An Investigation Into Career Development Contexts of University Russian Language Teachers in China (1949-2019) From the Perspective of Ecological Theory

Abstract Although much research has been conducted on the interactions between the career development of foreign language teachers and their contexts around the world, a literature review reveals that there exists scanty research on the relationship between university Russian language teachers’ career development and their contexts in China since 1949. Based on relevant studies on the career development of foreign language teachers and the ecological theory, this paper involves research on the impact that different ecological systems (micro-, meso-, macro- and exo-ones) have played in the career development of Russian language teachers in China. Participants are 10 Chinese Russian teachers of different ages from different universities in different parts of China. Via literature review, narration methods and semi-structured (in-depth) interviews with the help of NVivo, this research finds that Russian language teachers ’ career development results from multi-faceted interactions of the following contexts: ideology, Russian language educational policies and personal factors as well as college contexts. This paper concludes with some suggestions for improving Russian language teachers’ career development in China.