The Logical Rationale and Practical Pathways for Integrating the Spirit of Educators into the Professional Courses of Pre-service Teachers: A Perspective Based on Field Theory

Abstract

Promoting the spirit of educators is a core requirement for strengthening the construction of the teaching force and implementing the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education in the new era. However, the integration of the educator spirit into professional courses faces challenges of fragmentation and superficiality. Based on Bourdieu’s field theory, the construction of an analytical framework of “field-capital-habitus” can reveal its internal logic: professional courses, as a key field shaping the professional habitus of pre-service teachers, have operational rules that determine which types of capital hold value; the educator spirit should become a high-value symbolic capital within this field, guiding pre-service teachers to transition from “technical imitators” to “educational practitioners with consciousness.” The integration of the educator spirit into pre-service teachers’ professional courses encounters structural dilemmas such as the rigidity of field rules, imbalance in capital structure, and bias in habitus reproduction. To address these issues, it is necessary to reshape the operational rules of the field to establish a core orientation centered on educational values; reconstruct the capital structure to enhance the symbolic value of the educator spirit; and innovate teaching and experiential models to reshape the professional habitus of pre-service teachers.