Asia Pacific Journal of Education

ISSN: 0218-8791 (Print) 1742-6855 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cape20

Wither teacher professional development? The

challenges of learning teaching and constructing
identities across boundaries in China

John Trent

To cite this article: John Trent (2020): Wither teacher professional development? The challenges
of learning teaching and constructing identities across boundaries in China, Asia Pacific Journal of
Education, DOI: 10.1080/02188791.2020.1717438

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2020.1717438

Published online: 20 Jan 2020.

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ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF EDUCATION
https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2020.1717438

Wither teacher professional development? The challenges of

learning teaching and constructing identities across boundaries
in China
John Trent
Department of English Language Education, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Teacher professional development (TPD) is regarded as crucial to fostering Received 26 February 2019
teacher improvement. Recent calls for the internationalization of teacher Accepted 13 January 2020
education and professional development, including teachers undertaking KEYWORDS
courses taught abroad, have enhanced the scope of TPD opportunities. Teacher development;
Yet, little is currently known about how such international experiences of teacher identity;
TPD shape the perspectives of these teachers. It is also unclear how the boundary-crossing; discourse
learning these teachers experience in foreign settings is reflected in their analysis; teacher education
engagement in the practices and activities of schools and classrooms
upon returning to their home country. Therefore, this paper reports the
results of a study that explores the perspectives and experiences of one
group of in-service mainland Chinese teachers who undertook profes-
sional development in Hong Kong. Grounded in a theory of teacher
identity construction and using in-depth interviews, results suggest that
the teacher’s identities were shaped by the learning they experienced
during professional development. However, following their return to
teaching positions in mainland China, relations of power within their
schools blocked the construction of their preferred teacher identities in
practice. Suggestions are made for supporting the identity construction
aims of teachers who undertake international professional development
and implications for future research are considered.

Introduction
Teacher professional development (TPD) is widely regarded as crucial to enhancing educational
systems and fostering teacher improvement for better student learning outcomes. TPD is also complex.
One reason for this is that TPD, as Borg (2018) points out, can take a myriad of forms, being seen as ‘any
activity which is designed to bring about positive change in practicing teachers’ competence’ (p. 195).
Also contributing to the complex nature of TPD are calls for the internationalization of teacher
education, including incorporating international teaching experiences and courses taught abroad
within the design of both preservice and inservice teacher education and professional development
programmes (Quezada, 2010). Given the growing mobility of the academic and teaching labour
force, one of the possibilities that could result from such internationalization is that increasing
numbers of inservice teachers may cross geographical, educational and societal boundaries to
undertake some form of TPD and then return to their home state to resume their teaching career.
Yet, our understanding of the impact of such international TPD experiences on teachers’ beliefs
and practices remains limited (Ochoa, 2010). Studies which have explored the experiences of
teachers undertaking such TPD through postgraduate programs, such as the Master of Arts in

CONTACT John Trent jtrent@eduhk.hk Department of English Language Education, 10 Lo Ping Rd Tai Po, Hong Kong, China
© 2020 National Institute of Education, Singapore
2 J. TRENT

Teaching English to speakers of other languages (MATESOL), suggests that language teachers can
experience challenges as they transition between postgraduate teacher education programs and the
classroom (Hennebry-Leung, Gaytion, Hu, & Chen, 2019). Thus, while MATESOL programs have the
capacity to potentially open new possibilities for teacher professional development (Ilivea, 2010),
Hennebry-Leung et al. (2019), document both external and internal challenges experienced by
mainland Chinese teachers who undertook master’s programs in Hong Kong, Scotland, and China
as they transitioned to classroom practice. External challenges concerned the established practices
they encountered within school communities and pressures from stakeholders, such as parents.
Internal challenges encompassed low levels of professional self-efficacy and a tendency to rely on
“safe” pedagogies rather than perceived good or innovative practices. Such challenges point to the
need for teacher education programs, such as the MATESOL, to attend to the emotional experiences
of teachers and how these interact with their emerging classroom practices (Shahri, 2018).
According to Hennebry-Leung et al. (2019), the need now exists for additional longitudinal
research that explores the factors and processes that teachers’ adaption to the classroom following
programs such as the MATESOL. This study responds to this need. The current paper, therefore,
reports the results of a study that explores the experiences and perceptions of one group of
practicing teachers in mainland China who cross geographical, educational and societal boundaries
to complete a one-year full-time MATESOL programme in Hong Kong and, following successful
completion of this program, return to teach in mainland Chinese schools. The following section
reviews recent educational reforms and experiences of TPD in mainland China.

TPD: from transmission to boundary crossing in the Chinese context

In-service teacher education (INSET) has enjoyed mixed success in fulfiling its objective of promoting
teacher development. While reports about the effectiveness of some INSET initiatives point to enhanced
teaching skills and improved student achievement, INSET has also been accused of frequently failing to
achieve its goals. This gap between the aspirations of INSET and its outcomes is thought to reflect
factors such as a lack of perceived relevance for teachers, time constraints, the top down-design of some
INSET programs and their isolation from classroom and school realities (Uztosun, 2018).
In mainland China, INSET takes on particular significance when set against the background of
recent educational reforms. For example, the 2010 National Plan for Education Reform and
Development seeks to ‘renovate school operation . . . revamp teaching methods and approaches
and put a modern school system in place’ (cited in Thomas, Peng, & Triggs, 2017, p. 191). Turning to
reform of the English language curriculum, Yan (2015) points out that since the beginning of the 21st
century the goals of reform have included moving away from exam-orientated to quality-orientated
education, the use of inquiry-based learning and the development of students’ communicative
competence and creativity (p. 8). The crucial role of INSET in the success of such reforms is implicit
in Fang and Clarke (2014, p. 109) reminder that:

Like all curriculum reform efforts, the success of the Chinese initiatives hinges on bringing the reform documents to
life in schools and for teachers to use these documents in planning, teaching, and assessing student learning.

Fang and Clarke (2014) argue that teachers have found the implementation of these reforms in their
classroom contexts challenging due in part to a lack of professional development support. Other
researchers have noted that such INSET support, when available, has often taken a top-down, cascade
approach that that ‘did not work well’ (Zhou, 2014, p. 517) as it ignores teachers’ professional
competence and leaves them with little understanding of how to implement curriculum innovations.
Yan and He (2015) point out that, despite recent improvements in some INSET programs in China,
including greater awareness by school authorities of the importance of TPD, the gap between the
policy level and school reality persists, with the authors identifying an ongoing need for INSET to
achieve ‘alignment between teacher education activities and daily classroom teaching’ (p. 771).
 ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 3

In light of the limitations of a rigid ‘top-down, expert-driven’ approach to curriculum reform,

a more fluid conceptualization of INSET in China may be beneficial. Given calls for the internationa-
lization of teacher education and development that were mentioned earlier, including an emphasis
on overseas educational experiences, such an approach to TPD could be grounded in the notion of
boundary crossing (Wenger, 1998, 2010). According to Wenger (2010, p. 125), boundaries between
different communities reflect:
. . . different enterprises; different ways of engaging with one another, different histories, repertories, ways of
communicating, and capabilities.

Wenger (2010) maintains that boundaries can represent learning opportunities: ‘a chance to explore
the edge of your competence, learn something entirely new, revisit your little truths, and perhaps
expand your horizons’ (pp. 125–126). Establishing boundaries as a learning focus requires that multiple
voices be brought together, combined in a way that produces a two-way process of critique and
engagement in reflection. However, Wenger (2010) also cautions that ‘boundaries can create divisions
and be a source of separation, fragmentation, disconnection, and misunderstanding’ (p. 126).
To understand the experiences of one group of mainland Chinese English language teachers who
crossed, and re-crossed, geographical, educational and social boundaries to pursue TPD, this study
draws upon a framework for theorizing teacher identity construction (TIC), which is described in the
following section.

A framework for investigating teacher identity construction

In recent years researchers and teachers have become increasingly interested in the role that identity
plays in language learning and teaching, in part because ‘identity shapes pedagogical practice’
(Canagarajah, 2017, p. 70). In the current study, identity refers to ‘how a person understands his or
her relationship to the world, how that relationship is structured across time and space, and how the
person understands possibilities for the future’ (Norton, 2013, p. 45).
To operationalize this definition, I draw upon the work of Varghese, Morgan, Johnston, and
Johnson (2005), who argue that a comprehensive understanding of language teacher education
requires attention to both identity-in-discourse and identity-in-practice. ‘Identity-in-practice’ refers
to identity construction through concrete practices and tasks, whereas ‘identity-in-discourse’ recog-
nizes that ‘identity is constructed, maintained and negotiated to a significant extent through
language and discourse’ (p. 23). The remainder of this section describes the way in which this dual
understanding informs the current study.

The construction of identity-in-discourse

Identity reflects, in part, the influence of discourses, which are ‘frameworks for thought and action
that groups of individuals draw upon in order to speak and interact with one another in meaningful
ways’ (Miller Marsh, 2002, p. 456). According to poststructuralist theory, discourses provide indivi-
duals with subject positions from which they ‘actively interpret the world and by which they are
themselves governed’ (Weedon, 1997, p. 93).
To investigate the discursive construction of professional identities, I drew upon tools for discourse
analysis proposed by Fairclough (2003), who argues that people’s commitments are ‘an important part of
how they identify themselves’ (p. 164). The commitments made by an author are assessed in terms of
modality and evaluation. Fairclough (2003) defined modality as the degree of individuals’ commitment to
truth, obligation, and necessity, which is often displayed in their use of modal verbs such as ‘should’ and
modal adverbs such as ‘probably’. Evaluation involves an individual’s commitment to that which is
believed to be desirable, and can be expressed in terms of the binaries of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ or “helpful”
and “unhelpful,” for example. Although evaluation can be expressed explicitly, using terms such as
“wonderful,” it may also be deeply embedded in texts, reflecting implicit value systems.
4 J. TRENT

The construction of identity-in-practice

As argued above, a comprehensive theory of identity recognizes that “identification takes place in the
doing” (Wenger, 1998, p. 193). Wenger (1998) discusses the ‘doing’ of identity in terms of three modes of
identification: engagement, imagination, and alignment. Through engagement, individuals establish and
maintain joint enterprises and negotiate meanings as well as establish relations with others. The second
component of Wenger’s (1998) framework, imagination, enables individuals to create images of the world
across time and space by extrapolating their own experiences. Finally, alignment coordinates an indivi-
dual’s activities with broader structures and enterprises, allowing the identity of an organization, for
instance, to become part of the identity of an individual.

The contested construction of identity

Contemporary research acknowledges that language teacher identities are plural or multiple and
although these identities may exist in harmony, this is not necessarily the case. For example,
Barkhuizen (2017) observes that ‘identities are struggle and harmony: they are contested and
resisted . . . and they are also accepted, acknowledged and valued’ (p. 4).
Identity construction as struggle and contestation is central to Laclau and Mouffe (1985) theory of
identity. According to Laclau and Mouffe (1985), discourses, and thereby identities, are fluid rather
than fixed and are constructed around nodal points of identity in which certain signifiers are linked
together to form a chain of equivalence. Any such chain of equivalence, by cancelling out differences
between signifiers, ‘express(es) something identical underlying them all’ (Laclau & Mouffe, 1985,
p. 113) thereby conferring
Because a nodal pint of identity confer only a partially fixed meaning on a particular set of
signifiers (Howarth, 2000), identity construction is a fluid process, one which is open the potential for
struggle over which discourses should be privileged, and therefore the identity positions that are
made available, as well as denied, to individuals. Indeed, Laclau and Mouffe describe discourses as
incomplete structures that are always in conflict: ‘one discourse can never establish itself so firmly
that it becomes the only discourse that structures the social’ (Jorgensen & Phillips, 2002, p. 41).
Laclau and Mouffe (1985) warn, however, that this conflict might take the form of antagonism.
According to the authors, identities are constructed in terms of a ‘we’, which can exist only through
creation of a ‘they’. Antagonistic relations are said to prevail when the latter puts into question the
identity of the former, threatening its existence, with the result that these we/they relations take on
the form of a friend/enemy distinction.
Reflecting the concept struggle, all discourses are also regarded as contingent, meaning that
‘things could always be otherwise’ (Mouffe, 2013, p. 2). In the context of the current study, this
contingency underscores the potential for agency in the construction of teacher identities, implying
that the identity ‘teacher’ cannot be fixed by a single discourse but remains open to positioning by
multiple, competing discourses. Based upon this framework, data collection and analysis was guided
by the following research question:
How did one group of boundary-crossing teachers construct their teacher identities in mainland Chinese schools
following successful completion of an MATESOL in Hong Kong?

The study
The MATESOL and the participants
Each of the participants in this study completed a fulltime one year MATESOL program at a higher
education institution (HEI) in Hong Kong, in which English is used as the medium of instruction. The
program provides teachers with advanced academic qualifications in English language teaching
(ELT) and aims to ensure that all graduates have an in-depth understanding of contemporary
 ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 5

practices in ELT methodology – including task based learning and content integrated language
learning – as well as both quantitative and qualitative approaches to second language research. In
addition, participants can choose from a range of elective courses that address topics in ELT such as
curriculum, assessment, vocabulary and grammar teaching, language arts and teaching English as an
international language. As the program attracts applicants from a wide range of countries globally,
course content is not aligned specifically with the curriculum any specific educational jurisdiction,
a situation reported to be common in many MATESOL programs around the globe (Hennebry-Leung
et al., 2019).
Six ethnic Chinese English language teachers took part in this study. Each participant had success-
fully completed the MATESOL program described above during the 2015–2016 academic year and had,
from September 2016, taken up a teaching position in a mainland Chinese school. Sampling was based
partly on convenience, which can reflect the availability of respondents (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Thus,
I was familiar with the participants due to my involvement with the MATESOL in the role of a teacher
educator. Following their completion of this degree program, including all assessment and grading,
I described the nature and purpose of the project to the participants and invited each one to take part.
A purposive approach to sampling was also adopted, meaning that ‘the investigator . . . must
select a sample from which the most can be learned’ (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016, p. 96). For example,
I invited informants who had teaching experience in mainland Chinese schools prior to their arrival in
Hong Kong as it was reasoned that they would contribute a detailed understanding of teaching,
learning and professional development in mainland China to the study. As a result, each of the six
teachers had a minimum of five years of school-based teaching experience in mainland Chinese
schools at the time of data collection.
In addition, I invited individuals who indicated that their motivation to undertake the MATESOL
program was to enhance their professional knowledge and skills as teachers and that, following
completion of the MATESOL, it was their intention to return to mainland China to continue their
school teaching career. As a result, all six participants Finally, drawing upon the concept of maximum
variation sampling (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016), I recruited teachers employed by different types of
schools, both primary and secondary, in various geographical locations within mainland China.

Data collection and analysis

Each of the six teachers described above took part in two semi-structured interviews, which were
audiotaped and transcribed. The first interview was conducted in July 2016, immediately after the
participants completed the MATESOL program. In addition to seeking background biographical
information, interview questions explored the teacher’s reasons for pursuing a postgraduate teach-
ing qualification in Hong Kong and their perceptions of the strengths and weakness of the program.
In particular, this interview sought information on how and why each teacher believed their
participation in this program would shape their engagement in the practices and activities of
teaching following their return to mainland China, as well as how their experiences of learning
during the MATESOL might influence their relations with various stakeholders, such as school
authorities, other teachers, students and parents.
Two further interviews were conducted with each participant; the first after each had completed
six months of full-time employment in a mainland Chinese school following completion of the
MATESOL, in December 2016, and second interview one year after completion of the MATESOL
(September 2017). In these interviews, teachers were asked to reflect on their experiences of
teaching following completion of the MATESOL, including the extent to which they believed they
were able to implement the learning they acquired during the MATESOL, what they considered to be
the enablements and constraints to such implementation and to what changes, if any, had occurred
to their teaching beliefs and practices during their first year of full-time teaching.
Data analysis was based on the conceptual framework described in the previous section to
understand how participants constructed their professional identities. To understand this identity
6 J. TRENT

construction process, tools for discourse analysis developed by Fairclough (2003). His conceptual
framework was employed to understanding how the participants identify with, contest, or reject
certain identities made available to them within different discourses, in particular his belief that
“what one commits oneself, one’s degree of commitment to truth, is a part of how one identifies
oneself” (Fairclough, 2003, p. 166). Fairclough (2003) suggests that this commitment is realized,
linguistically, through both modality – as suggestive of what is true and what is necessary – and
evaluation, as indicating what is desirable or undesirable, good or bad (p. 164). The following excerpt
from the data set illustrates this approach to data analysis:
I decided to do this (MATESOL) because I really wanted to learn new things, to change myself as a teacher, to update
my professional knowledge and use new teaching methods in my classroom . . . I want to be an up-to-date teacher. If
we (teachers) don’t do this (updating) then we’ll be teachers who have no improvement or progress in the teaching
methods we are using. Instead, this course can help me to see progress in myself as a teacher. (Susan)

Susan’s opening statement represents a strong commitment to the importance of the MATESOL
to her identity construction ‘as a teacher’. In particular, as illustrated by the strength of the modality
employed, she is determined to use this learning experience as a means of initiating change in her
teacher identity (“I really wanted to learn new things, to change myself . . . ”) through enhancing her
professional knowledge and identifying herself as an ‘up-to-date teacher’. Implicit here is a positive
evaluation of this teacher identity. In contrast, being positioned as a teacher who experiences “no
improvement or progress” is implicitly evaluated as undesirable. The construction of Susan’s teacher
identity-in-practice also appears to be crucial to her efforts to position herself as an up-to-date
teacher. For instance, references to ‘us(ing) new teaching methods in my classroom’ speaks to the
importance of engagement in the practices and activities of teaching as essential to the reification of
her identity as an up-to-date teacher. She also employs the power of imagination to look beyond
this day-to-day participation in teaching and to envisage ‘progress in (herself) as a teacher’.

Results
This section examines how an experience of TPD in Hong Kong, through successful completion of
the MATESOL described earlier, shapes the construction of six English language teacher’s profes-
sional identities as they returned to take up teaching positions in mainland Chinese schools. Framed
by the theoretical framework described above, this section begins by considering how such iden-
tities were constructed in discourse. This focus considers the question of what discursive meanings
the participants draw upon as they construct their professional identities following completion of
the MATESOL program. Three dominant discourses are identified by the participant as representing
their preferred identities as teachers: ‘Transformation’, ‘dissemination’, and ‘integration’. Next, this
section explores the participant’s experiences of realizing these identities in practice, including the
barriers they encounter within their respective schools to the successful achievement of their
preferred professional identities. In particular, it is argued that tensions between transformation
and conformity, dissemination and silence, and integration and separation are crucial in defining the
participant’s struggles to construct their professional identities following completion of the
MATESOL. The final section of the paper discusses how teachers may exercise agency from within
such struggles to construct their preferred teacher identities.

Constructing identities-in-discourse
The data suggests that for the six teachers described in the previous section, completion of the
MATESOL shaped the construction of their teacher identities partly through an alignment with three
discourses: ‘The discourse of TPD as transformation’; ‘the discourse of TPD as dissemination’; and ‘the
discourse of TPD as integration’. The remainder of this section explores each of these three
discourses in detail and considers how each discourse shaped the construction of the participant’s
 ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 7

professional identities as they transferred their learning of teaching in an MATESOL program across
borders within greater China.

The discourse of transformation

The discourse of transformation is underpinned by the desire of several participants to apply the
knowledge and skills acquired during their participation in an MATESOL in ways that challenge and
change what they see as ‘traditional’ approaches to language teaching and learning practiced in
many mainland educational institutions. This discourse is constituted through the themes of trans-
forming oneself as a teacher and transforming students and learning, which are discussed in detail
below.

Transforming oneself as a teacher

In the discourse of transformation, TPD is conceptualized partly in terms of changing oneself as
a teacher, specifically by becoming more ‘effective and efficient’ (Olivia) as a teacher and ‘growing as
a teacher’ (Sam); as Jacky succulently explained, the rationale for her undertaking an MATESOL “was
to be a better teacher!”. The nature of this transformation is further illustrated by Catherine:
I entered this program (MATESOL), fundamentally, to change as a teacher! I was stuck in old ways of teaching, I was
an old-style teacher, and I couldn’t see any chance for improvement so I decided I really must change and to come
here (the university) and gain new knowledge and use the latest teaching methods in my classroom. Studying in
Hong Kong was attractive to me because, to me, it can give a more international and modern view of teaching
compared to the mainland (China) (Catherine; 1st interview, July 2016)

Catherine commences with a strongly modalized statement of belief that positions changing ‘as
a teacher’ as crucial to her understanding of TPD, which serves to underscore the link many
participants drew between TPD and the transformation of their professional identities. Given the
strength of commitment to identity transformation, the remainder of this excerpt views TPD through
the prism of a contrast between ‘old ways of teaching’, which she associates with her teacher identity
before enrolling in a MATESOL, and the opportunities this Hong Kong-based TPD will afford her to
transform this identity by acquiring ‘a more modern and international view of teaching’.
The choice of modality in this excerpt leaves little doubt that identity she is seeking to discard, as
an ‘old-style teacher’, is associated with negative implications for her identity construction. She self-
positioned herself, for example, as being ‘stuck’, without ‘any chance for improvement’. Using
a strongly modalized statement of necessity (‘I really must change”), this undesirable identity
positioning is contrasted with the favourable changes envisaged following this TPD program.
Thus, Catherine positions TPD as ‘gain(ing) new knowledge and us(ing) the latest teaching methods’,
which are taken-for-granted desirable consequences of this TPD program for her teacher identity.

Transforming students and learning

Several participants associated their TPD during an MATESOL with transforming the attitudes of their
students towards the English language as well as their language learning practices. Participants
theorized TPD as providing them with a repertoire of knowledge and skills that could transform
prevailing attitudes that some students have towards English as ‘boring’ (Olivia) and ‘technical’
(Robert) into ‘an enjoyable learning experience for teachers and students’ (Jacky). Indicative of this
view of TPD are the comments of Sam:
The (MATESOL) course can help me introduce different ideas about English to students so they see it (English) in
a different way from traditional thinking, which is just about teachers lecturing and students memorization of grammar
rules and vocabulary . . . I don’t want them (students) to be passive: I want them to be able to speak and write in real
communicative situations; if I can do that I consider myself a successful teacher. (Sam, 1st interview, July 2016)
8 J. TRENT

Following successful completion of the MATESOL, Sam offers an unreservedly positive assessment
of his TPD for the opportunities he perceives it affords him to change the attitudes and practices of
their English language learners. The use of the term ’help’, for example, lends an implicit positive
evaluation of the role played by the MATESOL in achieving the shared goal of ‘introduce(ing)
different ideas about English to students’. In authorizing the necessity of this transformation in
student attitudes, a contrast is established between students’ ‘traditional thinking’ about English
language learning and more ‘up-to-date ideas’. The former is associated with ‘memorization of
grammar rules and vocabulary’ and students adopting a ‘passive’ role in the learning process
while teachers as are positioned as ‘lecturing’, approaches to learning and teaching which are
implicitly evaluated as undesirable.
Addressing these perceived shortcomings, Sam is adamant that the TPD he experienced as part of
the MATESOL has provided knowledge and skills essential to transform these student attitudes and
practices. Acquiring such a repertoire of knowledge and skills will, allow him to transform his
learner’s engagement with and use the English language. The desirability of this transformation is
never in doubt; it will identify him as a ’successful’ teacher.

The discourse of dissemination

The discourse of dissemination values self-expression by teachers as a means of not only sharing the
knowledge and practices that they believe that they gained from participating in the MATESOL, but
also as a means of presenting their own professional identities to others. For example, according to
the discourse of dissemination, teachers should share the knowledge and skills that are acquired in
a TPD course such as the one investigated in this study. This distribution of learning was argued to be
essential at several different levels: with school-based teacher colleagues, with school authorities,
and with members of the ELT community beyond the boundaries of individual schools and, in some
cases beyond national borders, as Catherine describes:

It is very important for me that I can have a chance to share the knowledge I acquired with other teachers in school.
I think learned a lot from the (MATESOL) course about how to be a teacher, how to teach English, and if don’t share it,
just keep it to myself, then what’s the point? (Catherine, 1st interview, July 2016)

Declaring that her goal of sharing newly acquired knowledge and skills with colleagues in her
school is ’very important’, Catherine’s opening remarks represent an implicit positive evaluation of
such sharing and underscores the strength of her commitment to realizing this goal upon her return
to a mainland Chinese school. Although tempered by the mental process clause ‘I think’, she
provides a clear endorsement of the contribution she believes the MATESOL has made to her
professional identity construction ‘as a teacher’ and, using a rhetorical question, implies that the
value of such learning and identity construction would be diminished in the absence of opportu-
nities for this school-based sharing in mainland China.
According to some participants, the sharing of knowledge and skills, as essential components of
their TIC following graduation from the MATESOL, should not be limited to individual schools. Susan,
for instance, insists that her capacity to self-position as a ‘researcher’ was a significant part of her
goals for identity construction following graduation and return to mainland China:

I became more and more interested in the research that I did for the (MATESOL) dissertation. So, as a researcher, why
limit my knowledge sharing just to my school? I hope I can share this in some conferences or workshops in the local
province with different schools; it can be a good way of spreading knowledge beyond just one school. (Susan, 1st
interview, July 2016)

After successfully completing the MATESOL, Susan seeks to self-position herself as ‘a researcher’,
authorizing this identification through experience gained during the course (‘I became more and
more interested in the research I did’). Having assumed this identity, sharing her research-informed
knowledge and skills with teachers beyond her own school is implicitly positioned as desirable,
 ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 9

a move achieved linguistically through the use of a rhetorical question (“Why limit my knowledge
sharing . . . ?”). Therefore, central to the construction of this researcher identity is the ability to engage
in practices beyond the boundaries of her own school, such as attending conferences and work-
shops. Participation in these activities is positively assessed (“a good way . . . ”) because it contributes
to ‘spreading knowledge beyond just one school’, where it is assumed that this practice is beneficial
for all teachers.

The discourse of integration

The final discourse that shapes participant’s identity construction as they cross borders to take up
teaching positions following completion of the MATESOL is the discourse of integration. This
discourse values the knowledge and skills acquired by an individual teacher as part of the
MATESOL program for the ability to connect any one person to a broader community of teachers.
For instance, from the perspective of this discourse, the MATESOL presents opportunities for
graduates to gain professional recognition and acceptance from other school-based teachers, school
authorities, as well as an imagined broader community of English language teachers beyond
national boundaries. An example of how the MATESOL is thought to assist participants to integrate
into, and identify with, one type of professional community is illustrated by Olivia:
I hope the MATESOL can get me accepted by other teachers in the school as having valuable professional knowledge
because it was done in Hong Kong and not in mainland China, so I am hoping my qualifications can be recognized
as different, or special, so the other teachers in my school may look at me as having the very latest knowledge of
ELT . . . I’m sure these qualifications from Hong Kong will be really crucial for me to be seen as someone different from
just another teacher in the mainland. (Olivia, 1st interview, July 2016)

The goals of this teacher for identity construction, post-MATESOL, include being positioned by
her teaching colleagues as a valuable professional. The reification of this identity in practice is linked
to achieving ‘the MATESOL’ and, moreover, the boundary crossing nature of this TPD experience is
a key component in achieving this identity goal: ‘because it (MATESOL) was done in Hong Kong and
not in mainland China’. Although, in practice, being accepted by the community of teachers within
the school, and hence achievement of her desired identity positioning remains uncertain, being
qualified, linguistically, by terms such as ‘I am hoping’ and the use of weakened modality (“the other
teachers . . . may look at me . . . ”), a later declaration of certainty (“I’m sure . . . ”) is unequivocal in
positioning these boundary crossing TPD experiences as playing a constructive role in her profes-
sional identification. For example, the terms ‘different’, ‘special’ and ‘very latest knowledge’ offer an
implicit positive evaluation of her Hong Kong-acquired qualifications. Indeed, this differentiation will
be essential, she claims, in securing an identity as ‘someone different from just another teacher in the
mainland’.

Constructing identities-in-practice
The theoretical framework described above maintains that a comprehensive understanding of
teacher identity construction demands attention to both the construction of identities-in- discourse
and identities-in-practice. Therefore, this section explores how the participants constructed their
teacher identities through engagement in practices and activities within different schools and
classrooms in mainland China following their successful completion of an MATESOL in Hong Kong.

TIC in practice: conformity

In the previous section it was argued that, from the perspective of the discourse of TPD as
transformation, participants regard change and development in their professional identities as
a crucial component of the learning they experienced as part of the MATESOL. Following their
10 J. TRENT

return to teaching posts in mainland China, each of the participants reported that, in practice, these
TIC aspirations had been frustrated in various ways. One such frustration, described below, occurs as
the discourse of transformation, with it previously noted emphasis on innovation and novelty in
teaching, encounters attitudes and beliefs within schools that place a premium on the reproduction
of past teaching and learning practices and activities. In particular, with the type of transformation
that was so valued by the participants considered a threat to such entrenched practices, some
participants report that school authorities emphasize the obligation of all teachers to cohere with
longstanding school attitudes and traditions. Illustrative of these experiences are the views of Olivia:

I was told by my head teacher that we don’t have any power to change the way we teach or what we teach, it’s just
not possible . . . because it’s the school tradition, it’s not negotiable . . . we are just one teacher so we need to follow,
the school routine, what’s mandated to us, it’s important for us (teachers) to obey . . . I feel that if I can’t develop and
change as a teacher then my training on the MATESOL is completely wasted; I’m stagnant. (Olivia, 2nd interview,
December 2016)

Olivia’s opening remark concerning ‘chang(ing) the way we teach or what we teach’ is an
acknowledgement of the discourse of TPD as transformation. In practice, however, alignment with
this discourse was met with opposition from within the school. She recalls, for instance, being told
that ‘it’s just not possible’ to bring about the type transformation she sought to the content and
practices of teaching. In particular, her use of a strongly modalized statement of belief leaves no
room for doubt that the undermining of her teacher agency implied by this rebuke from her school
has negative implications for her TIC goals: ‘my training on the MATESOL is completely wasted; I’m
stagnant’. This explicit negative assessment of her post-MATESOL identity construction experiences
also serves to reassert her alignment with the discourse of TPD as transformation. Olivia went on to
report in the final interview (September 2017) that, in her opinion, she remained unable to imple-
ment in her classrooms the teaching beliefs and practices she aligns herself with following the
completion of her MATESOL.

TIC in practice: silence

It was argued above that the discourse of TPD as sharing encourages participants to distribute the
learning they acquired throughout the MATESOL with colleagues within their school, as well as
beyond its boundaries. Yet, in practice, several participants report that there are few enablements to
the realization of this goal within the mainland Chinese schools in which they subsequently taught.
For example, participants such as Robert experience their professional identity, post-MATESOL, as
a struggle between their desire to share their newly acquired knowledge and skills with colleagues
and what they see as an imposed need for candour and discretion in their dealings with other
teachers and school authorities:

I never try to share with others, even though I want to, because I know they will be a lot of resistance to changing the
teaching ways in my school. Maybe I will share some strategies with one or two other teachers, but not much. So
I keep the information to myself; what else can I do? Nothing! I feel rejected! I’m now a silent teacher: it’s bad,
I absolutely don’t want to be like that! (Robert, 3rd interview, September 2017)

In his final interview, Robert refers to sharing, invoking the discourse of TPD as dissemination. He
also details opposition from his school to the realization of this discourse in practice, indicated here
by the terms ‘resistance’ and ‘rejected’. This failure to operationalize the need to share their TPD
experiences and learning with stakeholders in mainland China, results in his both self-positioning as
‘a silent teacher’. Given the strength of their allegiance to the discourse of TPD as dissemination, the
subsequent negative evaluation of these identities (‘it’s bad’), and the ultimate, and adamant,
rejection in principle of such identities (‘I absolutely don’t want to be like that’), is not surprising.
Nevertheless, when confronted by such positioning within their schools, he is convinced that
opportunities to exercise agency has been denied to him.
 ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 11

TIC in practice: separation

The discourse of TPD as integration celebrates the capacity of teachers to have the competencies
they acquired while enrolled in the MATESOL acknowledged as valuable by stakeholders within the
different communities they are seeking to join. In many cases, participants believed that this
acknowledgement was not forthcoming. Thus, some of the participants describe their post-
MATESOL professional identities in practice in terms of being autonomous, meaning that they
associate the identity ‘teacher’ with engagement in the practices and activities of teaching quite
independently of others within their respective schools. For instance, Sam recalls experiences that
are illustrative of the challenges these boundary-crossing teachers reported in their attempts to
coordinate their allegiance to the discourse of TPD as integration with feelings of separation from
other teachers within their school community:

I was shocked when I got back to work in my school about how distant I felt as a teacher from other colleagues; very
few of the other teachers really wants to take up my ideas for teaching that came from the MATESOL. If I give some
suggestions, they are never accepted. The other teachers always say it won’t work, or they are not suitable for these
students, so I feel frustrated and excluded from their teaching philosophies because I can see from doing the course
that there are better ways to teach, so I get depressed wondering if I can really fit back into this school in the long-
term . . . I see myself as displaced in terms of what I can bring back from my learning in Hong Kong (because) I’m not
part of a teaching team, I feel like this sort of private, autonomous teacher, doing my own thing as far as my
classroom teaching is concerned, which is very different from what the other teachers are doing (Sam, 2nd interview,
December 2016)

In his self-positioning as ‘distant . . . as a teacher’, Sam is drawing indirectly upon the discourse of
TPD as integration. His implicit negative assessment of this identification – “I was shocked . . . ” –
implies his continued allegiance to this discourse. He then characterizes his engagement in teaching,
and attempts to realize this discourse in the day-to-day activities of the school, as frustration, noting
that his suggestions for teaching ‘are never accepted’. Looking beyond these negative experiences
of participation, he employs the power of imagination to question his long-term capacity to
construct his preferred teacher identity within the school. His description of this imagined identity
as ‘displaced’ offers a bleak prognoses of his possible trajectory of TIC. In the final interview, Sam’s
resolve to align his engagement in teaching with the discourse of integration remained resolute. His
ongoing failure to achieve such alignment result in his decision to resign from his teaching post and
to seek part-time employment opportunities as a private language tutor. He remains uncertain about
his long term commitment to the teaching profession.

Discussion
The results described in the previous section confirm the findings of some previous research high-
lighting the challenges teachers confront as they transition from teacher education programs, such
as MATESOL, to the language classroom, including the potential for tension between the theoretical
perspectives presented in such programs and the established practices of teacher communities
within schools (Hennebry-Leung et al., 2019). The remainder of this section situates such findings in
the context of the conceptual framework described earlier in this paper.
A crucial element within the theory of discourse proposed by Laclau and Mouffe (1985), which
was discussed earlier in this paper, is that of a nodal point of identity, which confers partially fixed
meaning on a particular set of signifiers. In the current study, ‘teacher’ represents such a nodal point.
Moreover, for the six mainland Chinese boundary-crossing teachers, the experience of TPD in
Hong Kong meant that they associated this particular nodal point with the signifiers ‘transformation’,
‘dissemination’ and ‘integration’, to form one chain of equivalence, thereby establishing one possible
meaning of the identity ‘teacher’.
As described previously, nodal points confer meanings which are only ever partially fixed: Every
social order is ‘temporary and precarious’, meaning that ‘there are always other possibilities that
12 J. TRENT

have been repressed and that can be reactivated’ and that identities ‘can never be completely fixed’
(Mouffe, 2005, p. 18). For the six participants, the data discussed in the previous section implies that
this fluidity of identity was experienced as they re-crossed geographic and educational boundaries,
returning to mainland Chinese schools to take up teaching positions following the completion of
a MATESOL in Hong Kong. Thus, the boundary crossing teachers encountered regimes of compe-
tence within these schools which led them to associate the nodal point ‘teacher’ with the signifiers
‘conformity’, ‘silence’ and ‘separation’. In doing so, a second chain of equivalence is established, one
that confers very different possible meanings on the identity ‘teacher’ than those implied by the
chain of equivalence described above.

Boundary crossing as antagonism in TIC

According to Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner (2015, p. 20), boundary crossing can represent an
experience of dis-identification:
Some communities may welcome us, while others may reject us. The experience can be one of painful margin-
alization or merely the chance to move on. Through it all, the journey shapes us via experiences of both identification
and dis-identification.

The theoretical framework outlined earlier, pointed out that within Laclau and Mouffe (1985)
discursive theory of identity construction dis-identification can take the form of social antagonism.
The data presented in this paper indicates that the two chains of equivalence, each with their
associated meaning of ‘teacher’, do indeed exist in an antagonistic relationship. For instance, it does
not appear to be possible for these boundary crossing teachers to position themselves, as a result of
their participation in a TPD program, as transformative, disseminating and integrative teachers and,
through their engagement in the practices and activities of teaching in mainland Chinese schools, to be
simultaneously positioned as teachers who are conforming, silent, and separated.
How was this antagonism between the two chains of equivalence resolved? To consider this
question, it is important to recognize that ‘any social objectivity is constituted through acts of power’
(Mouffe, 2013, p. 4). Such acts are theorized as hegemonic interventions, in which ‘a given order is
created and the meaning of social institutions is fixed’ (Mouffe, 2013, p. 2). However, such interven-
tions do not occur on a level playing field. As Barkhuizen (2017) points out, language teacher
identities are negotiated and some people have more power than others to decide the outcome
of such negotiations.
In the case of these boundary crossing teachers, such a hegemonic intervention appears to favour
the chain of equivalence which links the identity ‘teacher’ to conformity, separation and silence. For
instance, the data reported in this paper indicates a perception amongst these teachers that, following
completion of their TPD in Hong Kong, they have limited recourse to individual agency to enact in
practice the learning they associate with this TPD and, thereby, limited agency to construct their
identities as transformative, disseminating and integrative teachers. Linguistically, this outcome is
reflected in the form of frequent, strongly modalized statements of necessity that describe what
these teachers believe they ‘must do’ or ‘need to do’ as they engage in the practices and activities of
teaching in their mainland Chinese classrooms and schools, as illustrated by Catherine:
. . . we are just one teacher, so we need to follow the school routine, what’s mandated to us . . . I can’t develop and
change to become the type of teacher I really want to be . . . (Catherine, 2nd interview, December 2016)

Wither professional development?

The blockage of identity and lack of agency described above, which continued throughout the
twelve months following the participant’s completion of an MATESOL, lead some boundary crossing
teachers to question the contribution of the degree to the construction of their preferred teacher
 ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 13

identities Thus, a common theme in these teacher’s reflections after they had taken up such teaching
appointments was the inability to bring the learning they believe they experienced during the
MATESOL to the situated practices of mainland Chinese schools and classrooms. Robert’s comments
capture this view:
I thought I did learn a lot of useful information (during the MATESOL), but I won’t advise others to do a teaching
degree overseas and then teach in a school in China because I found that in my school that it’s impossible to use
much of the knowledge in the real teaching situation here (in China). (Robert, 3rd interview, September 2017)

This apparent failure to apply in practice the learning he associates with participation in the
MATESOL was reflected in other teacher’s questioning of the contribution that this Hong Kong-based
MATESOL could make to fulfill their aims for TIC in mainland China:
As a teacher, it (the MATESOL) didn’t really help me; I can’t apply it in my own classroom, so it’s just theoretical.
(Olivia, 2nd interview, August 2017)

Situating TPD as ‘just theoretical’ reflects a common concern amongst participants that the
knowledge and skills acquired in their Hong Kong-based TPD experience is not easily transferable
across educational boundaries into mainland China. As Sam argued; “what works in Hong Kong
doesn’t mean that it can work here (in mainland China)”.

TPD as teacher identity construction across boundaries

The findings reported in this paper have practical implications for the design and implementation of
TPD programs in Hong Kong, mainland China and other analogous settings. For example, addressing
the type of despair Sam expressed in the previous section might begin by recognizing the potential
learning opportunities presented by boundaries. Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner (2015), for
instance, point out that, at boundaries, ‘the meetings of perspectives can be rich in new insights,
radical innovations, and great progress’ (p. 17).
To allow such a meeting of the perspectives of different stakeholders – educational policy makers,
teacher educators and other TPD providers, school authorities, school-based teachers as well as
boundary crossing teachers – boundary zones could be established. Max (2010) theorizes such zones
as ‘polycontextual, multivoiced, multi-scripted and shaped by alternative and often oppositional
discourses, positionings and practices’ (p. 216). Establishing this multivoiced boundary zone can be
facilitated through the creation of boundary objects, which are artefacts that ‘serve to coordinate the
perspectives of various constituencies for some purpose’ (Wenger, 1998, p. 106).
In the context of the current study, boundary objects could be constructed by having boundary
crossing teachers, following their return to teaching posts in mainland Chinese schools, meet with
other stakeholders to share their experiences of TPD during an MATESOL in Hong Kong, including
their aspirations for future TIC. As noted earlier, for learning to occur at the boundaries between
different communities, a two-way connection is imperative (Wenger, 2010). Therefore, educational
policy makers, school authorities and other teachers would also be required to share their perspec-
tives on teaching, learning and TPD. If these exchanges can be recorded and transcribed, the
resulting texts will represent tangible boundary objects.
These boundary objects can serve as tools ‘to question the very idea that there is a natural order
which is the consequence of the development of objective forces’ (Mouffe, 2013, p. 132). For
example, teacher educators and INSET providers can fulfill the role of boundary brokers, that is,
‘people who can introduce elements of one practice into another’ (Wenger, 2010, p. 128). Teacher
educators could, for instance, introduce to the different stakeholders the tools needed to conduct
the type of discourse analysis undertaken in this paper. Thus, the texts produced by the different
stakeholders in the multivoiced boundary zones discussed above can then be subjected to this form
of discourse analysis with the aim of making visible to all stakeholders the dominant discourses that
offer and deny certain identities to boundary crossing teachers. As Borg (2011) argues, INSET should
14 J. TRENT

‘provide teachers not only with the opportunities to make their beliefs explicit but also the space to
question and doubt those beliefs’ (p. 379).
Once these discourses are visible, undertaking the questioning Mouffe (2013) refers to can
multiply the opportunities for identity construction available to boundary crossing teachers. Thus,
an awareness of how they are positioned within mainland Chinese schools, and calling into question
this positioning as ‘a natural order’, could allow these teachers to exercise agency in their identity
construction. Boundary crossing teachers may, for example, identify situations in which they can
unsettle and contest the identities endorsed by school authorities, such as ‘silent’ teachers, as well as
recognizing when such contestation might not be possible.

Conclusion
This paper reported the results of a study that investigated the perceptions and experiences of one
group of English language teachers in mainland China as they crossed geographical, educational and
social boundaries to undertake TPD in Hong Kong and subsequently resume their teaching careers in
mainland Chinese schools. Grounded in a framework for understanding TIC in discourse and practice,
the results of this study suggest that these teachers encountered constraints to the construction of
their teacher identities following their return to teaching in schools in mainland China that led to
them questioning the value of their TPD experiences. Therefore, suggestions were made as to how
the relations of power underpinning such teacher identity blockades could be problematized in ways
that could enable these and similar boundary-crossing teachers to construct their teacher identities
in ways that reflect their experiences of TPD.
The results reported in this paper illustrate, in particular, the external challenges the participants
encountered in their transition between the MATESOL and the classroom. This includes the extent to
which they are able to align the knowledge and skills acquired on the MATESOL program with various
long-established teaching practices valued by their school communities. In conducting future long-
itudinal research, the importance of which has been acknowledged in the literature (Hennebry-Leung
et al., 2019; Shahri, 2018), greater attention could therefore be given to internal challenges by, for
example, exploring the development of teachers’ emotional experiences during their transition from
these programs to the classroom. For instance, this research might consider how, if at all, the teaching
philosophies and beliefs of different teachers develop as they enter diverse communities of teachers
following successful completion of their studies. If such research took the form of a comparative
international investigation situated in multiple educational contexts around the globe, new under-
standings could be gained of the challenges and opportunities for identity construction that teachers
in a variety of educational settings confront as they cross boundaries for the purpose of TPD.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor
Dr. John Trent is an Associate Professor at the Education University of Hong Kong. His research interests include teacher
identity, discourse analysis and teacher education.

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