A Narrative Research On The Teacher Identity Development Of A Korean High School Chinese Language Teacher

With the continuous growth of China’s comprehensive national power,the global "Chinese language craze" is heating up,which highlights the importance of the development of local Chinese language teachers.South Korea is a good neighbor country of China,so the influence of Chinese language in it is increasing day by day.Although the whole society of South Korea has set off a wave of learning Chinese,the status of Chinese subject in the high school education system of South Korea is increasingly falling,and at present,Korean high school Chinese language teachers are in a predicament of being marginalized.In recent years,the study of teacher identity has gradually become a hot topic in teacher education research.Since teachers have been regarded as the mainstay of educational reform in the educational field,teachers’ agency,as a medium for the construction of teachers’ identity,has attracted the attention of many researchers.The purpose of this study is to describe the identity construction process of Chinese language teacher in a Korean high school context throughout his or her career and to explore the characteristics of the development trajectory of his or her teacher identity and the mediating role of teacher agency in the development trajectory.The research questions of this study are as follows:(1)What is the development trajectory and the characteristics of the Korean high school language Chinese teacher’s identity?(2)What role does teacher agency play in the development of Korean high school Chinese language teacher’s identity?In order to answer the above research questions,this study adopted the narrative study method of qualitative research paradigm,collected data of participants through semi-structured interview,in-depth interviews,classroom observation,and other ways,and explored the reflection of his or her teacher identity and agency in the whole career from the perspective of life course theory.The main findings of this study are as follows:First of all,Korean high school Chinese language teacher have experienced a dynamic process of identity development through critical events in his or her whole careers.In the preservice teacher education stage,the pre-service teacher education was not systematic,which has negatively affected the willingness of Korean high school Chinese language teacher to teach and hinders the construction of teacher identity as a Chinese language teacher.After graduation,due to the Korean economic recession,there was a narrow range of occupational choices,Korean high school Chinese language teacher reluctantly choose the job of Chinese language teacher by means of survival.As a result,Korean Chinese language teacher feel confused about his or her teacher identity for a period of time after entering the post.Korean Chinese language teacher constructed a relatively stable teacher identity only after he or she served as class teachers,and there were two reasons behind Korean Chinese language teacher’s stable teacher identity.First,he or she established a good emotional relationship between teacher and students through his or her new roles.Second,from the principle of the school,he or she learned the essence of education and the mission of teachers.However,during this period,the identity of Chinese language teacher was still vague.The mission of teacher stimulated the internal motivation of teacher’s development.Korean Chinese language teacher was recognized by meaningful others through his or her hard work,and then constructed a stable identity of Chinese language teacher.With the development of teacher’s identity,his or her career satisfaction has also improved,but there are great restrictions on teachers’ professional development space in the school structure,which makes Korean high school Chinese language teacher establish a newly designated identity and decide to challenge the new working environment.Although Korean high school Chinese language teachers are in the dilemma of being marginalized more and more seriously,he or she have strong confidence in China’s development and reconstruct the teacher identity as a Chinese educator to dedicate the development of Korean high school Chinese education.Secondly,the development trajectory of Korean high school Chinese language teacher’s identity shows three characteristics.First,there is always a contradiction between teachers’ identity and social environment.Korean high school Chinese language teacher have experienced an identity crisis in terms of social structure,school culture and individuals.The representative example is the marginalization of Chinese courses in the high school education system of South Korea.In the crisis of Korean high school Chinese language teacher,he or she aim to prompt the status of Chinese education and construct the designated identity of Chinese language teacher who strive for the development of Chinese education in high school.Secondly,the dual identity is developed at different levels,that is,identity as a teacher and identity as a Chinese language teacher.The identity of being a teacher is constructed earlier than that of being a Chinese language teacher,and there is not much change in the whole career.On the contrary,identity as a Chinese language teacher shows a dynamic development trajectory from scratch,from doubt to conviction,from skill to existence.Third,self-reflection guided forward development.Although the development trajectory of Korean high school Chinese teacher’identity has experienced the twists and turns of doubt and transformation,he or she have constructed the designated identity at each stage of the development of identity and constantly reflected on it,and the result shows a progressive development trajectory.Thirdly,teacher agency plays an intermediary role in the negotiation process between teacher’s actual identity and designated identity.The results show that the negotiation types of Korean high school Chinese language teacher’s identities can be divided into no negotiations,negotiation failure,additive negotiation and transformative negotiation.The no negotiations is reflected in the non-construction stage of teacher identity.Due to the weak systematic preservice teacher education,Korean high school Chinese language teacher has failed in the construction of designated identity,and as a result,teacher identity did not develop.The failure of negotiation is reflected in the confused identity stage and the doubtful identity stage.The main reason why Korean Chinese language teacher did not play an active role in this stage is that he or she did not know the path to achieve the designated identity because of the lack of teacher professional ability.Additive negotiation is reflected in the strengthening and sublimation of teacher identity.At this stage,Korean high school Chinese language teacher strived to be recognized by others or to comply with his or her mission as teachers.The transformative negotiation is reflected in the formation(though incomplete)and transformation of the teacher identity.At this stage,Korean high school Chinese language teacher experienced critical events that caused strong emotional reactions,and he or she took the initiative to accept the great changes in teacher’s mission or belief.Finally,based on the above findings,this research attempts to propose a theoretical model for the teacher identity development of Korean high school Chinese language teachers,showing that critical events experienced by teachers in social and cultural contexts prompt teachers to construct designated identity,and the complex relationships of the teacher agency’s mediating role between the actual identity and designated identity.This study shows the real,vivid and rich relevant data of Korean high school Chinese language teacher,and explores the construction and development process of teacher’s identity on the basis of his or her data.The research results fill the gap in the research on the identity of local Chinese language teachers in the field of TCSOL(Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages),and help more researchers in the field of TCSOL understand the actual living state of local Chinese language teachers in Korea.Moreover,teachers of the same major are given the opportunity to reflect on similar situations and operational corresponding strategies.In addition,this study explores the development process of teachers’ identity,especially the important role of teachers’ agency and reflection,which provides some enlightenment to the relevant research departments of teacher education.