Research On Teacher’s Professional Identity Of English Postgraduates

Teacher’s professional identity, a sub-branch of teacher professional development, has evolved into an independent researching field since the 1980s(Beijaard et al, 2004). Although great interest has arisen at home recently, flaws can still be found, such as the disunity in definition, monotonous researching methodology.Based on Olsen(2008), Wei Shuhua(2005, 2008) and other researchers’ definitions,teacher’s professional identity is defined both as a state of mind and as a process in this thesis. It is a concept about oneself and one’s profession, the roles one plays,orientations towards the surroundings.The current research at home is mainly on in-service teachers and tuition-free normal students, so this study attempts to focus on postgraduates, trying to testify and promote former research. This study discusses the current situation of English postgraduates’ TPI and the influencing factors based on 201 students from Jiangxi Normal University and Hangzhou Normal University. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies will be adopted, including a questionnaire modeled after Yang Zhiping’s and a self-designed interview outline. It attempts to find out: 1) What is the general picture of English postgraduates’ professional identity? 2) Is there any difference in different demographic variables: grade, researching field, with or without teaching experiences, personality and native place ? 3) University environment, supervisor and self-identity, which is the most important factor in the formation of TPI? Data analyses are operated by descriptive, correlation and regression analyses under the guidance of SPSS 19.0.The major findings are generalized as follows:Firstly, in general, the current TPI level of English postgraduates is at a moderate level. Professional cognition and professional expectation have a higher level, while professional commitment and professional behavior tendency are relatively low.Secondly, comparisons between students from demographic points show that there are significant differences between students with or without teaching experience.Besides, there are significant differences in professional behavior tendency and professional expectation. For education background, there is significant difference inprofessional behavior tendency; however no significant difference can be found in other dimensions. For personality, there is significant difference in professional values.For other aspects, like native place, researching field, no significant differences can be found in each dimension, but minor differences can still be found.Thirdly, for influencing factors, through correlation analysis, it can be seen that there is high correlation between supervisor and TPI, self-identity and TPI. Through regression analysis, we can know that the influence from self-identity is greater than that of supervisor.Fourthly, factors affecting TPI are mainly from three aspects: social, university and individual. Teacher’s status and acceptance in the society, actual demand for teachers, cultural values, education reform and more importantly, teacher’s welfare,all can affect TPI level. In consideration of the findings above, some suggestions are put forward to improve English postgraduates’ TPI.