Chapter 8: A Personal Journey of Cultural Evolution and Professional Transformation

In this chapter, the author shares her 25-year career journey that began in China as a college faculty and administrator and continued in the United States as a graduate student, university administrator, junior faculty member and, finally, professor. The chapter focuses on the author’s search for knowledge, professional growth, identity development, and cultural understanding, especially in the United States. She weaves the details of the cultural, social, psychological, linguistic and personal challenges she has encountered into a portrait of her life in academia and her transformation into an educational scholar.

Before coming to the United States for graduate work in 1994, I lived in China, where I received my BA in English Language and Literature in 1985. I taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL) as a full-time faculty member for nine years at a major university in northern China that was, at the time, one of the 33 key universities in the country. From 1985 to 1987, I taught reading and writing to graduate students, TOEFL preparation classes, and a special course designed to prepare the university’s senior faculty members to present research papers at international conferences. The latter course was very meaningful to me as I co-taught it with American professors from whom I learned much about American culture and different ways of teaching. In addition, I learned a lot from the professors whose years spent on teaching were greater than my accumulated years on this earth, and who were well-known scientists and researchers with many publications. They taught me a great deal about the dedication, diligence, and persistence involved in college teaching and research. With their help, coupled with my continuous efforts in trying out different methods and learning from my American co-teachers, I became a competent English instructor whose classes were very well received. I also began writing about my teaching experience as a beginning English instructor.