A Case Study On Pre-service English Teachers' Identity(Re)Construction In Professional Learning Community

In recent years,teachers' identity receives more and more attention from researchers.The research on teacher identity at home and abroad has been very rich,but most of them are mainly focused on in-service teachers and novice teachers,while the group of pre-service teachers receives less attention,especially pre-service English teachers.In our country,English education is constantly reformed,and English teachers are the key to determine the success of the reform,which sets requirements for their identity and role cognition.Therefore,based on the teacher identity construct of Xun(2012)and activity theory of Engstrom(1987),this study takes qualitative research method,and considers one pre-service senior high school English teacher as the object of case study,aiming to explore how teacher identity is formed and developed in professional learning community by applying data collecting method of semi-structured interviews,classroom observation and reflective journals,expecting to enrich the research on teacher identity area.Three research questions are addressed:Has the pre-service teacher's identity changed during teaching praticum?If so,what are the changes?What approaches did the pre-service English teacher take to construct or reconstruct identity in professional learning community?What roles did teacher professional learning community play in the construction or reconstruction process?It was found that the identity changed to different degree in four dimensions and each was influenced by the professional learning community.In the dimension of career identity,the teacher's existed professional ethics and the sense of belonging have been strengthened in the community.In the major dimension,the teacher negotiated with the existed identity and formed a new insight into it when there was a conflict between the prior identity and the realistic experience in practicum.In addition,the teacher developed a more accurate self-evaluation of her language proficiency,and formed a clearer idea of her capability of being an English teacher.In the personal dimension,the teacher's understanding toward teacher-students relationship changed from being friends to a moderate distance should be kept.Also,the desire of separating life from work was expressed.In the situated aspect,the teacher felt the support and assistance from working environment,and the positive colleague relationship promoted her confidence in being a teacher.The changes and development were mostly achieved through the combination of cooperative learning activities in community and reflection on her own,of which mentoring,peer coaching,interaction with students exert great influence on the identity construction process.Based on the findings,the current study put forward some suggestions.Firstly,the schools are expected to create a positive learning atmosphere that is conducive to cooperation.At the same time,the collaboration between the school and the university should be set up to create a learning platform that is composed of the school-based mentors,university supervisors and pre-service teachers,to provide opportunities of learning from professionals for pre-service teachers.Secondly,universities should establish incentive system to encourage and monitor teachers' learning in the community,equip pre-service teachers with help-seeking awareness and spirit of sharing,and offer some humanistic care for them,so that the positive learning climate could be created and the potential of collaborative learning in teachers can be realized.Finally,pre-service English teachers should establish a sense of respect for differences,active participation,equal cooperation,constantly improve their cooperative learning ability,and promote the establishment of a democratic and open learning community.