Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2000. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 232-262).

Thesis (D.A.)--Illinois State University, 1993. / Title from title page screen, viewed March 7, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Douglas D. Hesse (chair), James R. Kalmbach, Janice G. Neuleib, Maurice A. Scharton. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 244-256) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, November, 2003. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-139)

Thesis (M.Ed. (Education)) - Rhodes University, 2009. / A half-thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (English Language Teaching)

This thesis reports on a multiple case study of four EFL teachers’ long-term development of autonomy in a particular Chinese mainland university. Each teacher was selected as a holistic case because of their variations in dispositions, backgrounds, experiences, and trajectories of development. It addresses three major research questions: 1) How do the teachers control over the multiple aspects of their teacher work across time and contexts? 2) What are the major individual and contextual factors that facilitate and constrain the development of teacher autonomy? 3) How do teacher identities affect the development of teacher autonomy? The study adopted many narrative forms of data collection instruments, including (auto)biographies, interviews, casual conversations, questionnaire, complemented by classroom observations, staff meeting observations, and documents, in order to understand teacher autonomy from the lived experiences of the four teacher participants throughout their careers and lives. By examining the concept of teacher autonomy through the lens of teacher identity, this study analyzed how four teacher participants exercised different degrees of autonomy at different stages of their teaching, research, and administrative roles. It provides a holistic picture of zigzagging pathways towards teacher autonomy across the whole course of their careers. It then discussed how the teachers’ autonomy was facilitated and constrained by contextual and individual factors across time. Based on the findings, this study proposes a conceptual framework to illustrate the close relationship between teacher identity and teacher autonomy, and this relationship’s dynamic and unstable nature across time and contexts. It also suggests there is an urgent need for teacher autonomy scholarship to broaden its scope by moving beyond language teaching and learning to more crucial aspects of language teachers’ daily work and to explore the development of teacher autonomy in a long-term process.

No description available.

This study is a qualitative examination of the construction of identities of three novice English teachers at one university-level institute in Saudi Arabia. The study uses multiple theoretical frameworks to build a narrative describing construction of these identities: Goffman’s (1959; 1963; 1974) performing, frame analysis, and spoiled identity concepts, Anderson’s (1991) imagined community, Canagarajah’s (1996) “from bottom up” narrative style, Wenger’s (1998) three modes as a framework of the identity construction, and Pinar and Grumet’s (1976) currere. The purpose of this study is twofold: (a) to offer a rich description of how novice, nonnative English speakers (NNES), especially teachers, constructed their identities and their positions, both inside and outside the classroom, and how they negotiated their access to power and were perceived as legitimate bilingual English teachers, as it pertains to the NNES label, and (b) theoretical multiplicity establishes a novel methodological approach to use narrative as a research tool that can fully capture the complexity of novice teachers’ identities. These purposes are embedded in an action and movement to remove stigmas that NNES English Language teachers experience because of the NNES label given to them and their learners (Kamhi-Stein, 2016). This study adopted the interview autobiographical narrative approach, reflections, and observations inside and outside the classroom because of the many life stories that were shared as a window or frame into understanding the participants’ experiences as English Language teachers. The findings suggest that the dichotomy of the native and nonnative English speaker is power-driven and political, rather than linguistic power (Canagarajah, 1999; Phillipson, 1992). This study’s participants were able to strategically position themselves as legitimate speakers where they were able to show a part of their identity that was worthy of investment. Their investment did not fit the community of practice (CoP) expectations. They were able to build relationships with the CoP and they felt satisfied in their job positions.

The traditional academic ranks for regular faculty in Mainland China universities commonly include assistant lecturer, lecturer, associate professor, and professor, with no clear differentiation between academic and teaching tracks. Recent education reform in Mainland China with the aspiration of world-class, high-ranking universities, however, has brought about unprecedented challenges to academics at the rank of lecturer; they are suffering from contract requirements that rise as the requirements for university ranking increase. In an attempt to reach the bar set by Western research universities, the vast majority of Chinese universities have embraced higher education reform that emphasizes a "publish or perish" ideology. This thesis employs a multiple case study, with a focus on four English lecturers' teaching and research engagement. The four cases included English Language Teaching (ELT) teachers who had received a doctoral degree and were trained to do research, as well as ELT teachers who were initially recruited to teach language courses but were later required to transform their professional identities to be teacher-scholars. ELT teachers have reportedly exhibited a weak research capacity compared with university teachers in other subject areas, making this study on a professional group of English lecturers meaningful. It is therefore the aim of this study to systematically explore English lecturers' identity construction pertinent to teaching and research engagements in the contested and evolving higher education reform in Mainland China. Drawing upon communities of practice, discourse theory, and activity theory, this study brings new knowledge to identity-in-practice, identity-in-discourse, and identity-in-activity. Data were triangulated through narrative frames, interviews, field observations, post-observation informal talks, and documents. Data analyses included "bottom-up" and "top-down" approaches; the former refers to analytic induction where meaning is grounded in data, whereas the latter helped the researcher arrive at a holistic understanding of participants' professional identities by referring to theoretical concepts. The findings revealed an array of identity options (e.g., "gardener", "innovator", "researcher", "scholar", "poorly paid laborer", "temporary worker", "traitor", "blind follower", "game loser", "robot", "teaching machine", "sojourner", and "publishing machine"). The factors that shaped identity construction included shifting value of being an English teacher-researcher under higher education reform, intensified "publish-or-perish" ideology, and changing institutional and societal circumstances. This thesis proposes a tripartite conceptual framework of identity-in-practice, identity-in-discourse, and identity-in-activity to contextualize the practical and discursive identity construction of English lecturers. The tripartite framework of teacher identity based on these findings extends the notion of professional development upon which English lecturers should draw to empower themselves. By reflecting on contextual and personal resources relevant to their professional development, English lecturers are expected to utilize societal resources from the broader academic community to transcend institutional constraints to their personal and professional identity construction. This study concludes with implications for educators and administrators to provide responsive support for English lecturers' professional development. Further research is needed to integrate the tripartite framework of practice, discourse, and activity to examine the complexity of teacher identity construction.

No description available.