This thesis explores the identity formation of three EFL pre-service teachers during their teaching practicum in a school-university partnership school in Mainland China. Drawing on the sociocultural perspective, learning-to-teach is conceptualized as student teachers participating in and becoming a member of the communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) which consist of boundary-crossing members from both activity systems of the university and the school (Engestrom, 1987, 1999, 2001). Following a poststructural perspective, the student teachers’ learning-to-teach is also conceptualized as a process of “arguing for” (MacLure, 1993) their professional identities under dominant social discourses. Foucault’s (1983, 1985) concept of ethical identity formation elaborated into a framework of four ethico-political dimensions for doing teacher identity (Clarke, 2009) is adopted to further analysethe interactions between social structure and individual identity transformation. An ethnographic qualitative case study approach was adopted. Data collection methods included ethnographic observations of classroom interactions, focus group discussions and routine school activities, semi-structured interviews of student teachers and mentors, and collectioin of documents such as university teaching practicum documents, lesson plans, reflective diaries and newsletters. Both “content analysis” and “modified analytic induction” (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007; Merriam, 1998; Patton, 2002) were adopted to conduct within-case and cross-case data analysis. The multi-method approach allowed the researcher to collect and interpret data from both holistic and in-depth research perspectives which also enabled triangulations during data analysis. The analysis indicated that historical, cultural, political and economic forces intertwined and formed general social discourses. Their influences permeated into the discourses of both the university and the school activity systems. Due to the contradictory discourses of ELT education between the two institutions, the boundary-crossing learning-to-teach activities were replete with tensions, asymmetrical power relationships, and interpersonal conflicts, which combined to become driving forces for the different transformations of the three student teachers’ identities within the school-university partnership activity system as a global community of practice (COP). Due to different individual backgrounds, inner tensions and interpersonal conflicts within the COP, the student teachers led dissimilar legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991)trajectories through identifying themselves with different local sub-cops (T-cop and S-cop) in various modes of belonging. Under the domination of contradictory institutional discourses, the student teachers exercised their creative agencies and managed to find the “spaces” for their own freedom of self-formation via four ethico-political dimensions. Through critical reflection on the relation between the care of self and the care of others, the student teachers clarified, readjusted and reinforced their telos which is part and parcel of the ongoing interactions among the four ethico-political aspects of teacher identity. Based on the contradictions identified in this research, a critical and ethical pedagogy framework for EFL teacher education was conceptualized for ELT and teacher education programmes. This thesis also serves as an attempt to address teacher identity issues from the integrated perspectives of both sociocultural and poststructural approaches (Morgan, 2007) and to introduce the concept of ethico-politics of teacher identity to EFL teacher education. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The aim of this study is to problematise the social practice of school-university collaboration in the context of assessment reform in Hong Kong English Language teaching. Hong Kong’s education system has been undergoing major reforms since 1997 and collaboration between tertiary institutions and schools has been negotiated in education policy discourse as a way to improve teaching and learning. In the key policy documents shaping professional development practices for Hong Kong teachers, school-university collaboration is neatly packaged as achievable and unproblematic. In reality, however, school-university collaboration is frequently characterised by tensions and complexities. The objective of this research is to critically examine how particular worldviews about school-university collaboration and partnership are negotiated, reproduced and/or contested in one particular sociocultural context, that of secondary English language teaching in Hong Kong. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault and the concepts of discourse propounded by Norman Fairclough, a theoretical framework was constructed to examine how collaborative practices in this case study were constituted through discourse. Textual data were collected from the case study. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used to examine how teacher-researchers and university facilitators co-constructed and negotiated systems of beliefs and knowledge, interpersonal relations and intrapersonal subjectivity whilst engaged in collaborative action research (CAR). The analysis of the textual data (emails, interviews, transcripts of face-to-face meetings) revealed collaborative practices were mediated through language (verbal and non-verbal). The study also indicates that the collaboration enacted in this case study was highly complex and ambiguous because the practice was predominantly shaped by social, political, ideological and pragmatic factors in the wider sociocultural context, including changes in the assessment of speaking skills of senior secondary students in the English language education curriculum. The discourse of collaboration was thus problematised to identify how all these factors shaped the construction of beliefs, interpersonal relations and identity in the practice of collaborative action research. The study concludes with an examination of the contribution that critical discourse analysis research can make in problematising the practice of school-university collaboration, and how this knowledge may be able to improve the planning and facilitation of future practices. While the existing literature about collaborative action research provides educators with information on how it is implemented in a Western sociocultural context, there are fewer studies which examine the notion of school-university collaboration in a more critical light, for example, by exploring how systemic and contextual factors in society play a significant role in shaping and constraining what people do through collaboration. This case study offers an insight into the complexities of constructing collaboration between two different institutional cultures in a non-Western sociocultural setting. The implications for policy, professional development and research in teacher education are also highlighted. The analysis of the textual data (emails, interviews, transcripts of face-to-face meetings) / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

操太聖. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2003. / 參考文獻 (p. 233-247). / 中英文摘要. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Cao Taisheng. / Zhong Ying wen zhai yao. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2003. / Can kao wen xian (p. 233-247).

A sociocultural theoretical lens is used to study university and school collaboration, and the ways in which a context for teacher learning is created in this process. It also examines the results of teacher learning. Using qualitative data gathered in the two projects, the study confirms that collaboration can offer a supportive context for teachers to learn. / As an area of inquiry, teacher learning has grown increasingly important in the field of teacher development and school improvement. It is commonly believed that teacher development is a form of professional development; and professional development implies 'learning' by teachers. Even though opportunities for teachers' professional development have increased in recent years, there has been little advancement toward a commonly shared understanding of the vital aspects of professional development: What are the essential factors for success? What do teachers really learn from professional development? Based on the idea of facilitating school improvement and teacher development more effectively, several important university-school collaborative projects were introduced and launched in Hong Kong and Beijing in the last decade. / During the process of appropriation, teachers master and own the necessary cultural tools, and then aquire about new knowledge and skills that enhance understanding on practice. During the process of collaboration, which is established on the principles of trust and equality, university faculties provide teachers with cultural tools, which is essential for teacher change. Only when the cultural tools are appropriated by teachers as agents can real change take palce. / From the institutional perspective, school organization, education policy, and social culture are important factors that have a strong impact on teachers. This study finds that teachers can construct a new understanding on the major subject that they teach, their relationship with the student, and their role and identity as a teacher. This is accomplished through a reflection on the moral dimension of teaching, an exercise that involves both the teachers and univerisy faculty. / Key words. teacher learning; teacher professional development; university-school collaboration; sociocultural theory; teacher professional identity / This study aims to delineate teacher learning in the context of university and school collaboration. The two projects under investigation are based in Hong Kong and Beijing. While the two projects have different missions, the participants in both projects share a common belief that collaboration should enhance teacher capacity and ultimately help to improve students' learning. / 鍾亞妮. / Adviser: Lo Nai-Kwai-Leslie. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-08, Section: A, page: 3114. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 242-258). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Zhong Yani.

鄧薇先. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2001. / 參考文獻 (p. 215-236) / 中英文摘要. / Available also through the Internet via Dissertations & theses @ Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Deng Weixian. / Lun wen (Zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2001. / Can kao wen xian (p. 215-236) / Zhong Ying wen zhai yao.