Understanding The Essence Of A Good Teacher: A Dialogue With Confucius' Views On Teachers

Good teachers tend to be depicted by virtue of certain isolated competencies,such as knowledge, skills, and attitudes, while teachers'identity, teachers'commitment, their spiritual and emotional integrity are often ignored, owing to whichmany of them have lost their initiatives and commitment to teaching. However, therestill exist some teachers who are widely acknowledged by the students for their activedynamics and inexhaustible enchantment. To demonstrate the essence of such ateacher, the paper reports a qualitative case study on a good English teacher in amiddle school. Specifically, this study attempts to investigate: (1) What is the essenceof a good English teacher? (2) What biographical elements have contributed to thecreation of a good English teacher? (3) What in nature is teaching in Juan's case?The study was conducted on Miss Juan, an English teacher in a junior middleschool in Jinhua, Zhejiang province. And her students and her colleagues were alsoinvolved in the study. The research methods adopted in the study were case study andnarrative inquiry. The data collected over a span of roughly one year includedinterview records, class records and teacher's autobiography (memoir). Based on thetheories of teachers'personal knowledge, teacher identity and teacherbiography/autobiography, as well as Confucius'views on teacher essence, the studyreveals that: (1) The essence of a good English teacher encompasses the succeedingfour aspects: teacher knowledge—flexible and organic combination of contentknowledge and teachers'personal knowledge; teacher emotion andspirit—heart-to-heart emotive communication with students and soul-illuminatingnoble, attributes; teacher commitment—a strong sense of responsibility andwhole-hearted dedication to teaching; integrity of teacher identity—an authentic beingin front of students, i.e. possession of a capacity for connectedness among herpersonal experience, subject, social context and the students'needs. (2) Teacherbiography, Juan's personal biography, during which her family and the teacher rolemodel's tremendous impacts are the major contributors to her formation of rightvalues, noble character and virtue which affect her attitudes and future behaviors in the classrooms and towards her students, and thereby contribute to the generation of agood English teacher. (3) Teaching is a dialogue of hearts between student and teacherin Juan's case. Teacher's heart is represented by her components of teacher essence:knowledge being often informed by personal knowledge; teacher emotion and care;commitment; spirit and teacher's integrated identity. Since Juan teaches with heart,students learn with heart in return.The study triggers some implications for teacher preparation in China. Theauthor argues that teacher preparation programs must concern themselves withnourishing persons rather than technicians who are merely equipped with insulatedcompetencies and skills. In addition, in-service teachers'life quality should beimproved and teacher professional development valued. School leaders shouldprovide teachers with a more relaxing and free context where teachers can sit togetherto explore and pursue the Tao of teaching. Furthermore, a qualified or good teachercannot be generated solely through teacher preparation programs in higher educationinstitutions, partly due to the surroundings'enormous impact exerting on his/hercultivation of noble character and virtue. Hence, it's advisable to provide a healthyenvironment for the younger generation's growth and development.