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

            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, p.9-10). 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 and 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 through self-study, 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). Høydalsvik (2019) investigates teacher educators’ self-understanding of their professional identity and found that many teacher educators still hold an identity rooted in the subject discipline they were primarily educated in. This study also reported four levels of influence on the identity of teacher educators - personal (unconscious understanding), local (professional team, programmes and institutes), national (research network) and global.

Participant selection: A sample of fifteen participants were sourced from sixty Chinese teachers involved in PETE who completed a survey researching the professional learning needs of Chinese higher education-based PETEds. We refer to the participants as teachers who are the educators/lecturers in Chinese higher education. Convenience sampling, i.e., participants who are easily accessible and willing to participate (Teddlie and Yu 2007), was used in the process of selection. Interviews: The first interview protocol was initially constructed in English and then translated into Chinese for ease of data collection. 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. 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.

Chinese teachers who were involved in PETE perceived their professional identity more as teachers than teacher educators. The factors influencing on the professional identity of teacher educators are more from personal and local level. In a Chinese context, there is still no agreed definition for ‘teacher educators’ and ‘PETEds’. We found that the term teacher educator is not fully understood or recognised in the Chinese context and, subsequently, many teachers involved in PETE position themselves as a teacher. There is a need for future research to define teacher educators and PETEds in a Chinese context, with a related interest to explore the extent to which teachers involved in teacher education should be considered (or encouraged to consider for themselves) as teacher educators if they perceive themselves as a teacher. The research on teacher educators’ professional identity must address the issue of what teacher educators do (Davey 2013, p68). In a Chinese context, teachers involved in PETE found it difficult to prioritise their work related to (physical education) teacher education as the majority were teaching a broader range of students (e.g. physical education PSTs, general university students, sport science students). This impacted their ability and caused more confusion for them to identify as a teacher educator. Finally, Chinese teachers involved in PETE did not identify as teacher educators when they began educating physical education 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 extent to which the types of relationships between PSTs and teachers/teacher educators impact the professional identity of teacher educators.

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