A Study On Junior High School English Teachers’ Professional Development In Yunnan Minority Rural Areas

In recent years, teachers’ professional development has become a trend in thefield of education due to teachers’ crucial role in a classroom. With the formulationand implementation of teachers’ qualification, teachers’ professional development hasbecome a focus in China. However, there are more research focusing on summarizingthe experience and clarifying the concepts, little research concepts on teachers’professional development in minority area. The present study focuses on Englishteachers in Yunnan minority rural areas, trying to understand the current situation inthis area and find out the significant factors which influence the level of teachers’professional development in this area.Based on the four frequently-researched topics concerning teachers’professional development stated by the famous linguistic educationalist (Ye,2001;Williams&Burden,1997; Newman,1980; Deng,2012), the present study exploresteachers’ professional development in four aspects: teachers’ professional belief;teachers’ knowledge structure; teachers’ professional capacity and the supportingpolicies. The research questions of this study focus on the following aspects:1) Whatis the current situation about junior high school English teachers’ professionaldevelopment in Yunnan minority rural areas?2) What is the most important factor thataffect the level of these teachers’ professional development?3)What are theimplications to enhance the professional development of secondary English teachersin Yunnan minority areas?100English teachers in Yunnan minority areas participate in this study. All theteachers are from Yunnan rural secondary schools. They are in the process of beingtrained in “National Training Plan” at Yunnan Normal University.92validquestionnaires are collected,6teachers are randomly selected to be interviewed. Withthe use of SPSS16.0, the author analyzes the data of teachers’ professionaldevelopment in Yunnan minority rural area and find out that:1) the overall level ofteachers’ professional development is commonly low which represented in three aspects: poor professional belief, unbalanced knowledge structure, low professionalcapacity;2) the strongest factor that affects teachers’ professional development is thesupport and aid of government policies;3) the related departments should pay moreattention to improve the conditions of teachers’ work and life in order to promote thelevel of teachers’ professional development in this area.This study serves as a starting point for future research. It is limited in severalaspects such as the small number of the participating teachers and the validity of theresearch methods. The study provides some directions for future research as well assome pedagogical implications.