Constructing professional identity in international school context: a narrative

study of six experienced Chinese as a foreign language teachers in Hong Kong

Presenter: Zhen LiUniversity of Hong Kong

AIE Conference, Mumbai11 October 2014

Teacher professional identity• “Who or what someone is, the various meanings

someone can attach to oneself or the meanings attributed to oneself by others”

(Beijaard, 1995, p. 282)

• “A set of attributes that are imposed upon the teaching profession either by outsiders or members of the teaching fraternity itself”

(Sachs, 2001, p. 153)

• “How teachers define themselves to themselves and to others”

(Lasky, 2005, p. 901)

The intercultural dimensions of FL teaching

• Teachers act as cultural brokers and language transmitters

• Effective FL teaching is associated with the competence of conversing with students, colleagues and parents in socially and culturally appropriate ways

• Multiplicity of the intercultural context: linguistic, cultural, curricular, pedagogical etc.

FL teacher professional development needs:

(1) To develop teachers’ capacity to critically examine their own preconceptions, their teaching, learning, and assessment practices, and their students’ learning, with a focus on meaning-making in the context of diversity in and out of the language classroom;

(1) Through such developmental processes, to gain a deeper understanding of the interpretive and reflective nature of language learning that leads to an awareness of themselves as participants, with their learners, in reciprocal interpretation of meaning-making

(Scarino, 2014: p. 387)

The cultural-demographic context of Hong Kong international schools

CFL education in Hong Kong international schools

• Dated back to 1970s• Became every-day compulsory class in 2000s• Offered to all year levels (PYP, MYP and IBDP)• Multi-level pathways (beginning, intermediated,

advanced etc.)

Theoretical lenses

• Post-strucutralist perspective on identity (Block, 2007)– Highly context-based– Changeable as opposed to static– Negotiated in social interactions with other people

• Identity development in a community of practice (Wenger, 1998)– Teachers as participators in their communities of

practice– From legitimate peripheral participants to full

participants

Research questions

(1) How did the experienced CFL teachers account for the process of their professional identity construction across their professional life span?

(1) How do the classroom, whole school and broader social contexts influence the teachers’ professional identity construction?

MethodologyData collection•Snowball sampling•Face-to-face interviews•Life-history based

Data interpretation•Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

The participants6 senior experienced CFL teachers from 5 Hong Kong international schools– Aged between 45 and 55– Native Mandarin Chinese speakers– Taught CFL for over 20 years– Were heads of their departments– 5 of the 6 participants started their CFL

career in overseas countries

Summary of data analysis 1:constructing identity at classroom

context Early encounters within the Western classrooms

•The culture shock: from the “East” to the “West”•Reconstructing beliefs about teaching, teacher and studentLearning to teach the Western children•Reconstructing the role of a teacher •Critical thinking about the Eastern and Western education•Informal apprenticeship from the Western mainstream teachers

An interview quote from Hong

“ The primary, secondary and tertiary education we experienced in China was far far different from that in Australia. Our understanding about teachers, I mean the role of teachers, and teacher-student relationship were extremely different from that in Australia. In the Mainland China, we treated teachers with great respect, even with awe. However, in Australia, the relationship between teachers and students was much more intimate. I mean teachers and students in Australia were very different from that in China. This was a challenge to me at that time.”

An interview quote from Xiao

“When I was teaching year one (in Australia) […], the year one kids were so little that they could not sit still […]. I was wondering why, so initially I said, “Sh! Sh!”. […] They did not listen. […] And then I started with “Shush! Shush! Shush!” That didn’t work either! Then my brain was racked, I shouted “shut up”! […] The (class) teacher abruptly looked back toward me. She was shocked (by me)! (She thought) how could I say things like that ？ […] The moment I looked at her face I realized that I put my foot in my mouth!”

Summary of data analysis 2: constructing identity at the whole school context

• Includes all types of interactions, cooperation and collaboration with the Western colleagues at workplace

• Includes both professional and personal levels• A process of gaining a critical understanding about the

Chinese and Western cultures • Involves constant negotiations between the dominant

and less dominant groups • Shows a “cosmopolitan” stance of cultural identity

An interview quote from Hong

I think for the Chinese teachers, or for the Chinese teachers who are working in such kind of school context, I could often sense a so-called dilemma from them. That is: where my identity is? Do I need to be more like a Chinese, or, do I need to mingle with the Westerners？

An interview quote from Lan

Chinese people value Han Yang (涵养， hán yǎng ， self-restraint), who cares about it? I’ve been working in this British institution for a long time and I’m telling you: I’m fed up with it! No one cares about you! I think there are contradictions between some Chinese values and Western Values. […] When we learned about PYP (in professional development), we see “confidence” is included into the PYP attitudes! However, there is absolutely no place for “modesty”. […] Sometimes it’s not an issue of modesty, they (the Westerners) would think: you don’t understand! You are an idiot! […] You have to speak out (your opinions)! You have to speak out (your opinions)! Otherwise nobody would respect you.

Data analysis 3: constructing identity at the transnational context

• Contextual change from other countries to Hong Kong• From a foreign language to an ambivalent foreign

language

• Status of CFL as a course subject and as a social language• From competitive to prestigious

Two interview quotes from Zhangyang

“Of course Hong Kong seems to be a society with Chinese cultural background, but the reality here is that the status of the Chinese language and peoples’ knowledge about the Chinese language here make Chinese a kind of foreign language. So I don’t feel much change about the change of the social environment (from Australia to Hong Kong).”

“(In Australia) I taught in a very traditional private school and I was surrounded by French, German, Latin and Japanese teachers. I have to bit for students. If you failed to bid for students, it means you will loose your job. This is a bit like marketization. Here in Hong Kong I feel I’m like “the daughter of an emperor does not worry about finding a husband” (huángdì de nǚér bù chóu jià, 皇帝的女儿不愁嫁 ).”

Discussion

• An inbound trajectory of identity formation– Reconstruction of professional knowledge and cultural

values– Negotiations of various meanings in power relations

• Multi-levels of contextual mediation– Institutional – Linguistic – Trans-spatial

• Cosmopolitanism in identity construction– Teachers as critical cultural thinkers, reflectors and

practitioners

References• Beijaard, D. (1995). Teachers' prior experiences and actual

perceptions of professional identity. Teachers and Teaching, 1(2), 281-294.

• Block, D. (2007). Second language identities. London: Continuum.• Lasky, S. (2005). A sociocultural approach to understanding

teacher identity, agency and professional vulnerability in a context of secondary school reform. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(8), 899-916.

• Sachs, J. (2001). Teacher professional identity: competing discourses, competing outcomes. Journal of Education Policy, 16(2), 149-161.

• Scarino, A. (2014). Learning as reciprocal, interpretive meaning-making: a view from collaborative research Into the professional learning of teachers of languages. The Modern Language Journal, 98(1), 386-401.

• Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Thank you!