A Narrative Inquiry Into Initial Professional Identity Construction Of Non-normal Educated High School English Teachers In China

Among language teacher studies,teacher's professional identity is a topic gaining more and more popularity but still not fully discussed.Non-normal educated teachers,who are not fully prepared in teaching theories and skills,and other things seen to be necessary for teachers,may be confronted with more difficulties than normal green-hand teachers in the construction of professional identity especially in the initial stage.This study aims to provide a narrative inquiry into a non-normal educated high school English teacher's professional identity by adopting Wenger's identity construction theory in communities of practice.The present study intends to answer the following three questions: 1)How does a non-normal educated high school English teacher construct her professional identity in communities of practice? 2)What difficulties has she met with in the process of her professional identity construction? 3)What are the major factors that influence her professional identity construction especially when she deals with the difficulties?As the investigation indicates,non-normal educated high school English teachers are marginalized participators of the teaching community in the initial stage,so that they are difficult in participating in community activities,getting membership of the community,and negotiating meanings in the community.Meanwhile,they may face many difficulties,such as their ability being too restricted to teach well,their time being too limited,and their opinions being rejected or ignored.Furthermore,their non-normal educated background and the school culture are two major factors affecting their identity construction.