Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Autonomy, Agency, and Identity in Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language pp 91–109Cite as

To Be or not to Be an ‘Old English Lecturer’: A Social Identity Theory Perspective

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

  • 883 Accesses

Abstract

While recent education reform across the globe has increasingly focused on the professional practices of lecturers (Teng in Front Educ China 12:113–132, 2017a; Tian & Lu in Teach High Educ 22:957–974, 2017), the identity development of lecturers—who play a pivotal part in the development of teaching, research, and teacher education—becomes an emerging topic in higher education. China is the largest country involved with teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) and university English teachers are the largest group of teachers in university. In China, a lecturer is an academic rank below associate professor. University English lecturers, particularly those who have taught English in universities for a long time but have not been promoted to associate professor due to the fierce competition in the academic promotion system, has become a common but serious phenomenon in China (Wen & Zhang in Foreign Lang Educ 38:67–72, 2017). However, there is a lack of systematic research into how university English lecturers engage in various aspects of their professional development, including teaching, research, and academic service. In addition, there is a lack of understanding of what challenges they may encounter, how they navigate the challenges to enhance their teaching and research work, and how they respond to constraints in fostering changes to their work. This chapter aims to bridge these gaps, with a focus on using identity as an analytical lens to examine the identity construction experiences of one group of university English lecturers in the contested and ever-shifting contexts of teacher education and higher education in mainland China.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Barkhuizen, G. (Ed.). (2017). Reflections on language teacher identity research. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duff, P. A. (2008). Case study research in applied linguistics. New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ethier, K. A., & Deaux, K. (1994). Negotiating social identity when contexts change: Maintaining identification and responding to threat. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(2), 243–251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fanghanel, J. (2007). Investigating university lecturers’ pedagogical constructs in the working context. The Higher Education Academy. Retrieved September 26, 2017 from https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/system/files/fanghanel.pdf.

  • Gu, M. Y., & Benson, P. (2015). The formation of English teacher identities: A cross-cultural investigation. Language Teaching Research, 19(2), 187–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guan, M., & So, J. (2016). Influence of social identity on self-efficacy beliefs through perceived social support: A social identity theory perspective. Communication Studies, 67(5), 588–604.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haslam, A. S. (2001). Psychology in organizations. London: SAGE Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hockings, C., Cooke, S., Yamashita, H., McGinty, S., & Bowl, M. (2009). ‘I’m neither entertaining nor charismatic …’ negotiating university teacher identity within diverse student groups. Teaching in Higher Education, 14(5), 483–494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodson, G., & Earle, M. (2017). Social identity theory (SIT). In V. Zeigler-Hill & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of personality and individual differences (pp. 1–7). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hogg, M., & Abrams, D. (1998). Social identifications: A social psychology of intergroup relations and group processes. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Islam, G. (2014). Social identity theory. In T. Teo (Ed.), The encyclopedia of critical psychology (pp. 1781–1783). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, R. (2012). Discourse analysis: A resource book for students. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loh, C. E., & Liew, W. M. (2016). Voices from the ground: The emotional labor of English teachers’ work. Teaching and Teacher Education, 55, 267–278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, D., Mitchell, J., Santoro, N., & White, S. (2011). Teacher educators and ‘accidental’ careers in academe: An Australian perspective. Journal of Education for Teaching, 37(3), 247–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merriam, S. (2009). Qualitative research. A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mummendey, A., Kessler, T., Klink, A., Mielke, R., & Insko, C. A. (1999). Strategies to cope with negative social identity: Predictions by social identity theory and relative deprivation theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(2), 229–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nevgi, A., & Löfström, E. (2015). The development of academics’ teacher identity: Enhancing reflection and task perception through a university teacher development programme. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 46(5), 53–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Renkema, L. J., Stapel, D. A., & Van Yperen, N. W. (2008). Go with the flow: Conforming to others in the face of existential threat. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 747–756.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds, K. J., & Turner, J. C. (2006). Individuality and the prejudiced personality. European Review of Social Psychology, 17, 233–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlenker, B. R. (2003). Self-presentation. In M. R. Leary, J. P. Tangney, M. R. E. Leary, & J. P. E. Tangney (Eds.), Handbook of self and identity (pp. 492–518). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sherman, S., Hamilton, D., & Lewis, A. (1999). Perceived entitativity and the social identity value of group membership. In D. Abrams & M. Hogg (Eds.), Social identity and social cognition (pp. 80–110). Oxford, England: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Pres.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H. (1982). Social psychology of intergroup relations. Annual Review of Psychology, 33, 1–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of inter-group conflict. In J. A. Williams & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of inter-group relations (pp. 33–47). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tang, J. (2017). Assigned identity vs claimed identity: A study of novice college English teachers’ professional identity. Shandong Foreign Language Teaching, 38, 38–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teng, F. (2017a). Imagined community, identity, and teaching Chinese as a second language to foreign students in China. Frontiers of Education in China, 12(4), 113–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teng, F. (2017b). Emotional development and construction of teacher identity: Narrative interactions about the pre-service teachers’ practicum experiences. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 42(11), 117–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tian, M., & Lu, G. (2017). What price the building of world-class universities? Academic pressure faced by young lecturers at a research-centered university in china. Teaching in Higher Education, 22(8), 957–974.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Timoštšuk, I., & Ugaste, A. (2010). Student teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 1563–1570.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trepte, S., & Loy, L. S. (2017). Social identity theory and self-categorization theory. In P. Rössler, C. A. Hoffner, & L. van Zoonen (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of media effects (pp. 1–13). Somerset, NJ: Willy.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, J. C. (1999). Some current issues in research on social identity and self-categorization theories. In N. Ellemers, R. Spears, & B. Dossje (Eds.), Social identity: Context, commitment, content (pp. 6–34). Oxford: Blackwell publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, J. C., & Reynolds, K. J. (2010). The story of social identity. In T. Postmes & N. Branscombe (Eds.), Rediscovering social identity: Core sources (pp. 13–32). New York: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • 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.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wen, Q. F., & Zhang, H. (2017). Voices from university young English teachers: A longitudinal study. Foreign Language Education, 38, 67–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Yuan, R. (2015). Understanding language teacher educators’ identities in Hong Kong. Unpublished doctoral thesis. The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yuan, R. (2017). “This game is not easy to play”: A narrative inquiry into a novice EFL teacher educator’s research and publishing experiences. Professional Development in Education, 43(3), 474–491.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yuan, R., & Lee, I. (2014). Understanding language teacher educators’ professional experiences: An exploratory study in Hong Kong. The Asia-Pacific Educational Researcher, 23, 143–149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

    (Mark) Feng Teng

Authors
  1. (Mark) Feng Teng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to (Mark) Feng Teng .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Teng, (. (2019). To Be or not to Be an ‘Old English Lecturer’: A Social Identity Theory Perspective. In: Autonomy, Agency, and Identity in Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0728-7_7

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0728-7_7

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-0727-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-0728-7

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation