Conference Agenda

In recent years, following the introduction of China’s New Liberal Arts policy, university English education has gradually shifted from general language instruction toward the development of students’ discipline-specific English proficiency. In response to this trend, many universities have adopted English for Specific Purposes (ESP) as part of broader language-teaching reforms, leading to the transition of teachers from General English (GE) to ESP instruction. This transition has placed pressure on Chinese EFL teachers, requiring them to reorient their teaching practices, reconsider their career trajectories, and renegotiate their professional identities. As a result, questions surrounding teachers’ professional development (PD) have become increasingly important. However, limited research has examined the professional experiences and developmental needs of ESP teachers in the Chinese context, leaving a significant gap in the literature.

The study explores ESP teachers’ professional development through the lens of identity, with particular attention to their lived experiences, challenges, and professional needs. The study adopts Kaplan and Garner’s (2017) Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) as its theoretical framework. The DSMRI conceptualises identity as a complex and dynamic system shaped through the interaction of four interrelated components: (1) ontological and epistemological beliefs associated with a professional role; (2) the goals and purposes underlying that role; (3) self-perceptions and self-definitions within the role; and (4) perceived possibilities for action and decision-making. By applying this framework, the study seeks to better understand the dynamic relationship between identity construction and professional development among Chinese ESP teachers.

Accordingly, the study addresses the following research questions:

1. What professional development challenges do Chinese ESP teachers experience during the transition from GE to ESP teaching?

2. How do Chinese ESP teachers perceive and respond to these challenges in relation to their professional identities?

To address these questions, the study adopts a qualitative research approach supported by multiple methods of data collection. A case study design was selected to facilitate an in-depth exploration of teachers’ experiences within a specific institutional context. According to Creswell (2014), case study research enables researchers to develop a detailed understanding of a bounded system through extensive data collection over time.

The research was conducted at a prestigious university located in an inland city in mainland China, referred to in this study as “University Z.” Thirteen ESP teachers currently employed at the university participated in the study. Data were collected from three main sources: interviews, classroom observations, and institutional documents. Semi-structured interviews served as the primary source of data, while observations and documents were used to supplement and triangulate the interview findings. Data collection was conducted across three stages: the pre-stage, ongoing stage, and post-stage. Following data collection, a biographical approach was employed to develop a comprehensive understanding of each participant’s academic, educational, and teaching experiences. Subsequently, thematic analysis was applied to identify and interpret recurring patterns and themes across the qualitative data.

The proposed presentation is about migrant teachers’ professional transition while moving their professional belonging from one national context to another. Professional transition involves a shift in professional belonging to a situation where this belonging is re-contextualised into a new institutional context. For migrant teachers, this involves processes of re-learning institutional structures connected to professional practices in everyday work in school. The study aims at exploring this process by interviews with migrant teachers who have recently re-entered the teaching profession in Sweden.

Sweden has, in an international perspective, well established and formally organized pathways for migrant teachers. However, besides being formally accredited, entering into a profession also concerns institutional norms and values about what a professional is or should be. This especially as the teaching profession can be said to be a strongly normatively driven profession (Scott, 2008). Consequently, obtaining legitimacy within the teaching profession requires more than formal accreditation. For migrant teachers, processes of professional transition take place in the space between the previous professional belonging and being recognized in the new.

The importance of professional integration of migrants is today emphasised in countries throughout Europe (European Parliament, 2016). Even so, it is well known that migrants face higher barriers for establishing themselves in the labour market than their native-born counterparts, and that they are underemployed to a greater extent (OECD 2018). Even if several European policy incentives encourage professional movements and simplified travel across country borders, some areas of professions, such as in healthcare and schools, are still characterized by a low degree of mobility due to national institutional settings and regulations for professional belonging.

The process (and the possibility) of validating former teacher education is often a complex procedure and migrants with a professional background is likely to find themselves in lower positions within their occupational group than their native counterparts, for example, nurses and teachers being validated as assistants in hospitals or schools (Andersson & Osman 2008; Irastorza & Bevelander 2021). As Abbott (ref) amongst others stress, principally, the very idea of professions is in many aspects about inclusion and exclusion – who is accepted as a part of the profession and who is not. Above this, there are also hierarchies within the groups of professions. These are not necessarily based on the same logics as who is included or excluded as part of the profession itself, but construct institutional boundaries for professional recognition.

Professionalism is traditionally understood as something you acquire through higher education and its following competences, by which you gain societal trust to make independent decisions and find solutions to problems that arise in your professional practice (Abbott,1988; Evetts 2006). Professionalism is about enacting professional virtues in a specific occupational context where “common experiences, understanding and expertise, shared ways of perceiving problems and their possible solutions” (Evetts, 2006, p. 134) are enacted. In order to be recognised as part of a profession, these decisions and actions need to be consistent with what is institutionally perceived as desirable and appropriate in the specific context (Scott 2008). In this way of reasoning, migrant teachers with a professional background from another country, have to relearn several institutionally defined conditions for professional recognition through occupational and professional sociali­sation.

In this study of migrant teachers’ professional transition, professionalism is used and comprehended as 1) contextually bounded (hence not universal or manifest), 2) something you enact, 3) dependent on formal regulations, trust and legitimacy, 4) re-produced by professional socialisation in workplaces, but also 5) constantly negotiated and changeable over time and place.