This symposium focuses on EFL teachers’ identity construction and the key competencies they should have. The first study investigates EFL teachers’ assessment literacy and influencing factors with situational questionnaire and interviews. Informed by Foucault’s notion of ethics and the four axes of ethical self-formation, the second study explores native-speaking English teachers professional identity construction in relation to their lived teaching experiences and practices at a university in Beijing. The third study examines with a multiple case study approach how teaching-oriented EFL teachers in mainland China have experienced a process of formation, negotiation, and/or renegotiation against the changing sociocultural contexts. The fourth presentation reports a study conducted by EAP teachers to explore disciplinary knowledge involved in teaching research article writing to Economics students. This symposium is expected to further understandings of the professionalism and identity of different subgroups of EFL teachers in mainland China.
 

teacher education,teacher identity,key competencies,challenges