441 / 2020-02-29 17:03:37

A Narrative Inquiry into a primary school Female EFL Teacher's Identity

teacher identity,female teacher

外语教师发展 > 外语教师发展

This paper explores how a female EFL teacher in a public primary school in China negotiates her professional identity to adapt to her new role as a mother. Drawing on the approach of narrative inquiry, it aims to illuminate the complexity of teacher identity (re)construction and (re)negotiation as it is located both in the micro institutional and macro sociocultural contexts. The findings of the study show that our participant’s professional identity as EFL teacher at work and gender identities as mother, wife at home often competed with each other. Thus, the maintenance of competing identities requires the work of reconciliation. This study contributes to our understanding of the challenges, pressures and complexities which public primary school teachers confront with when the traditional family and social culture contradicts with their professional development. This study also offers some practical implications for both governmental and institutional administrators on how to help female teachers construct a positive identity under pressures both from work and family to support their professional development and teaching practice in the long run.