Middle School Teachers With Doctoral Degree:A Narrative Study On Career Choice And Career Life

In the traditional sense,as the top talent of the academic pyramid in China,Ph D graduates should regard academic career as the most valuable career call,which is also considered as the linear channel for the career development of Ph D graduates.However,research shows that more and more Ph D graduates choose to pursue non-academic careers after graduation.Among non-academic occupations,middle school teachers are favored by many Ph D graduates.In our country,it is no longer a new thing for Ph D graduates to become middle school teachers.However,whenever the information about the middle schools where the Ph D graduates teach is presented to the public,it is inevitable that a controversy will arise.The focus of the debate is whether Ph D graduates are suitable for teaching in middle schools?Is it a waste of knowledge for Ph D graduates to teach middle school? This may be the only answer that can be found from the teachers themselves.This study takes qualitative research as the main research paradigm,from the perspective of educational phenomenology,takes six middle school teachers with doctoral degrees as the research objects,collects research data through in-depth interviews,and analyzes the research data through the combination of scenario analysis and category analysis,thus presenting the psychological process and the real state of professional life of the six middle school teachers with doctoral degrees.The study found that the situation of the times,salary treatment,personal interests,future considerations,lifestyle and important others are the six most important factors affecting the choice of doctoral graduates to become secondary school teachers.As far as their professional life is concerned,decency and dilemmas have jointly drawn the professional life picture of teachers in secondary schools with doctoral degrees.From the perspective of working environment,they are immersed in the profound culture of famous schools and enjoy first-rate hardware facilities;From the perspective of salary treatment,they have enviable salary income and various hidden benefits besides salary income;From the perspective of daily teaching,they have rich subject knowledge and cutting-edge knowledge reserves and are familiar with the internal logic of knowledge generation.They also master the efficient learning experience and learning methods that middle school students must have.At the same time,they are also very good at research-based learning and characteristic curriculum development;In scientific research,they do not have the heavy scientific research pressure as colleges and universities in the middle school environment where teaching is more important than scientific research;In terms of status,they enjoy the halo of famous schools brought by key middle schools,and are respected by leaders,colleagues and students.These are the decency of their professional life.At the same time,they will also face some problems in their professional life.In teaching,the slightly obscure teaching norms and the excessive projection of individual learning experience may bring some problems to their teaching;In terms of occupational pressure,high expectations and doubts make them carry the burden and move forward,at the same time,the lack of student management experience also makes them feel powerless;In terms of professional development,the vague professional development support system and formal on-the-job training make them confused about the direction of further development.Based on the above research,the final conclusion is as follows: Ph D entering secondary school is not only a helpless move in the era of employment entrapment,but also an active choice after comprehensive consideration,and its career anchor plays an important role;There are certain characteristics in doctoral graduates that are compatible with teaching and learning in middle schools;At the same time,doctoral graduates in secondary schools are also faced with the confusion of professional development.Based on the above research conclusions,it is recommended that education administration departments should do a good job in top-level design from the policy and institutional levels,and appropriately encourage and advocate doctoral students to enter secondary schools;Schools should choose talents reasonably based on their own conditions and needs,and not blindly follow the trend;We need to broaden the platform and space for doctoral career development,and more importantly,we need to retain them when they are introduced;Secondary school teachers with doctoral degrees should identify their career positioning and make career planning as soon as possible,overcome adverse conditions,and give full play to their own advantages.The above research conclusions preliminarily answer the two questions of whether doctoral graduates are suitable for teaching middle school and whether doctoral graduates are wasting knowledge in teaching middle school.