Sun(2012) in her article wanted to explore the relationship between knowledge and identity. She picked up several teacher who teach Chinese in Australia, and chose one example to deepen her study. The teacher's name is Wenying, who is a native Chinese speaker born in China. During the interview and class record, Sun found out that Wenying's identity really had some effects on her teaching practice, though winning students trust, building a qi-field,and teaching smoothly in the classroom. Although she has lived in Australia for many years, her mind has deeply affected by traditional Chinese culture.


 Focus question:
How knowledge and identity are entwined?

World view:                                                                              
Teachers’s cultural backgrounds have effects on their teaching practice and personal practical knowledge. Study teacher knowledge could help them to teach cross cultures.

Philosophy: 
Teacher knowledge has been a research interest since the early 1980s, during which time the research focus has shifted “from knowledge to teacher thinking to teacher knowledge” in addition, most of the research has focused on Western views of teacher knowledge, rather than Eastern.    
                                                        
Principles:  
The case study of a teacher could focus “on holistic description and explantation”, which helps illuminate and understand the phenomenon under study.
                                                                                   
Theory: 
“Theories of practice” “maxims” “beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge” “pedagogical knowledge”, “pedagogical principles” “personal practical knowledge”                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                           
Constructs:                                                                          
Teacher knowledge                                                           
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
Concepts:                                                                                              
Teacher knowledge, second language education.knowledge and identity, cultural heritage, personal practical knowledge, teaching practice.

Value claims:
A better understanding of this knowledge would help ensure that it is valued and would help assist these teachers to make a smooth transition to their new cultural contexts.

Knowledge claims: 
A teacher’ awareness of her identity and cultural heritage had a profound influence on shaping her personal practical knowledge and teaching practice.

Transformations:
Review the interview, data collection and analysis.

Records:
The video of the class and the interview of Wenying.


Event and objects:
  1. Select 3 language teachers teaching Chinese in 3 different secondary schools in New Zealand, two of whom were native Chinese speaking immigrants from China, and one a New Zealand born non-native speaking Chinese.
  2. Wenying, reported on this paper, is a native Chinese speaker.
  3. Video-recorded of Wenying’s language class
  4. Interview of Wenying






Comments

  1. Unknown22 January 2018 at 12:35

    Hi Crystal, thank you for deconstructing this article for us using Gowin’s Vee chart. I had to admit that it took me some time to understand the difference between “teacher thinking” and “teacher knowledge”. The article also noted an interesting fact that most researches on teacher knowledge were conducted on Westerns perspectives. I think this issue is well evident and present in other disciplines as well. Why is that and what could we do differently to promote researches focused on other cultures or perspectives different from the Western view?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kieran22 January 2018 at 15:15

    Hey Crystal,
    This looks like a really interesting paper! When Chinese was added to the Irish Leaving Certificate (Gaokao) last year [http://bit.ly/2n0BUqo], my first thought was “Who is going to teach it?”. As you know, I taught English in China* for many years but I’m not English. I worked alongside many teachers from around the world, and most of them were not English either. My point is that, to teach English, one doesn’t necessarily need to be English. The main requirement focuses mostly on being a native-speaker and/or having a graduated from a university where English is the working language. In contrast to this, I wonder if someone can teach Chinese effectively without actually being Chinese.

    For example, imagine a Chinese-Canadian who was born and raised here and is fluent in Mandarin (Putonghua) from speaking it at home. Could that person be as “qualified” to teach Chinese as a person who was born and raised in China? Would the Chinese-Canadian have the same depth of Chinese cultural heritage as their Chinese counterpart and would their “Western view” and experience of education add to or detract from their ability to teach Chinese?

    I totally agree with the knowledge claim you wrote: “A teacher’ awareness of her identity and cultural heritage had a profound influence on shaping her personal practical knowledge and teaching practice”. I wonder if this is more important in language teaching than in other areas of teaching.

    * The phrase “immigrant teacher” reminded me of this great (short) article:
    Why are white people expats when the rest of us are immigrants? http://bit.ly/2981UYs

    ReplyDelete

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