A Study On The Professional Identity Of The Six-year Public-funded Normal University Graduates

Education is the foundation of national development in the long run.Teachers lay the foundation of education development in the long term.The Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government attach great importance to education and put education in a strategic position of priority development.However,at present,the teacher force in rural areas is weak and there is a serious staff turnover.To alleviate poverty by developing education in rural areas,the government has formulated a series of policies.In response to the Public-funded Normal University Graduates training,Hunan Province launched the Six-year Public-funded Normal University Graduates training program in 2010.Since the implementation of this policy,it has favorably replenished the rural primary and secondary school teacher teams.However,whether the Six-year Public-funded Normal University Graduates can take up the hope of the country and devote themselves to the weak areas of education in a wholehearted and long-term manner is closely related to their identification with the teaching profession.Professional identity is a psychological process based on the perception of the profession and the positive evaluation of oneself and various aspects of the profession.Several studies have shown that teachers’ professional identity is closely related to job satisfaction,burnout,and intention to leave the profession.Teachers’ professional identity determines their love and effort for their profession,which directly affects the quality and level of education.Teachers’ actions influence the students in a subtle way,so it is said that the teacher’s words and example have a lifelong impact on the students.Therefore,it is necessary to investigate the professional identity of the Six-year Public-funded Normal University Graduates.This study selected the Graduates of the Six-year Public-funded Normal University professional identity as the focus of research.This study took social identity theory,social exchange theory,and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory as the theoretical basis.This study also used literature analysis to theoretically construct the structure of the Six-year Public-funded Normal University Graduates’ professional identity.According to the Six-year Public-funded Normal University Graduates’ characteristics,the study divided teachers’ professional identity into six elements,which were professional cognition,professional emotion,professional expectation,professional ability,professional value,and professional will.The questionnaires and interview outlines were prepared,and the influencing factors behind the current situation were analyzed.In this way,targeted countermeasures were proposed to provide empirical references for the education authority to formulate relevant policies and rural schools to develop teacher management systems.This study adopted a combination of random sampling and categorical survey methods to conduct questionnaires and interviews with teachers who graduated from the Six-year Public-funded Normal University Graduates training program.303 valid questionnaires were returned,and interviews were conducted with 15 subjects in the sample.This study used SPSS20.0 and EXCEL to analyze the data.The results of the analysis showed that(1)the professional identity of teachers among the Six-year Public-funded Normal University Graduates was in the middle to upper level;(2)marital status,teaching experience,job title,monthly income,monthly household income,and the grade taught differed significantly in terms of teachers’ professional identity;(3)eight factors,namely,professional environment,teaching environment,work assignment,quality of students,professional income,professional welfare,professional development,and quality of parents,affect the professional identity of the Six-year Public-funded Normal University Graduates.Based on the above findings,this study proposes corresponding suggestions at the four levels of the government,society,schools and teachers themselves:(1)the government establishes an effective monitoring mechanism to protect teachers’ rights and interests;(2)the society improves teachers’ status and attaches importance to family education;(3)the training institutions improve training objectives and schools optimize the working mechanism of teachers;(4)the individual teachers establish correct values and focus on professional development.