A Dynamic Systems Theory Perspective on Pre-service Chinese Language Teachers’ Professional Identity

Identity is a set of meanings that defines who one is and what it means to be a particular kind of person (Beijaard, 1995; Burke &Stets, 2009; Gee, 2000). It is something that a person possesses as well enacts in a given context. Professional identity is how somebody looks at and acts as a professional in relation to employment (Burns &Bell, 2011). Teacher professional identity focuses on teachers’ cognition and conception of being a teacher (Yuan & Zhang, 2020). It is of vital significance to teacher education (Bullough, 1997). Exploring language teachers’ professional identity and what it really means is an important approach to understanding language teachers’ professional development, vis-à-vis how they grow professionally (Beauchamp & Tomas, 2011; Sachs, 2005; Varghese, Morgan, Johnston & Johnston, 2005). Admittedly, it is difficult to define teacher professional identity (Beauchamp & Tomas, 2009), but there is agreement that teacher professional identity is a rich and dynamic concept. It is not fixed; it is fluid, multifaceted, and dynamically evolving (Gee, 2001). To better understand the unstable and shifting nature of teacher professional identity, Complexity Theory (CT) (Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008) and Dynamic Systems Theory (DST) (de Bot, 2008) were used as the theoretical framework of this research. Using CT/DST as the framework, this longitudinal qualitative research was conducted to investigate eight pre-service Chinese language teachers’ professional identity by using narrative inquiry as a data collection tool. Ten months’ self-reflective journals written by the participants were collected as primary data for my examining the change of their professional identity. Three interviews with each of the participants were conducted as a way of complementing the journal data, thus forming a kind of triangulation (Creswell, 2018). Metaphors were analysed, and a visual method was used, both of which were expected to enable the researcher to probe into participants’ narratives. The result shows that identity development is a complex process for the teachers of Chinese to speakers of other languages, lending support to the existing literature. The fact that pre-service language teachers hold multiple identities that relate to their gradual professional development and that the process of their professional identity formation is non-linear is illustrative of how teacher professional identity can be better understood through CT/DST. This study described the complexity of pre-service Chinese language teachers’ identity, presented the dynamic process of their professional identity formation and transformation, explored the factors that influenced language teachers’ identity change, and discussed how the shift of identity affected their motivation of becoming language teachers. The result of this research has some implications for language teacher education programmes.

Name thesis:degree_name

PhD

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor dc:publisher

ResearchSpace@Auckland

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Wang, Di

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Zhang, L
• Read, J

Statement dc:rights

• Items in ResearchSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/docs/uoa-docs/rights.htm

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2292/49705

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:researchspace.auckland.ac.nz:2292/49705