Understanding ESL Teachers’ Agency in Their Early Years of Professional Development: A Three-Layered Triadic Reciprocity Framework

While teacher resilience has gained significant attention in recent years, empirical exploration of this issue is still insufficient, particularly with regard to English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher resilience in China. In this context, this study employed a mixed-methods design to investigate Chinese EFL teacher resilience. Specifically, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC)-EFL Teacher Survey was distributed to 330 Chinese senior high school EFL teachers. Five volunteers in the survey sample participated in semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that resilience in Chinese senior high school EFL teachers was at a moderate to high level, and there was no significant difference in teacher resilience in relation to gender and years of teaching experience, but a small significant difference with teachers’ educational background. Possible reasons for interpreting EFL teacher resilience were provided from personal and contextual perspectives. Finally, the implications of these findings were discussed for developing teacher resilience.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Mixed-Methods Study on Senior High School EFL Teacher Resilience in China

Chu

Liu

2022

“…Together, the TITRI framework articulates the interplay of role identities and the consequences of higher education on the role identity formation of T&I teachers. It may be used to frame future research in a particular role, understand T&I teacher agency and autonomy ( Huang, 2021 ; Huang et al, 2021 ; Huang and Yip, 2021 ), or gain new insights into how T&I teacher role identities are formed and what they provide to higher education. The overshadowing interaction highlights the institutional impacts on the construction of teacher role identity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward a framework for understanding translation and interpreting teacher role identity

Chen

Huang

2022

Self Cite

The purpose of this study was to present a translation and interpreting (T&I) teacher role identity (TITRI) framework for investigating how T&I teachers in China develop their role identities. There is a vast literature on language teacher identity in higher education compared to a paucity of literature on the development of T&I teacher identity. Developing a strong T&I teacher identity in the context of Chinese universities is challenging as teachers combine sub-roles of trainers/educators, researchers, and practitioners, and the context is more supportive of constructing a researcher role than trainer/educator and practitioner roles. A strong teacher identity, on the other hand, is vital since it enhances teachers’ willingness to engage in professional development. This study proposes a framework based on the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) that describes how three sub-roles interact and contribute to overall T&I teacher identity. This work contributes to the scant literature on T&I teacher identity research, shedding light on how different role identities may interact throughout the professional careers of a teacher. Additionally, the framework may also foster an awareness of the impact of higher education on a teacher and, as a result, offer implications for universities in China to encourage the development of teacher identity.

“…Therefore, with respect to pedagogical challenges in university contexts, teacher agency is enacted in the specific contexts in the present time (practical-evaluative dimension), affected by personal and professional knowledge (iteration dimension) based on life history and their future aspiration (projective dimension). In addition, teachers in supportive or competitive communities can evaluate and reflect on their educational practices and take a practical stance for the sake of altering pedagogical situations and better academic achievement, which can either be “enabled or constrained” ( Priestley et al, 2016 ; Huang and Yip, 2021 ; Jeon et al, 2022 ). In this regard, this study employed Priestley et al (2015) ’s agency model as the basis for analyzing and investigating ecological implications in response to pedagogical challenges arising in the context of university teaching.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The task of demonstrating improved language teaching competence has been applied to cultivate educators’ professional development, aiming not only to satisfy the requirements of being teachers but also to undertake the task of educational reform in classrooms. However, beginning and trainee teachers demonstrate different levels of agency, even in the same contexts, and language teachers, especially at their early career stage, often suffer professional burnout in the course of forging their teaching identity ( Huang and Yip, 2021 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An ecological approach to understanding university English teachers’ professional agency in implementing formative assessment

Jiang

Wang

2022

As a sub-realm of Language Teacher Psychology (LTP), teachers’ professional agency has gained significant attention from educational practitioners and teachers. The aim is to better discern teachers’ professional development and teaching effectiveness with a view to ensuring the quality of language teaching. International literature concerning teachers’ professional agency has noted a shift from knowledge training to vocational development in relation to teachers’ experience in decision making. Yet, little research so far has scrutinized this specific issue in Chinese university settings, and the real picture of teacher agency needs further exploration. Besides, the multidimensional and complex nature of agency identifies the overwhelming research work in understanding its contents in detail based on the previous perspectives from individuals, society, and time. To this end, the ecological understanding of professional agency reframed the theoretical basis of this study, prone to explore how teachers’ experience could be examined in relation to individual capacity, resources, and structural and contextual variables. The study was conducted in Chinese university settings in response to the research gap related to understanding professional agency. Quantitative and qualitative data from questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observations with 116 university teachers in China demonstrated that the enactment of professional agency rested on the interplay between temporal contexts, teacher capacity, and beliefs, especially in the instructional community. The findings revealed that university teachers at different stages of career development manifested variability in exercising their professional agency in relation to adapting or adopting existing teaching concepts, methods, or approaches. Mounting evidence revealed some enablers and constraints in relation to formative assessment, time impact, classroom interaction, and school culture. Emphasizing the interaction between individuals’ ability and their engagement with the professional environment, the findings provide insights into theoretical implications associated with ecological theory and enhance the practical discussion about promoting professional development for novice, mid-career, and veteran English teachers at the university level.