A narrative study of English language teacher identity in Chinese vocational education /

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Student Theses

2024

Liu, Xiao Yi

Hong Kong : The Education University of Hong Kong

Thesis

This narrative study explores how three English language teachers (ELTs) in a Chinese vocational college construct their teacher identities through the lens of positioning. Situating this vocational education (VE) ELT identity investigation within scholarship that conceives teacher identities as fluid, multifaceted, contested, and shaped by power relations, a narrative approach was employed. Narrative frame data were collected from 19 VE ELTs in the vocational college, three of whom were purposefully selected as the focal participants: a novice, a mid-career, and a veteran VE ELT. Multiple sources of narrative data were gathered over one and a half years, including narrative frames, interviews, online conversations, and their online postings. Barkhuizen's short story approach is utilized to analyze the extracted short stories from the teachers, informed by positioning theory.Analysis of the teachers' stories indicated that the VE ELTs constructed their teacher identities by repeatedly committing themselves to particular identity-categories and by (re) positioning themselves, others, and external discourses to accommodate the situated contexts. They agentively opposing to or identifying with certain positions, expressing and developing certain teacher identities. In addition, the study enriches current understanding of teacher identity construction in four ways: negative incidents evoking strong emotions trigger teachers' (re)positioning acts; positioning manifests and achieves differently across contextual scales; positioning is shaped by teachers' personal experiences, beliefs, morals, and the external discourses that ascribe positions to VE teachers; teacher agency, teacher emotion, and positioning constitute an interconnected triad, each element informing the others.Implications for building and bolstering positive VE ELT identities and VE student identities are also discussed.This narrative study contributes to scholarship of teacher identities by delineating the intricate process of VE ELTs' positioning and the salient meditating factors. The interaction among teacher agency, teacher emotions, and positioning is revealed, advancing the understanding of how teachers negotiate and construct their professional identities in (re)interpreting and exercising their duties, rights, and responsibilities

LG51.H47 Dr 2024eb Liuxy

https://educoll.lib.eduhk.hk/records/oYnuxCUX