ life timeis at age30to40, the track of teachers’ identity development is most liable to turn.The life time for teachers born in the1970s to turn easily is earlier than teachers bornin the1960s.Chapter6to chapter10, based on chapter4and chapter5, discusses the factorswhich affect the track of teachers’ identity development. According to the life eventsrecounted by these teachers, we can classify these factors can into the individualcategory, the school side, the education reform category, the cultural category andsub-cultural category. The cultural category and sub-cultural category may affect thetrack of teachers’ identity development both in a direct way and indirect way. Anddegree to which these factors affect both groups is different.Chapter11is the section for comprehensive discussion. In this section,combining the discussions in chapter3to chapter9, the relations between the track ofidentity development and life events of the teachers, the relations of their life eventsand the relations between the teachers’ identity and social and cultural change arereviewed. Under the life course paradigm, the teachers’ identity and social andcultural change forms a triangular relationship in which each two will have their ownconnections. The track of teachers’ identity development is the result of rationalchoice of these teachers within this triangular relationship. In this process, theteachers born in1960s tend to make a Conservative choice while the teachers born in1960s tend to make a realistic choice.Finally, the conclusion section, for a second time, the difference between theidentity of these two groups of teachers, the track of development of the identity, theturning point on the track and the factors which affect the track of development of theidentity are reviewed to give a clearer explanation.