Programs of teacher education as mediators of White teacher identity

A growing body of scholarship in teacher education has explored the historical, systemic, interactional, and individual factors that create possibilities and challenges in White teachers’ reconceptualization of their racial identity and of the purpose and nature of their work in a racialized society. However, there has been little attention to programs of teacher education as critical mediators of such learning and change. Through an analysis of in-depth interviews with four prospective White teachers in the United States, we develop a framework of White teachers’ racial identities as situated within racial ideologies and mediated by the context of teacher education programs. The framework helps elucidate how teachers’ racial identities are instantiated through interactions and available identities in a program space, which are in turn shaped both by ideology and program structure and culture. The framework and findings urge an insertion of our own agency, as teacher educators, into the analyses of White prospective teachers’ learning and change, by highlighting our role as individuals who co-construct the programmatic structure and culture that partially instantiates these teachers’ racial identities.     

Lessons from professional identity development literature: A qualitative content analysis

The development of a professional identity as a counselor is the result of training, practice, and integration into a community of professional counselors and is defined as the synthesis of personal and professional behaviors, values, ethics, and worldview. The research on this topic has been plentiful, but this systemic and systematic review of the research literature provides a comprehensive overview of this important concept for counselor training and supervision.     

The Development and Evaluation of the Intersectional Privilege Screening Inventory for Use With Counselors-in-Training

As counselor preparation programs are compelled to demonstrate student social and cultural competence, valid inventories are needed to measure development consistent with contemporary standards. The Intersectional Privilege Screening Inventory was created for this purpose, was assessed using 4 types of validity evidence, and has results supporting its use in student development.     

Ethnic Identity and Social‐Cognitive Maturity in a Multicultural Group Experience

This study examined a multicultural group experience on students' (N= 94) ethnic identity development and social‐cognitive maturity. Although no differences were identified between treatment and comparison group participants, group therapeutic factors scores were predictive of ethnic identity development and social‐cognitive maturity. Implications for counselor educators and future research are discussed.     

Professional primary school teacher identity development: a pursuit in line with an unexpressed image

The results presented in this article are taken from a case study of novice primary school mathematics teachers’ professional identity development from the perspective of the teachers themselves. The empirical material was collected through self-recordings, observations and interviews. The results show how the professional identity development of these novice teachers becomes a pursuit in line with their image of a primary school teacher. To develop a sense of themselves as primary school teachers they need to establish their own criteria - individual (including graduation and personal knowledge) and social (the ability to work in one school, have colleagues and have a class of their own for which they do the planning and teaching). These criteria are shown to be both a precondition for and a part of professional identity development. The novice teachers’ image of what it means to be a primary school teacher directs their actions and becomes the goal of their professional identity development. Because of its high impact, student and novice teachers’ image of primary school teachers ought to be made visible in both teacher education and teacher induction.     

Becoming a youth activist in the internet age: a case study on social media activism and identity development

This paper draws on a case study of one youth activist, and explores connections between social media activism, identity development, and critical education. Justin Rodriguez, a 17-year-old high school student in Newark, New Jersey, leveraged social media and texting as organizing tools and garnered support for a school walkout to protest education budget cuts. Drawing on the Listening Guide interview method and Justin’s narrative of his experiences, the study explores the question: Does social media activism have implications for how we understand the development of youth activist identities? The findings suggest Justin’s development as a youth activist was mediated, not produced, by social media activism; and Justin developed as a youth activist through various forms of interaction that included social media and face-to-face relationships. The paper also explores the supports provided by adult mentors that were important in Justin’s development as an activist, including education for critical consciousness and opportunities for Justin to participate in civic venues.     

Mentor teacher professional identity development in a year-long teacher residency

In this article I examined the professional identity development of five mentor teachers in a year-long, clinically rich teacher residency partnered between a university-based teacher education program and schools in a southern state of the United States. Qualitative data were collected through classroom observation and individual semi-structured interviews with a focus on participants’ mentoring activities and the ways they enacted and described their identities. Participants came to new mentoring beliefs and practices as they navigated the residency and developed a multifaceted identity to mediate their learning to become mentors and teacher educators. Implications for mentor teacher professional support, teacher preparation, and future research were discussed.     

How Exemplar Counselor Advocates Develop Social Justice Interest: A Qualitative Investigation

The authors examined the experiences of 10 peer‐nominated exemplar counselor advocates using grounded theory methodology (Strauss & Corbin, 1998 ). Analysis by the authors yielded a model of how exemplar counselor advocates develop a social justice interest and provided key insights on how counselor educators can enhance social justice interest in their students. Implications for supervisors and scholars are presented.     

Recontextualizing psychosocial development in young children: a model of environmental identity development

This article presents an Environmental Identity Development model, which considers the progression of young children’s self-cognitions in relation to the natural world. We recontextualize four of Erikson’s psychosocial stages, in order to consider children’s identity development in learning in, about, and for the environment. Beginning with Trust in Nature vs. Mistrust in Nature, we argue that cognitions of comfort in the natural world vs. discomfort, provide the foundation for healthy environmental identity development. This trusting bond/relationship with nature allows children to gain Spatial Autonomy through collectively or independently creating their own sense of place in nature vs. feelings of doubt or Environmental Shame. As children progress, they gain Environmental Competencies, creative innovations to use the environment for both personal and social purposes vs. separation from nature or Environmental Disdain. Such competencies promote children’s agency in exercising Environmental Action, applied care/ethics aimed at building a sustainable future, as opposed to behaviors that cause Environmental Harm. Young children’s environmental identity develops in diverse ways and in distinct sociocultural and geographical contexts. Caregivers/educators play a unique role in recognizing and supporting the needs of individual children as they progress towards healthy environmental identity development.     

Teacher identity development through action research: a Chinese experience

This study explores how two language teachers constructed and reconstructed their professional identities through their action research (AR) facilitated by university researchers in China. Informed by the theory of ‘community of practice’, the findings of the study show that AR exerted a transformative impact on the teachers’ identity development. Four distinctive routes of identity change were noted, namely their transformation from ‘fisherman’ to ‘fishing coach’, from ‘craftsman’ to ‘teacher researcher’, from ‘lonely fighter’ to ‘collaborator’, and from ‘housekeeper’ to ‘change agent’. Such change can be attributed to their engagement and practice in different communities of practice. However, the participants’ identity development also encountered some contextual obstacles, including the rigid school curriculum, lack of research knowledge, as well as the power dynamics between them and the researchers. Several implications can be drawn for teachers, teacher educators, and school leaders to help teachers construct a solid and robust professional identity in seeking their continuing professional development through AR.     

Becoming artist,becoming educated,becoming undone: toward a nomadic perspective of college student identity development

In this article, I place my ethnographic project among undergraduate university art students and their professor in dialog with Rosi Braidotti’s figuration of the nomadic subject and her reflections on the importance of creating theoretical alternatives for mapping the embedded and embodied social positions that we inhabit. As educational interlocutors, college students must negotiate expectations and categorizations about age-appropriate relations, career paths, and identity passageways, which are always already framed by Western psychological development discourses. Interested in loosening the grip of these closure-seeking and normalizing discursive practices, I argue for a revision of identity development grounded in a nomadic theory of the subject and engage my data through an alternative analytic of arts-informed assemblage in light of Braidotti’s ideas. In so doing, I uphold my feminist commitment to do theory as both critique and creativity, bringing into view poetic-enough writing and imagery as a response to the question how is it to be in the process of becoming?     

Cultivating sacred spaces: a racial affinity group approach to support critical educators of color

ABSTRACT

Despite repeated pleas for diversifying the U.S. teacher force, teachers of color who are committed to social justice are often unsupported and even pushed out via structural, interpersonal, and pedagogical obstacles within the profession. In response to neoliberal, colorblind, and apolitical approaches to teacher development and support, educators and organizers have reclaimed and reframed their pedagogies through critical professional development and grassroots activism to center healing from the impacts of oppression in its myriad forms . The ethnographic case study in this article examines how, over the course of three years, a grassroots racial affinity group became an important space for learning and healing for its members. I explain how the group explicitly centered twelve members’ voices, needs, and collective knowledge, and in so doing: (a) collectively cultivated a critical, humanizing, and healing space for their sustainability; and (b) navigated various positions within socially toxic education institutions and organizations. I conclude by discussing how and why critical racial affinity spaces for educators of color are necessary in order to support their personal, political, relational, and pedagogical growth, which has implications on their retention and leadership within the field.     

Calling to mentor: the search for mentor identity through the development of mentor competency

ABSTRACT

There is a common assumption that experienced educators will automatically be effective mentors. My experience indicates that building competence in mentoring others requires conscious intent and effort. This article is a self-study action research account that explores mentoring practice from the mentor’s perspective. The study sets to explore the relational dynamics within mentoring relationships, with the focus of obtaining a deeper understanding of the mentor’s growth and the impact of this learning on mentor identity. Data collection was through personal reflective journals, mentoring conversations, and focus group interviews. Findings indicate that critical reflective practice can lead to transformational learning that results in personal and professional growth and improved mentor competency. Transformative learning episodes highlight significant learning points that converge to enhance personal and professional learning and contribute to the formulation of mentor identity. A conclusion drawn is that applying a personal strategic intent towards mentor development can lead to improved mentoring culture and organisational learning and growth.     

Racial Identity Theory and Peace Education: Tools for the Teacher In All of Us

As people develop a meaningful understanding of racism, they also experience shifts in their appraisals of self and others as members of an unfairly stratified society. Consistent with the premises of Helms' (1995) racial identity theory, these shifts can be explained as transformational processes that have relevance to matters of morality and peace advancement. Individuals who operate at advanced levels of racial identity development overcome the confinements inherent in a racism Zeitgeist and in so doing, learn to accept themselves and others more authentically. This theory can prove crucial to peace promotion in children because it espouses to nurture the integration of self within the broader spectrum of humanity. Educators who transform their selves can also transform their educational practices by disrupting cycles of socialization that adversely influence children's identity formation. They can also contribute to the creation of new structures of socialization. In this paper, I describe this theory and how it applies to peace education.     

On the elephant in the room: toward a generative politics of place on race in academic discourse

Abstract

In our conceptual essay, we draw on an exchange between a White scholar and a group of panelists on Critical Race Theory at an international conference. Taking up this exchange as our point of departure, we work in dialectical and multidimensional ways between the essentialized politics of place on race and critical anti-essentializing foundations in recent Critical Race Feminism and Critical White Studies’ literatures. Working the dialectics and multidimensionality of the place that race makes in academic discourse, we recognize and ethically work through the essentialized politics of place in advancing anti-essentializing understandings of race. In articulating these anti-essentializing understandings, our conceptual essay drives at the notion of a generative politics of place on race in academic discourse. A generative politics of place holds essentialized realities and anti-essentializing foundations of race in dialectical and multidimensional tension for teaching, learning, and discussing race in local, national, and international contexts.     

Coping with the crickets: a fusion autoethnography of silence,schooling, and the continuum of biracial identity formation

This study explores biracial identity development in the adolescent years through fusion autoethnography. Using an ecological model of biracial identity development, this study illustrates how family, peers, and school curricula validate and reject racial self-presentations. We pay specific attention to the different forms of silence (i.e. “crickets”) that teachers and peers deploy as tactics of rejection and how racially coded artifacts such as hip-hop culture and Black Liberation texts function as validations of racial self-presentations. Overall, this study helps researchers and practitioners to understand the fluidity of biracial and multiracial identity development as it relates to everyday school spaces and processes.     

Professional identity development of international counseling doctoral students: A hybrid approach of deductive and inductive thematic analysis

We explored the professional identity development of nine international counseling doctoral students. Our findings broadly corroborated Dollarhide et al.’s general model but revealed further nuances that need to be carefully contextualized at the intersection of a constellation of identities and experiences that international students bring to the counseling profession.