The Joint Construction of Academic Identities by Chinese University Novice Teachers in a Knowledge Community

The construction of academic identity is never built alone by teachers themselves but fundamentally embedded in the social stock of knowledge specific to each institutional and cultural context. This paper sets out to explore how academic identities of Chinese university novice teachers are constructed and negotiated in a knowledge community. It concludes that joint construction of academic identities are the efforts made by senior academics and novice teachers, aiming to help novice teachers update their academic networks to change their marginal positions in their teaching and research work.