Abstract
Chapters 2 and 3 considered the challenges mainland Chinese preservice teachers experience in becoming English language teachers in Hong Kong. This chapter continues to explore the perceived challenges of becoming an English language teacher in multilingual contexts such as Hong Kong from the perspective of local Hong Kong preservice teachers. The current chapter discusses the results of a qualitative study that aimed to explore how one group of preservice English language teachers in Hong Kong constructed their identities as teachers. Using in-depth interviews to gain a rich understanding of participants’ teacher identity formation in practice and discourse, the perspectives of six preservice teachers about teaching and teachers at the completion of their undergraduate teacher education program are examined. In contrast to the theorization of teacher identity construction, the results suggest that the participants often held rigid views about teaching and how they saw themselves, and others, as teachers. It is argued that this rigidity may lead to antagonistic relations between these preservice teachers and their more experienced colleagues as the participants move into teaching and explores the implications for challenging this rigidity within the context of teacher education programs.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alsup, J. (2006). Teacher identity discourses: Negotiating personal and professional spaces. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: An overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39, 175–189.
Britzman, D. (2003). Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to teach. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Chan, K.-w., & Elliott, R. (2000). Exploratory study of epistemological beliefs of Hong Kong teacher education students: Resolving conceptual and empirical issues. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 28, 225–234.
Cheng, M., Chan, K.-w., Tang, S., & Cheng, A. (2009). Pre-service teacher education students’ epistemological beliefs and their conceptions of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, 319–327.
Danielewicz, J. (2001). Teaching selves: Identity, pedagogy, and teacher education. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Davies, B. (1994). Poststructuralist theory and classroom practice. Geelong: Deakin University Press.
Davies, B. (2000). A body of writing 1990–1999. Walnut Creek: AltraMira Press.
Day, C. (2011). Uncertain professional identities: Managing the emotional contexts of teaching. In C. Day & J. Lee (Eds.), New understandings of teacher’s work (pp. 45–64). Dordrecht/New York: Springer.
Dornyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics. Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methodologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. London: Routledge.
Hinchman, K. A., & Oyler, C. (2000). Us and them: Finding irony in our teaching methods. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 32, 495–508.
Jorgensen, M., & Phillips, L. (2002). Discourse analysis as theory and method. London: Sage.
MacLure, M. (2003). Discourse in educational and social research. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Mendoza, L., Halualani, R., & Drzewiecka, J. (2002). Moving the discourse on identities in intercultural communication: Structure, culture, and resignifications. Communication Quarterly, 50, 312–327.
Miles, M., & Huberman, M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Millar, M. (2002). The social fashioning of teacher identities. New York: Peter Lang.
Nunan, D. (2003). The impact of English as a global language on educational policies in the Asia-pacific region. TESOL Quarterly, 37, 589–613.
Patton, M. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Pennycook, A. (2004). Critical applied linguistics. In A. Davies & C. Elder (Eds.), The handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 784–807). Malden: Blackwell.
Richardson, V. (2003). Preservice teachers’ beliefs. In J. Raths & A. C. McAninch (Eds.), Teacher beliefs and classroom performance: The impact of teacher education (pp. 1–22). Greenwich: Information Age Publishing.
Spivak, G. (1990). The post-colonial critic. New York: Routledge.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Torfing, J. (1999). New theories of discourse: Laclau, Mouffe and Zizek. Oxford: Blackwell.
Trotman, J., & Kerr, T. (2001). Making the personal professional: Pre-service teacher education and personal histories. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 7, 157–171.
Urmston, A., & Pennington, M. (2008). The beliefs and practices of novice teachers in Hong Kong: Change and resistance to change in an Asian teaching context. In T. S. C. Farrell (Ed.), Novice language teachers (pp. 89–103). London: Equinox.
van Leeuwen, T. (2008). Discourse and practice: New tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Varghese, M., Morgan, B., Johnston, B., & Johnson, K. (2005). Theorizing language teacher identity: Three perspectives and beyond. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, 4, 21–44.
Weedon, C. (1997). Feminist practice and poststructuralist theory (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Blackwell.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zeichner, K., & Tabachnick, R. (1981). Are the effects of university teacher education ‘washed out’ by school experience? Journal of Teacher Education, 32, 7–11.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Trent, J., Gao, X., Gu, M. (2014). Journeys Towards Teaching: Pre-service English Language Teachers’ Understandings and Experiences of Teaching and Teacher Education in Hong Kong. In: Language Teacher Education in a Multilingual Context. Multilingual Education, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7392-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7392-9_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-7391-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-7392-9
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)