Professional identity development of preservice music teachers: A survey study of three Chinese universities

By 2019, over 70,000 undergraduates had been awarded bachelor's degrees in music education under the Free Education for Students in Teacher Education Programme in China. Although this helped to relieve a severe shortage of music teacher supply, recent studies reported serious concerns regarding the career readiness of this population. The purposes of this study were to (a) provide a role-identity profile of 4th-year undergraduate music education majors in China, (b) identify key elements in their professional identity development (PID), and (c) explore whether these elements were different from those identified in research findings in other education systems. Survey data were collected from 1,321 music education students in three Chinese universities for content analysis. The results suggest that occupation-oriented external factors are the most influential source in career decision-making. Most participants are struggling with multiple professional identity shifts that combine music trainee, teacher trainee, and preservice teacher roles across degree programs. These present the complexity of identity development in policy-reinforced professionalism in the Chinese education system.