Crossing boundaries and constructing identities: The experiences of early career mainland Chinese English language teachers in Hong Kong

Crossing boundaries and constructing identities: The experiences of early career mainland Chinese English language teachers in Hong Kong

• Trent, John Hong Kong Institute of Education
• DeCoursey, Matthew Hong Kong Institute of Education

Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(1), 65-78, 2011

Routledge

2011

• M Teachers & Education for Teachers
  • MA Professional Education for Teachers

Preservice Teachers Teacher Education Programs Foreign Countries Teaching Experience English (Second Language) English Instruction Discourse Analysis Educational Practices Interviews Motivation Teacher Attitudes Program Attitudes Phenomenology Teacher Characteristics Elementary Secondary Education Higher Education

• Hong Kong
• China

• 1997.7 onwards

• Post-Secondary Education

This article reports on a qualitative study that investigated the experiences of one group of English language teachers from the Chinese mainland who completed their teacher training in Hong Kong and have taken up full-time teaching positions in secondary schools within Hong Kong. Using the concept of teacher identity construction, and drawing upon the work of Wenger (1998) and Fairclough (2003), the study traced the trajectory of the participants' identity formation from their experiences as students in mainland China and as preservice teachers in a teacher education program in Hong Kong, to their employment as English language teachers in local secondary schools. The study examines the participants' discursive and participative practices to illustrate how their experiences, both as students in the Chinese mainland and as preservice teachers in Hong Kong, shaped their construction of teacher identities, as well as to show that their employment in Hong Kong schools represented a challenge to this identity formation process. Implications for attracting and retaining teachers for the Chinese mainland in Hong Kong are considered and implications for future research outlined.
[Copyright of Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2010.540893]

• English

Journal Articles

• 1359866X

• 10.1080/1359866X.2010.540893

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/5fab76cf

2011-03-24