Research On Society Capital Of Vocation And University Teacher's Professional Development

Today, development and reforming have become the theme of our country's higher education, and they also have become the first problem faced by universities. Universities' development depends on faculty's development, especially individual teacher's professional development.There are many factors influencing faculty's professional development. Being a human being in real-life, a university teacher's society behavior, including his professional development, cannot be divorced from his existing mode: his society relationship, especially his society relationship of vocation, which is closely connected with his professional development. We regarded the society relationship of vocation as a special form of society capital: society capital of vocation; we study faculty's professional development from society capital of vocation's viewpoint. As a part of a university teacher's society capital, society capital of vocation exists in the relationship between the teacher and the organization, and also exists between the teacher and the others during the teacher's work. The relationship, which may harmonize the actions between the teacher and his organization, the teacher and others in the process of his work, is a society network established on the basis of trust and rules. Society capital of vocation is composed of the university teacher's membership of a given organization and the interpersonal relationship between the teacher and the others during the teacher's work. It is supported by organization and society network, based on trust.We demonstrate that society capital of vocation is important in a university teacher's professional development from two stages: one is the membership of a given organization and the other is the interpersonal relationship. We demonstrate it by having interviewed ten university teachers from Tientsin University, Central South University, Hunan University and Hunan Normal University. We also demonstrate it by having referred to some university teachers' autobiographies, biographies, stories of teachers and friends, and some predecessors' investigation material. We also demonstrate it by a case study with Prof. Ji Xianlin. In the end, we give some advice to university teachers and universities on how to run society capital of vocation in order to promote individual teacher's professional development.