Teachers' Professional Life Under The Impact Of "New Curriculum Discourse"

In recent years, worldwide curriculum innovations have been launched one after another. Against this great background, a new round of educational innovation—New Curriculum innovation—has been initiated in China. Though the innovation is limited to experimental zones at present, its new concepts have become a kind of discourse popular among middle schools through the implementation of new textbooks and new curriculum standards, and the conducting of many professional activities relating to it. In it, teachers' professional development has been emphasized as a crucial factor for the successful implementation of New Curriculum innovation.The paper aims to investigate the current situations of New Curriculum innovation starting from the reality of teachers' professional life. Specifically, the paper aims to explore: 1) What kind of impact that New Curriculum discourse has on English teachers' professional life and practices in senior middle schools? 2) How can the impact be interpreted? 3) How can teachers promote their professional development in New Curriculum innovation?With three English teachers from three senior middle schools as the main participants, this study attempts to make a critical analysis of their life and practices under the impact of New Curriculum discourse through the research methods of ethnography and narrative inquiry. The process of investigation lasts for more than a year, and the data collected include classroom records, interview records, field notes, teachers' school timetables, emails, textbooks, teaching plans and the innovation documents, etc.Drawing on Pinar's (1995) theory of curriculum as a discourse, Schon's (1983) reflective theory and some critical theories, the thesis argues for a holistic and . dialectical approach to explore the real impact of New Curriculum discourse on those English teachers' professional life and practices. The findings show that though the ideology of "teachers being curriculum builders and developers" has been written in official documents, the process of the innovation implementation still follows the traditional top-down linear planning—implementing—evaluating curriculum model,...