Investigating Chinese University EFL Teachers' Professional Identity and Socio-Demographic Factors

Abstract

This study explores how teacher professional identity (TPI) is associated with socio-demographic factors. A quantitative approach was employed using questionnaire as the research instrument. The participants of the main study, 331 EFL teachers working in public and private Higher Education Institutions in Central China, were recruited using snowball sampling. The English Teacher Identity Measure (ETIM) was adopted to measure TPI level. Based on independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA, the 10 demographic factors, including gender, type of institution, age, educational level, academic title, length of service, EFL course type, leadership position, monthly income, and marital status were investigated. Findings indicate that educational level and leadership position could lead to significantly different TPI levels. The change patterns of TPI based on other factors are also discussed.