資深英語教師社會支援需求之質性研究

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(1)國立台灣師範大學英語學系碩士論文 Master Thesis Graduate Institute of English National Taiwan Normal University. 資深英語教師社會支援需求之質性研究. A Qualitative Study on Social Support Needs of Experienced EFL Teachers. 指導教授: 許月貴 Advisor: Yueh-Kuei Hsu 研究生: 陳盈樺 Ying-Hua Chen. 中華民國一百零五年八月 August 2016.

(2) 中文摘要本研究旨在探究兩位資深英語教師在教職生涯中，面對困境而尋求社會支援之情形；透過質性研究的資料收集和分析方法，了解資深英語老師在面臨教學困境時，是否有運用社會支援做為其解決困境之策略，進一步增進資深英語教師之專業發展。本研究提出三個研究問題：（一）資深英語教師在教職生涯中會遇到何種困難和挑戰？（二）資深英語教師面對挑戰時會採取哪些解決策略以克服工作壓力？（三）尋求社會支援在資深英語教師的解決策略中扮演何種角色？其對資深英語教師的教職生涯有何影響？為提高研究結果之可信度，本研究採用訪談、日記、文件分析等方式，進行為期五個月的資料搜集，透過生命史的研究角度，深入瞭解兩位資深國中英語教師在面對工作上的挑戰時，所採取的解決策略與社會支援需求。本研究主要發現為：（一）資深英語教師常遇到的挑戰並非英語教學，而是：應付繁複工作負荷、配合特教學生之需求、管理學生問題行為、處理親師衝突；其相應之解決策略為：自我省思與調適以及尋求社會支援。（二）資深英語教師社會支援的需求主要為訊息性支援，尤以同事（包含學校行政人員與同儕教師）為主要來源；情感性支援則以家人和同儕教師為主。尋求社會支援並非其首要之解決策略。（三）影響社會支援之要素包涵個人和環境因素，個人因素可分為教師個人之教學經驗和成長背景；環境因素可分為問題的性質和工作情境。此外，尋求社會支援過程中是否能得到相對的回應，除了影響教師對於再次尋求社會支援之意願，亦可能對資深英語教師帶來較為深遠、非教學上的影響，如對人生觀與價值觀的正面或負面之影響。最後，根據本研究結果，對於初任教師、資深教師、以及學校行政單位提出良善之建議。關鍵詞: 社會支援; 資深英語教師; 質性研究 i.

(3) ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate the two experienced EFL teachers’ social support needs in response to challenges at work and how the assistance of others influenced their work lives. By conducting qualitative research method, the study addressed three research questions: (1) What are the challenges faced by the experienced EFL teachers in their teaching contexts? (2) How do the experienced EFL teachers cope with the job-related stresses? (3) How do the experiences of eliciting social support to cope with the challenges influence the experienced EFL teachers’ work lives? The study adopted a life history approach. To enhance the trustworthiness the study, multiple measures were employed, including interviews, participants’ and researcher’s journals, and school documentation. The findings of the study showed that the two experienced EFL teachers’ challenges were mainly about non-teaching work, such as managing workload, addressing the needs of special education students, dealing with students’ behavioral problems, and resolving teacher-parent conflicts. To cope with the difficulties, the experienced EFL teachers adopted two strategies – self-reflecting and making adjustments, and eliciting social support from colleagues, family, friends, and significant others. Eliciting social support was not the experienced EFL teachers’ priority. Second, the experienced EFL teachers mainly elicited support from colleagues (administrators and peer teachers). Informational support was the most frequently elicited type of support. As for emotional support, it was elicited from family and peer teachers. Third, influenced by individual and contextual factors, such as teaching experience, teacher background, it was suggested that the effectiveness of eliciting social support might not only influence experienced EFL teachers’ willingness to seek the same source of support next time, but also bring both positive and negative effects on their attitude toward life. Finally, several. ii.

(4) suggestions were made for beginning teachers, experienced teachers, and school administrators. Keywords: social support, experienced EFL teachers, qualitative study. iii.

(5) ACKNOWLEDGMENT I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Professor Yueh-Kuei Hsu for her persistent encouragement and guidance during the dissertation period. I still remember the first time we talked about my dissertation topic. Professor YK said, “I hope that through conducting this study, you can find solutions to the challenges in your teaching career.” These words encouraged me to link my work experience to the academic research field. I would recall these words whenever I felt depressed about my research progress, so I could insist in looking for the answers to the questions in my mind. Also, Professor YK’s dedication and seriousness of doing a research enlightened me. With Prof. YK’s patience and support, I could finally complete this work. I also need to thank Professor Chin-Kuei Cheng and Professor Mei-Chen Wu for being my committee members. With their sincere and professional suggestions on my writing, my dissertation could be more complete. My special thanks go to my two participants, Jessica and Lisa. They gave me a lot of assistance in this research. Due to the topic of my study that was about sharing challenges during the teaching career, I have been rejected by several teachers who were adequate but unwilling to offer their personal experiences. But Jessica and Lisa gave their consent right away and offered their stories without reservations. Finally, my special thanks also go to Ian Gardner, who pointed out my language problems; Hung-Chi, Ya-Lun, Yu-Hsin, with whom I have been writing my thesis after work every night; Stacy Yang and Wendy Kuo, my classmates and roommates at NTNU, who shared their experience of writing thesis with me and assisted me a lot during my proposal and thesis hearing; my school colleagues, who encouraged me to complete my thesis, helped me take care of my students when I studied TESOL programs at NTNU. I am blessed with the support from my family, friends, and colleagues! iv.

(6) TABLE OF CONTENTS 中文摘要 ............................................................................................................................... i ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT ..................................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................... v LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. vii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ vii CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background of the Study...................................................................................... 1 1.2 Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................ 4 1.3 Significance of the Study ..................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................ 6 2.1 Experienced teachers ........................................................................................... 6 2.1.1 Definition of Experienced Teachers ......................................................... 6 2.1.2 Teachers’ Experiences in Teaching .......................................................... 7 2.2 Social Support in Teaching Profession .............................................................. 10 2.2.1 Definition of Social Support .................................................................. 10 2.2.2 Significance of Social Support in Teaching ........................................... 11 2.2.3 Studies on Teachers’ Social Support Needs ........................................... 12 2.3 Summary of the Literature Review .................................................................... 15 CHAPTER THREE METHOD .......................................................................................... 17 3.1 Life History ........................................................................................................ 17 3.2 The School Context............................................................................................ 18 3.3 The Participants ................................................................................................. 19 3.4 Data Collection .................................................................................................. 20 3.5 Data Analysis ..................................................................................................... 25 3.6 The Researcher’s Role ....................................................................................... 29 3.7 Trustworthiness .................................................................................................. 30 CHAPTER FOUR FINDINGS........................................................................................... 32 4.1 Researcher’s Encounters with Jessica and Lisa ................................................. 32 4.1.1 Researcher’s Encounter with Jessica ..................................................... 32 4.1.2 Researcher’s Encounter with Lisa .......................................................... 34 4.2 Experienced Teachers’ Challenges and Strategies ............................................. 36 4.3 Changes and Growth: Improvements after Years of Teaching........................... 42 CHAPTER FIVE DISCUSSION ....................................................................................... 46 5.1 Challenges and Corresponding Strategies of Experienced EFL Teachers ......... 46 5.1.1 5.1.2. Excessive Workload for Homeroom Teachers ....................................... 47 Special Education Students in Mainstreaming Classrooms ................... 48 v.

(7) 5.1.3 Students’ Behavioral Problems .............................................................. 50 5.1.4 Teacher-parent Conflicts ........................................................................ 52 5.2 Social Support Needs of Experienced EFL Teachers......................................... 54 5.2.1 5.2.2. Sources and Types of Social Support ..................................................... 54 Factors that Influenced the Elicitation of Social Support ...................... 56. 5.2.3 Influences of Social Support on Experienced EFL Teachers’ Lives ...... 58 5.3 Limitation of the Research ................................................................................. 61 5.4 Researcher’s Reflections .................................................................................... 62 CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION ..................................................................................... 64 6.1 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 64 6.2 Pedagogical Implications ................................................................................... 66 6.3 Recommendations for Future Research ............................................................. 67 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 68 APPENDICES .................................................................................................................... 77. vi.

(8) LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Background Information of the Teacher Participants ...............................................20 Table 2 Meeting Schedule ......................................................................................................21 Table 3 Semi-structured Interviews Schedule ........................................................................23 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 Table 8. Transcription Conventions ........................................................................................24 Symbols of the File Names ........................................................................................26 Jessica’s Present Challenges ....................................................................................28 Participants’ Challenges and Strategies ..................................................................45 Participants’ Challenges and Perceived Social Support .........................................55. LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 The Coding Process .................................................................................................27. vii.

(9) CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study Teachers normally encountered several challenges at schools (Kinman, Wray, & Strange, 2011; Van Droogenbroeck, Spruyt, & Vanroelen, 2014). As the characteristic of their profession was contacting people, such as students, colleagues, or parents, they perceived a high level of emotional labor (Näring, Briët, & Brouwers, 2006). Teachers themselves were role models for students, and in order to get along with young people, they were expected to regulate their behavior and emotions well. On certain occasions, it was likely that they dissembled genuine feelings such as impatience or anger and displayed emotions that were not truly felt. The consistent suppression of emotions was positively related to emotional exhaustion and depersonalization (Noor & Zainuddin, 2011). Besides the inward control as emotional labor, society in general was getting more hostile toward teachers (Le Maistre & Paré, 2010). Lower societal recognition and higher expectations of teachers, along with the constant curriculum reform, pedagogical changes, and increased workload and demands beyond the classroom could explain an increasingly stressed and challenging condition of teachers (Le Maistre & Paré, 2010). Also, they faced arduous work environments. Although the problems and stress perceived by each individual would differ by their specific conditions (such as different working environments and teachers’ individual differences), most teachers felt stressed out by maintaining discipline in the classroom (Maring & Koblinsky, 2013), building relationships with others (e.g. parents, administrators, and other teachers) (Chen & Wang, 2011), coping with heavy workloads (e.g. preparing for the curriculum, time constraint, retaining personal lives), managing inadequate resources (e.g. schools in a high-needs or. 1.

(10) culturally-diverse area) (Brunetti, 2006), and addressing high-risk students (Maring & Koblinsky, 2013). Social support serves as an essential strategy to cope with challenges While stressful working environment could lead to teacher burnout and intention to leave the profession (Kim, Lee, & Kim, 2009; Ö zbe, 2012; Pietarinen, Pyhältö, Soini, & Salmela-Aro, 2013; Ye, 2014), social support, defined as physical or mental assistance from others (including friends, family, colleagues, or significant others), would help strengthen work satisfaction, resist burnout, and serve as practical advice to difficulties (Heitzmann & Kaplan, 1988; Kim, Lee, & Kim, 2009; Kinman, Wray, & Strange, 2011; Pomaki, DeLongis, Frey, Short, & Woehrle, 2010; Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988). A number of studies have investigated challenges encountered by teachers and social support as a coping strategy. The existing studies tended to employ quantitative research methods to examine the relationships between social support, burnout, and job satisfaction (Chiou, 2011; Kim, Lee, & Kim, 2009; Kinman, Wray, & Strange, 2011; Ö zbe, 2012; Pomaki, DeLongis, Frey, Short, & Woehrle, 2010). Among the relatively few qualitative studies on teachers’ challenges and strategies, they are mostly focused on beginning teachers (Castro, Kelly, & Shih, 2010; Devos, Dupriez, & Paquay, 2012; Hashim, 2004; Jones, Youngs, & Frank, 2013; Le Maistre & Paré, 2010), special education teachers (Chiou, 2011; Jones, Youngs, & Frank, 2013; Wu, 2010), and general teachers in high-needs areas (Brunetti, 2006; Maring & Koblinsky, 2013). An overall understanding of how social support assisted in problem solving and influenced experienced EFL teachers’ work lives was little discussed by researchers. To further understand teachers’ social support needs and its influences, the complex interplay between the contexts in which individuals encountered problems and how they made sense of their roles should be studied by collecting the details in teachers’ lives (Goodson & Sikes, 2001). The primary focus of this study was to adopt life. 2.

(11) history approach to explore experienced EFL teachers’ social support needs in response to their difficulties at schools. As an experienced EFL teacher who has been teaching at a junior high school for six years, the researcher still faced challenges at school and benefited a lot from the assistance of colleagues. The support the researcher elicited included colleagues’ practical advice to classroom management, discussions about new educational policies and teaching approaches, and sharing of frustrations. However, the researcher observed that not every experienced teacher would elicit support as the researcher herself often did when encountering challenges, even though social support might assist experienced teachers in dealing with problems, regaining enthusiasm for teaching, or releasing frustrations at work (Brunetti, 2006; Farrell, 2014; Maring & Koblinsky, 2013; Meister & Arhens, 2011). The researcher therefore had questions about what factors might facilitate experienced teachers’ professional development and how they usually coped with the difficulties during their teacher careers. The personal experience and reflections prompted the researcher to conduct the present study. In Taiwan, the declining number of school-age students caused by the current low birth rate has changed the educational contexts (Hung, 2011; Lin, 2015; Luo & Shiu, 2012). In light of the reduced number of students, the number of school classes has also decreased accordingly in recent years. According to Lin (2015), in 2019, the number of the classes of all public junior high schools in Taiwan is estimated to decline sharply from 25,421 to just 19,850. Not only is the demand for teachers declining, more and more in-service teachers are also being declared surplus to requirements and therefore forced to transfer from their original schools to others which still have vacancies for new teachers. The instability caused by being transferred to a new working environment, such as separating from family and friends, developing and fitting into new social relationships, or adjusting to a new lifestyle, can create even more stress to the in-service teachers (Hung, 2011). Thus, the 3.

(12) pressing need of seeking solutions to overcome in-service teachers’ problems from the increasingly stressful educational institutions and the insufficient number of existing studies on experienced EFL teachers’ social support needs constituted the motivation of the study. 1.2 Purpose of the Study In order to improve teachers’ work lives, this qualitative study aimed to understand experienced EFL teachers’ social support needs and how the assistance from others influenced their professional development. Social support in the study was defined as practical or emotional guidance gained from a teacher’s interpersonal relationships. By conducting in-depth interviews of two experienced EFL teachers, the researcher collected teachers’ incidents of utilizing support to solve their problems in their work lives, this study answered the following research questions: 1. What are the challenges faced by the experienced EFL teachers in their teaching contexts? 2. How do the experienced EFL teachers cope with the job-related stresses? 3. How do the experiences of eliciting social support to cope with the challenges influence the experienced EFL teachers’ work lives? (e.g. Does the experience lead to changes to conceptions, commitment, or other factors related to teaching?) 1.3 Significance of the Study The present study demonstrated its contributions in several perspectives. First, unlike most studies of social support needs that focused on quantitatively measuring the levels of perceived social support, this study adopted a life history approach of data collection and analysis to provide in-depth descriptions of the EFL teaching contexts from the viewpoint of experienced EFL teachers. The two experienced EFL teachers’ life stories assisted in understanding experienced EFL teachers’ work experience in their phases of life, such as past and present challenges encountered, perceptions of seeking social support, and future orientation. Second, as a teacher researcher who also taught at junior high schools, it was 4.

(13) believed that the researcher’s previous work experience and familiarity with the teaching context might enhance the sensitivity to the issues raised by the participants (Wang, 2004). Third, while the few existing qualitative studies on teachers’ support needs were mainly targeted at beginning teachers, special education teachers, and general teachers in high-needs areas, this study filled the gap by investigating two experienced teachers with the teaching experience ranging from three to fifteen years. Finally, it was hoped that the findings of this study might lead to better understanding of the types of social support needed and its influence on experienced EFL teachers’ professional development to improve teachers’ work lives and add new insights to the existing literature.. 5.

(14) CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW The study delved into experienced EFL teachers’ needs of social support and the influences of social support on teacher professional development. In this chapter, the researcher first defined experienced teachers and social support as they were important terms mentioned in this qualitative study. The second section reviewed relevant studies concerning factors of experience and social support in teaching context. Finally, a summary of the literature review was presented. 2.1 Experienced teachers 2.1.1. Definition of Experienced Teachers Experienced teachers were defined as having three to fifteen years of teaching. experience in this study. As it was found that most studies that focused on beginning teachers’ challenges and strategies defined beginning teachers as having three years of experience (Jones, Youngs, & Frank, 2013; Kumazawa, 2013; Van der Schaaf, Krull, & Okas, 2014), the researcher used three years as a cut-off point between beginning and experienced teachers. However, the definition of experienced teachers did not fully concur. Most studies defined experienced teachers with a range from having ten to twenty-five years of experience (DoĞAnay & ÖZtÜRk, 2011; Huang, 2008; Meister & Ahrens, 2011; Van der Schaaf, Krull, & Okas, 2014). Little research has paid attention to challenges of general teachers with three to ten years of experience. According to the researcher’s work experience, during this stage of their career teachers felt more confident and independent as they gained knowledge and experience from their “transition shock.” However, they might not consider themselves to be as experienced or professional as more senior teachers. How the teachers at this stage built on their expertise and resources to solve their. 6.

(15) problems was worthy of notice. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the lives of experienced EFL teachers with three to fifteen years of teaching experience. 2.1.2. Teachers’ Experiences in Teaching Teaching experience played an important role in teachers’ professional development.. At the early stage of teachers’ teaching career, beginning teachers were prone to difficulties such as teacher burnout as they underwent the “transition shock.” This is a period full of challenges and struggles due to the false understanding of teaching realities (Ruohotie-Lyhty, 2013), and lack of experiences or necessary skills of dealing with the problems (Van Maele & Van Houtte, 2012). Gradually, the struggles and stress they perceived would lessen as they gained successful coping experience and confidence in making judgements (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2007; Van Maele & Van Houtte, 2012). To further understand the influences of teaching experience, numerous studies on comparisons of beginning and experienced teachers showed that experienced teachers tended to be more competent at both teaching (e.g. curriculum development, instructional practices, language use) and non-teaching (e.g. classroom management) related factors (DoĞAnay & ÖZtÜRk, 2011; Huang, 2008; Melnick & Meister, 2008; Van der Schaaf, Krull, & Okas, 2014). In terms of language use in teaching contexts, Huang (2008) combined in-class observations and interviews to examine beginning and experienced teachers’ language use in kindergarten classrooms. The findings showed that experienced kindergarten teachers (with above fifteen years of teaching experience) used a higher number of sentences and preventive regulation instructions. Huang (2008) further explained that experienced teachers’ knowledge and experience of dealing with students’ behavioral problems enabled them to successfully intervene in the discipline during group activities in order to prevent the occurrence of student misbehavior. DoĞAnay and ÖZtÜRk (2011) analyzed elementary science and technology teachers’ teaching strategies and skills and found that experienced 7.

(16) teachers (with twenty to twenty-five years of teaching experience) undertook more metacognitive strategies (e.g. to assess the teaching effect and to make adjustments to their teaching schedule) in planning the teaching process, while less experienced teachers (with 1.5 years of teaching experience) tended to focus on one theme and stick to the target of the course. In relation to non-teaching related aspects such as teachers’ awareness and beliefs, Van der Schaaf et al (2014) collected primary teachers' reflective writings and contended that experienced teachers’ (with above ten years of teaching experience) perceptions about professionalism tended to focus on student development and teachers as an educator. Beginning teachers (with up to three years of teaching experience), on the other hand, stressed technological skills. In terms of classroom management and parent interaction, Melnick and Meister (2008) conducted a national survey of concerns to elementary and middle school teachers and reported that experienced teachers (with a range from four to thirty-seven years of teaching experience) normally viewed it as a strength while beginning teachers felt unable to deal with it. On the other hand, while experience of teaching has its positve effects on teaching and non-teaching related tasks, it also had its subsequent challenges. First, experienced teachers faced plateauing, which means the feeling of sameness, frustration, and disillusionment due to the sense of routine or accumulated frustration after a long period of work stability, might deplete the enthusiasm for teaching and even cause early retirement (Farrell, 2014; Meister & Arhens, 2011; Tsai, 2004). Second, experienced teachers were confronted with a lot of problems when teaching in adverse environments, such as students from economically disadvantaged minority families (Brunetti, 2006) and communities influenced by violence (Maring & Koblinsky, 2013). Though teachers of varied teaching experience might encounter this challenge, the greater difficulties and frustrations in the stressful environment made it quite formidable 8.

(17) even for experienced teachers to persist in teaching. Teachers felt the school safety (especially teachers’ personal safety) was threatened when many students displayed high-risk behaviors (e.g. fighting, bullying, or carrying weapons to schools). They also felt a sense of inability when they often faced students with trauma symptoms due to negative incidents from their family (e.g. family member being shot or put in prison). Social support in individual, school, and community levels was desperately needed to overcome the adverse learning conditions. Third, experienced teachers’ autonomy might inihibit ther abilities of building good relationships with colleagues or school administrators. In Williams’ (2003) study on interviews with twelve experienced “beyond good to the best” teachers (with more than fifteen years of teaching experience). It was found that the teachers were very autonomous when designing teaching procedures and preferred to act independently when taking a stand on important issues, this often undermined their relationship with colleagues. The experienced teachers thus overcame these challenges by replenishing other personal resources, such as students, friends, and family (Williams, 2003). Last, experienced teachers were under great pressure from teacher-parent relationships. From the national survey on social relationships of elementary and junior high school teachers in Taiwan in 2014, as parents would make unreasonable demands and criticize on teachers’ decision-making, the undue inteference from parents in teaching and school discipline had placed teacher-parent relationships on top two factors of stress for experienced teachers (Chen & Wang, 2011; Ye, 2014). In sum, the above difficulties faced by experienced teachers – plateauing, dealing with special needs students, building good relationships with colleagues, and communicating with parents – had frequently caused experienced teachers stress, and might even lead to early retirement or attrition (Brunetti, 2006; Farrell, 2014; Maring & Koblinsky, 2013).. 9.

(18) To overcome the above challenges, social support was one essential factor for experienced EFL teachers’ professional development as it might help them break the feelings of isolation, regain enthusiasm for teaching, and release stress and frustrations from work (Brunetti, 2006; Farrell, 2014; Maring & Koblinsky, 2013; Meister & Arhens, 2011). Nevertheless, relatively little research has been completed to offer a comprehensive understanding of the experienced teachers’ social support needs in their teacher career cycle. For instance, how receiving support influenced experienced teachers’ perceptions of the difficulties and their teaching profession? What social support might be more needed by experienced EFL teachers? This study therefore further investigated how the mechanism of social support needs worked on experienced EFL teachers. 2.2 Social Support in Teaching Profession 2.2.1. Definition of Social Support. The concept of social support has been widely investigated since mid-1970 in medical and social work fields as it could console people with mental or physical hardships due to diseases or marginalized positions in interpersonal relationships (Cohen & Syme, 1985; Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988). In this study, social support was defined as physical or mental resources that teachers received under inferior conditions (Cohen & Syme, 1985; Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988). Depending on the individual teacher’s needs and conditions, the support was classified as informational (e.g. information, advice, or suggestions on problem analysis and solutions), practical (e.g. concrete resources or practical assistance such as funds, facilities, time, or positive appraisals), and emotional support (e.g. psychological encouragement such as friendliness, respect, or empathy) (Chiou, 2011). The access of social support involved school teachers, friends, family, or significant others. It occurred during face-to-face discussion or online interaction, such as emails, anonymous discussion forums, and social networks (Hou, Sung, & Chang, 2009; Hsu, 2004). 10.

(19) 2.2.2. Significance of Social Support in Teaching Social support had positive effects on the mediation of teacher burnout and stimulation. of passion for teaching (Heitzmann & Kaplan, 1988; Kinman, Wray, & Strange, 2011; Ö zbe, 2012; Pietarinen, Pyhältö, Soini, & Salmela-Aro, 2013; Pomaki, DeLongis, Frey, Short, & Woehrle, 2010; G. D. Zimet, Dahlem, S. G. Zimet, & Farley, 1988). While burnout contained the syndromes of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment, the psychological aspects of social support – offering spiritual encouragement, expressing sympathy, and the sense of belonging – could bring stressful teachers away from feeling isolated and help them resist burnout (Farrell, 2014; Pomaki et al., 2010). Likewise, it also indirectly built adherence to teaching career (Farrell, 2014; Hashim, 2004; Pomaki et al., 2010) for a contented interpersonal network would strengthen teachers’ job satisfaction. Last, the practical aspect of social support as offering suggestions and solutions, would help teachers overcome the encountered problems (Gan, 2014; Hashim, 2004; Lin, 2010). Hashim (2004) conducted a mixed method study of fifty-two beginning teachers to examine how new social support networks could develop within a natural context. The findings showed that teachers’ open personality (marked by an easy-going attribute) should be considered as a possible factor that influenced the development of social networks and level of stress experienced. Next, Maring and Koblinsky (2013) conducted open-ended interviews to examine how the contextual factors of community violence influenced twenty experienced middle school teachers’ (averaged 3.8 years of teaching) experiences, including their feelings, teaching performances, and social support needs. Nevertheless, they only focused on how one specific variable influenced social support and teaching lives instead of the overall possible factors in social support needs which might occur and change in teachers’ lives. To further understand the mechanism of social support in response to different teaching contexts and individuals, the present study was designed from a 11.

(20) qualitative point of view to explore two experienced EFL teachers’ experiences of eliciting social support. 2.2.3. Studies on Teachers’ Social Support Needs Qualitative research on teachers’ needs of social support (Brunetti, 2006; Castro, Kelly,. & Shih, 2010; Chiou, 2011; Gan, 2014; Hashim, 2004; Jones, Youngs, & Frank, 2013; Le Maistre & Paré, 2010; Li, 2004; Lin, 2010; Maring & Koblinsky, 2013; Wu, 2010) was mostly focused on beginning teachers, special education teachers, and teachers who worked at schools in high-needs areas. As beginning teachers tended to require considerable support and suggestions about how to deal with the transition shock (Castro et al., 2010; Hashim, 2004; Le Maistre & Paré, 2010), the in-depth interviews showed that social support mainly functioned in the form of advice, guidance, and experience-sharing (Castro et al., 2010; Hashim, 2004; Le Maistre & Pare, 2010). An interesting finding could be seen in Le Maistre & Paré’s study (2010). After interviewing thirty-two student teachers during their last year for teaching practicum and first year as a beginning teacher, the study concluded one necessary factor of surviving their early years, “the ability to satisfice.” It was defined as the mind-set to accept the imperfection of one’s decision-making. However, this ability paradoxically developed with experience. Therefore, besides offering practical suggestions to instructional or classroom management difficulties, colleagues were also the most important source of support for beginning teachers in developing this ability. Special education teachers’ needs was another main issue for the researchers (Chiou, 2011; Jones, Youngs, & Frank, 2013; Wu, 2010). Compared with teachers of general classrooms, special education teachers faced additional challenges regarding the inclusion of special education students (Jones, Youngs, & Frank, 2013; Wu, 2010). They were required to adapt the curriculum to suit students’ needs in the individualized education programs (IEP). Wu (2010) conducted qualitative interviews with six elementary special education teachers to investigate their conditions of work stress and social support needs. In 12.

(21) terms of social support, five dimensions of source of support were further discussed, including family, colleagues, administration, student parents, and professional support. It was found that there was an urgent need of workplace support (such as communicating with general teachers and parents, and employing necessary technology to assist teaching and learning) for special education teachers. A close cooperation with general classroom teachers and sufficient educational resources provided by schools and administrators would not only assist in the inclusion of special education students but also special education teachers’ commitment to teaching (Chiou, 2011; Jones, Youngs, & Frank, 2013; Wu, 2010). Studies on teachers working at schools in high-needs areas (e.g. inner-city, community affected by violence, and culturally diverse schools) showed that the success of education was not only dependent on the roles of students and teachers, but also on the outward environments – students’ family, community, and the society. If one of them could not function appropriately, it would cause additional educational resources and stress for teachers and schools (Brunetti, 2006; Maring & Koblinsky, 2013). Further interviews were conducted to investigate the support needs of twenty experienced teachers (with averaged 3.8 years of experience) who worked in schools affected by community violence. The support in terms of emotional encouragement (e.g. praying and sharing with colleagues, friends, and family) and practical assistance from the workplace (e.g. improved school safety, effective school leadership, mental health services, professional training, and involvement from parents) were a pressing need. Comparing to studies about the support needs of beginning teachers, special education teachers, and teachers in high-needs areas, studies on language teachers’ social support needs (Gan, 2014; Li, 2004; Markham, 1999; P. Markham, Green, & Ross, 1996) were relatively few. The limited studies stated that language teachers were inclined to elicit support to cope with their stressors in the workplace, which were mainly related to teaching (Chen, 2014; Li, 2004; Markham, 1999; P. Markham, Green, & Ross, 1996). 13.

(22) Markham et al. (1996) utilized questionnaires to compare the stressors and strategies of general education, special education, and ESL/bilingual education teachers. They found that language and special education teachers shared similar stressors and coping strategies in the workplace as they both faced the reality of students with different needs (levels of language) and felt stressful when assisting their students in the inclusion in regular education programs (the target language or culture). Therefore, the two teacher groups tended to cope with stressful situations by discussing with other teachers about academic problems, transition of limited English proficiency (LEP) students, and coordination of activities (Markham et al., 1996). Later on, in Markham’s qualitative study (1999) on stressors and coping strategies of twelve ESL teachers (with at least four years of teaching experience), Markham further stated that ESL teachers’ stressors came from dealing with students with limited English proficiency, cooperating with colleagues, and students with varied levels. The findings corresponded to both Chen’s (2014) and Li’s (2004) studies of EFL teachers’ work stress and coping strategies as their results also showed that EFL teachers’ stress mostly came from teaching and that they tended to overcome by seeking social support. Furthermore, Li pointed out other stressors in her qualitative studies on four EFL teachers (one with eight years of teaching experience, three with less than three years), including insufficient professional know-how, classroom management, and heavy workload. On the other hand, Chen concluded in her survey study to 150 elementary EFL teachers that teaching background (e.g. gender, age, year of teaching experience, education background, job position, and school contexts) had its influence on teachers’ perceptions of stressors and coping. The above studies all investigated EFL teachers’ source of stress and their solutions. However, a closer look into the social support needs of experienced EFL teachers and how the support-seeking influenced EFL teachers’ lives remained to be explored. Therefore, 14.

(23) this qualitative study aimed to further investigate experienced EFL teachers’ social support to add new insights to the limited literature on social support needs of EFL teachers. 2.3 Summary of the Literature Review The current literature has contended the significance of social support with its positive effects to strengthen work motivation and its buffering effect to resist burnout. However, most studies adopted quantitative research methods to investigate the relationships of social support with several variables, such as job satisfaction and burnout. Less attention has been paid to the complex interplay between individual and contextual attributes. The fewer qualitative researchers limited the scope to certain groups of teacher participants, including beginning teachers, special education teachers, and general teachers in high-needs areas, as these groups of teachers were confronted with more challenges at schools than general teachers. Interviews were conducted by these researchers to collect teachers’ perceived challenges and strategies. However, their studies tended to focus on how one specific variable influenced social support, rather than on the overall possible factors in social support needs which might occur and change in teachers’ lives. According to the relevant studies on English teachers (including ESL, bilingual, and EFL teachers) (Chen, 2014; Li, 2004; Markham, 1999; P. Markham, Green, & Ross, 1996), language teachers and special education teachers shared similar work stressors (helping students with different levels fit in the targeted education programs or culture) and coping strategies (cooperating and discussing difficulties with other teachers). However, the identified challenges and strategies still differed by teacher background (e.g. gender, age, year of teaching experience, education background, job position, and school contexts). Therefore, this study aimed to employ qualitative methods to gain an overall understanding of experienced EFL teachers’ social support needs and the influences of support-seeking in their work life. The researcher hoped that through in-depth interviews, journals (including the researcher’s and teacher participants’ journals), and school 15.

(24) documentation, this study could better reveal experienced EFL teachers’ lives, further investigate their support needs, and offer suggestions for future studies.. 16.

(25) CHAPTER THREE METHOD This study aimed to describe two experienced EFL teachers’ elicitation of social support in response to challenges at work and to understand how these experiences influenced their perceptions about teaching in the teaching career. To achieve this goal, this study adopted life history approach. In-depth interviews were the main instruments to obtain detailed descriptions of the experienced EFL teachers’ lives. Other data such as the participants’ written accounts from participants’ journals and school documents were collected to supplement and triangulate with the oral data. The chapter began with the introduction of the research design, the school context, and the participants. Next, data collection and analysis were illustrated. Finally, the researcher’s role and trustworthiness of the study were addressed. 3.1 Life History In this study, life history approach (Goodson & Sikes, 2001) was adopted since the nature of teachers’ eliciting social support encompassed complex interpersonal interactions, individuals’ feelings and preferences of coping strategies, and the contextual factors which might not be objectively measured but self-perceived by the experienced self (Brunetti, 2006; Creswell, 2003). As shown in several teacher studies (Brunetti, 2006; Dvir, 2015; Hong, 2011; Huang, 2006; Wang, 2004), life history approach was effective in studying teachers’ lives and careers, and it was valuable in capturing a “crucial interactive relationship between individuals’ lives, their perceptions and experiences, and historical and social context and events” (Goodson & Sikes, 2001, p. 2). Based on in-depth interviews as its main data collection instrument, the participants in life history research offered intensive information, such as family background, childhood, school experiences, and other critical events (Goodson & Sikes, 2001; Steensen, 17.

(26) 2009). The comprehensive and holistic look into their lives would enhance a deeper understanding of the culture of the participants as well as “the cultural changes that have occurred over time” (Marshall & Rossman, 2011, p. 152). As Goodson and Sikes (2001) suggested, other data collection instruments could be utilized to supplement and triangulate with the oral data. Diaries, journals, or other personal writings could collect participants’ thinking and reflection on the events in their lives. Documents, such as worksheets, student contact books, school reports, and newspaper, could offer more information about the life events being studied. 3.2 The School Context The research site was a large public complete school1 in a suburban area of western Taiwan (pseudonym as Star School). The average years of teaching experience among the twenty junior high school English teachers was 9.1 (with range from 4 to 25 years). The school was selected as the research site because it reflected the phenomenon of the low birth rate in a large size school (Hung, 2011; Lin, 2015; Luo & Shiu, 2012). With new facilities and stable funds from the government, the number of students in Star School remained steady and even increased each year. However, since, 2011, there has been no beginning teacher in Star school. In the past five years, Star school has recruited five English teachers, all of which were experienced teachers from the neighboring school districts that had a surplus. This correlated to the description in Lin’s (2015) report, which stated that while the number of junior high surplus teachers in Taiwan might reach to 10,000 in total during the next five years, large schools acting as the recipients of surplus teachers would be a common phenomenon.. 1. In the current school system in Taiwan, complete schools contained both junior and senior high schools. In. this study, the research context was the junior high school. Including senior and junior schools, the school has around 95 classes and 3000 students. 18.

(27) 3.3 The Participants Two experienced EFL teachers were invited to be the participants as they shared characteristics that were pertinent to the research needs: sufficient teaching experience, willingness to share their stories, and a positive relationship with the researcher. Both participants had the experience of being homeroom teachers and English class teachers. They were friendly, had passion in teaching, and loved to interact with students. Moreover, they expressed an interest in the research topic and consented to participate. As the study related to sensitive issues of past and present unpleasant teaching experiences, the participants who were willing to share and were familiar with the researcher could be more likely to maintain trust and cooperation during the research process (Marshall & Rossman, 2011). Jessica. Jessica has shown great interest in English since senior high school. Her parents were both teachers who strongly recommended that their daughter follow in their footsteps. To meet her family expectations and to pursuit her own personal interest, she majored in English at a teacher training university and became a qualified junior high school teacher in northern Taiwan. Although she quit after only one year due to a difficult working environment, the following year she passed the Teacher Screening Test2 and was recruited by Star school. At the time of the study, Jessica had a total of seven years teaching experience. The researcher had more contact with her when they were both homeroom teachers of the seventh graders in 2011. With regular interactions and sharing about life experiences, they became friends and once traveled abroad together. 2. In Taiwan, to obtain teaching positions in elementary and junior high schools, teacher candidates need to. attend the screening exams held by the city government and compete with the ones nationwide. For teacher candidates who apply for positions in senior high schools, the tests were held by individual senior high schools. It is quite competitive as the percentage of passing the recruitment test was as low as 1 to 2 percent (Wang, 2014). 19.

(28) Lisa. Lisa double majored in Communication and English at a teacher training university. After graduation, Lisa attended several unsuccessful interviews for positions in journalism, so she decided to be a senior high school teacher. She went back to complete her teaching practicum, and one year later was recruited as a junior high school English teacher at a private complete school. Five years later, she quit the position because she became tired of the hostile atmosphere among her colleagues. In the same year, Lisa passed the Teacher Screening Test and was recruited by a public junior high school in central Taiwan. She transferred to Star School as a surplus teacher in 2011. The researcher maintained a positive work relationship with Lisa as they were usually involved in discussions about teaching during faculty meetings and also shared a common interest in traveling. Two participants’ background information was listed in Table 1. Table 1 Background Information of the Teacher Participants Participants. Jessica. Lisa. Gender Age. Female 31. Female 37. Degree. BA in English MA in Computer Science and Information Engineering. BA in Adult and Continuing Education, English (double major) MA in Foreign Languages and Literature. Teaching experience. 7 years. 12 years. Note: Pseudonyms were used to protect the participants’ confidentiality. 3.4 Data Collection The data collection began from September 2015 to January 2016. To gauge experienced EFL teachers’ experiences, attitudes, and influences of seeking social support, data collection instruments included interviews, participants’ journals, researcher’s reflective journals, and school documentation. Before the data collection proceeded, a 20.

(29) meeting with individual participants was held to prepare for the succeeding procedures. For the duration of the data collection, both semi-structured and informal interviews were conducted to collect the participants’ life stories to answer the research questions. Journals were kept by both the researcher and the participants in order to record experiences and thoughts (Goods and Sikes, 2001). The researcher kept journals of her thoughts and reflection after each data collection and daily encounters with the participants. The participants were suggested to keep monthly journals to reflect on the incidents that occurred every month. All the collected data were further reviewed, coded, and analyzed comparatively. Meeting before interviews. The purpose of having a meeting with each participant before the data collection was to collect their background information, familiarize them with the data collection procedures, and identify possible problems beforehand, such as the problems with the recording facilities or the questions discussed. The meeting (see Table 2) began with an introduction to the research purpose and methodology. Following this, the participants were asked to describe themselves and briefly identify their difficulties and source of support before teaching in Star School. It was important that the researcher observed the participants’ ways of thinking and speaking so as to adjust her ways of inquiry. Finally, the researcher arranged the place and date for the following interviews. Table 2 Meeting Schedule Name. Date. Length. Place. Focus. Jessica. 2015/04/17. 40mins.. School. Lisa. 2015/07/15. 1hr. and 10mins.. Restaurant. Family background and experiences at school Family background and experiences at school. 21.

(30) Interviews. According to the life history approach, interviews were the main data collection instrument to elicit rich descriptions of participants’ lives. Two types of interviews, semi-structured interviews and informal interviews, were included. Three semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant to gauge participants’ experiences of teaching as an EFL teacher. An interview guide (see Appendix B) was developed based on Seidman (2006)’s three interviewing stages, Goodson and Sikes (2001)’s data collection strategy of time-line, research questions of the study, and the researcher’s work experience and prior encounters with the participants. Informal interviews were conducted monthly and the discussion topics covered the current events of the month in order to explore possible issues and to supplement with other data (such as interview data and the participants’ journals). All the interviews were conducted in Chinese. After being transcribed verbatim into interview note (see Appendix C) and returned to the participants to check its accuracy, the transcriptions were translated into English. Semi-structured interviews. Three semi-structured interviews were conducted during the school semester in 2015 with the goal to have an overall understanding of the participants’ experience and to respond to the research questions. Following Seidman (2006)’s structure for interviewing in a qualitative research, the semi-structured interviews in this study included three stages, participants’ past experiences, present experiences, and reflections on those experiences for changes and growth (see Table 3) in order to explore the essence of lived experience. An interview guide (see Appendix B) was provided prior to the interviews for both the researcher and the participants, but the length and width of each interview varied by the participants’ responses to the interview questions. It was likely but acceptable to “digress or probe for more information” with the natural flow of conversations (Mackey & Grass, 2005, p. 173). 22.

(31) Table 3 Semi-structured Interviews Schedule Name. Date. Length. Place. Focus. Jessica. 2015/07/24. 1hr. 9mins.. Café. Past experience as a beginning teacher. 2015/11/26. 1hr.. Jessica’s home. 2015/12/17. 1hr. 30 mins.. Jessica’s home. Present experience as an experienced teacher Changes and sources of support. 2015/09/26. 1hr. 5mins.. Café. Past experience as a beginning teacher. 2015/11/07. 1hr. 30mins.. Restaurant. 2015/12/26. 1hr. 40mins.. Restaurant. Present experience as an experienced teacher Changes and sources of. Lisa. support Informal interviews. The purpose of conducting informal interviews was to develop possible issues, confirm the researcher’s understanding about the participants’ journals, and add more descriptions to their informal lives. Conducted approximately once a month, the informal interviews encouraged the participants to talk about their daily lives and to elaborate what they wrote in their participant journals. Similar to natural conversations (Mackey & Gass, 2005), the informal talks occurred during class breaks, daily encounters, or a lunch meeting with the researcher. If the interview setting permitted, the interviews would also be recorded and transcribed for further analysis (See the transcription conventions in Table 4).. 23.

(32) Table 4 Transcription Conventions Symbol. Meaning. J L. Jessica, one of the teacher participants Lisa, one of the teacher participants. R (). The researcher Used to indicate overlapping speech; it begins at the point which the overlap occurs Used to indicate non-verbal utterances, such as expressions, actions, tone of voice, or sounds Used to add words omitted by the speakers in natural conversations, to make. [] <> /?/. the sentences easier to read Unidentified wording due to the problems of the facility or difficult to understand. Note. Adapted from A qualitative research of counselor’s career transition of life’s corner (p. 47), by K. H. Wang, 2004, Taiwan. Unpublished master’s thesis. Participants’ Journals. The participants’ journals (see Appendix D) were employed monthly and the participants were asked to write a short paragraph about the difficulties encountered. This encouraged the participants to have a reflective overview of what had happened and allowed the researcher a deeper understanding of the participants’ present experiences of being an experienced EFL teacher (Lewis, Sligo, & Massey, 2005). The content could offer data which might not be observed and discussed during the interviews or daily encounters, thus initiate the discussion questions for the following informal meetings or interviews with the researcher. To cope with its limitations of time-consuming and extra burden for the participants (Goodson & Sikes, 2001; Mackey & Gass, 2005), the participants could use e-mails, Line, or short talks to record their feelings. Researcher’s Reflective Journals. The researcher’s reflective journals were conducted to enhance the reconstruction of the collected data and to identify important themes which might not be addressed in other. 24.

(33) data collection instruments. The researcher recorded her thoughts, insights, or reflections after conducting each interview, collecting participants’ journals, interacting with the teacher participants at schools, and observing some issues. For instance, after interviews, the researcher wrote down the key points of the interviews, her observations of the participants’ non-verbal signs (such as voices, facial expressions, gestures, or other descriptions of the participants), and her comments or personal experiences in response to the content of the interview (see Appendix E). School Documentation. Documents, including school calendar, students’ contact books, and school magazines, were utilized to provide valuable information of the participants’ lives at Star School. For instance, the researcher received both participants’ permission to read the students’ contact books of their class to see how they maintained the relationships with their students and students’ parents. The school calendar and school magazines assisted the researcher in understanding what school activities the participants might be preparing for and arranging the appropriate dates to collect relevant data. 3.5 Data Analysis The study followed qualitative analytic procedures and constant comparative analysis to analyze the collected data (Creswell, 2012; Marshall & Rossman, 2011). First, the researcher prepared the data for analysis by renaming (see Table 5 for the file names of different sources of the collected data), transcribing, and re-checking its accuracy from the participants. For instance, the first semi-structured interview with Jessica on September 5, 2015 would be titled with “SI-J-01150905.”. 25.

(34) Table 5 Symbols of the File Names Symbol. Meaning. 1M SI. Meeting before interviews Semi-structured Interviews. II PJ RJ DE J L. Informal Interviews Participants’ journals Researcher’s reflective journals Daily encounters with the participants Data collected from Jessica Data collected from Lisa Second, the researcher coded the data by reading the text repeatedly, labeling relevant or. interesting words or sentences (they were called as “codes”), and categorizing or reducing various codes to identify important themes (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). For example, as Jessica described her experience as a beginning teacher, the researcher underlined several text segments with key phrases as “unsure about how to talk on the stage in the tone of a teacher teaching in class,” “planned to teach for half a class period, but in the end it took only fifteen minutes,” “gave students too many grammar points, most didn’t appear on the test paper,” and “being nervous before every class.” Then, the researcher assigned the codes as “language use,” “time management,” “teaching content,” “confidence in teaching.” Next, after grouping similar codes and reducing overlapping codes, the researcher identified the theme of “unfamiliar with teaching content and contexts.” The coding process was presented in Figure 1 (Creswell, 2012, p. 244).. 26.

(35) Initially read Divide the text through into segments text data of information. Many pages of text. Many segments of text. Label the segments of information with codes. 30-40 codes. Reduce overlap and redundancy of codes. Codes reduced to 20. Collapse codes into themes. Codes reduced to 5-7 themes. Figure 1. The Coding Process Note. From Educational research : planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (p. 244), by J. W. Creswell, 2012, Boston, MA: Pearson. Copyright by Pearson Education. Third, descriptions and visuals, such as figures, maps, or tables, were used to organize the themes collected from different instruments. By doing so, the researcher could more effectively capture a picture of the collected data. The themes were also organized in time-lines for the researcher to include relevant contextual factors and incidents of the time for further analysis (Goodson and Sikes, 2001; Hong, 2011). For instance, the data from interviews, participants’ journals, and school documentation were used to compile a time-line table to present Jessica’s present challenges (see Table 6). Last, the topics would gradually emerge by probing into the relevance of the themes to the research questions, including challenges, coping strategies, experience of seeking social support, and personal reflections and improvements after several years of teaching. During this stage, the analyses of themes explained the impact of social support in participants’ lives. The researcher could gradually construct a lived experience in participants’ minds.. 27.

(36) Table 6 Jessica’s Present Challenges Year. Date. Focus of the data. Analysis. 2015. Jul.. 09. II-Special education student (worried after 1st challenge: Special seeing his records) education students. Aug.. 31. School begins. Sep.. 09. II-Getting pregnant (excited). 11. PJ1-Special education student (frustrated because don’t know how to address his needs). 23. II-Special education student’s behavioral problems (fight with school teacher and intend to leave school). Oct.. 24 25. Parent Teacher Meeting Individualized education programs. 01. II1-Difficulties in dealing with special education student and doubt from parents. Positive attitude to look at the challenge (confident). 13. II-Meet with special student’s mother. 16. PJ2 Use LINE to ask cooperation from parents but not quite successful (unhappy). 22. II2-Further express need of cooperation. 2nd challenge: Teacher-parent communication. from parents and it works (pleased) Nov.. Dec.. 09. PJ3-Deal with student behavioral problems (bullying) and heavy workload (upset and tiring). 13. Sports Day and School Fair. 27. School Evaluation. 30. SI2-Overall challenges: classroom management and parents. 01. II-Special education student’s behavioral problems (breaking school rules and affect other classes) (disturbed) Field Trip. 11 15. PJ4-Better understand special education student (satisfying) 28. 3rd challenge: Student behavioral problems. (continued).

(37) 17. SI3-Overall challenges2: special education students and discipline. 21. School discipline incident (a serious conflict between a school teacher and a parent finally became a news headline). 2016. Jan.. 28. PJ5-Maintain positive attitude toward the unsatisfied parents (respond to the school incident). 08. Individualized education programs. 18. PJ6-Deal with student interpersonal problems (perplexed then relieved). 21. Winter vacation begins. 28. II-Experience of being a beginning teacher (survive with family support). Improvements in different aspects.. Note. II = informal interviews or talks; PJ = participants’ journals; SI = semi-structured interviews. 3.6 The Researcher’s Role The researcher herself is an experienced EFL teacher at Star school. Her understanding and familiarity with the teaching profession could bring biases to the study when she interacted with the participants or dealt with the data. However, her position also enhanced the sensitivity to the discussed issues and brought empathy and comfort to the sharing of the participants (Wang, 2004). For instance, the researcher held positive attitude toward eliciting support from colleagues when facing challenges at school. She also believed in teachers’ good intentions to help students learn and improve during teacher-parent conflicts. To prevent the researcher’s biases from influencing the data collection and analysis, the researcher kept reflective journals to look at the discussed issue from different point of views. Moreover, while the data was mostly collected from the participants, the role of the researcher was of significance. As a data collection instrument in the qualitative study (Creswell, 2003; Marshall & Rossman, 2011; Seidman, 2006), the 29.

(38) researcher needed to carefully address the rights of the participants, including selecting appropriate interview contexts, adopting anonymity, and utilizing sufficient interviewing skills to make the participants more comfortable to talk. With the intention of building a “trusted and collaborative relationship with the participants” (Wang, 2004, p. 37), the researcher respected the participants for what they had contributed to the study and shared her own stories regarding the challenges and strategies confronted in her teaching lives. 3.7 Trustworthiness Owing to the qualitative structure of the present study, the source of the collected data relied heavily on the in-depth interviews and lived experiences of the individuals. Sandelowski (1991) in the study of narrative approaches in qualitative studies noted that “Narrative truth of narrative is distinguished from other kinds of formal science truths by its emphasis on the life-like, intelligible and plausible story (Sandelowski, 1991, p. 164 ).“ The issue of validity of the qualitative study was significant to be concerned. To enhance the trustworthiness and credibility of this qualitative study, several strategies were employed (Creswell, 2003; Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Mackey & Gass, 2005; Richards, 2014; Shenton, 2004). First, this study adopted multiple measures, including interviews, journals, and school documentation, to elicit rich data and to triangulate the findings from multiple sources (Mackey & Gass, 2005). Next, the researcher engaged in the research setting for a long period of time (more than five months) to better understand the participants’ personalities and behaviors. Also, the in-depth descriptions of the context and the participants would also enhance the transferability of the study. (Mackey & Gass, 2005; Shenton, 2004). Last, the study utilized member-checking by sharing the collected data with the participants to ensure the accuracy of the transcription and interpretation. After interviews were transcribed, the researcher emailed the transcriptions to the participants, who were able to make changes of the content of transcriptions if their opinions were not clearly expressed. 30.

(39) In sum, the methodology of this qualitative study was designed in order to effectively collect and analyze the experienced EFL teachers’ experiences and thoughts on the social support to overcome their challenges at work. Life history approach (Goodson & Sikes, 2001) and constant comparative analysis (Creswell, 2012; Marshall & Rossman, 2011) were adopted to enhance the elicitation, analysis, and interpretation of the multiple sources of data. The next chapter would further present the research findings.. 31.

(40) CHAPTER FOUR FINDINGS The study aimed to understand the challenges that experienced EFL teachers encountered and how their elicitation of social support impacted their overall teaching lives and development. This chapter encompassed three sections to present the themes derived from six semi-structured interviews, fifty one informal talks, thirteen participants’ journals, and thirty researcher’s reflective journals. The first part began with the researcher’s prior encounters with the participants and their autobiographies to provide the background information about how the participants normally acted and looked in their workplace and how the researcher built trust from the participants. The second section presented the problems that the participants confronted and the solutions that they discovered in their present status of being “more experienced.” Finally, the participants’ reflections on their changes and growth were illustrated. 4.1 Researcher’s Encounters with Jessica and Lisa 4.1.1. Researcher’s Encounter with Jessica Jessica’s parents were both retired junior high school teachers. As her parents were. busy with work, Jessica’s childhood was mostly accompanied by music and books. She often played the piano, danced, and read books at home. Her parents’ educational ideal was encouraging and supportive, so Jessica had much room to try different things at her will. She said, “Because I did not build a very close relationship with my family, I often went out to look for friends.” From elementary school to college, Jessica showed great interest in languages and enjoyed hanging out with a small group of friends. She appreciated the teachers who are warm, friendly and knowledgeable, instead of those who desperately emphasized students’ academic achievement. Under the influence of her parents, she entered teachers’ university to study English. She found that the training in English 32.

(41) language competence and teaching approaches during college inspired her and established the foundation of the English teaching for her future work. The first time the researcher met Jessica was at a conference3 in 2009. There were two vacancies for English teachers at Star School, and Jessica and the researcher both selected Star School as their preferred first choice for employment. In the first meeting, Jessica looked attractively tall and slender. She wore a friendly smile and fashionable clothes, and was willing to share her life and teaching experiences with a future colleague. As a result, Jessica left the researcher with an impression of her easy-going and open-minded personality. The researcher and Jessica became close friends in the summer of 2015 after they took a long trip with the other two colleagues. Therefore, when the researcher mentioned the study, Jessica consented to her participation quickly. During the research, the researcher kept frequent contact with Jessica through LINE to chat and talk about her daily lives at Star School. The data collection process went smoothly. In Jessica’s teaching years, she has taught seventh grade for three years, eighth grade for three years, and ninth grade for two years. At Star School, she built a close relationship with her students. She once dressed like a teenage girl and did the street dance moves in class to show students her interest and talent for dancing. The students filmed her dancing, and then she uploaded the video onto her Facebook page. In 2015, she invited her students to her wedding. Two students were invited to be her bridesmaid and groomsman, and around twenty students performed street dance on the stage to celebrate her big life event. Despite her close relationship with students, classroom management seemed an issue for Jessica. During the first two years of teaching at Star School, she considered transferring to senior high school because she wanted to focus more on teaching skills instead of dealing. 3. In Taiwan, the teacher candidates who have passed the Teacher Screening Test for Junior High School. Teachers need to attend a conference to confirm their willingness to take the job opportunity and to choose a school they want to teach at according to their ranking of the test. 33.

(42) with classroom management. In fact, the acquisition of classroom management skills was essential for junior high school teachers in that compared to senior high and elementary school students, junior high school students were reported by in-service teachers as having higher frequency and severity of behavioral problems (Kulinna, Cothran, & Regualos, 2006). Jessica was once criticized by a senior teacher at Star School regarding her inability to manage a class and deal with students’ behavioral problems as the senior teacher held the view that teachers should take full responsibilities of maintaining discipline. Moreover, in 2012, she was asked by the school administrators to consider being replaced with another homeroom teacher because there were too many problems with her eighth-grade class during the previous semesters. Before the research began in 2015, she mentioned that her experience of dealing with unruly students in class had become her personal nightmare. 4.1.2. Researcher’s Encounter with Lisa Lisa grew up in a single-parent family consisting of her mother and younger sister. It. was this difficult upbringing that gave Lisa strong perseverance and independence so that “Mom would not need to worry about us.” (1M-L, 07-15-2015) In Lisa’s childhood, she enjoyed reading and arts alone. She liked her senior high school English teacher a lot – a teacher that was organized, hardworking and open-minded. When she expressed an interest in language learning, her mother found her a foreign teacher to tutor her oral speaking during the weekend. Deep in her heart, Lisa desperately wanted a career in journalism, unfortunately though her college entrance exam score was not good enough for her to be admitted to her ideal university. She decided instead to enter teacher’s university and double-majored in English and Communication. After graduation, Lisa preserved with her original dream and looked for jobs in journalism. Despite the fact that she had two majors in Communication and English, Lisa discovered that the interviewers held a stereotype that preservice teachers were too conservative and lacked adequate professional training in journalism. “They did not consider hiring me after they knew I had 34.