Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the lived experiences of instrumental teachers of Chinese ethnicity in an international school in Hong Kong, and how these experiences and teachers’ Chinese culture and personal educational orientations contribute to the shaping of their teacher status and teacher professional identity. Besides their teaching duties, instrumental teachers of international schools have to face challenges in cultural differences, which include their roles and positions in an international school context, teaching approaches, the struggles in relation to instrumental teacher image and school reputation, and the relationships with school stakeholders and other cultural and racial issues. These challenges are critical to instrumental teachers because they affect how they position themselves within the school and maintaining good relationships with other stakeholders.The qualitative case study involved 11 ethnic Chinese instrumental music teachers of Chinese ethnicity working in an international school in Hong Kong. Face-to-face and online, individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted for data collection; thematic analysis and Gee’s theory of identity (2000) were adopted for data analysis and theoretical framework for analysing their teacher identities respectively. The findings of this study showed that instrumental music teachers had different levels of commitment to their duties when trying to maintain their professionalism in teaching. Their teacher authority and dedication to non-teaching duties were also influenced not only by their embedded Chinese educational culture, but also by the respects from and the supports from different school stakeholders and their commitments to the school. Teachers’ interactions with different parties in school, the image of the school, the public orientations to education in the society and their Chinese appearances also affected these teachers’ sense of belongings to school, personal images and professional status. In conclusion, these teacher’s professional identities were shaped and reshaped through the process of interpretation and re-interpretation over the years. Hence every teacher had different understanding of their teacher identity.
This research sheds light on the multiple identities and conflicts of instrumental teachers working at international schools. The strengthening of professional instrumental music teacher identity both in the education sector and the society would appear to be the most effective way to enhance the social understanding of these instrumental teachers working at schools.
| Date of Award | 22 Mar 2022 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Sue Timmis (Supervisor) & Marina R Y Gall (Supervisor) |