6.3.5 Emma:In-Group Ought Self, Positive Social Se...
Emma’s biographical background
Emma was born and grew up in a small-sized city in southeast China, near the university.She was the only child of a middle class family, with her father holding a senior position in the local government and mother running a large company.Emma entered UNNC with relatively high scores in the China College Entrance Examination and initially majored in FAM (the one that required the highest scores in the university).Realising her little interest in modules such as Accounting, she then changed to International Communications and took some modules in Business without discussing it with her parents.This caused a big quarrel between Emma and her parents.She defended herself, saying:
“I am pretty independent, and I would like to do whatever I want to do; but my parents are pretty traditional and tough, despite that they have rich experiences of visiting many domestic and foreign places.In order to avoid big arguments, I sometimes take actions first and then tell them what I have done.They, doubtlessly, are very angry at me at the beginning, but they will gradually accept what I have done if they figure out I make right choices or gain good academic achievements” (Free chat 1, February 2014).
Emma is easy-going, friendly, and has great enthusiasm for arts, literature and fashion:‘I like shopping and try different foods with friends.I feel very lucky to have such amazing roommates who are in the best music band in the university.I like literature and writing, which inspire me to develop a future career in the field of International Communications, to become a top Chinese magazine column writer.’ (First round of interview, 2014) Although she claimed she was an idealist, she had clear recognition of her academic learning and shortterm life orientation:‘I don’t prefer to establish a long-term life goal for myself, because sometimes my unrealistic thoughts get myself stuck in the real world.My current short-term goal is to pursue a higher degree in the UK; I think after graduation I will find a job in China’ (First round of interview, 2014).In 2015, Emma received two unconditional offers respectively from London School of Economics and Political Science and Imperial College London, and meanwhile worked as a part-time employee for a Chinese top magazine.
Emma’s attitudinal orientation to the field
At the preliminary stage of Past， Emma records and appreciates one ‘successful’ seminar conducted a few days ago as a ‘joint commitment’ （共同的努力） from the teacher and the students.Following this appreciation， the modal auxiliaries ‘need’ （要） and ‘should’ （应该） explicitly inform Emma’s identification with the obligation of teaching and learning.Note that this kind of attitudinal appraisal is not found in the previous recounts， in which what needs to happen is oriented towards future events.Rather than giving a general evaluation， Emma identifies specific disciplinary actions that both teachers and students are supposed to take before the class and in the class.
Classroom inside:before few day one seminar...At this inside, I experience already one successful [Appreciation:val+] lesson need [Engagement:ent] teacher and student joint commitment [Affection:quality].First, at lesson before preparation inside, teacher need [Engagement:ent] prepare well lesson, student need [Engagement:ent] finish assigned task, then at conduct lesson time will have discussion idea.Second, at classroom top, teacher not only need [Engagement:ent] encourage student participate in interaction, but also need [Engagement:ent] at appropriate time give out guidance, while student also should [Engagement:ent] actively participate in answer question or questioning, then whole lesson can proceed.
Another narrative feature that is not found in the previous recounts is Emma’s appraisal of out-of-classroom learning and communication.Starting with ‘actually’ （其实）， she proclaims that there are ‘many learning opportunities’ outside the classroom such as the daily interaction with others， which however need the positive circumstantial condition， ‘active’ （主动的） engagement.She exemplifies this by recalling a senior female student’s ‘brave dream-seeking spirit’ （勇敢追求的精神） and the positive influence on her.
The recount shifts the gaze to a Present and Future stage with the signal of ‘because already third year’ （因为已经大三了）.Rather than recording the current learning events， Emma states similar hopes for more advanced teaching and learning， and the obligation to ‘do self-regulation’ （做到有条不紊）.Yet she mentions a hope that is not mentioned in the above recounts：that is， to learn more subject-related theories or concepts that are helpful for exploring and understanding the world in depth （再学到一些可开拓世界观、增进对整个世界了解的理论、观点）.
Emma’s proximity of disciplinary selves in the field of discipline
Emma similarly constructs a proximal congruence between past, present and future disciplinary selves as the above-mentioned Chinese students, but another two different types of possible selves are found in the recount:namely, in-group ought self and positive social self.For example, in appraising a past classroom event, Emma regards the co-construction of classroom activity as an obligation.This in-group awareness is also reflected in her recalling of how the role model of a senior student positively guides his/her action.As Knox (2006) points out, possible selves ‘are...determined in part by exposure to salient others’ characteristics and behaviors’ (p.67).It is most likely that an individual sometimes can become a kind of person that members of a group become.Moreover, Emma’s positive social self is found in her socially oriented future expectations, that is, ‘exploring and understanding the world in depth’.On the other hand, these two possible selves suggest that Emma is much more sensitive to the contextual information and values than the previous Chinese students from Year 1 and Year 2.And this is similarly found in the Year 4 Chinese student Nancy’s recount.