Exploring Teacher Identity: A Pilot Study of Immigrant Chinese Teachers of Mandarin in a Canadian University

• In Event: Identity and Teachers: Teacher Sense-Making in Context

Abstract

Racial minority immigrant teachers constitute an integral part of the teaching force in many higher educational institutions in Canada. This study is an attempt to examine teacher identity of immigrant Chinese teachers of Mandarin with a focus on two Mandarin teachers working in a Canadian university. Interview and direct observation were employed to collect data from the participants. The findings reveal that the negotiation of teacher identities between ‘root’ and ‘route’ is not only constituted by a variety of sociocultural discourses teachers historically and currently inhabit but also influenced by teachers’ choices within these discourses, and that teachers' negotiated identities are intertwined with their teaching practices.

Author

• Yujia Jiang, Simon Fraser University