A Comparative Study On English Pedagogy And Non-pedagogy Major Postgraduates’ Attitudes Towards Teachers’ Professional Identity

Teachers’ professional identity has become one heated topic of the research on teacher education in the last two decades. It has been regarded as an important factor which would influence teaching and professional development of teachers. However, the previous research on English teachers’ professional identity has been primarily conducted among in-service English teachers. Besides, the tuition-free English major students, especially from the key universities which are subordinated to the Ministry of Education, account for large percentage. Scarce or inadequate studies have been conducted to explore the English major postgraduates about their attitudes towards being English teachers. In normal universities, except pedagogy major students, a certain number of non-pedagogy major students still exist. Until now, previous research has seldom proved that the attitudes toward teachers’ professional identity among English non-pedagogy postgraduates are not as positive as it among pedagogy postgraduates. Differences between English pedagogy and non-pedagogy postgraduates have not been comparatively studied.In order to explore the attitudes towards teachers’ professional identity of English major postgraduates at normal universities, this thesis aimed to do the research from the perspective of professional values, role values, the sense of belongings and professional behavior orientation. The research subjects were the first and second year full-time English major postgraduates at a key provincial normal university. Both questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were employed and the research data were collected, compared and analyzed by SPSS 19.0 for windows.The findings showed that, firstly, the current attitudes towards teachers’ professional identity among English major postgraduates are quite positive. For the English pedagogy major postgraduates, the influential factor of whether they are interdisciplinary postgraduates affected their attitudes on the perspective of professional behavior orientation. For the English non-pedagogy major postgraduates, the factor of whether their bachelor’s degree was pedagogy major differed in their attitudes on the perspective of professional values. The factor of whether they are interdisciplinary postgraduates impacted on the attitudes on the perspective of the sense of professional belongings among non-pedagogy postgraduates. Secondly, the attitudes toward teachers’ professional identity on the perspective of the professional values and role values among English pedagogy major postgraduates are much more positive than it among non-pedagogy postgraduates. Meanwhile, the attitudes toward teachers’ professional identity on the perspective of the sense of professional belongings and the professional behavior orientation among English non-pedagogy major postgraduates are more positive than it among pedagogy postgraduates. Thus, the research findings will provide significant implications for the current teacher education and teachers’ professional identity development for postgraduates.