| Identity has always been a significant study issue. It not only concerns people’s self-reflection of their living states, but also involves the mutual interactions between individuals and the society. Teachers’ professional identity is the result and the progress of interaction or negotiation between individuals and the surroundings they live in,which is formed in the process of their teaching practice. The school organizational culture is the social situation of the teacher’s professional development; a supportive school organizational culture is a must for sound construction of the teachers’ professional development.The present research tries to discuss the two questions from the perspective of school organizational culture by case study of three EFL teachers in different stages of professional development. The questions are as follows: Question 1: How do the Secondary Vocational School EFL teachers construct their professional identity in the school organizational culture? Question 2: Which factors of school organizational culture influence the construction of their professional identities, and what are the differences in terms of the influential power of each factor? Some research methods are applied in order to answer the above research questions, such as the main research methods, case study and qualitative narrative inquiry. Data collection methods include interview and observation. Besides, many documents and regulations concerning school organizational culture and teachers’ development have been collected to get supporting data. By exploring how Secondary Vocational School EFL teachers at different age construct their professional identities, this study investigates what factors in relation to school organizational culture influence the construction of teachers’ professional identities and analyzes the influential powers of each factor. The present research has reached the following conclusions: Firstly, hierarchical management system and hierarchy of school subjects do affect the construction of professional identity, and consequently teachers are not able to achieve their sense of belonging and professional identity in this culture. Besides, teachers has a low sense of belonging to the community of English teaching staffs due to the their stronger sense of individualism and lack of professional development in teacher community culture; At last, the education and the sense of teaching achievement from the teacher-student community also have affected the complete construction of their professional identity. Secondly, there are differences among the power of each influential factor in the construction of professional identity. In specific, the negative factor in system culture(hierarchical management and hierarchy of subjects)has more negative impact on middle-aged teachers than on young teacher; In the English teachers’ community culture which is lack of professional development, middle-aged teachers tend to be self-developed and self-directed, while young teachers try to learn from role model and try to catch up with older teachers. Moreover, self-education and the sense of teaching achievement are almost equally influential to teachers in different professional development stages; they are all concerned about the promotion of their sense of teaching achievement.Finally, the present research tries to give some suggestions: school leaders should make every effort to create a more democratic school management system, to build a harmonious and cooperative teacher professional development community and provide favorable environments for teachers to achieve their professional identity. On teachers’ side, we should build up correct occupation value and promote job satisfaction, and enhance our sense of professional identity in order to play a better role for the school development. The result of this research is supposed to offer some help for the EFL teachers who work at vocational schools in the progress of their professional development. |
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