Episodes and professional identity development: A case study on the narrative identity of Chinese college teachers

Abstract

This paper examines the overall development of professional identity of two English teachers in the same Chinese college employing the narrative analysis approach. The process of sharing two participants' teaching experiences is proved to be instrumental in combing and understanding their change in professional identity, to which four factors are found to be instrumental, namely teachers' personality, the social environment they lived in, their prior experiences and their subjective initiative. The induction period is crucial and thus deserves guidance and support from the authority.