Teachers' Professional Identity and Burnout among Chinese Female School Teachers: Mediating Roles of Work Engagement and Psychological Capital.

Burnout is a serious phenomenon among female kindergarten, primary, and secondary school teachers in China. Previous research has shown that professional identity negatively predicts burnout. However, little is known about the mediating mechanisms underlying this relationship. This study examined the relationship between professional identity and burnout and the mediating roles of work engagement and psychology using a sample of Chinese teachers. A total of 2220 female teachers participated (kindergarten: 16.9%; primary school: 56.7%; secondary school: 26.4%). They answered four questionnaires measuring their professional identity, work engagement, psychological capital, and burnout. PROCESS macro (SPSS 21.0) was used to conduct mediation analyses of work engagement and psychological capital in the relationship between professional identity and burnout. Working simultaneously, work engagement, and psychological capital partially mediated the aforementioned relationship, which could reduce burnout. Working sequentially completely mediated the relationship between professional identity and burnout, and hence, the latter was the lowest. Specific implications are discussed, such as the improvement of professional identity and psychological capital.

Exploring Chinese EFL teachers' knowledge and beliefs relating to the teaching of English reading in public primary schools in China.

The present study explored knowledge and beliefs about reading instruction of Chinese teachers teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). Theoretical Orientation to Reading Profile and the Survey of Basic Language Constructs Related to Literacy Acquisition were administered to 262 EFL teachers in the south-eastern part of China. Additionally, three teachers were interviewed, and their instructional practices were observed. The results showed that there was no correlation between teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and the performance on the knowledge of basic language construct survey. However, it was found that teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and instructional practices were mediated by the Chinese EFL contextual factors. Educational and practical implications are discussed.