A Research On University Teachers’ Professional Identity

Teachers’ professional identity is a product of the individuals and the environment interaction. It is developed into a synthesis of the cognition, emotion and behavior inclination. Teachers’ professional identity plays a key role in their professional development and the life growth. As the important group of university organization,university teachers’ professional identity status affects their work, study and life. Based on a clear understanding of the current situation and the relevant factors of university teachers’ professional identity, this thesis put forward the proposal to improve university teachers’ professional identity and provide some useful references for the university.This research is an empirical study on teachers’ professional identity. Through the questionnaire survey of a university in Suzhou, the current situation of teachers’ professional identity as well as its differences of demographic variables are analyzed.According to the result of the investigation, this study try to find out the crisis and the problems of university teachers’ professional identity, and put forward reasonable suggestions from the aspects of individual background, school and social environment.The results show that:(1) University teachers’ professional identity is relatively higher than the equal level. Among the four factors of teachers’ professional identity, university teachers get a low mark in the sense of occupational belonging and views on the scientific research.(2) Overall, there is no significant difference on teachers’ professional identity in the background variables such as gender, age, subject, teaching age, professional title,education qualification, salary and marital status. On each factor, Female teachers get significantly higher marks than male teachers in the sense of occupational belonging and professional behavior. Teachers of different teaching age significantly differ in their views on the scientific research. Teachers with doctor degree have significantly higher views on the scientific research than teachers with master or bachelor degree.(3) There is a very significant positive correlation between university teachers’ professional identity and job satisfaction.Based on the conclusion above, suggestions are as follows:(1) University teachers should firm their education belief and academic ideal and strive to improve their teaching and scientific research ability.(2) Schools should create a community, make the academic evaluation system more fair and improve teachers’ material benefits.(3) The government should build a learning society and increase investment in higher education funds.