A Survey On The Current Situation Of English Teachers In Primary And Secondary Schools

Since the entry of the21st century, Chinese educational system has fully conducted anew round of basic education curriculum reform. Whether the English curriculum reformcan be implemented successfully depends on the construction of the teaching staff. Theconstruction and improvement of the teaching force should be established on the basis ofthe real investigation and understanding of the current situation of the teachers. However,little attention has been given to the current situation and development of English teachersin primary and secondary schools in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. As for thespecific problems in the work and life of English teachers, these researches do not conductin-depth investigations, either.Based on the previous researches, and constructivist theory and lifelong educationtheory, this thesis explores the present situation of English teachers in primary andsecondary schools in Hezhou，Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, focusing on theirdemographic information, working, living, training and expertise. It points out the existingproblems and analyzes the reasons based on the results in the questionnaires and theinterviews. Then it puts forward some practical solutions, trying to offer suggestions forteacher development of the local teachers.The thesis is composed of six chapters.Chapter1is a brief introduction including the background of the study, thesignificance of this study, and the organization of the study.Chapter2is literature review. This part introduces the key concepts of teacherprofessional development, teacher training, teacher education and teacher development,and elaborates constructivist theory and lifelong education theory. Then, it discusses therelated studies at home and abroad.Chapter3concerns the methodology. It describes the objectives, the subjects, theinstruments, and the procedures of the present study. The instrument used in thisinvestigation is the questionnaire and the in-depth interview. Chapter4is the focused part of this thesis. It cares about data analysis and discussion.The survey explores the current situation of213English teachers in primary and secondaryschools in Hezhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Major problems are identifiedas follows: imbalance with a rate of male to female English teachers as1:4.9, workingovertime with86.4%of the teachers, little spare time on physical exercise and reading,suffering from mental health problems, few chances for training, deficiency in educationtheories and consciousness of research. It is also found that the majority of minority ethnicteachers are inferior to Han ethnic teachers in terms of educational backgrounds,professional titles and proficiency level for self-assessment. These problems arise fromboth objective and subjective reasons, such as unreasonable education fund usage, lack ofscientific planning in training, unreasonable teacher performance evaluation, lack of asound environment for scientific research, teachers’ weak awareness of self-developmentand low learning capacity, etc.Chapter5puts forward the suggestions regarding the current situation of Englishteachers in primary and secondary schools in Hezhou. For leadership or teachingadministrators, they should create a sound external environment for teacher developmentsuch as efficient use of education funds, caring for teachers’ living, completing the teachertraining system and evaluation criteria, and creating a positive research environment forthe teachers. On the other hand, the teachers should promote their self-development suchas building up the awareness of self-development and lifelong learning, self-study,grasping some theories such as narrative inquiry, and finding their own happiness.Chapter6is the conclusion of the study. It points out some inadequacies of this studyand casts the future direction of related researches in this area.