Getting recognised: Teachers negotiating professional identities as learners through talk

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study on teachers' negotiation of professional identity through talk with colleagues at an urban, public, Midwestern school in the United States. The purpose of the research was to identify discourse strategies the teachers used to negotiate local significances for their professional identities. Analysis and findings demonstrate that the teachers made and recognised identity bids to accomplish the professional identity of teacher as learner, using a range of discourse strategies, including two genres of reflective talk. Implications for our understanding of teachers as knowledge-producers and how this can inform teacher education and education policy are considered.     

From LSA to teacher: the value of classroom experience in shaping a ‘teacher’ identity

Routes into teacher training have expanded in recent years, accompanied by a growing interest in schools ‘growing their own’ teachers from amongst support staff. However, little attention has been paid to their transition to the role of teacher. This article investigates influences on identity development and the extent to which personal values are reconciled with professional demands and socially constructed facets of educational practice. Participants were nine staff in one secondary school for pupils with moderate learning difficulties who had undertaken the transition from LSA (learning support assistant) to teacher. Qualitative data were obtained through an online survey and focus group discussion. Findings show that extensive opportunities to experiment with provisional and possible selves, immersion in educational discourse, classroom agency and staff collaboration engender a ‘teacher’ self-concept and positive motivations for LSA career development, and that self-esteem and self-efficacy are strengthened by how an individual’s values align with those of the setting in which they work. Findings may inform school leaders as to the value of training teachers ‘in-house’ and support career development decisions of LSAs, a pathway of potential significance given the current pressures on teacher recruitment and retention.     

‘That's not treating you as a professional’: teachers constructing complex professional identities through talk

Public debates about the role of teachers and teacher performance place teachers at the center of a range of national and local discourses. The notion of teacher professional identity, therefore, framed in a variety of ways, engages people across social contexts, whether as educators, parents, students, taxpayers, voters or consumers of news and popular media. These highly contested discourses about teachers' roles and responsibilities constitute an important context for research on teachers and teaching, as researchers and educators ask how changes to the teaching profession affect teacher professional identity. This article investigates the identity talk of three mid‐career teachers in an urban, public school in the USA, to better understand how the teachers used language to accomplish complex professional identities. Research approaches to teacher identity often focus on teacher narrative as a key tool in identity formation. The analysis presented here extends our understanding of language as a resource in teacher identity construction by using discourse analysis to investigate how speakers use implicit meaning to accomplish the role identity of teacher. The analytical lens draws on an interdisciplinary framework that combines a sociological approach to teacher as a role identity with an investigation of language as a cultural practice, grounded in the ethnography of communication. The analysis focuses on how teachers use specific discourse strategies – reported speech, mimicked speech, pronoun shifts, oppositional portraits, and juxtaposition of explicit claims – to construct implicit identity claims that, while they are not stated directly, are central to accomplishing teacher as a role identity. The analysis presented here focuses on the particular implicit role claim of teacher as collaborator. Findings show that, in their identity talk, the teachers strategically positioned themselves in relation to others and to institutional practices, actively negotiating competing discourses about teacher identity by engaging in a counter discourse emphasizing teachers' professional role as knowledge producers rather than information deliverers, collaborative, rather than isolated, and as agents of change engaged in critical analysis to plan action. Awareness of how these counter discourses operate in the teachers' conversation helps us better understand the cultural significance of identity talk as a site for the negotiation of the significances for the role identity of teacher. In addition, the notions of role identity and implicit identity claims offer an accessible way to talk about the complexity of teacher identity, which can be helpful for increasing awareness of the importance of teacher identity in teacher education and professional development, and in bringing teachers' voices more prominently into the debates over education.     

Professional development for scaling pedagogical innovation in the context of game-based learning: teacher identity as cornerstone in “shifting” practice

A dominant discourse on “scaling-up” small-scale innovations based on a limited number of successful classroom trials pervades the educational literature. We view this discourse as insensitive to the professional work of teachers and the human side of school change. Our research investigated how teacher professional development could be conceived and conducted to support take up of digital game-based learning in the context of a 3-week social studies unit on governance and citizenship. Students played a mobile game in their own time. In the classroom, teachers enacted dialogic pedagogy to facilitate students’ meaning-making of their gameplay experience. Our findings indicate that teacher identity, constituted by their interwoven knowing–doing–being–valuing is central to any effort to scale pedagogical and technological innovation. We modified our original model for the appropriation of innovation uptake by teachers to one that places teacher identity as the centrepiece of the model and cornerstone in “shifting” teacher practice.     

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.     

Teacher agency and professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts: Accounts of Chinese teachers from international schools in Hong Kong

This study examined how teacher agency shaped professional learning in cross-cultural teaching contexts. Interviews with 14 Chinese language teachers showed that teacher agency varied in different dimensions of professional learning. Social suggestions, power relations, teachers' professional and social positioning and the imposed identity and social roles in the school contexts interacted to shape teacher agency. The findings suggest both creating school cultures and structures that value and share diverse discursive and pedagogical practices and managing teachers' professional identity and self-positioning to enhance teachers' agency to engage in mutual learning and remaking of their work practices.     

Speaking ‘over’ performativity

In a time where standards and accountability override trust in teachers and principals, mandated versions of pedagogy have recently appeared in the Australian landscape. This article critiques one pedagogical reform initiative and suggests that in performative times, it may be preferable for principals and teachers to speak ‘over’ reform than to speak ‘back’ to it. While reference to competency standards increasingly replaces discussion about professionalism, the argument is developed here that key elements of professionalism include trust, agency, identity and judgement, which are excluded from the standards discourse. The article proposes that the tenuous hold teachers have on professionalism might be strengthened by critical school leaders adept at navigating their way around performative demands and who encourage teachers to speak ‘over’ codes about appropriate behaviour to instead explore what it means to be a teacher professional.     

Teachers’ classroom management self-efficacy,perceived classroom management and teaching contexts from beginning until mid-career

Teacher self-efficacy for classroom management is an important component of teachers' identity with implications for their teaching quality. Theoretically, it has been described that contextual variables play an important role for self-efficacy development and its consequences. However, little is known about the interrelationships of job resources and demands with teacher self-efficacy, and consequences for teachers' professional behaviors. We extend teacher self-efficacy research by drawing on the Job Demands-Resources model in examining contextual influences on developmental dynamics between classroom management self-efficacy and teacher-reported classroom management, from prior to qualifying as a teacher until mid-career. Participants were 395 primary and secondary Australian school teachers. Longitudinal structural equation models showed teachers’ classroom management self-efficacy positively related to aspects of their perceived classroom management, particularly during early career. Between early and mid-career, the positive relationship between self-efficacy and classroom management was moderated by early career excessive demands. Implications are outlined for teacher education and school administration.     

Beyond ‘what works’: understanding teacher identity as a practical and political tool

Drawing on previous research that focused upon the formation and mediation of teacher professional identity, this paper develops a model for conceptualising teacher professional identity. Increasingly, technical-rational understandings of teachers’ work and ‘role’ are privileged in policy and public discourse over more nuanced and holistic approaches that seek to understand teacher professional identity – what it is to ‘be’ a teacher. This article seeks to offer an alternative view, presenting the idea that an understanding of the processes by which teacher professional identity is formed and mediated is central to understanding the professional learning and development needs of teachers and advancing a richer, more transformative vision for education. I argue that instrumentalist notions of teachers’ work embedded in neo-liberal educational agendas such as those currently being advanced in many western countries offer an impoverished view of the teaching profession and education more broadly, and suggest that the concept of teacher professional identity holds the potential to work as a practical tool for the teaching profession and those who work to support them in the development of a more generative educational agenda.     

Leaving or staying in teaching: a ‘vignette’ of an experienced urban teacher ‘leaver’ of a London primary school

In the field of teacher attrition, there is a significant body of literature on why teachers leave high-needs urban schools and particularly why beginning teachers leave their schools and the profession. However, there is little research on the reasons why experienced teachers leave the teaching profession. This paper examines this subject by considering whether teachers experience an ‘identity crisis’ in their careers which prompts them to leave. Drawing on identity theory, data from a single case study of an experienced urban teacher are taken from a wider qualitative research study carried out in London, England. The case is made that decisions to leave or stay in a school are contingent on a number of personal, professional and situational factors related to the teacher’s identity. The article concludes that one way to understand why long-serving teachers leave the profession is to examine aspects of their teacher identity and explore how a crisis in professional identity can contribute towards teacher attrition. In the light of this alternative approach towards understanding attrition, at the very least, supportive structures can be put in place to encourage more teachers to stay and contribute to the success and well-being of children from disadvantaged backgrounds.     

A Clearer Vision: Creating and Evolving a Model to Support the Development of Science Teacher Leaders

This paper describes a professional development model for developing science teacher leaders that has evolved and been refined through working with 16 high school chemistry and physics teachers in high-needs schools over the past 3 years. The theoretical framework draws upon Goodwin’s notion of professional vision and Dempsey’s four metaphors to inform an understanding of professional identity consistent with innovation and empowerment in (a) the classroom setting with students and (b) with teachers in collegial environments. Thus, leadership practices and purposes are discussed at two distinct levels and contexts, which interact reflexively. Sociolinguistic discourse analysis of multiple data sources enabled us to identify the professional development features that promoted or hindered the teachers’ growth toward a leadership perspective and disposition. Implications for science teacher renewal and retention as well as limitations of the study and proposed leadership model are also shared and discussed.     

Incorporating creativity into teachers practice and self-concept of professional identity

The study explores what happens to teachers practice and professional identity when they adopt a collaborative action research approach to teaching and involve external creative partners and a university mentor. The teachers aim to nurture and develop the creative potential of their learners through empowering them to make decisions for themselves about their own progress and learning directions. The teachers worked creatively and collaboratively designing creative teaching and learning methods in support of pupils with language and communication difficulties. The respondents are from an English special school, primary school and girls secondary school. A mixed methods methodology is adopted. Gains in teacher confidence and capability were identified in addition to shifts in values that impacted directly on their self-concept of what it is to be an effective teacher promoting effective learning. The development of their professional identities within a team ethos included them being able to make decisions about learning that are based on the educational potential of learners that they proved resulted in elevated standards achieved by this group of learners. They were able to justify their actions on established educational principles. Tensions however were revealed between what they perceived as their normal required professionalism imposed by external agencies and the enhanced professionalism experienced working through the project where they were able to integrate theory and practice.     

The competence to act: Chicana teacher role identity in life and career narratives

Relationships between teachers' biographical experiences and their beliefs and practices have become central concerns in the area of teacher life history and teacher socialization research. Unfortunately, few teachers from cultural minority backgrounds have been included in this research. In the present study, the life and career narratives of two Chicana teachers are examined in order to identify the influences of biographical experiences on how they define their teacher role identity. In recognition of and building from the narrative form of the written and interview data from which the life and career narratives are constructed, teacher role identity is defined as a narratively constructed self-image that presents an identity-in-action in which teachers' competence to act is demonstrated through their actions across various occupational challenges and demands. The competence to act is the product of teachers' biographical experiences and is based on the appropriation of family values through which the case study teachers make connections between their family socialization and their current professional educator role.     

Novice teachers' work: constructing ‘different’ children?

Developing a teacher identity is an ongoing and multifaceted process. In part, the process involves finding a voice amid the clamour of other, often contradictory, voices and complex conditions in which teachers find themselves. Drawing from a larger study of teacher professional identities, this paper explores how two beginning early childhood educators talk about what it means to teach. The paper focuses on how these novice teachers position themselves, and are positioned, by their understandings of the ‘child’. This focus on children is particularly relevant to understanding teacher identities for in educational contexts, teachers and children are inextricably linked – they are part of a relational pair. Using critical discourse analysis as a way of examining interview data, I discuss how a discourse of the ‘normal’ child constructs particular identity positions for children and the adults who work with them.     

‘I need to be strong and competent’: a narrative inquiry of a student-teacher’s emotions and identities in teaching practicum

In teacher identity research, limited attention has been paid to how pre-service teachers constructed their identities by negotiating with different emotions in their practice. To fill this gap, the present study, drawing upon the approach of narrative inquiry, explores how a student-teacher – Ming – negotiated and navigated conflicting emotions in the process of becoming a teacher. The findings show that while Ming experienced some negative feelings in his work, which challenged his self-belief as a teacher, the positive emotions derived from his students’ progress and recognition contributed to his teacher identity. However, due to the constraints imposed by his mentor and the school context, his negative emotions gradually escalated, posing severe impediments to his teacher identity. The emotional flux and identity change of the student-teacher can be attributed to his professional learning in the structural and cultural working conditions with hidden ‘emotional rules’ embedded in the practicum school. This paper argues for the inclusion of teacher emotions as an indispensable part of pre-service teacher education.     

“You choose to care”: Teachers,emotions and professional identity

This paper discusses the findings of a qualitative interpretive study on secondary school teachers’ professional identities and emotional experiences. Teachers’ work is emotionally engaging and personally demanding, yet the caring nature of the teaching role is largely neglected in educational policy and teacher standards. This paper examines the reasons behind the marginalisation of discourses of emotionality and discusses the lived experiences of three teachers. The caring behaviour that teachers exhibit in their work is seen to have professional, performative and philosophical dimensions as individual teachers subjectively negotiate the demands that are placed upon them in different situated contexts.     

Using standards to evaluate accountability policy in context: School administrator and teacher perceptions of a teacher evaluation system

Accountability policy in the United States requiring school districts to design and implement state policy-directed teacher evaluation systems that utilize multiple measures, most often observations of professional practice and student achievement data, has been reflective of shifting international public discourse surrounding educational accountability, specifically related to teacher quality. Although the most recent wave of policy change provides states some flexibility in determining how teachers are evaluated, many are still mired in debate on how to improve teacher professional practice and increase student learning. This study examined the perceptions of school administrators and teachers in a large, suburban, public school district regarding their district’s new teacher evaluation system. Understanding the convergent and divergent views of participant groups regarding how (i.e., the standards by which) they defined and measured the effectiveness of the evaluation system is necessary to not only better understand their lived experiences but also to potentially inform policy change.     

教师职业认同及学校影响因素研究综述

综述了国内外教师职业认同相关研究的内涵、结构及研究方法,在此基础上对职业认同进行了概念界定。同时对已有研究中职业认同的学校影响因素进行了总结,包括学校层面、课堂层面和同伴层面的影响因素。学校层面的影响因素主要从学校情境、管理风格加以探讨;课堂层面的影响因素包括:教学科目、课程内容和师生关系等;同伴层面的影响因素则体现在教师文化和同伴互动两方面。     

Teacher education as identity construction: insights from action research

This paper reports on the results of a qualitative study that explored the experiences of one group of pre‐service English language teachers in Hong Kong as they undertook an action research project as part of their undergraduate teacher training programme. Grounded in a theory of teacher identity construction as both practice and discourse, the paper examines how participation in an action research project by one group of pre‐service English language teachers in Hong Kong shaped their experiences of becoming teachers. The study indicates that as teacher researchers, the trainee teachers contested previously held perceptions about their engagement in teaching, their images of teachers and teaching, as well as their alignment with some aspects of contemporary educational discourse. Implications for teacher education and future research are also discussed.     

The importance of orientation: implications of professional identity on classroom practice and for professional learning

Previous work on new teacher professional identity has focused on identity as a process of negotiation between individual and contextual factors. These negotiations are often filled with a struggle between personal agency and structures that prevent the enactment of an ideal professional self. This study introduces and discusses three teacher professional identity orientations (self, classroom, and dialogic) and the implications of each orientation on a teacher’s professional identity and classroom practice. While each focal teacher featured in the study drew from similar sources of professional identity (experiences as students, classroom practical experience, and theory/research), the teachers varied in the degree of importance accorded to each identity source. This variation led to differences in approach to their roles as teachers as well as differences in their work with students. Using a qualitative, comparative case study methodology to highlight features of each professional identity orientation, this study provides evidence of discourse related to each orientation and discusses implications of identity orientation in each case study teacher’s classroom practice. After the discussion and analysis of the data, the author offers recommendations for teacher educators (pre-service and in-service) and researchers related to understandings of professional identity development and implications for the work of pre-service teacher education and continuing professional development.