A Narrative Inquiry Into Junior Middle School English Teachers’ Practical Knowledge

Teachers’ professional development is mainly based on teachers’ practical knowledge which plays an important role in teachers’ professional development. Moreover,English Curriculum Standards requires the teacher to possess more professional knowledge and more comprehensive competence to achieve more effective teaching. So much emphasis the society places on teachers’ practical knowledge, and the significance and necessity of studying teachers’ practical knowledge impels the researcher to probe into this field. Therefore, this research studies on Junior Middle School English teachers’ practical knowledge.Employing case study and narrative inquiry into EFL teachers’ life and teaching, the researcher probes into junior middle school EFL teachers’ practical knowledge manifested and constructed in everyday teaching practice. Two teachers in a middle school in Kunming, named Ann and Helen, were chosen as participants. Data mainly came from the interview records of Ann and Helen, besides, informal conversations with them and the interview records of their colleagues and their students were also interwove to describe the data. Two main research questions guide this study: 1) What are the components of Ann and Helen’s personal practical knowledge? 2) What are major factors affecting the construction and development of their personal practical knowledge?After describing and analyzing the stories of the participants, two major findings appeared. 1) The components of Ann and Helen’s personal practical knowledge include knowledge of teaching content, knowledge of students, knowledge of curriculum, knowledge of community and knowledge of self as well. 2) The major factors contributing to Ann and Helen’s personal practical knowledge are personality, family education, schooling experience, important figure and school community culture. Specifically, first of all, their schooling experiences is the mainly factor that influences the formation of their knowledge of teaching content, and also knowledge of student, and knowledge of curriculum. Second, concerning knowledge of student, the participant teachers emphasized the great importance of respecting, encouraging and loving students. Their knowledge of student is affected by their personality, family education, learning experience, and the important figure as well. Third, they agree that the main goal of curriculum and teaching is to cultivate students’ sense of achievement, self-esteem, and initiatives. Their knowledge of curriculum is the result of combination of family education, learning experience, and also the important figure. Fourth, Community provides a supportive culture where teachers and students can share beliefs, emotions and ideologies. They emphasize the function of learning community in teachers’ professional development. Finally, all these factors make a teacher grow as what he or she is, helping them to form the knowledge of themselves.This case study helps teachers recognize the importance of their personal knowledge, which is essential to their professional development. Meanwhile, this case study also presents implications for middle school education and EFL teachers’ professional development in the new curriculum reform. Nevertheless, there are limitations to this study, and more cases with longer duration can be investigated to deepen the understanding of teachers’ practical knowledge in future research.