Teacher Identity in Structural Reflective Workshops: A View from China

Abstract

There have been mismatches between Chinese traditional educational culture and pedagogical practice in today’s classrooms, as well as between societal needs of students’ autonomy development and the limitations of teacher training in contemporary China. These point to the demand to focus on the development of teacher identity. Previous research has been conducted on the identity formation of student–teachers, yet there have been few efforts to study the identities of Chinese teachers in in-service training. Drawing upon the Dialogical Self Theory (DST), the purpose of this study was to elaborate on identity negotiations by identifying the main I-positions of Chinese teachers in structured reflective workshops. Nine teachers coming from the same school participated in the research. In one academic year, 13 workshops were held, excluding the summer and winter breaks. Data were analyzed using a content analysis approach with constant comparison. The results showed that, first, Chinese experienced teachers were subject to the main tensions between a “controller” I-position and a “partner” I-position. Second, three forms of negotiations between these two I-positions were evident in the workshops, namely, inhibiting the previous I-position, conflicting I-positions, and dialogue between I-positions. The presence of these negotiations indicates that the structured reflective workshops serve as a vehicle to promote the development of experienced teacher identity.