6.3.6 Nancy:Congruent Past, Present and Future Sel...
Nancy’s biographical background
Nancy was born and raised in a big city in northern China.She was the only child of an intellectual family, and both of her parents received tertiary education.Her father worked in a local government department and mother worked as an English teacher in a local secondary school.In the first round of interview, when describing the financial situation of the family, Nancy said:‘I don’t think my family belongs to the middle class in China like some other students in this university, though my parents can totally afford my 70,000 CNY tuition fee per year.Anyhow, I still personally feel a bit pressure because of such high tuition fee, I thus always encourage myself to obtain good academic achievements.’ In explaining other motivations for gaining high academic achievements, she pointed out that:‘However, it is not only me, but also most of my fellow classmates are studying hard because of our unexpected low scores in China College Entrance Examination.We are trying to prove our learning capacity in this university, which was not our first choice’.
Since her childhood, her father has encouraged her to watch TV news and comment on some political issues with him, which had a great impact on her interest in politics.Nancy described her own personality as ‘open-minded, independent but also conservative’:‘I have participated in many university associations, and actively interacted with domestic and international students and staff members.I’d like to see and try different cultural things, but if these are completely contrary to my ways of thinking and doing, and I cannot find out ways to solve such confusion or conflicts, I will just give them up.I have my own life attitudes.And that’s the thing.’ In 2014, Nancy accepted an unconditional offer for a master’s course from the University College London.
Nancy’s attitudinal orientation to the field
Rather than recording what specific disciplinary events happened， Nancy’s recount begins with the justification of why she likes seminars better than lectures， followed by expected events at a Future stage.It should be noticed that her recognition of the value of attending seminars is based on her general past experience.At the Past and Present stage， appraisal of lectures and seminars is organised by a structural feature of compare and contrast.Nancy’s participation in lectures is appraised as ‘always distracted’ （总爱分神的）， and this contrasts with the experience at seminars， ‘not will distracted’ （不会分神）.The comparatively negative reaction， ‘distracted’ from lectures， is graded with low ‘occasionally have’ （偶尔有） and ‘not many’ （不是很多） interaction.But meanwhile， this negative Appreciation is mitigated by the events appraised with concessive words ‘if’ and ‘but’.
The strong positive Affection ‘like’ （喜欢） towards seminars is graded by ‘most’ （最）.This mental satisfaction generates from ‘active’ （活跃的） interaction in seminars where the participants can ‘conduct discussion， different idea clash’， use and improve knowledge.Moreover， there is a unique finding that， while positively appraising the value of seminar， the Participant does not only refer to ‘I’ but also involves ‘everybody’ and ‘we’.Nancy’s affection for and appreciation of seminars are intensified in the ‘hope’ that ‘can apply this seminar mode’ in the future work.
At the Future stage， two future events， ‘obtain upper second honours degree’ and ‘learn new thing...help me most understand this world’， in the extract below are graded with the highest degree of intensity ‘most’ （最）， which is not found in the other recounts.
Nancy’s proximity of disciplinary selves in the field of discipline
Nancy shapes a positive continuum of past, present and future disciplinary selves, and an experienced disciplinary self rooted in the local culture.The recognition of the difference between lectures and seminars shows her routinised engagement in the context, and the explicit appraisal of seminars is the consequence of positively identifying the contextual value and personal needs.The subsequent affiliation to the context is represented not only in her positive identification of the disciplinary value but also in self-categorisation as a member in the disciplinary group (e.g.‘I’, ‘everybody’, ‘we’).These past and present experiences of aligning herself with the local culture then construct a positive future self who will continue to ‘apply this seminar mode’ in future events.In the meantime, an experienced disciplinary self is developed in her familiarity with the contextual information and clear identification of future expectations (e.g., ‘most big expectation’, ‘most hope’), which is constructed through strategically participation in local activities.