Exploring Chinese EFL teachers’ professional identity tensions in the senior high school context: A dissonance theory perspective

Abstract

Due to the great importance of professional identity in teachers’ development and success, researchers’ attention has recently been confined to the tensions that may challenge teachers’ identities. Despite the importance of these tensions in the EFL context, only a few studies have addressed them by employing qualitative research methods. The present study aims to investigate the professional identity tensions of EFL teachers by a psychometric scale. Therefore, an instrument was developed and validated for measuring Chinese EFL teachers’ professional identity tensions from the Dissonance Theory perspective by adopting the Professional Identity Tension Scale (PITS). To this end, based on the convenience sampling method, 452 Chinese EFL teachers from senior high schools participated in the study. Exploratory and SEM analyses were performed to identify and confirm the weight of the influencing factors respectively. The final instrument is a 5-point Likert-type item including 30 items measuring six different tensions related to professional identity. The findings were an indication of the applicability of PITS in the EFL context with six contributive factors. Implications of the study and suggestions for further research are discussed.