Chinese Immigrant Teachers’ Motivation for Teaching Heritage Language in Australia: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Current studies of Chinese heritage language education mainly focussed on learners’ motivations, behaviours and the appropriate pedagogies. Very few studies focussed on heritage language teachers’ motivations. To close such research gap, this study aimed to examine Chinese immigrant teachers’ motivations in heritage language teaching in Australia with the guidance of Social Cognitive Career Theory. With the aim stated above, the research was guided by two research questions: first, how do Chinese immigrant teachers describe their experiences of teaching heritage language in Australia; second, why do Chinese immigrant teachers decide to continue their heritage language teaching. This study adopted a qualitative approach to scaffold their mental representation of their teaching experiences and decision-making process by conducting 120 one-on-one semistructured interviews and 24 focus group meetings with 60 Chinese immigrant teachers who are currently teaching Chinese heritage language in Australian schools. Three themes and six subthemes were categorised. The findings reflected that traditional Confucian beliefs, a favourable learning environment and the attainment of teaching goals are the factors motivating the teachers to continue teaching heritage language. The information can be useful to utilise the talents of immigrant teachers to alleviate the teacher shortage problem and provide better support for heritage language teachers.