The complexity of professional identity: Chinese university teachers teaching in physical education teacher education (PETE) programmes

ABSTRACT

In this study, we explore how Chinese teachers, who are involved in PETE programmes in universities, understand their professional identity and what specific factors influence their professional identity as teacher educators. Initially, a sample of 15 Chinese university teachers involved in PETE were interviewed and five follow up interviews were conducted. The results expressed that Chinese university teachers lacked an understanding of the term ‘teacher educator’. Noting the diverse responsibilities and teaching to different groups of students, the majority of the participants perceived their professional identity more as university teachers than as teacher educators. One of the most significant factors positively impacting participants’ professional identity as teacher educators was their level of interaction with pre-service teachers. There is a need for future research on the diverse work of university teachers involved in teacher education and how their multifaceted roles and responsibilities may influence professional identity as teacher educators.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher educators
• university teachers
• teacher education
• complexity
• professional identity

Introduction

Professional identity forms a key part of teacher educators’ ways of understanding the world of teacher education as well as the ways in which they enact their beliefs, values and principles through work (Czerniawski 2018, 9–10).

Teacher educators are crucial in supporting and facilitating the initial education of new teachers and continuing professional development of experienced teachers (European Commission 2013). Teacher educators undertake various roles and responsibilities in relation to the different types of work they engage in, for example, teaching, school placement supervision and research (Yuan and Yang 2020). Yuan (2020) suggested that identity struggle and conflicts are part of their’ professional experiences when they enter teacher education in higher education, and they need to constantly experience, explain and navigate identity conflicts through reflections and practice. Research in a Chinese context found that teacher educators encounter difficulties in identifying as a teacher educator (Cui 2018; Qiu 2015; Zheng 2015). This trend is common in a number of countries, as those who teach teachers might not identify as teacher educators (European Commission 2013, 8). Similarly, Furlong and O’brien (2019) found that teacher educators often described themselves as teachers, educators, researchers and facilitators. It is therefore prudent to explore how university teachers involved in teacher education understand their professional identity and what factors influence their professional identity as teacher educators, given that teacher educators need to have a strong sense of his/her own professional identity in order to enable pre-service teachers (PSTs) to have a strong understanding of self as professional (Furlong and O’brien 2019, 58).

Significantly, Høydalsvik (2019) suggests that more international research on teacher educators’ self-understanding of their identities is needed, acknowledging that the majority of research on teacher educators’ professional identities has originated mostly from North America, Europe and Australia (Izadinia 2014). Understanding of higher education-based teacher educators’ professional identities in a Chinese context has been less studied (Yuan (2016) with related research being completed more recently. For example, research has been carried out on the roles of mathematics teacher educators (Wu, Hwang, and Cai 2017) and identities of English language teacher educators (Yuan 2019). Undertaking multiple professional teaching tasks, Chinese teacher educators are facing the challenge of distinguishing the roles of subject teachers and teacher educators. For example, mathematics teacher educators’ work includes teaching pedagogical courses, teaching college mathematics courses, teaching courses on mathematical problem-solving, and supervising student teaching (Wu, Hwang, and Cai 2017). This aligns with physical education (PE) teacher educators, who undertake various responsibilities of teaching sport skills modules in physical education teacher education (PETE) programmes (e.g. basketball, soccer, volleyball or archery), along with administrative and/or coaching assignments (Metzler and Freedman 1985; Woods, Philips, and Carlisle 1997). Despite a growing body of research on PE teacher educators in the last two decades (Mcevoy, MacPhail, and Heikinaro-Johansson 2015), as well as teacher educators’ professional identities (Czerniawski 2018; Izadinia 2014; Murray and Male 2005; Swennen, Jones, and Volman 2010), limited attention has been given to Chinese PE teacher educators (Zhong and Huang 2020) and the complexity that surrounds Chinese university teachers teaching PSTs identifying (or not) as teacher educators. This paper explores that complexity specifically within the Chinese PETE context.

In this study, we focus on a group of teachers who are involved in PETE in universities. The purpose of this study is to explore how they understand their professional identity and what specific factors influence their professional identity as teacher educators. The research questions are: i) how do Chinese university teachers involved in PETE position and perceive themselves within their occupational context? and ii) what specific factors influence Chinese university teachers’ (involved in PETE) professional identities as teacher educators?

Being a teacher educator

With increasing attention and research on teacher educators, there are many descriptions of who teacher educators are. Murray and Male (2005) interviewed 28 new teacher educators and reported the poor level of understanding of this occupational group in higher education. The European Commission (2013) defined teacher educators as ‘all those who actively facilitate the (formal) learning of student teachers and teachers’ (p.8). Teacher educators are commonly defined as those who teach pre- and in-service teachers in higher education settings and those who act as mentors of teachers in schools (both pre- and in-service) and professional development providers working in government or private organisations (Berry 2016; Czerniawski 2018). White (2019) argued that the definition of the ‘teacher educator’ depends on which country and work context you are located in, the position and perspective you take in educating teachers, and on individuals who choose whether to identify or not as a teacher educator.

There is very limited formal preparation and guidance for teacher educators before they enter teacher education in higher education, with an acknowledgement that before entering teacher education in higher education, teacher educators may gain experience as school teachers, subject specialists or researchers (European Commission 2013). After investigating the journey of becoming a teacher educator, Mayer et al. (2011) described it as an ‘accidental career’ for teacher educators to undertake the work of educating teachers. That is, many teachers who ended up as teacher educators had not deliberately set out to become teacher educators. Research has reported the struggle in transforming the professional identity of teachers to that of teacher educators (Murray and Male 2005). Those teacher educators who do not begin their careers as teachers in schools also play a significant role in preparing PSTs, although much less is known about the formation of their professional identity (Newberry 2014; Yuan 2020).

Being a Chinese teacher educator

The Chinese teacher educator context is very different from many countries, particularly considering that the majority of teacher educators in China do not have previous teaching experience (Kastner et al. 2019; Qiu 2015; Tang 2012; Wang 2017). Many Chinese teacher educators started their career working with PSTs as ‘college teachers’ and did not experience a shift of identity from school teacher to teacher educator (Wang 2017). To improve the quality of teacher education in China, higher education-based teacher educators were encouraged to work in schools and outstanding school teachers were encouraged to teach in the higher education institutions (Chinese Ministry of Education 2018).

To improve the quality of teacher educators, firstly we must be clear about ‘who are teacher educators’ (Li 2008). The term ‘teacher educator’ was first time translated into ‘教师教育者’ in a Chinese study (Zhu 2001). It is acknowledged that there is a significant lack of research on Chinese teacher educators in higher education (Cui 2018; Tang 2012; Zheng 2015). As a result it is difficult to identify who and what teacher educators are in a Chinese context (Zheng 2015). Reviewing English and Chinese literature on the definition of teacher educators, Qiu (2015) found that Western and Chinese researchers define teacher educators differently due to the different contexts in which they work. Ma and Hu (2018) also found that Chinese teacher educators are different from those in the western context. Tang (2012) defined university-based teacher educators as all university teachers who are involved in educating PSTs. While, Li (2008) argued that teacher educators are those who dedicate all their effort to teacher education by researching and teaching, and regard developing the quality of teacher education as their only professional task. Tang (2012) goes on to suggest that Chinese teacher educators demonstrated uncertainty of who teacher educators are due to the lack of clarity surrounding teacher educators’ professional identity in the Chinese context. Reviewing international definitions of teacher educators, and considering the Chinese context, it has been proposed that teacher educators are those professional teachers in teacher education who educate teachers in the pre-service, induction and in-service phases (Zheng 2015, 19). Chinese traditional ‘normal’ universities¹ and colleges used to be the only institutions responsible for educating future teachers. From an institutional perspective, Li (2008) suggested that teachers who taught PSTs in the traditional ‘normal’ universities could be called ‘teacher educators’. It is interesting to note that, since 1999, ‘non-normal’ universities have also been encouraged to provide teacher education programmes (Chinese State Council 1999). In the study we present here, we focus on teacher educators within the subject area of PE working in ‘normal’ and ‘non-normal’ universities.

The Chinese Ministry of Education, National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform (2018) stated that it is essential to establish a group (community) of teacher educators in higher education to promote their sense of belonging. Significantly, Chinese teacher educators need a community to construct and develop their identity, however, they are at the stage of ‘fighting alone’ (for example, reading a book and reflection) and did not have a sense to build a community or professional learning community (Ma and Hu 2018, 94). In this context, Ma and Hu (2018) argued that it was difficult for Chinese teacher educators to develop their professional identity. Zhu and Zhao (2018) acknowledged that establishing a Chinese teacher educators’ community is a component of strengthening teacher education programmes in universities and it has proved difficult to organise such a community given that teacher educators who teach pedagogical knowledge, subject knowledge and general education curriculums do not appear to interact. It has been reported that Chinese subject specialists in teacher education did not regard the work of educating future teachers as their professional task, believing they were solely delivering the content of their respective subject areas (Li 2008). Zheng (2015) argued that while Chinese subject specialists who are involved in teacher education should identify as teacher educators, minimal attention is paid to the connection between subject knowledge and teacher education. Consequently, such individuals do not regard preparing future teachers as their responsibility.

Being a Chinese physical education teacher educator

In China, teacher educators generally work in departments/faculties specific to the subject they are qualified in (Ping et al. 2021), whereas in many Western countries it’s more common for teacher educators to work in one teacher education faculty in higher education. The reason for this is that Chinese teacher education programmes are structured in separate departments for preparing teachers in each subject area (Ding 2016). For example, Chinese PE teacher educators (except those who teach general modules) involved in PETE, are based in Departments of Physical Education and Sports to prepare future PE teachers rather than working in the same faculty with English teacher educators or maths teacher educators.

The Chinese PETE curriculum is usually divided into general modules (e.g. outline of Chinese modern history, university English, basic computing), sport skills modules (e.g. volleyball, tennis, soccer), theoretical modules (e.g. sports biomechanics, sport psychology, school PE), research modules (e.g. research methods) and teaching practice (e.g. observation, school placement). Chinese university teachers who enter PETE and teach these modules are not required to have previous teaching experience in schools or have a PE or PETE background. For example, students who majored in sport training could enter PETE to teach sport skills modules or theoretical modules. Currently, more universities expect candidates to have a doctoral degree before they are employed.

It is important to acknowledge the difference between identifying as a university PE teacher and PE teacher educator in Chinese universities. PE is a compulsory course in Chinese universities. Different from many other countries, all Chinese university first and second-year students are required to attend PE classes, therefore, there are university PE teachers in all Chinese universities. In mainland China there are 1265 universities (Chinese Ministry of Education 2019), and 317 of them offer PETE programmes (Huang et al. 2016). There are 65,613 full-time PE lecturers/teachers across Chinese higher education institutions (Chinese Ministry of Education 2018), a sub-sample of whom included PE teacher educators, those who are involved in PETE programmes and/or support in-service PE teachers’ continuous professional development. PE teachers in Chinese universities can be involved in the following areas: (i) teach PE to first and second-year general university students, (ii) coach university sports teams depending on their speciality and organise sports competition in their respective universities, (iii) teach students with sport related majors (such as, PE, sports training, social sports), (iv) engage in research depending on the requirements of their respective departments/faculty, (v) those with a Masters/PhD degree supervise postgraduate students, (vi) provide professional development activities to in-service school PE teachers, (vii) involvement in administration. Chinese university PE teachers can be involved in aspects of the areas listed above depending on their speciality as well as the requirements of their respective departments/universities. To distinguish PE teacher educators from university PE teachers, we highlight that university PE teacher educators are those who have responsibility for educating students majoring in PE and/or provide continuous professional development activities for in-service school PE teachers. However, PE teacher educators may also have other workloads as a university PE teacher, which are described above. There is more research focusing on university PE teachers than PE teacher educators and in the research area of PE and PETE in China, the term ‘teacher educators’ was rarely mentioned (Zhong and Huang 2020).

Teacher educators’ professional identity

It takes time and effort for teacher educators to develop their professional identity (Murray and Male 2005). Professional identity was defined by Davey (2013) as the ‘valued professional self’, it may be continually (in)formed and (re)shaped by interacting with others and in response to contexts which we act and work (p.162–163). Dinkelman (2011) described that teacher educators’ professional identity is multiple, fluid, complex and intricate. Teacher educators’ professional identities can shape and reshape their actual teaching practice and social interactions, as well as influence PSTs’ and teachers’ professional learning and identity construction (Yuan 2019). Through a deep insight of teacher educators’ diverse experience across different social and pedagogical cultures, Williams and Hayler (2016) describes becoming a teacher educator as ‘an on-going process of constructing and re-constructing a new professional identity’ (p.199).

Swennen, Jones, and Volman (2010) report four sub-identities of teacher educators: ‘school teacher’, ‘teacher in higher education’ (university teacher), ‘teacher of teachers’ and ‘researchers’. Their study also found support for a more generic view of teacher educators as ‘teachers’ given the sense of belonging to the larger community of teachers (regardless of subject or level). Teacher educators from different national contexts have diverse perspectives on their professional identities. For example, Høydalsvik (2019) investigates Norwegian university-based teacher educators’ self-understanding of their professional identity and found that before becoming teacher educators, many of them still held an identity rooted in the subject discipline they were primarily educated for. Exploring Chinese teacher educators’ professional identity, Wang (2017) reports that the majority of Chinese teacher educators viewed themselves as a specific type of (college) teacher and not necessarily as a teacher educator. This result is similar to a recent study carried out by Ma and Hu (2018), who found that when 12 Chinese university-based teacher educators were asked how they perceived their identity in the current work, almost all of them prioritised their most basic/fundamental identity as a university teacher and very few Chinese teacher educators in their study used the term ‘teacher educator’. The participants favoured university lecturer rather than teacher educator, irrespective if they are from normal universities, research intensive universities, or teaching intensive universities (Ma and Hu 2018, 97). While this is maybe common for other countries, as the European Commission (2013) reported, ‘many of those who teach teachers might not consider themselves to be teacher educators at all’ (p.8).

Methodology

Participant selection

A sample of 15 participants were sourced from 60 Chinese university teachers involved in PETE who completed a survey researching the professional learning and development needs of Chinese university-based PE teacher educators (Gong, MacPhail, and Guberman 2021). We refer to the participants as university teachers who are the educators/lecturers in Chinese universities. Convenience sampling, i.e. participants who are easily accessible and willing to participate (Teddlie and Yu 2007), was used in the process of selection. Each of the 15 participants had previously noted their interest in being interviewed for the study and had included their contact information in the previously administered related survey.

Purposive sampling was also used in the selection of participants and involved selecting certain cases ‘based on a specific purpose rather than randomly selecting’ (Tashakkori and Teddlie 2003, 713). Purposive sampling was informed by the demographic data previously captured through the related survey (Gong, MacPhail, and Guberman 2021). As the intention of this study is to explore the factors influencing professional identity of teachers who are involved in PETE in higher education, there was a wish to ensure a geographical spread of participants from a variety of contexts to investigate unknown factors. Gender was not considered as one of the criterions. When selecting the five participants for follow up interviews the authors purposively choose the participants who met the following criteria: i) those who conveyed a genuine interest in teacher educators’ professional identity research, ii) those who demonstrated an understanding of being a teacher educator, and iii) those who more closely aligned with their professional identity as a teacher educator.

Participants

Ethics committee approval for this study was granted by the Research Ethics Committee. To protect the anonymity of the participants, all identifiable information was removed, and a pseudonym was provided for each participant. To clearly distinguish the data between first and second interview, the number ‘1ʹ or ‘2ʹ were added after abbreviations (e.g. Wei-1 or Wei-2). Among the 15 participants (12 male, three female), six had a PhD degree, and nine held a Master’s degree. The universities they worked in were located across eight provinces in China and all were involved in teaching PE PSTs. The range of experience working in a university ranged from two to 17 years and four of the 15 participants had previous teaching experience in schools. The participants engaged with a wide variety of student cohorts including PSTs, general university students (GUS), sport training students (STS), social sport students (SSS) and in-service teachers (IST). GUS, STS, SSS were not trained/educated to become PE teachers. For example, GUS are from different departments (e.g. history department, school of medicine) and they engage in general PE in first and second year. The participants’ demographics are presented in Table 1.

Table 1. Demographics for the sample of teachers involved in PETE across eight provinces.

Pseudonym	Gender	Degree	Teaching experience in schools	Experience working in higher education	Students
Wei	Male	PhD	No	2	PSTs, STS
Zhe	Male	Master	4 months	17	PSTs, GUS, STS
Tao	Male	Master	No	13	PSTs, GUS
Xin	Male	Master	No	2	PSTs, GUS
Peng	Male	PhD	1 year	12	PSTs, GUS
Yan	Female	Master	No	4	PSTs, GUS, SSS
Feng	Male	PhD	No	2	PSTs, IST
Ming	Male	PhD	10 years	12	PSTs, GUS, STS, IST
Chao	Male	PhD	1 year	8	PSTs, GUS, SSS
Na	Female	Master	No	1	PSTs, GUS
Rong	Male	Master	No	3	PSTs, GUS
Bo	Male	Master	No	8	PSTs, GUS, STS, SSS
Xin	Male	Master	No	15	PSTs, SSS
Rui	Male	PhD	No	4	PSTs, SSS, IST
Xuan	Female	Master	No	15	PSTs, GUS, SSS, IST

Interviews

The first interview protocol was initially constructed in English and then translated into Chinese for ease of data collection. The protocol included four sections: i) participants’ path into teacher education, ii) participants’ identification of their role, iii) what individual activities influence participants’ professional identity, and iv) what community-support activities (e.g. engaging in learning communities, communal activities) influence participants’ professional identity. The 15 individual semi-structured interviews were conducted in Chinese in China. Nine of the interviews were carried out face to face at a location convenient to the participant (in offices located in their universities). For the remaining six participants, interviews took place via a phone call. The interviews lasted between 30 and 70 minutes and were recorded with each participant’s permission.

The first round of interviews identified that there was a significant lack of understanding of the term ‘teacher educator’. As such, five follow up interviews were conducted to extend our understanding of the complexity of identifying as a teacher educator in a Chinese context. All interviews were carried out face to face, lasted between 37 and 86 minutes and were recorded with each participant’s permission.

Data analysis

The interviews were transcribed in Chinese and translated into English. A grounded theory method (Strauss and Corbin 1998) was employed to analyse the data to explore potential factors. In the process of analysis, three phases of coding were utilised to interpret the interviews (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). The first phase, open coding, which is the analytic process through concepts, involved coding the data line by line. In doing so the data was broken down into discrete parts, for example: ‘teaching tasks’, ‘carrying out research’, ‘supervising Master’s thesis’, ‘coaching sport teams’, ‘service’, ‘teaching general university students’, ‘teaching sport related major students’. The next phase, axial coding, consisted of reconstructing data ‘by making connections between a category and its subcategories’ (Strauss and Corbin 1990, 97). During axial coding, the codes were combined into broader categories, for example: ‘diverse working tasks and student population’. The final phase was selective coding whereby the core categories were condensed into three themes that capture the main factors influencing participants’ professional identity: ‘understanding of teacher educators’ professional identity’, ‘working context’, and ‘interaction with PSTs’. Each phase involved the three authors clarifying and agreeing categories at regular meetings throughout the analysis phase. An example of the three phases of data analysis is represented in Table 2.

Table 2. Data analysis example.

Open codes	Axial codes	Selective code
Expectation to be involved in PETE Department decision	Involvement in PETE	Working context
Teaching tasks Carrying out research Supervising Master’s thesis Service Coaching sports teams Teaching general university students Teaching PSTs Teaching sport related major students Professional identity as a university teacher	Diverse working tasks and student population
Teacher educators’ responsibilities Teaching pedagogical modules Teaching sport skill modules Preparing teachers Revise PETE programmes Teacher education professional accreditation Providing continuing education to in-service teachers	Work related to pre-service and in-service teacher education

Trustworthiness of the data

Researchers must ensure research findings reflect participants’ voice (Lincoln and Guba 1985), conscious that information the participants provide and the explanations of the data should not be created by the researchers (Polit and Beck 2012). One of the procedures for enhancing trustworthiness is to include member checking, a process to confirm credibility of the information (Creswell and Miller 2000). Participants in this study received a copy of his/her transcription and they were encouraged to clarify and verify the accuracy of their interview transcript with an opportunity to delete any wording they did not wish the authors to use in reporting study findings. All the authors were available for debriefing and attended face to face and online meetings to be involved in the discussion of emerging codes.

Results

Results from the 20 interviews (15 first interviews and five follow-up interviews) conveyed a number of main factors influencing professional identity. The three most compelling factors are presented below: i) understanding of teacher educators’ professional identity, ii) working context, and iii) interaction with PSTs. Participants often use ‘teacher’ in the conversation which is due to the fact that educators from different settings (e.g. kindergarten, school and university) are all known as ‘teacher’ in China. It is not referred to as ‘teacher’ in English which is generally used to describe educators in a school setting. In this paper, ‘teacher’ in the quotes below refers to ‘university teacher’.

Understanding of teacher educators’ professional identity

Participants stated that they became involved in PETE to teach PE PSTs, although many found it difficult to identify as a teacher educator since they did not have a clear understanding of the term teacher educator and who are teacher educators. This, in turn, appears to impede their ability to establish their professional identity as a teacher educator. It is evident that the term teacher educator remains relatively new for two participants, as Feng explained:

Currently, there is very limited research on physical education teacher educators in China and the research on them has not gained so much attention (…). So many people are unclear of the concept of teacher educator identity. I just knew it because of the last interview by reading some literature and communicating with you [the interviewer] (Feng-2).

With limited understanding of the term teacher educator, nine out of 15 participants questioned what it meant to be a teacher educator or what the concept of a teacher educator was: ‘Firstly what’s the concept of teacher educator? Are those the teachers of student teachers? The concept of teacher educator is relatively new in China … Do the teachers who provide national training to in-service teachers belong to teacher educators?’ (Feng-1), and ‘Are they the teachers who are involved in teachers’ training?’ (Xuan-1). During the interviews, two out of the nine participants confused university teachers’ professional identity with teacher educators’ professional identity, admitting ‘I didn’t understand the difference between teacher and teacher educator’ (Zhe-1). Six participants, who had a clearer understanding of who teacher educators are, found it easier to identify and recognise themselves as teacher educators, ‘Yeah, I think I belong to teacher educators … In my opinion, teacher educators are teachers who educate teachers in the phases of pre-service, induction and in-service. Their work is very diverse’ (Rui-1).

Working context

Involvement in PETE

When asked what factors prompted participants to enter PETE, it became apparent that becoming a teacher educator was not their priority. Participants were not employed from school settings. They did not purposefully look for a position which focused on teaching PE PSTs before entering PETE in university. Their focus was on the perceived quality of the university as opposed to who they would be teaching. Once they were employed, it was at the respective department’s discretion to determine what they were assigned to teach, with the participants having no control over which group of students or modules they were to be allocated. Therefore, participants’ involvement in PETE was accidental. Subsequently, the focus of their expectations upon entering universities had a direct impact on the ability to define and identify as a teacher educator:

I did not have a purpose to teach students of specific majors after I graduated … I definitely expected to be a physical education teacher in higher education before induction, however, I did not have to be a physical education teacher educator (Ming-2).

Diverse working tasks and student population

The participants’ day to day work was diverse and could include teaching, coaching, research and service. In terms of teaching, only one participant was solely teaching PSTs as PE was the only major subject area in his department. The rest of the participants were undertaking various teaching commitments with a broad range of students. For example, apart from PE PSTs, 11 participants also taught first and/or second year GUS (see Table 1). Nine out of 15 also taught other sport related major students (e.g. social sports, sports training). Participants’ work was made more complex given that students from different sport related majors could be ‘in the same class’ (Na-1). In addition, nine participants coached a university sports team (e.g. football team, badminton team), and 13 were involved in carrying out research and/or supervising Master’s students. These activities were described as ‘all the work belonging to teachers (in universities)’ (Rong-2). Resulting from the fact that responsibilities and work tasks related to PETE was only part of participants’ formal work responsibilities, the role of teacher educator was described as ‘a part of (university) teachers’ diverse roles’ (Peng-2). In response to the complex context which participants work in, their professional identities seem shaped and reshaped by interacting with different types of students or in-service teachers. This is reinforced in the following comment, ‘being a teacher educator is temporary when I have the work (belong to a teacher educator), but not for a long term … For the long term, I am a teacher’ (Xin-1). None of the participants had the opportunity to devote all their teaching time to PSTs and focus on their role as a teacher educator. It was noted, however, by Chao that he wanted his time to be involved in teaching PSTs, ‘In the future, if possible, I wish I only focused on teaching two modules specific to PSTs’ (Chao-2). Opportunities to develop experience in PETE related courses was hindered by the fact that programme leaders did not recognise the participants as teacher educators in their respective departments and subsequently did not encourage them to concentrate on developing their teaching and daily work with PSTs.

The diverse work tasks negatively influenced participants’ ability to identify as a teacher educator and made it difficult for participants to clearly identify who teacher educators are in their work place which created a barrier to establishing a community of teacher educators at a local and national level. Rong, for example, did not have much interaction with PSTs and questioned whether he could identify as a teacher educator or not, ‘Am I a teacher educator if I only teach one module to physical education PSTs once a week? Actually, I think I am a teacher … Very few factors influence the sense of my professional identity as a teacher educator’ (Rong-1). Chao and Rui, who were teaching different cohort of students, explained a common situation in their respective faculties:

We did not distinguish clearly between teacher educators and teachers (in my department). For example, there is no-one who only teaches physical education PSTs. The majority of the teachers are the same as me, we teach general university students, social sport students, sport performance students. There are five [subject] majors in my department, so every teacher teaches students from different majors (Chao-2).

Most of the teachers in the three departments have varied teaching [responsibilities]. Physical education students, social sport students and sport training students can choose one module together and have class together. Therefore, these teachers’ professional identity as teacher educators are unclear. Especially if they don’t do research on teacher education, they are more unclear (Rui-1).

Work related to pre-service and in-service teacher education

In terms of PST education, it is noticeable that the participants who taught modules on the PETE programmes were influenced to consider their professional identity as teacher educators. Those participants who were teaching pedagogical modules undertook greater responsibilities in preparing future teachers, than those teaching sport skill modules, and could make greater connections to their professional identity as teacher educators. Pedagogical modules (e.g. school PE, sport pedagogy) are more focused on the theory on how to teach as opposed to sport skill modules being more focused on skill development. For example, Xin taught a badminton module and he described that his responsibility was to ‘Mainly deliver sport skills and tactics’ (Xin-1), and ‘Regarding to pedagogy, it is mainly delivered by theoretical modules [sport pedagogy]’ (Feng-2). In relation to the pedagogical modules, it was clear that there was a focussed education element in their teaching rather than solely teaching sports skills in isolation, ‘Because I’m teaching theory modules [sport pedagogy], I’m more about teaching them [PSTs] how to teach when faced with students in primary and secondary schools’ (Yan-1).

To improve the quality and efficiency of pre-service PETE programmes and meet the standards of teacher education professional accreditation, three participants collaborated with colleagues in the same university in the revision of their respective PETE programmes. This process had a significant impact on their professional identity as teacher educators, ‘Because the physical education major is to prepare physical education teachers, when we were working together to make the physical education teacher education training plan better, I understood my professional identity profoundly. It’s obvious’ (Ming-2).

In relation to in-service teacher education, three participants were involved in providing professional learning and development activities for in-service physical education teachers which was another factor which positively influenced participants’ professional identity as teacher educators. For example, Xuan who had taught in-service teachers considered herself a teacher of teachers, ‘Every summer and winter, there are some courses for in-service teachers who take a part-time Master’s programme. They are already teachers. During that time, I felt I am a teacher educator' (Xuan-1).

Interaction with PSTs

Interacting with PSTs had the most impact on participants’ professional identity as teacher educators. When asked what or who they believed influenced their sense of professional identity as a teacher educator, 14 participants noted the significant impact of interacting with PSTs. Four participants highlighted the interaction particularly when guiding PSTs’ teaching on school placement. Five participants identified as a teacher educator during the process of teaching PSTs, and nine participants noted the impact of PSTs’ future career when they secured a job as a teacher in schools following graduation which prompted them to reflect on and recognise the role they played in teacher education, ‘I am clear of my position (as a teacher educator)' (Zhe-1). An example of the impact of PSTs’ learning was detailed by Rui: ‘Actually, some undergraduates who came here did not know anything in relation to teaching. I teach them and could see their knowledge, teaching ability and research ability improve. Therefore, I could more and more identify myself as a teacher educator’ (Rui-1).

It was apparent in talking with the participants that due to PSTs not undertaking school placement until their third or final year of the programme, many students do not appreciate the pedagogy aspect of the programme or find it difficult to envision themselves teaching PE. The participants’ role in guiding PSTs’ school placement significantly influenced participants’ professional identity, ‘Of course it was the time when I guide PSTs’ school placement that my identity [as a teacher educator] became more obvious’ (Ming-1). Subsequently, this had an impact on four participants and their lack of developing a teacher educator identity at early stage of educating PSTs, as Wei explained:

I think when the students maybe in grade two or three, they only had superficial understanding of teaching physical education especially before school placement. They don’t have so many concepts … They may not understand or pay attention to it even though I taught them. However, after two or three years’ study, until they finished their school placement … and successfully found a job as a teacher, I felt the feeling of teacher educator (Wei-1).

When reflecting on their professional identity as a teacher educator, six participants valued their relationships with PSTs and the ongoing interaction following graduation, ‘The graduate students I taught are always keeping in touch … I felt great … I wish they can be a wise teacher who can have a good relationship with people around them in life’ (Yan-1). Participants were invested in their PSTs’ future career, acknowledging that it is very competitive to secure a teaching job following graduation in China. Chao shared that, in his department, only around 50–60% of PSTs became teachers in primary or secondary schools after graduation. Some participants stated that they found it difficult to see themselves as teacher educators to PSTs at the start of their involvement in PETE programmes since PSTs may not choose a career in teaching. A significant turning point in this positioning was when PSTs secured a teaching post, for example, one participant explained that, ‘Firstly, when my students became teachers in schools and communicate with me, then I realised that the students I educated were going to be teachers. The feeling (of being a teacher educator) is more intuitive and direct’ (Chao-1). This is also reflected in the following comment:

The students I taught graduated and became physical education teachers. After they became teachers … During some festivals, they came back to visit me. They shared with me their teaching experience and told me the bits and pieces of what happened with their students. Someday I realized that my previous students became teachers, and I found I am a teacher educator (Xuan-1).

Discussion

The following sections discuss how Chinese university teachers, involved in PETE, understand their identity as teacher educators and what factors influence the complexity of identifying as a teacher educator.

Understanding the terms ‘teacher educator’ and ‘university teacher’

In this study, not all Chinese university teachers involved in PETE identified as a teacher educator. Their personal understanding of the term ‘teacher educator’, and the difference between ‘university teacher’ and ‘teacher educator’, as well as the uncertainty of who is a teacher educator in their local working context, resulted in the difficulty of identifying as a teacher educator. The lack of understanding of the term teacher educator, as a key factor in determining a strong professional identity, is reinforced by Senese (2016), who stated that it is hard to identify with the term teacher educator until you understand it, and Høydalsvik (2019) who reported that teacher educators’ emerging professional identity appears to be influenced by personal perceptions. Similar to Ma and Hu’s (2018) finding, even though Chinese teacher educators are involved in the work of teacher education, they rarely use the term ‘teacher educator’ to describe themselves and they perceive their most fundamental identity as a ‘university teacher’. In a Chinese context, those working in PETE often referred to themselves as a ‘university teacher’ or ‘generic teacher’ (due to the fact that in China, educators from different settings are called teachers) rather than teacher educators. This aligns with the findings of Swennen, Jones, and Volman (2010) who reported that some teacher educators referred to themselves as teachers (in a generic sense) as they positioned themselves as members of a larger community of teachers.

Teacher educators’ evolving beliefs and understanding about who ‘counts’ as a teacher educator are the fundamental aspects of teacher educators’ professional identity (Davey 2013, 70). According to international literature, the broad definition of ‘teacher educators’ are those teachers who are involved in teacher education and facilitate the formal learning of PSTs (Berry 2016; European Commission 2013). However, the way in which teachers in the study positioned their own professional identity challenged such definitions. The findings are more in line with White (2019), who shared the definition of ‘teacher educator’ as being dependent on which country and work context you are located in, the position and perspective you take in educating teachers, and on individuals who choose whether to identify (or not) as a teacher educator. Instead of trying to convince the Chinese participants involved in this study to identify as already constructed definitions of teacher educator, it is important to know how they understand their own professional identity, or not, as teacher educators.

Diverse work responsibilities inside and outside of teacher education

The formation of professional identity is an answer to the question ‘Who am I at this moment’ as well as ‘Who do I want to become?’ (Beijaard, Meijer, and Verloop 2004). Interestingly, Chinese teachers on entry into PETE in higher education did not have strong intentions or expectations to be teacher educators. This is consistent with what has been found in a previous study which revealed that taking on the work of a teacher educator has been described as ‘an accidental career’ (Mayer et al. 2011) along with an element of ‘randomness’ (Høydalsvik 2019). Importantly, research states that it takes time to identify as a teacher educator when working with PSTs and the construction and reconstruction of a teacher educator identity is an on-going process (Williams and Hayler 2016). University teachers involved in PETE identified as a teacher educator when interacting with PSTs and identified as a university teacher in other working contexts.

It is important for teacher educators to develop an awareness of and analyse their various professional identities in relation to their work contexts (Yuan 2020). Given diverse responsibilities and the teaching of different groups of students, participants perceived teacher educators as a sub-identity of teachers in higher education (university teacher) which is opposite to the results reported by Swennen, Jones, and Volman (2010) that teachers in higher education is the sub-identity of teacher educators. This may be due to university teachers considering their common goal as educating students in general, not solely PSTs. Teacher educators can experience confusion regarding their professional identity due to the complex, diverse and essential work in their professional life (Mannes 2020). In the Chinese context, university teachers involved in PETE found it difficult to prioritise their work related to (PE) teacher education as the majority were teaching a broader range of students (e.g. PE PSTs, general university students, sport science students). This impacted their ability and caused more confusion for them to identify as a teacher educator. It can be argued that the diverse work undertaken outside of teacher education by Chinese university teachers involved in PETE courses led them to be uncertain about their professional identity as a teacher educator and added confusion about what constitutes a teacher educator in their working context. This finding supports a recent study by Guberman et al. (2020), where they reported that teacher educators’ various teaching responsibilities across multiple and various areas (i.e. including subject pedagogy, general pedagogy, disciplinary, research) can lead to an ‘identity crisis’. It was clear from the study reported here that Chinese PETE programme leaders and respective department heads made decisions as to who teaches what and when, with no prioritisation given to university teachers involved in teacher education to focus their teaching on PETE related modules and to form a community of teacher educator colleagues. This is considered a crucial factor influencing the construction of teacher educators’ professional identity. Our findings support the study of Ma and Hu (2018), where Chinese teacher educators did not find a community for teacher educators. This situation made it difficult to construct and develop their professional identity. It is necessary for institutions and programme leaders to appreciate the profession of (PE) teacher educators, create a community for teacher educators and support the development of their professional identities. As it is evident that programme leaders and instructors in institutions have built a discourse of ‘Who are we? What are we in the process of becoming?’ (Høydalsvik 2019). We strongly encourage institutions and programme leaders to understand and identify who are teacher educators within the department and allow provision for teacher educators to focus on their work related to teacher education.

Within PETE programmes, the findings clearly conveyed that teaching pedagogical modules to PE PSTs was identified as a positive factor influencing participants’ professional identity as teacher educators. Teachers who taught pedagogical modules took more responsibility (as teacher educators) to teach PSTs how to teach, while sport skills teachers were more focused on delivering skill development and had less sense of their professional identity as teacher educators. This supports a study conducted by Li (2008) who reported that Chinese subject specialists in teacher education did not regard the work of educating future teachers as their professional task, preferring to be held responsible for delivering content in their specific subject areas. We argue that university teachers involved in PETE did not work as a collaborative professional group to share the responsibility to educate future teachers, evidenced by those who taught pedagogical modules and those who taught sport skill modules operating in two separate spaces.

The turning points during interaction with PSTs

Becoming a teacher educator does not just happen when one is employed to teach at a university, but is rather a career-long journey which is influenced by changing circumstances and new ways of thinking (Williams and Hayler 2016). Bullock and Ritter (2011) noted ‘turning points’ to help us understand how teacher educators’ identities emerged and developed. PSTs had a significant influence on professional identity of university teachers involved in PETE. While there are dynamics associated with the interaction between PSTs and teacher educators that are significant to understand the factors influencing teacher educators’ professional identity, little is known about how a teacher educator’s professional identity is (re)shaped and informed due to the interaction with PSTs (Izadinia 2014). Significantly, Izadinia (2014) highlights the need for further research on PST-teacher educator relationships and its impact on identity formation.

This study found that in the process of teaching, two significant turning points related to PSTs were the most significant factors promoting participants’ professional identity as teacher educators. The first turning point is PSTs’ school placement in their final years of a PETE programme. The role that Chinese university teachers undertook in positioning and guiding PSTs on school placement as future teachers, and the nature of their engagement with PSTs, strongly reinforced their evolving understanding of, and identity as a teacher educator who had contributed to the development of the PSTs. Czerniawski (2018) define teacher educators’ professional identity not only as how teacher educators position themselves but also how they position others with whom they engage professionally, e.g. PSTs.

The second turning point occurred when PSTs secured a job as a PE teacher following graduation. PSTs securing a job in a highly competitive market and maintaining regular contact resulted in the university teachers involved in PETE programmes being proud of the role they had played and, in turn, resulted in them identifying as a teacher educator. Such on-going interaction with PSTs significantly contributed to university teachers involved in PETE programmes reflecting on, and heightening their awareness of, the role they have in PETE.

Conclusion

In this study, we presented how Chinese university teachers involved in PETE programmes understood their professional identity and expressed the complexity of identifying as a teacher educator. Chinese university teachers who were involved in PETE programmes perceived their professional identity more as university teachers than teacher educators. There appears to be a lack of understanding and appreciation of the role of the teacher educator profession in the Chinese university context. Given the limited research conducted in this area in a Chinese context, this paper looked to contribute to the literature on teacher educators’ professional identity.

Czerniawski (2018) raised a question: ‘Why is teacher educator identity important?’ (9). He answered that professional identities shape a key part of teacher educators’ ways of understanding the world of teacher education and the exploration of their identity is part of a wider commitment to promoting the improvement and understanding of teacher education in general. We would also argue that those university teachers involved in teacher education in higher education, who have little understanding of being a teacher educator and low-level sense of their professional identity as a teacher educator, have less opportunity to commit to the preparation of future teachers and improving the quality of teacher education. This also impacted on the creation of teacher educator communities at local, national and international levels. In a Chinese context, there is still no agreed definition for ‘teacher educators’ and ‘PE teacher educators. We found that the term teacher educator is not fully understood or recognised in the Chinese context and, subsequently, many university teachers involved in PETE position themselves as a university teacher. Understanding the term “teacher educator” may not be a factor influencing teacher educators’ professional identity in other countries, especially for those have more research in this field and have established teacher educator communities. The term ‘teacher educator’ is still new for Chinese university teachers involved in PETE and time, support, and more Chinese and international research will help them understand and identify as a teacher educator. As Yuan (2020) suggested, such an identity needs to be negotiated, in particular when teacher education is only part of their job description. There is a need for future research to define teacher educators and PE teacher educators in a Chinese context, with a related interest to explore which university teachers involved in teacher education should be considered (or encouraged to consider for themselves) as teacher educators if they perceive themselves as a university teacher.

The research on teacher educators’ professional identity must address the issue of what teacher educators do (Davey 2013, 68). Our study also contributes to understanding the diverse responsibilities of Chinese university teachers involved in PETE programmes which may differ to those from other countries. We call for more research on the diverse work of university teachers involved in PETE or teacher education and how such diverse responsibilities might influence professional identity as teacher educators.

Finally, Chinese university teachers involved in PETE did not identify as teacher educators when they began educating PE PSTs. Their professional identity as teacher educators appears to have developed over time as they became committed to improving PSTs’ teaching and learning. It may therefore be prudent to explore the types of relationships between PSTs and university teachers/teacher educators impact on the professional identity of teacher educators.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

Yueying Gong was supported by the China Scholarship Council (No. 201708300007).

Notes on contributors

Yueying Gong

Yueying Gong is from China and currently doing her PhD at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Her research interests include (physical education) teacher educators’ professional learning and development as well as their professional identity.

Ann-Marie Young

Ann-Marie Young is the Academic Director of School Placement in the School of Education at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Her main research interests are initial teacher education with a focus on the development of the school placement process, specifically looking at the role each of the key stakeholders play in the development of student teachers and the development of a structured and formal approach to supervision in school placement.

Ann MacPhail

Ann MacPhail is Assistant Dean Research in the Faculty of Education and Health Sciences at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Her main areas of interest and expertise are teacher educators’ professional development, curriculum change and development and assessment.

Notes

1. In China, normal universities mean ‘teacher-training universities’ which referred to the type of higher education institutions that were primarily responsible for and had a strong emphasis on preparing future teachers in the early twentieth century. The name ‘normal university’ was preserved by institutions after they were integrated and offered non-teacher education courses, for example, Beijing Normal University. Non-normal universities are higher education institutions which refer to other types of universities which grant academic degrees in a variety of disciplines and have a less emphasis on teacher education.