A Narrative Inquiry Of English Teachers’ Professional Growth In Their Learning Activities In Rural Junior High Schools

With the rapid development of China’s economy, the society has been in urgent of more and more English talents. As a result, more high-qualified English teachers are demanded for cultivating more and more English talents. The quality of the teachers determines not only student learning but also success or failure of educational innovation. In China, three quarters of teachers are in rural areas, however, the overall quality of rural teachers is not high. So it is imperative to improve rural teacher professional growth. With teacher education and teacher training programs criticized, teacher learning has become the center of teacher professional development. The study tries to answer the three questions:1) what learning activities do the English teachers in rural junior high schools undertake in their daily English teaching;2) what changes and growth have the learning activities brought to the English teachers of rural junior high schools in terms of professional knowledge, beliefs and classroom behavior;3) what are the possible factors that influence the teachers learning and professional growth.The objects of study in this paper are three rural English teachers from a junior high school, Frank teaching English in Grade Seven, Amelia teaching English in Grade Eight, Catherine teaching English in Grade Nine. The author adopted the research methods in this study:narrative inquiry, case story method, interview and observation, etc. During more than five months drawing on questionnaire, interviews and observation in a rural high school, the researcher collected a large quantity of data about their learning activities and growth.Under the guidance of constructivism and the Interconnected Model of Professional Growth, the thesis conducts a research about three research questions. The study is made up of several vivid stories of their learning and growth by the clue of teachers’learning activities. Based on the learning stories, the study analyzes the process of three teachers’learning and changes in knowledge, beliefs and behavior. The study reveals after a series of learning activities in formal and informal learning environment, three rural English teachers not only gained large quantities of knowledge but also changed their teaching beliefs so that they became more excellent than ever. Although they do a series of experiments about teaching, for new teaching methods, such as small group work, they can hardly keep teaching by this method all the time. Then the study analyzes internal and external factors which may influence teachers’learning and growth.If knowledge isn’t be actively accepted, activated, internalized and constructed by teachers, teacher professional development programs will be "a low-impact enterprise". As a result of limited learning resources in rural areas, there is no doubt that teacher learning is an effective way to promote teachers to grow rapidly. Teacher learning is a relative new research subject in the world.This study proposes rural teachers’ professional growth in the learning activities, aiming to probe an effective way to rural teachers’ professional growth. At the same time, the study ventures to provide a new way for rural teachers’ professional development and training programs.