Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1Background of the research
Over the past decades, public education system has been under the increasing scrutinyof the public and legislators. Such inspection and attention led to more intense demandsplaced upon teachers to guarantee the academic achievement of the students. Teaching inthe classroom and communicate with students as the chief teacher of certain class is nowonly contributing to part of the teacher's work. Other criteria included administration andcollaboration with co-workers and more personal part，such as parents. Changes incircumstances have made teaching more stressful. Some teachers even suffered fromburnout, and as a result, many elementary and secondary school teachers left the teachingprofession. The elevated level of stress related to teaching has crucial implications for thehealthy operation of teachers and school systems as a whole (Lincoln, 2009). This was alsotrue in China. In China, with the entering of social transforming age, teachers were givenmore roles in and outside the classroom. They carried on more expectations from students,students’ parents, school supervisors and even the whole society. With the increasing rolesin nearly all aspects work, an increasing number of teachers have been struck by roles,which gave rise to the phenomena of role conflicts and role ambiguity. Role conflictsreferred to the concurrent incidence of two or more situations of inconsistent or unforeseenrole behaviors for a teacher's duty or purpose. Role vagueness or ambiguity referred to thelack of comprehensible information in regard to the privileges and responsibilities of theteacher and how they can best be carried out (Lincoln, 2009). As a sociological term in roletheory, the role conflicts has become one of the major issues for recent studies aboutprofessional burnout and satisfaction. Many researchers believed that teaching was atypical situation for the generation of role conflicts (Huang, 2008), given its complexity ofwork.
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1.2Significance of the study
Consulting the previous research, it's not difficult to find that more research studiesfocused on the professional competency of teachers. Some of the studies focused on thetheories of a new teaching approach and some on how teachers should enhance studentsthe four basic skills of English proficiency, which were listening, reading, writing andspeaking. But there were relatively few studies on teachers themselves and studies onteacher's humane research were even fewer. Compared with teaching methodology studies, humane researches on teachers might cope with the difficulties in education in a newrespect. For teachers and normal students who will be teachers, such kinds of researchesmight serve as a reflection.Role conflicts has been a complex and widespread social phenomenon which worthour efforts to study. Constant suffering from role conflicts might result in various negativeeffects for teachers. Some of these negative effects included psychology，careerdevelopment and mental disorder. Many previous researches have showed that roleconflicts served as one of the reasons for teacher bumout (Yang, 2004). Burnout ispsychological term that refers to long-term exhaustion and diminished interest in work.Maslach and her colleague Jackson first identified the construct "bumout" in the 1970s，and devised questionnaire that weighed the effects of emotional exhaustion and reducedsense of personal accomplishment (Maslach，1996). People who suffered from bumoutmight not only have psychological problems, such as depression, exhaustion and cynicism,but also physical symptoms, such as coronary heart disease and circulatory issues. Besidesthese health consequences, burnout could also cause inefficiency in work performance andoutcome (Sandstrom, Rhodin, Lundberg, Olsson and Nyberg, 2005). Teachers, honored asmodels for students to leam from，have dramatic influences on their youngsters' upbringing.Many relevant studies focused the sociological reasons of role conflicts and possiblephysiological symptoms, others on the reasons of role conflicts of specific teachers, suchas university teachers or primary school teachers. Yet few of them were focused onexamples as concrete as senior high English teachers in metropolis Beijing, This typicalcase study could have profound effects on how teachers should cope with role conflicts andto prevent possible bumout symptoms.
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Chapter II. Literature Review
2.1 Theories of roles and role conflicts
Role, as a definition, was at first borrowed from "roles" on stage performance, whichreferred to the characters that actors acted in a stage play. In the 1920s，the Chicago Schoolintroduced the term in academic scope and conducted a series of systematic research usingthis term. The most distinguished one was the socio-psychologist George Herbert Mead(Yang & Sun, 2004). He was the first scholar who used the term "role" in sociologicalstudies, which greatly extended the scope of “role”. Another important figure in role theorywas the American anthropologist R. Linton, according to whose idea that the role was anorm that all behaviorists would act as in certain circumstance as a part of culture. Afterthe WWII, sociologists like T. Parsons, R.K. Merton，R. Dahrendoef and E. Goff-man havemade further contributions to the development of role theory (Zhu, 2003). Until now, mostscholars who focused on role theory agreed that the role was one's identity in a givensocial relations and the combination of norms and behavior patterns based on this identity(Wei, 2002).
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2.2 Teacher's role in past studies
The National English Curriculum adapted in this dissertation is the 2007 edition.The reason why this edition is adapted is that the 2007 edition is regarded as one of thelandmarks in China's primary and secondary education reform, as it was devised and putinto practice with the urgent call for quality-oriented education. A brief review of theproblems that are aims to be addressed in this new National Curriculum will give us animpression of transformation from the government policy to every lesson that would begiven in the future at that time. As Wang (1999) suggested a review of the curriculum priorto 2000 indicated that following area that needed to be addressed. First, there was anover-emphasis on the delivery of knowledge about the language while ignoring thedevelopment of students' language ability. Secondly, there was a lack of connectionbetween different stages of schooling. Thirdly, little allowance was made for cateringinpidual learner differences. Fourthly, assessment was done mainly usingpaper-and-pencil tests focusing mainly on language knowledge, giving little attention tothe assessment of language ability, and affective gains. Though there are new editions ofNational English Curriculum after 2007，but most of the revisions are moderations. Inteacher's perspective, after nearly seven years of adaption, most teachers are familiar withthe roles given in this edition and even a clear picture of the roles that can be assumed andthose cannot. The clear picture of teachers will guarantee a more targeted and fruitful resultof the research in this dissertation.
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Chapter 3: Method........14
3.1Introduction of this qualitative research........14
3.2Targeted population........15
3.3Instrument........16
Chapter 4 Results and discussion........18
4.1The role conflicts between dedicator, authority and service provider........18
4.2The role conflicts between facilitator, guide and resource provider........19
4.3The role conflicts between parents, friends and researcher........20
4.4The role conflicts between controller, organizer and involver ........22
4.5The role conflicts between educator and assessor........23
Chapter 5 Conclusion........25
5.1Conclusion........25
5.2Implications........27
5.3Limitations........29
Chapter 4 Results and discussion
4.1 The role conflicts between dedicator，authority and service provider
As mentioned in the literature review, teachers regarded themselves as dedicators whodevote huge energy and efforts to the teaching career，most of them think teachers arecareer instead of a job. Happiness is a kind of intra-feeling that generates when people'saffection need is satisfied with their social activities (Liu, 2000). This is also the origin ofdedication and sacrifice. Ms Z (the interviewee) expressed that in her ideal, a teacher isrespected and honored by the school supervisors and the general public because of thiskind of sacrifice. People pay attention to their opinions and understand their difficulties intheir work and in their life, to some extent, teachers are authority in some way. "We cansacrifice, but sometimes our sacrifice is neglected as long as the students have not made adifference. Some media broadcast blatant news about the error of one teacher, but theresults turn to be, that all teachers are guilty or suspicious to some extent. ” The role whichshould be admired and respected, such as a star or an authority, is largely challenged by thegeneral public and the legislators. There are many laws and regulations issued，which turnteachers into a kind of service provider, like the clerk in a bank or a shop assistant.
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Conclusion
The dissertation examined the relationship among the roles teacher assumed withinthe influence of educational reform, interaction with students and perceptions andexpectations, in an effort to identify how these roles affect one another and what impactthey may have on teachers and the possible measures to prevent or alleviate the roleconflictss caused by the different roles. Little is known to the senior high English teachersin a metropolis like Beijing, which is typical for relatively advanced-educational places inChina and may share some prospection for those in development and reform. Gatheringinformation related to the issue of role conflicts and contributed new knowledge in the areaof role conflicts of teachers. The following research questions are mainly focused on thisstudy:
1What are the reasons that caused these conflicts within the influence of educationalreform, interaction with students and perceptions?
2What are the measures to prevent or alleviate these role conflicts?
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Reference (omitted)