Thesis
Investigation of teacher identities in a Chinese community school in Scotland
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2026
- Thesis identifier
- T18029
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 202282459
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Teacher identity has increasingly attracted scholarly attention for its influence on teacherdevelopment and teaching outcomes (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009; Beijaard et al., 2022; Trend,2020). Existing studies have primarily focused on the formation processes and influencing factors ofteacher identity across different career stages and subject areas, such as novice teacher identity(Schellings et al., 2021), language teacher identity (Pennington & Richards, 2016), and comparativestudies of teacher identity development across teacher education systems (Rinne et al., 2023).However, the identities of teachers in community language schools remain relatively underexplored(Nordstrom, 2020; Wu et al., 2011). This thesis seeks to amplify the voices of teachers working in aChinese community school in Scotland and to address this research gap. It investigates the processesand characteristics of teacher identity formation in this community school, with particular attentionto the role of context.Drawing on the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) framework as the theoreticalfoundation (Kaplan & Garner, 2017), this study employed purposive sampling to select a large,historically established Chinese community school as the research site. A total of 22 participantswere recruited, and data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal thatteacher role identities in community schools constitute elements within a multi-level hierarchy,reflecting a complex dynamic system composed of individuals’ multiple role identities. In otherwords, participants embodied different role identities—for example, as parents of their own children,teachers of their students, children of their parents, and colleagues to one another. The results furthershow significant consistencies between participants’ parental and teacher role identities in terms ofbeliefs, purposes, and perceived action possibilities, which facilitated the development of theirteacher identities. For instance, as parents, participants drew on experiences from their children’sgrowth and learning, which fostered empathy and understanding toward their students, therebyshaping their classroom beliefs and practices.Using the DSMRI framework by Kaplan and Garner (2017), this thesis also provides a detailedanalysis of participants’ beliefs, goals and purposes, self-perceptions and self-definitions, and perceived action possibilities, as well as the broader influences of context, culture, domain, anddispositions. The findings align with existing literature on teacher identity by underscoring thesituated nature of teacher role identities. For example, participants enacted the teacher role within theschool setting but stepped out of this role after classes, illustrating the nonlinear and emergentcharacter of community teacher identities. Moreover, the study demonstrates how prior experiencesshaped participants’ current and imagined role identities, linking past, present, and future to present amore comprehensive view of the dynamic nature of community teacher identity.At the macro level, the findings highlight the influence of Scottish society and policy, as well as theschool’s role as a community and a community of practice (CoP), in shaping teacher role identities.This dynamic interaction between context, personal identity, and professional identity also revealsthe marginalised status of community language teachers, calling for greater recognition and supportfrom stakeholders. Finally, the thesis outlines theoretical, practical, policy, and research implicationsto inform future work in this area. By integrating the DSMRI framework into a community languageschool context, this study extends the theorical application of identity research beyond mainstreameducational settings and offers a nuanced understanding of how personal and parental identitiesintersect with professional roles. It thus contributes to broadening the scope of teacher identitystudies and provides new empirical evidence for the dynamics of identity formation inunderrepresented educational contexts.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Birnie, Ingeborg
- De Britos, Angela
- Resource Type
- DOI
Relations
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PDF of thesis T18029 | 2026-06-17 | Public | Download |