Aalborg Universitet Becoming a 'good' Chinese language teacher Professional identity, learning experience and teaching culture Zhang, Chun DOI (link to publication from Publisher): 10.5278/vbn.phd.hum.00040 Publication date: 2016 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication from Aalborg University Citation for published version (APA): Zhang, C. (2016). Becoming a 'good' Chinese language teacher: Professional identity, learning experience and teaching culture. Aalborg Universitetsforlag. Ph.d.-serien for Det Humanistiske Fakultet, Aalborg Universitet https://doi.org/10.5278/vbn.phd.hum.00040 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. ? 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Thesis submitted: May 12, 2016 PhD supervisor: Associate Prof. Annie Aarup Jensen Aalborg University PhD committee: Associate professor Kirsten Jæger Aalborg University, Denmark (chair) Professor Zhu Hua University of London, UK Professor Fred Dervin University of Helsinki, Finland PhD Series: Faculty of Humanities, Aalborg University ISSN (online): 2246-123X ISBN (online): 978-87-7112-364-7 Published by: Aalborg University Press Skjernvej 4A, 2nd floor DK – 9220 Aalborg Ø Phone: +45 99407140 [email protected] forlag.aau.dk © Copyright: Chún Zhāng Printed in Denmark by Rosendahls, 2016 CV Chún Zhāng obtained her Bachelor of Arts from East China Normal University, in Shanghai, China in 1994, and a Master degree in IT, Language and Learning from Aarhus University, Denmark in 2004. Chún is a full-time teaching associate professor in China studies, Department of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Denmark, and has been a Ph.D. student (part-time) in the Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University since 2011. Chún specialized in teaching Chinese as a foreign language (TCFL) and Chinese teacher education. She has a track record in research into bilingualism and bilingual education. Chún is a member of several research groups, including IC Research Group founded at Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University, and the member of the Nordic research consortium in Chinese studies sponsored by Erasmus Plus, aiming for initialing teacher development programs to TCFL teachers within Nordic Universities. I ENGLISH SUMMARY Recent studies on CFL (Chinese as foreign language) teacher identity have increasingly been paying attention to teachers’ beliefs, learning experience, and educational context. Whilst insightful, these studies have not addressed the ways CFL teachers relate their beliefs, experiences and context in the process of professional identity construction. This Ph.D. project addresses this research gap by aiming to understand what teachers believe who they are, what they think who the others are, and how they relate the understanding to their professional identities. The project is carried out within the Danish higher educational context. Ten CFL teachers from three Danish universities participated in the project. The dissertation has been divided into nine chapters. The 1st chapter is an introduction that presents an overall picture of the study. The 2nd chapter is about literature review. I provided a historical background about two major research areas. Then I reviewed empirical studies in the domain of CFL teacher identity research. After reviewing these studies, I raised two major concerns. In order to address these concerns in a theoretically sound manner, in the 3rd chapter, a proposed research model was proposed, which took social identity theory (Wenger 1998) and domain-related CFL research into consideration. Chapter 4 is about methodology. A qualitative research consisting of semi-structured interviews, classroom observation and researcher’s journal is adopted. Four studies reported in Chapter 5, 6, 7 and 8 are the most significant empirical studies aiming to address the research questions. They are based on the proposed research model. The 1st study reported in Chapter 5 aims to understand the factors influencing the professional identity construction of three nonnative-speaker teachers of Chinese. The study reveals that teachers' present teaching is closely influenced by teachers’ prior CFL learning experience at Chinese university, and the ability of making sense of their experience determines the degree each nonnative-speaker teacher of Chinese modify the sense of identification. The second study, reported in Chapter 6 aims to understand the identity construction of two new nonnative-speaker teachers of Chinese. A narrative III BECOMING A ‘GOOD’ CHINESE LANGUAGE TEACHER: PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY, LEARNING EXPERIENCE AND TEACHING CULTURE approach is adopted. The study results show the relationship between prior domain- related (i.e., CFL learning) experience, their beliefs of being teachers, and their self- identification. The 3rd study, reported in Chapter 7, aims to understand the factors influencing the identity construction of three native-speaker teachers of Chinese teaching Chinese to Danish university students. The study revealed two interesting results. One result was that the ability of relating to student response from the perspective of the other cultures indicates a strong willingness of the native CFL teachers to find opportunities to engage with otherness. The other result was that the Chinese teachers seek the possibilities to establish a “third space”, upon which they construct their meaning of becoming ‘good’ teachers. The 4th study, reported in Chapter 8, aims to better understand the factors influencing the identity construction of three new native-speaker teachers of Chinese. The results revealed that the new teachers experienced tensions and conflicts while performing their preferred roles of teachers. These tensions and conflicts attributed to their negotiation between the implication of “Chinese-styled” teacher and “Danish-styled” teacher. Finally, in Chapter 9, the main research results are summarized, and major findings are discussed in terms of (1) interaction between teachers’ domain-related prior experience and teachers’ beliefs, (2) interplay between students’ responses and teachers’ beliefs, and (3) interrelation between teacher’s identity and teaching cultures. The conclusions, educational implications for CFL teacher education and development as well as some questions for further research are also developed and discussed in the final chapter. IV DANSK RESUME De seneste studier inden for området CFL (Chinese as Foreign Language) af læreres faglige identitet har i stadig højere grad været rettet mod lærernes holdning, deres egen erfaring med at lære og den uddannelsesmæssige kontekst. Trods indsigtsfulde, har disse studier ikke undersøgt hvordan CFL-lærernes holdning, erfaringer og kontekst indgår som led i opbygningen af lærerens professionelle identitet. Denne Ph.D.-opgave bidrager med forskning på dette område med det mål at forstå CFL-læreres undervisning og erfaring med læring i en dansk kontekst. Med fokus på lærernes professionelle identitet undersøger jeg sammenhængen mellem læreres tro på at blive en ’god’ lærer, deres forståelse af de danske studerende og deres overvejelser i forhold til at undervise studerende ved danske universiteter i kinesisk som fremmedsprog (CFL). Ti CFL-lærere fra tre danske universiteter deltog i undersøgelsen. Afhandlingen er inddelt i ni kapitler. Første kapitel er en introduktion til studiet som helhed. Andet kapitel er en gennemgang af litteratur på området, specielt en gennemgang af den historiske baggrund for to større forskningsområder. Herefter gennemgår jeg empiriske undersøgelser inden for området CFL-læreres læreridentitet. På denne baggrund rejser jeg to problemstillinger. For på teoretisk holdbar vis at forholde mig til disse problemstillinger, foreslår jeg i tredje kapitel en forskningsmodel som tager social identitetsteori (Wenger 1998) og domæne-relateret CFL-forskning i betragtning. Metodologien gennemgås i fjerde kapitel. En kvalitativ undersøgelse bestående af semi-strukturerede interviews, klasserumsobservation og forskernotater foreslås. De fire undersøgelser fremlagt i kapitlerne 5, 6, 7 og 8 bygger på den foreslåede model og er de mest signifikante empiriske i forhold til at besvare problemstillingen. Den første undersøgelse, som beskrives i kapitel 5, har som mål at forstå de faktorer der har indflydelse på opbygningen af identitet hos tre ikke-kinesiske