Abstract:

Rural teachers are originally the unity of professional identity and public identity, but in the developing model of teachers which emphasizes professional identity in modern society, they gradually lose the public identity of rural economic and social builders and become “strangers” in the countryside. The loss of public identity is the direct result of the degeneration of rural teachers into “professionals”, which is rooted in the common function of the construction of national laws, the guidance of professionalism, the discipline of technical bureaucrats and the trend of leaving the country. In the new era, rural teachers can voluntarily, initiatively or even consciously to rebuild their image as new rural elites, which means to regain their public identity, spontaneously return to the dual roles of rural educators and rural builders, to lead the modernization of rural education while promoting the modernization of rural social economy, to play a positive role of behavior demonstration and value leading in rural society and rural governance, and to highlight the significance of rural teachers in Rural Revitalization.

Key words: rural teacher, public identity, new rural elite, rural society, professional identity